Originally published in Jewish Insider
By Jacob Kornbluh
November 10, 2020

Following President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, we asked JI readers about the future of U.S. politics and American civil discourse in the wake of a bruising election campaign.

Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute: “What worries me is the contempt that has been coming out the last few days. Certainly there are those voices that are calling for reconciliation and generosity, but you also have many voices calling for a kind of political revenge. The person who summed up that mean-spirited approach was [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)], who called for the creation of an enemies list of all those in positions of authority who supported [Donald] Trump. That rhetoric of, ‘We won’t forget, we won’t forgive’ is how society self destructs. I worry about an America that treats politics like theology. Politics is not or shouldn’t be religion. Politics is an approximation of truth. It’s not true itself. Politics is dealing with a flawed world on its own terms, of trying to make it a little better. But to confuse politics for absolute truth is how societies unravel.”

Former Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY): “Joe Biden took the first step by extending an olive branch and acknowledging that we have to lower the temperature and listen to one another again. I’ve called him the conciliator-in-chief. He has demonstrated an ability to bring people together and to bridge gaps. That makes me feel hopeful that we’re going to return to some form of respectful discourse. It won’t be easy because there is bias. There are some people who will reject compromise. But Biden has been saying that we’ve got to stop yelling at each other and begin talking with one another, and he’s got the skill set to address it meaningfully.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk: “I am optimistic at the fact that the Democrats will control the White House and the House, while the Republicans will control the Senate. Rather than being a recipe for further division, I’m hopeful that it will work as a recipe for coming together. Everybody has had enough of the complete craziness of the last four years and they’re anxious to try to find ways to come together. God knows there’s enough common ground when it comes to the pandemic and the economy… there’s potential for coming together.”

Former national director of the Anti-Defamation League Abe Foxman: “It can’t get worse. It will get better. How quickly, how soon, how [much will] people be willing to reach out to each other, even though they disagree? Time will tell. But certainly, I think, at the head of this country will be someone whose voice and whose neshamah (soul) is to embrace everybody. It starts from the top. So I hope it will quickly filter down to the nation.”

Former U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer: “Halevai (if only), as they say, but I am fearful that because we will have a split presidency and Congress that we’re going to run into the same partisanship, particularly on appointments and on some of the core issues that Biden does believe in, like health care, immigration reform and race relations. I think there will be constant tension between the administration and Senate that’s still run by Mitch McConnell on those issues. I hope I’m wrong, but I am not persuaded that I’ll be wrong.”

J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami: “The Jewish people have thrived on debate over the centuries. The differences in views within our community — both in this country and globally — are real and meaningful. There are starkly different views on the best path forward for the U.S., Israel and the Jewish people. We’ll continue to argue and fight in the political arena here and in Israel. What I hope is that we can do it with a spirit of respect and with empathy and an understanding that while we may never agree with each other, we are stronger as a people when we work our differences out civilly, respect the rule of law and value the worth of every individual.”

Holocaust historian and author Deborah Lipstadt: “I think, at the very least, we will have a leader of the country who will unequivocally condemn antisemitism and extremism, and will unequivocally say this is not right. My fear is that after four years of being given dog whistles, wink-wink nod-nod, it’s not going to go away. I am very concerned. I’m a little bit more sanguine than I would have been otherwise, but we are facing very difficult days because we have four years of these groups feeling that they had a friend in the White House. And whether they had it or not, they had someone there who was not willing to really take them on. They feel they’ve gotten a green light and they’re going to run with it.”

Rabbi Avi Shafran: “The devolution in American society of civility, and the seeming loss of the ability to respectfully disagree with one another, have been tragic consequences of recent years. Blame can be placed on both sides of the political divide, but pointing fingers is pointless. I hope that a President Biden will indeed, as he pledged during the campaign, make the bringing of Americans together a major goal. And that doesn’t mean a dearth of dialectic. It simply means that disagreements will be able to be voiced without rancor or insult. Halevai.”

Nathan Diament, the Orthodox Union’s executive director for public policy: “I think anybody has to be worried. But I think the worry has to be translated into action and effort. We shouldn’t want to keep living in this hyper-polarized environment. But to focus on the Jewish community, in particular, we should be placing a lot of value on community, our appreciation for the fact that in the broader Jewish community there’s more that unites us than divides us. Even if we have disagreements about political issues, we need to make efforts to reduce polarization.”

Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “What did these elections show? Trump was rejected, but he was not repudiated. And I think that’s the real difference. It would not surprise me at all if Biden were a one-term president and the game is thrown wide open again in 2024 with people like Tom Cotton, Mike Pompeo, and especially if Trump remains on the scene. I don’t think we are anywhere near the kind of reset for civility in our politics. Our national nightmare might be ending, but it’s going to be a long, painful goodbye.”

Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women: “NCJW always seeks to advocate for the issues we believe in with respect and civility, and we believe the Biden/Harris administration will only help restore productive discourse in our nation.”

Originally published in Washington Jewish Week
By Eric Schucht
November 4, 2020

As people waited out the results of Tuesday’s election, Hannah Recht, of Washington could say, “I told you so.” She knew it was going to be a nail biter.

“My expectations were pretty similar to the situation we’re in right now,” Recht said Wednesday. “I didn’t think we would know the results last night. I think it was pretty clear that it was going to be close.”

Recht voted for Biden, but wouldn’t go as far as to say that he would win.

“I don’t want to jinx it,” Recht said. “Things are looking good right now. I hope we could know by the end of the day, but I don’t think that’s clear right now.”

Others were more confident. Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal pro-Israel J Street, said in a media briefing Wednesday he believed Biden would come out on top once all votes had been tallied.

“J Street continues as of this moment to be confident that Joe Biden is going to be the next president,” Ben-Ami said. “We believe that by perhaps as early as the end of the day today, there will be enough clear data for Joe Biden to claim victory for the race to be called.”

Joel Griffith, the DC chair if the Young Jewish Conservatives, said he also expected a tight race — as close as it was in 2016. While Griffith didn’t want to say who he thought would win, he did say that he believed that Trump’s chances of returning to the White House appear lower today than they were last night. But overall, he thought Republicans in all elections did better than what many polls showed.

“At the end of the day, it turns out that the election was indeed, much closer than a lot of the polls were showing across parts of the country,” Griffith said. “I think that the narrative from those on the left was that this is going to be a repudiation of the Trump era and Conservatives and the Republican Party. And we certainly did not see that happen yesterday.”

Steph Black, a communications specialist for the National Council of Jewish Women, said her organization is urging people to be patient as the results come in.

“We’ve known for weeks that we were likely to not know the outcome of this election and it’s crucial that every vote is counted,” Black said. “We’re willing to wait for that because this election has immense consequences for women, children, and families across the country. A fair election is worth the wait.”

Israel “Izzy” Klein of Chevy Chase is the political committee chair of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. He said he expected a tight race and that the mood of Democrats he has spoken to has “gone from anxious to hopeful to depressed to relieved. I think all of the emotions are in play right now until we get a resolution from the remaining votes to be tallied. I think it will be pretty hard for folks to feel the kind of closure that’s necessary after an election.”

Joel Taubman of Falls Church voted for neither Biden nor Trump. He said he cast a protest vote for a third party, but declined to specify which one. But in terms of who he thought would win, he puts his money on Biden.

“I was not sure until recently, but it seems that Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada are all going to Biden,” Taubman said. “So my answer is, it seems at this stage that Biden is going to win.”

Taubman believes that except for a small number of people, that everyone was surprised by the closeness of the race, including himself. And he attributed this to the polls.

“I think part of the reason that the election seems closer than anyone thought is because the pollsters seem to be very terrible at assessing whether people are going to vote for Trump or not,” Taubman said. “We thought they might readjust after 2016, and they have not.”

Several Jewish organizations have released statements urging people to be patient as the results come in.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt

“As the final votes are tallied, we reiterate our longstanding calls that every vote counts and every vote must be counted. There is nothing unusual for results to be delayed, as this has happened previously in U.S. history when the winner of an election could not be declared for days or even weeks after the voting. And yet, what happens next will be another important test of our democracy.”

National Council of Jewish Women CEO Sheila Katz

“This election will have immense consequences for the lives of women, children, and families across the country. It is important that we get it right, even if that takes time. A fair and complete election is worth the wait. The Jewish people have faced many challenges throughout history, but we have endured. Though we may need to wait a little longer this year for the final results of the election, we will be patient, we will persevere, we will endure.”

Bend the Arc: Jewish Action CEO Stosh Cotler

“Jewish voters have spoken in this election in record numbers to say that our future in this country is intertwined with the thriving of all people. We are joining together with our neighbors to ensure that we count every vote, deliver our democracy, and get to work building a country where all of us are free and safe.”

Originally published in Religious News Services
By Emily McFarlan Miller
November 4, 2020

(RNS) — As the first polls began to close Tuesday (Nov. 3), the Rev. Cara Tanis logged off.

Instead of obsessing over election returns as they trickled in throughout the night, she went for a walk.

