When Clare Kinberg, editor of a feminist Jewish magazine, set up her booth at an Ann Arbor Jewish community event, she didn’t expect to attract a parade of women eager to vent their rage against Sarah Palin. But woman after woman — perhaps noticing Kinberg’s Barack Obama pin —approached her to tell stories of how John McCain’s vice-presidential pick had galvanized them into becoming active in the Obama campaign.
Sarah Palin Hits a Nerve Among Jewish Women, But It’s a Raw One
When Clare Kinberg, editor of a feminist Jewish magazine, set up her booth at an Ann Arbor Jewish community event, she didn’t expect to attract a parade of women eager to vent their rage against Sarah Palin. But woman after woman — perhaps noticing Kinberg’s Barack Obama pin —approached her to tell stories of how John McCain’s vice-presidential pick had galvanized them into becoming active in the Obama campaign.
“She really brought out some ire, fear, something personal,” said Kinberg, who edits the magazine Bridges. “It was almost a visceral reaction that she represented something anathema against Jewish values, something very deep in their identity.”
On a political level, it’s no surprise that liberal Jewish women don’t like Palin — they are liberals, after all, and Palin is an avowed and unabashed conservative, in a heated presidential race. But the Alaska governor also seems to strike a raw nerve on a symbolic level for many Jewish women, drawing far more indignation than a male candidate with similar views, almost as if she offends their sense of who they are.
“It was the place in their identity where they are Jewish women,” Kinberg said of the angry voters who dropped by her booth. “People didn’t bring up specific things about reproductive rights or abortion or separation of church and state, but it was all of those things wrapped up together.”
Palin’s attempts to woo both women and Jews have made many members of both those groups resent what they see as unwanted advances.
Despite being a woman running for vice-president immediately after Hillary Rodham Clinton’s defeat in the presidential primaries, Palin has met with disapproval ratings from 45 percent of women (compared with 35 percent of men), according to a Time magazine poll conducted in early October.
And, despite having cast herself as a take-no-prisoners advocate for Israel, Palin has garnered an approval rating of only 37 percent of the Jewish electorate, according to an American Jewish Committee poll taken in September.
“In the same way I resent her co-opting a feminist message in order to achieve a retrograde goal, I resent her pandering to the insecurities of American Jews,” said Ayelet Waldman, a Berkeley, Calif.-based writer who has been volunteering full time with the Obama campaign.
For some, the antipathy toward Palin is located even more closely at the intersection of feminism and Jewish identity. “She’s the anti-wonk, the anti-intellectual, someone who doesn’t want to brook differences of opinion,” said Susan Weidman Schneider, the editor of Lilith, another Jewish feminist journal. “She is certainly not someone with whom I or other Jewish women I know would identify. There’s a real sense of alienation.”
For Schneider, Palin represents the opposite of what Hillary Clinton meant to many women during the presidential primaries. Schneider told the Forward several months ago that she believed Jewish women identified with Clinton to the point of almost reading the senator as Jewish herself, “the same way that some people imagined Bill Clinton, during his time in office, to be the first black president.” Even the negative stereotypes that stuck to Hillary Clinton—that she was emasculating or shrill—have also been used to tar Jewish women, while Palin has tapped into an entirely different set of signifiers.
The down-home charm that Palin projects in lieu of a focus on nuance or detail is particularly off-putting for many Jewish women, who are likely to be highly educated, urban, and upper-middle class.
“Most Jewish feminists are not part of the class base that she’s meant to appeal to,” said Alisa Solomon, a professor of journalism at Columbia University. “So when she’s deliberately dropping her ‘g’s and throwing out her ‘you betchas,’ that doesn’t appeal to us. We’re not the audience for it.”
More so than Obama or McCain, Palin seems to “read” in basically the same way across the political spectrum, with voters mostly in agreement about what Palin represents, but differing—vastly—in how they feel about those representations. Palin’s admirers among Jewish women, fittingly, seem to be concentrated most heavily in Orthodox communities, where her image as a religious person and an upholder of family values resonates.
