From Aaron Keyak at NJDC: On June 5, on the “Today Show,” President Barack Obama reiterated his understandings of the Jew Community and our history - and that there is “no equivalency” between what Jews experienced in the Holocaust and the experience of the Palestinians.

Obama spoke in Cairo and told the Arab world that the U.S was not going to stop supporting Israel or let up on efforts to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

There were also some criticisms in his speech of Israel and of our own behavior in the past. While DFI-LA prefers that disagreements with Israel be done subtley, we also appreciate that neither the U.S. nor Israel is perfect, but the the strength of democracy.

Obama's speech in Cairo was billed as an address to the Muslim world to repair years of torn relationships, but it was much more, and Obama deserves praise for refusing to sacrifice its commitment to Israel or American liberty in the process.

The President pointed out that Americans, Israelis and Muslim's share traditions of justice, knowlege and co-existence, and that we all have a duty to be vigiliant in living up to those share values.

Over the weekend, President Obama spoke at a special Holocaust Memorial ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, where he pledged never to be silent in the face of Anti-Semitism.

"How do we ensure that "never again" isn't an empty slogan, or merely an aspiration, but also a call to action?

I believe we start by doing what we are doing today -- by bearing witness, by fighting the silence that is evil's greatest co-conspirator."

He was praised by Elie Weisel for his decision to boycott the Durban II conference in Geneva as well.

This morning's Washington Post reported that Arlen Specter, the senior Senator from Pennsylvania and the last Jewish Republican in the U.S. Senate announced that he was switching parties to run as a Democrat in 2010, giving Democrats supermajority as soon as Al Franken (D-MN) is seated.

The Republican party's reckless tilt to the right and obedience to social conservatives have been driving the Jewish community away as Republican values have continued to run out of sync with Jewish values.

After repeated efforts to stop the Durban Conference from affirming the blantatly Anti-Semitic findings of the first Durban Conference. While Obama's initial refusal to participate in the actual conference resulted in the removal of much of the offensive language, it did not result in the removal of language affirming the first conference, which had quickly descended into an unfair singling out Israel and making false accusations of Apartheid while ignoring actual racist and genocidal actions in Darfur.

DFI-LA lauds Obama's decision to withdraw from Durban II on account of the unbridled Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic bent of the conference.

Obama tried in good faith to steer the conference on the right course, but the E.U and U.S. alone could not pull Durban from the obsessive path set by proponents more interested in scoring political points than bringing the world together.

(reprinted from the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent)

Ahead With Research
March 12, 2009

President Barack Obama acted not a moment too soon in lifting the Bush-era restrictions on human embryonic stem-cell research. His executive order gives new hope to those who suffer from Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and other chronic conditions that scientists believe could benefit from such research.

In addition to the 38 Democrats and 3 Republicans currently in the Congress, this year's election brought several new Jewish Democratic Congressmembers including:

Alan Grayson (FL)
Jon Adler (NJ)
Jared Polis (CO)

No new Republican Jews were elected.

Democrats for Israel bought ads in the Orlando area in support of Alan Grayson.

Despite the tense rift between Republican and Democratic Jews over the course of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, Gallup exit polls on Tuesday showed that Barack Obama received about 77 percent of the Jewish vote. CNN exit polls showed 78% support.

These numbers were higher even than the 2004 election, when Democratic candidate John Kerry received 74 percent of the Jewish vote. Al Gore received the highest percentage of Jewish votes in 2000, with 79 percent.