It is a privilege to acknowledge two leaders whose influence on education, human rights and social justice has been felt through so many parts of our community. As a couple, Sheila and Dan exemplify the highest standards of service and commitment.

Professor Peter Edelman of the Georgetown University Law Center, a close friend and colleague of Dan's who is internationally known for his work in the area of social justice, will be the guest speaker.

A Celebration Committee is in the process of formation and invitations for the event will be mailed in early November. If you have any questions, please contact Susan Myers (susanpmyers@alumni.brandeis.edu or telephone 215-635-2554).

Mark your calendars now for December 9!

JRA needs to know in advance who will be part of the JSPAN team, so that they can be assured of an adequate corps of volunteers each month. We hope that you are planning to join us in this very important effort. Can we count on YOU?

Please contact as soon as possible:

Deanne Comer - dconsult@verizon.net
Ruth Schultz - bubbubdoc@comcast.net

To learn more details about this special JSPAN day at JRA, click here.

On Wednesday, October 29, JSPAN members are invited to join in a community-wide celebration of Burt's illustrious career and his efforts to bring our community together on issues involving Israel, social justice and the welfare of all of our citizens. A reception will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Services Building, 2100 Arch Street, Philadelphia. There will be tributes to Burt by civic and government leaders and the evening will be the kickoff of the Burt Siegel Fund for Interfaith Leadership Missions to Israel. It is necessary to r.s.v.p. by October 22. For more information and to register, contact Debi Engelmyer at dengelmyer@philafederation.org.

JSPAN is very proud to acknowledge that Burt Siegel is a member of the JSPAN Board, as well as the first recipient of the JSPAN Social Justice Award.

The television program "Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly" is aired nationally on PBS every weekend. This week's edition includes a segment on Catholic and Jewish voters. It will be shown in the Philadelphia region on Sunday, October 19, 12:30 p.m., on WHYY-TV, Channel 12.

On the program, Correspondent Lucky Severson, an Emmy award-winning correspondent and producer with more than 30 years of experience in broadcast journalism, travels to the battleground state of Pennsylvania to speak with voters on the issues that matter most to them in the upcoming election. A Jewish Obama supporter and Jewish McCain supporter are interviewed in Philadelphia, and a Catholic Obama supporter and Catholic McCain supporter are interviewed in Scranton. David Broida is part of the Obama delegation on the program.

Beside viewing the segment on television, it can be found online at www.pbs.org/religion.

Be sure to tune in!

In an op-ed piece which appeared in The New York Times on October 13, 2008, Rabbi Schweitzer traces the history of their introduction into political campaigns, starting with the 1940 race between Wendell Willkie and Franklin D. Roosevelt. "This seems to be the first instance of using Hebrew-style calligraphy to communicate - in coded fashion - one's political allegiance. .... In the past few decades, the covert approach has been replaced by a bold and clear one: the outright spelling out of candidates' names in Hebrew. Jewish voters are proud of being Jewish and the candidates want to identify with them."

Rabbi Schweitzer concludes with descriptions of the contrasting buttons circulating in the Jewish community for this year's election: McCain's "dignified button with an upper-crust-style typeface, (stating) 'Jewish Americans for McCain' ,"fand Obama's button "that dispenses with English altogether (and), with his name written solely in Hebrew, .... represents the ultimate insider-speak."

To read "People of the Button" in its entirety, click here.

Recently while going through an airport during one of his many trips, President George W. Bush encountered a man with long hair, wearing a white robe and sandals, holding a staff.

President Bush went up to the man and said, "Aren't you Moses?"

The man never answered but just kept staring straight ahead.

Again the President said, "Moses!" in a loud voice.

The man just kept staring ahead, never answering the President.

Bush pulled a Secret Service agent aside and pointing to the robed man asked him, "Doesn't that man look like Moses to you?"

The Secret Service agent agreed.

"Well," said the President, "every time I say his name, he just keeps staring straight ahead and refuses to speak. Watch!" Again the President yelled, Moses!" and again the man stared ahead and didn't answer.

The Secret Service agent went up to the man in the white robe and whispered, "You look just like Moses. Are you Moses?"

The man leaned over and whispered back . "Yes, I am Moses. However, the last time I talked to a bush, I spent 40 years wandering in the desert, and ended up leading my people to the only spot in the entire Middle East where there is no oil."

We invited community activist David Broida and Jewish Exponent editor Jonathan Tobin to share their reactions to Avishai's thesis. We encourage our readers to voice their own opinions as well. Click here to share your thoughts.

Bernard Avishai's essay "Obama's Jews" (Harpers Magazine, October 2008) rightly notes that most Jews are loyal liberal Democrats and will not desert Barack Obama on election day.

The reasons for this fact are many and worth discussing but rather than explore this thoughtfully he chooses to extrapolate from it a set of assumptions that have everything to do with his own ideological agenda and very little to do with the political realities of either the United States or Israel.

His thesis centers on the belief that the party line loyalty of Jewish voters means that this is the time for a "new leadership" of American Jewry to emerge which will rout the antiquated "Likudnik" heads of major Jewish organizations and support policies that are not only a less oriented toward support for Israeli security but will openly advocate for what the left likes to call "progressive" politics in the United States.

In Avishai's view, the 20 to 30 percent of Jews who will vote for The drift toward the right on the part of a sizable portion of American Jewry (He credits this trend, not without justice, in no small part to the influence of Commentary magazine) has created a permanent divide between a neo-conservative minority that will vote for John McCain and a liberal majority.

Bernard Avishai tackles many issues in his essay, "Obama's Jews," which tries to explain why Barack Obama will not be getting the roughly 75 - 80% of the Jewish vote his Democratic predecessors got in the past few elections.

Jews are like other Americans - the richer individual Jews become, the more likely they'll vote Republican. As my daughter's friend recently told me, "We're voting on economics - it's our livelihood," referring to her and her husband's income, which exceeds $250,000. In addition, as Jews in general have become wealthier in America, a greater proportion of Jews are earning six figures. So, for economic reasons, less of us will be staying with the Democratic Party.

And, just like other white, European-Americans, we have our bigots. A certain percentage, hopefully very low, simply will not vote for an African-American candidate. As Cornell West has correctly noted, Jews are a religious minority, but still part of the white racial majority in this country.

Unfortunately, Jewish bigotry is not new - my family's older generations are reflective. It's just that this is the first time it will affect voting in a presidential race. So, the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, will lose a few Jewish votes here, too.

Please note: the next JSPAN e-newsletter will be mailed on November 7, 2008.

Please remember that JSPAN welcomes your donations to help us continue our important and effective work in Tikkun Olam. You may send gifts via PayPal on www.jspan.org. or to JSPAN, 1735 Market Street, Suite #A417, Philadelphia, PA 19103