“Most of the women I’ve talked to from my circles seemed to like her, at least at first,” said Baila Olidort, the editor of Lubavitch.com, the Web site of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. “When she was first introduced, I thought, ‘This is terrific.’”
Olidort said that she has had second thoughts since Palin’s weak interview performances, and that she has not yet decided how she will vote—but that on an ideological level, Palin’s “views are aligned quite well with traditional Jewish views.”
Opinion on Palin seems to be split among Jews who are observant but not ultra-Orthodox—a swing-voting demographic that both parties would like to nab.
“People say, ‘Oh, she’s a creationist,’” said Judy Davidson, a resident of Downingtown, Pa. who describes herself as being in between the Conservative and Orthodox movements. “What she believes is what every Orthodox Jew believes. We love her.” Davidson runs a kosher sports-themed Internet café and sells Jewish McCain and Palin campaign paraphernalia on the side.
But, perhaps hewing again to class lines, Lynne Bermont, a professor at New York University who lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and describes herself as a fairly observant Conservative Jew, told the Forward that, “as a Jewish woman, I am most proud to be part of a tradition that valorizes ethical integrity and intellectual activity… Sarah Palin is antithetical to all of these values.”
Lana Gersten and Brett Lieberman contributed reporting.
a suffering chassid
R“L you women & men that are going for obama you are making the biggest mistake voting for obama is voting for clear & out right Sonai Yisroel who will do everything in their power to persecute us. ,push Eretz Yisroel into Ch”v giving up yerushalayim etc. He is very pro arab. Not to mention that he will make it much harder on Shluchim& alll yiden financially. he will ch”v cause people to stop or drasticlly reduce what they give to Tzedakah. for these reasons & more we cannot & must not vote for Obama.
a jew
obama may be good domestically for america. As a jew, israel is my top priority.Oboma raises serious questions with the way he will be “dealing” with the arabs .For that reason, if nothing else, we must be responsible enough AND NOT VOTE FOR OBAMA. red warning flags have been raised
CHAYALE
yep i totally agree what suffering chassid
said. shame on all the lubavitchers voting for obama. you should do your part and help john mccain by going to his website
johnmccain.com and make phone calls or attend and event near you!!!!!!
CHer
Dumb Question:
Isn’t the website of Chabad-Lubavitch Chabad.org?
Also, why are people associated with Lubavitch making political statements? Seems like they missed all the trouble Chabad got into a couple of weeks back.
DrumIntellect
To “a jew”: As an American, America should be your top priority when choosing an American president. If Israel is truly your highest priority, perhaps you should consider making aliya so you can help choose their government.
YOUR IGNORANCE
CHAYALE, I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU! u AN A LUAVITCHER AND HAVE NO INTENTION OF VOTING FOR OBAMA AND A MAJORITY OF PEOPLE OF LUBAVITCH WILL TOO…HAIKAR HU HAMAISA…EVERYONE TALKS TO GET A RISE OF THE OTHERS REACTION, BUT THOSE LOT ARE VOTING FOR MCCAIN, SO DON’T MAKE ACCUSATIONS WITHOUT A PROPER BACKUP
Shmuly
To Suffering Chassid….
The FACT is that it was during the tenure of the current Republican administration that Israel saw hundreds murdered and a withdrawal from Gaza,not to mention a reinvigorated Iran.
This idea that Republicans are somehow better for Israel or the Jews is nothing but a figment of your imagination and endless right-wing propaganda.
As far as Taxation is concerned, you and I must live in two opposing universes, because the fact is that only a tiny percentage of this community makes 250k or higher, and a much larger percentage collect welfare (Head Start, Earned Income Credits, Food Stamps, Medicaid, unemployment…), socialist programs and handouts that have always been the mainstay of the Democratic party.