Tanis was joined by 50 to 70 people who attended “Walking for the Common Good” around Seattle’s Green Lake, carrying battery-operated votive candles and praying that every vote cast in the 2020 presidential election would be counted.

She and her worshipping community, Emmaus Table, are among the many clergy, houses of worship and faith-based organizations that have been preparing their members for a long wait for election results.

“We knew that was going to be an important piece to continue to hold forward as we move into today,” Tanis said.

“So now it’s: We voted, we prayed, we keep praying. We wait. We keep holding true to wanting all the good people that are counting the ballots to keep counting them.”

As Americans woke up Wednesday morning, eight of the states that will decide the next president remained uncalled for either candidate, Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Joe Biden.

At issue is a record number of early votes cast amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. While voters have been mailing in absentee ballots for some time, most states don’t begin to count those votes until Election Day.

While some of those states are expected to finish counting their votes Wednesday, others may take longer. For instance, The New York Times reported that North Carolina will accept mail-in ballots that arrive through Nov. 12. It’s possible the race won’t be called until then in the Tar Heel State.

But — burst pipe in Georgia aside — that’s nothing experts hadn’t predicted in the lead-up to Election Day.

More than 1,000 clergy members, religious scholars and other faith-based advocates echoed those predictions and urged calm in a statement released last week by Faith Leaders United to Support Free and Fair Elections. The bipartisan, multidenominational group of signers included senior officials at the National Association of Evangelicals and prominent progressive pastor the Rev. William Barber II.

“Leaders and election officials must count every vote in accordance with applicable laws before the election is decided, even if the process takes a longer time because of precautions in place due to COVID-19,” the statement read.

As election week arrived, other groups sent similar letters to elected officials.

On Monday, Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice and Nuns & Nones organized more than 420 Catholic sisters and their allies in swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to send letters to their secretaries of state urging a full count.

“In a secular democracy, voting is the closest thing we have to a sacrament, and we will do everything we can to protect this sacrament,” Network’s executive director, Sister Simone Campbell, said in a written statement.

The day after the election, local clergy in Pennsylvania penned a letter of their own urging elected officials to affirm that every vote cast there would be counted. The letter reminded those officials of their moral obligation to uphold the constitutions of the United States and the commonwealth and of the oaths each swore on a Bible.

The National Council of Jewish Women also urged calm on Wednesday.

“The Jewish people have faced many challenges throughout history, but we have endured. Though we may need to wait a little longer this year for the final results of the election, we will be patient, we will persevere, we will endure,” CEO Sheila Katz said in a written statement.

Throughout election season, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights have also been preparing their members not just for Election Day, but for election week or even election month.

The RAC’s Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner told Religion News Service before the election that it was important for rabbis to join clergy of other faiths “in a full court press in the weeks after the election to reassure the public and say: Take a breath. American democracy is more than 200 years old. We can wait a few weeks if need be.”

Black faith leaders have gone a step further: More than 100 faith leaders and their allies signed an online pledge calling not only for votes to be counted but for “massive nonviolent resistance” if Trump refuses to accept the election results.

Still, Bishop John Stowe, the head of Pax Christi USA, a Catholic movement for peace and justice, affirmed in a blog post Wednesday that waiting is never easy.

“While my first instinct this morning was to act, I realized it was better to start with prayer — and what could I do anyway? Prayer will lead to study as I realize the need not just to complain about the way things are and what didn’t happen, but to ponder and discern a way forward,” Stowe wrote.

“The time for action will come soon enough.”

After walking the three-mile loop around Green Lake the day of the election, Tanis was prepared to rest — and wait — the day after.

She’d talked with her worshipping community, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, about how it could take days or even weeks for ballots to be counted. She’d prayed with her congregants for a free and fair election, for every vote to be counted, for candidates to accept the results and for all to find common ground afterward. She’d voted.

Now it was time to recover and to wait.

That’s a familiar rhythm for many people of faith, according to Tanis.

“We’re people that want to be about the good work for the long haul. Part of that is meaning there’s times to do hard pushes of work, and then there’s times to wait,” she said.

Originally published by Haaretz
October 27, 2020
By Allison Kaplan Sommer

A long list of American Jewish organizations harshly criticized Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court eight days before the election.

Barrett, 48, was sworn in as the court’s 115th justice on Monday evening by Justice Clarence Thomas, on the South Lawn of the White House. It followed a bitter fight by Senate Democrats that resulted in a 52-48 partisan vote for her confirmation – with Democrats unified in opposition to the move.

