Kamala’s Jewish outreach is bizarre and offensive

By Andrea Widburg | Am Thinker | October 23, 2024

For the first time since Ronald Reagan (who was seen as the antidote to the obviously antisemitic Jimmy Carter), Jewish voters are abandoning the Democrat party. Kamala’s campaign knows this, so it created a new shtick: “Kamala Shabbat” dinners. Observant Jews have noticed, though, that these dinners offended actual Judaism in every way, from a bizarre ceremony unrelated to the ordinary Sabbath service to focusing on Kamala to the exclusion of God.

Just as blacks and Hispanics are abandoning Kamala, Jews are, too:

Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to have the worst performance with Jewish voters of any Democratic presidential candidate since the Reagan era, according to a Manhattan Institute poll published Friday.

Harris would win just 67% of the Jewish vote if the election were held today, down from the 68% support President Joe Biden received in 2020, and a far cry from the 80% support former President Bill Clinton garnered in 1992, the survey of 658 Jewish registered voters found. The 36% margin of victory with Jewish voters would be the lowest of any Democratic candidate since Michael Dukakis in 1988.

Jews have watched in horror as colleges and universities, which are Ground Zero for Democrat ideas, operatives, and corporate middle managers, have turned into violently antisemitic, pro-Hamas battlefields. They’ve also been dismayed as the Harris-Biden administration has tried to prevent Israel from destroying genocidal enemies. Whether it’s been slow-walking weapons, threatening to withhold weapons entirely unless Israel provides aid and comfort to the enemy, agreeing with the defamatory genocide narrative, or trying to bully Israel to surrender in a war she’s winning, the administration makes Jews nervous. These existential concerns override their general leftist orientation.

So, what do you do when you’re a Democrat whose campaign is losing Jewish support? You organize events under the name “A Kamala Shabbat.” An event from Chicago, is representative. Reviewing the 12 points that will be under discussion, what you realize is that it is a crash course in leftism under the guise of Judaism. The word “God” appears only once, despite its centrality to a normal sabbath observance.

But at the “Kamala Shabbat,” attendees discussed “how [Kamala’s] values align with many Jewish values…” The primary value is “Tikkun Olam” (“repairing the world”), which leftists since Hillary in the 1990s have insisted means the wonders of Democrat governance. Rabbi Michael Lerner, the prime advocate for the Democrats’ reverence for “tikkun olam” was lauded for fusing this doctrine with leftist politics.

In fact, Tikkun Olam does not mean that Jews should vote for a leftist government that promises to repair the whole world. Instead, it focuses either on very pragmatic Jewish concerns or on becoming closer to God, not to government.

And so it goes, with one “Jewish” concept after another. The most fascinating value at the Chicago Kamala Shabbat is Pikuach Nefesh (“saving lives”):

In Jewish law, the preservation of human life is paramount, taking precedence over almost all other religious commandments. Saving a life, or Pikuach Nefesh, is seen as a moral imperative.

How progressives square this with abortion is unclear.

Sultan Knish, who knows more about Jewish doctrine and ritual than I ever will, caught a few other problems with the “Kamala Shabbat,” starting with the photo the campaign distributed:

In other words, as with everything else about Kamala’s campaign, what we’re seeing is performative. Kamala’s policies and uncensored utterances show that she hates Israel. Her husband, an immoral man, raised a child who denies her Jewish heritage and raises money for Hamas (as does Kamala’s niece).

Kamala herself can only speak coherently when she has a Teleprompter or memorized answer. Even then, her affect is as unconvincing as a Nickelodeon child actor mugging for a laugh line. This is politics as theater, with a poorly written script and bad actors. It’s to be hoped that the Kamala Shabbat doesn’t fool any Jews so that they continue to focus on policies, not theater.