Most people vote their interests, and if Israel and fiscal issues are your primary interests, I hardly see how another four years of Republicans would make you better off.
wow
yet another example of democratic media. now will someone please run an article on all the cons of voting for barack hussein obama..need i say more?
mendy
he’s willing to talk to acmaginalachulachelhalaulajaldelasalcoaljab
Ps it say before moshiach come there will be a loss of leadership
Observer
the article does not point out one thing that a Frum woman would not like about her. rather it talks about how non-frum people have a problem with hearing things that remind them about religion (no offence but thats the truth)
p.s. the article is from the forward which is a very liberal jewish newspaper
Go McCain!
First of all for all those ppl voting for Obama you are OUT OF YOUR MINDS! he is Muslim ppls and is bad for Israel and all of us Jews! So get a hang of yourselves ppls and VOTE FOR MCCAIN!
shlomie19
who gave this olidort lady the right to speak on behalf of lubavitch,i thought our organization dosent get involved in politics
Dovid
1. Any Jew voting for B. Hussein Obama is completely off-the-derech and pretending to ignore the Jewish MURDERS that will occur in Israel as a result of voting a half-Muslem into American presidency.
2. This article is completely skewed and “spins” the facts to create implications that are not factual.
Yosef
Shmuly, you are 100% correct.
To all those who are voting for “whoever is better for Israel”:
Israel has never dug itself into a deeper hole than during under the present, REPUBLICAN, administration. There was absolutely NO US pressure for the disengagement, or Israel’s failed war against Hizballah.
The point is that only Israelis can get themselves out of all the trouble that their own government puts them in.
American Jews should vote for the politicians who promise a better quality of life for American Jews.
To Observer:
You are correct. The article actually states implicitly that ultra-orthodox women DO like her.
To Go McCain!:
Obama is not Muslim.
a bissel seichel
Shmuly,
A small percentage makes over 250k? your joking right?
Who gives the tzedaka ? pays the tuition for yeshivos ?
Your nothing but a socialist pretending to speak in the name of good will.
Where do we see this in judaism? your allowed to steal someone’s money to give it to another ? tzedaka is b’ratzon hanosen!!!
Fact is that raising taxes will hurt tzedaka BIG BIG time.. and any gain on those collecting welfare will be lost completely from the loss of tzedaka funds.
Fact is the current economic troubles are ALL faults of the democrats..
Where Are The Facts Please?
I would like to know how a McCain/Palin future administration would be able to really do more for israel as opposed to an Obama/Biden administration, specifically – what are the facts?
also domestically speaking how will a “spending freeze” that McCain talks so much about really help the flow of tzedaka within the Jewish Community. i havn’t heard enough of the the facts that support how McCain will be better for the Jews.. i just hear a lot of anti-arab racism that is actually very similar historically to anti semitic propaganda and its quite shameful.
mashpia
it doesn’t matter who gets elected as chassidim our job is to make a diro betachtonim not to worry about who is president or who is running the hot dog stand
If you want to help the situation in Israel or in america then DO A MITZVA
the realigious politicion /
all u guys have know idea what ur talkin about
obama is reel bad news for us all
if u were smart u would vote for mcain or not at all
so read the book entitled “obama nation”and you’ll see what hes all about
a’gute’nacht
ppss. if ur going to post something on line and u cant spell use a dictionary u dum shmuks
oy vy vy hashem yisbarach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
observe
I am sorry but it seems that most of you are dumb shtetel minded Jews who know nothing about politics.
look up the fact about obama! he is a better bet then mcain for many many reasons.
you voted for bush who helped give away gush katif
you voted for clinton who shook arafat’s hands and desiered to give away jerusalem in a time table.
Us messianinc chasidim love republicans who are naive and hold a smoking gun ready to kill , but guess what.. they dont care about you either..
fakert obama is better… he knows we will be watching him and he will do his best. he even said that he would never give jerusalem away- more than mccain ever said.
sometimes I wonder who is worse off in terms of enlightenment, red necks in the boondocks or chasidism who are afraid of there own shadow in truth.
that’s why sooo many of us lose our heads once we get a little worldly.
Big talkers….now that you know how to use the internet why don’t you check up some facts about the candidates and not on chasidishe hearsay…..