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, called Barrett’s ascent to the Supreme Court “a blow to the health of our democracy and a threat to the rights we have fought for over generations, including universal health care, reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, and beyond. By rushing through this confirmation in the closing days of the election when millions of Americans have already voted, senators and the White House have shamefully disregarded the voices and views of their own constituents.”

Barrett’s nomination and confirmation were “rushed through,” charged National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) CEO Sheila Katz, in a statement in which she vowed to fight on.

“NCJW’s 180,000 advocates dissent to the confirmation of Judge Barrett,” Katz said. “We dissent to the process through which Judge Barrett was confirmed. We dissent to a Senate that refuses to prioritize the American people.”

“With more than 220,000 Americans dead from coronavirus and more than 20 million people who have lost their jobs, it is baffling that the Senate could focus on anything other than passing comprehensive relief legislation,” she added. “People are dying and the Senate has now confirmed a Supreme Court justice who has openly shared her desire to reverse the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and make health care less accessible to all Americans – in the middle of a global health crisis.

Halie Soifer, executive director for the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said that the vote for Barrett’s confirmation represented “a partisan power grab by President Trump and Senate Republicans, which violates the will of the American people, Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg’s dying wish, and the standard Republicans set themselves for Supreme Court nominations in a presidential election year,” she said. “This confirmation will impact generations of Americans, and it’s a ‘shande’ – a shame to our democracy and judiciary.”

Barrett, she said, has demonstrated “a total disregard for legal precedent on critical issues such as the Affordable Care Act, equality in marriage, and reproductive freedom, and her views on the law are far outside the mainstream of public opinion.”

The progressive NGO Bend the Arc: Jewish Action said in its statement that Barrett’s confirmation was “a fundamental act of injustice” and “the culmination of a years-long effort by President Trump and Republican senators to stack our courts with ideologues who are only interested in protecting the rights of people who look and think like them.”

Rabbi Jack Moline, president of Interfaith Alliance, called Barrett’s “rushed, politicized confirmation process” an “affront to our democratic processes. By confirming a justice only eight days before a national election, Senate Republicans are rejecting their own standards, further politicizing the Supreme Court, and silencing millions of Americans from having a voice in the nomination process.”

At least one Jewish group was pleased by the move. The Republican Jewish Coalition tweeted “Congratulations” to Barrett and issued a statement by National Chairman and former senator Norm Coleman calling her “highly qualified, fair-minded and dedicated.”

“President Donald Trump made a wise choice in nominating her, and we are pleased that the Senate moved swiftly to confirm her to the court,” Coleman said. “Having a full complement of nine justices on the Supreme Court is very important to the smooth and effective working of our constitutional system. The president and Senate appropriately carried out their duties in putting forward and confirming this nominee.”

Originally published by The Jerusalem Post
October 27, 2020
Omri Nahmias

WASHINGTON – Jewish organizations at the left and the right reacted on Monday night to the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court Justice. She was sworn in at the White House on Monday night.

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman said that Amy Coney Barrett is highly qualified, fair-minded, and dedicated to the law. “President Donald Trump made a wise choice in nominating her, and we are pleased that the Senate moved swiftly to confirm her to the Court,” Coleman said.

“Having a full complement of nine justices on the Supreme Court is very important to the smooth and effective working of our constitutional system, he added. “The President and the Senate appropriately carried out their duties in putting forward and confirming this nominee.”
Halie Soifer, Executive Director for the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), responded to the Senate’s confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as well. “Jewish Dems see the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett for what it is – a partisan power grab by President Trump and Senate Republicans, which violates the will of the American people, Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish, and the standard Republicans set themselves for Supreme Court nominations in a presidential election year,” she said. “This confirmation will impact generations of Americans, and it’s a ‘shande’ – a shame to our democracy and judiciary.”

She went on to say that Judge Barrett has demonstrated “a total disregard for legal precedent on critical issues such as the Affordable Care Act, equality in marriage, and reproductive freedom, and her views on the law are far outside the mainstream of public opinion.”
National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) CEO Sheila Katz said in a statement that “the speed in which Judge Amy Coney Barrett was rushed through a Supreme Court vetting process shows that lawmakers can indeed make progress quickly if they care enough about the issue at hand.”
“This confirmation is bad for women, children, and families,” Katz continued. “NCJW’s 180,000 advocates dissent to the confirmation of Judge Barrett. We dissent to the process through which Judge Barrett was confirmed. We dissent to a Senate that refuses to prioritize the American people. We will honor Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish and pick up where she left off.”

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, denounced the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. “The Senate’s confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court is a blow to the health of our democracy and a threat to the rights we have fought for over generations, including universal health care, reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, and beyond.” Rabbi Pesner said.