The latest twists and turns of the Obama presidential campaign and how it plays in the Jewish community are, well, bizarre and unprecedented.
JTA reports on how days after the ADL joined with an array of groups (including the OU) to denounce innuendos that Obama is a Muslim, ADL chief Abe Foxman (along with the NJDC) are uncomfortable with Obama’s campaign laying his personal faith out too explicitly.
This comes the same week that the current Israeli ambassador to the United States had to respond to his immediate predecessor publicly questioning Obama’s positions regarding Israel. And this all before the real campaigning has even begun in places like
New York, New Jersey and California.

For our part, the OU is well known to support candidates for office speaking explicitly about their faith as part of who they are, be they
Mormon, Catholic, Jewish, Republican or Democrat and we think that the ADL and the rest of the strict-separationist crowd is more out of step on this with the views and values of Americans than ever.

As for Israel related policy issues – we didn’t appreciate it when, on his trip to the Mideast earlier this month, the President of the United States weighed in on Israeli politics and we think current – as well as recent – Israeli government officials serve Israel’s interests best by staying out of the American fray.
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