BARACK’S SECT APPEAL; SCHMOOZES HASIDS IN MIDTOWN
By LARRY CELONA and MAGGIE HABERMAN
The New York Post
Published June 6, 2008

Barack Obama had some face time with top ultra-Orthodox Jewish community members during his fund-raising swing through Midtown, which came on the heels of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s decision to leave the race.

Obama chatted with three members of the Satmar sect, including representatives from rival factions, as they attended a campaign fund-raiser at a private home on Park Avenue.

“We just went [to the fund-raiser] to meet him and get introduced,” said Rabbi Abe Friedman, an NYPD community liaison and adviser to state Sen. Eric Adams, one of Obama’s early supporters.

Calling it a positive chat, Friedman said the religious leaders told Obama that they “hope he’s going to support the interests of the Jewish community.”

The meeting came as Obama’s campaign backtracked on bombshell remarks he made Wednesday that Jerusalem should remain the “undivided” capital of Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post.

An aide later softened Obama’s comments – which sparked anger in the Palestinian community – saying the sides will have to negotiate “an agreement that they both can live with.”

The adviser explained that by an undivided Jerusalem, Obama did not mean that it wouldn’t also serve as the Palestinian capital as well. The Jewish community balked at the news.

“The Orthodox Union is extremely disappointed in this revision of Senator Obama’s important statement about Jerusalem,” Nathan Diament, of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, told the paper.

Obama is considered vulnerable among Jewish voters, who traditionally lean Democratic but view Israel as a litmus test.

Photos of Obama chatting with the Satmars appeared on a Yiddish Web site and newspaper.