O pinion
Joe Biden: For Decency, For Democracy, for America
BY JILL ZIPIN
IN 1980, Gov. Ronald Reagan
stood across from President
Jimmy Carter and asked
Americans, “Are you better off
today than you were four years
ago?” As I contemplate that
question in terms of 2020, I can’t
help but think that the soon-to-be
President Reagan would be
appalled by the state of the party
he once led and by its president
and standard bearer today.

The Republican Party is one
consumed by intolerance and
injustice and has created the
highest deficits in American
history while fumbling from
crisis to crisis. The party of
Lincoln, as Republicans are fond
of reminding us, is now led by a
commander-in-chief who creates
policy 280 characters at a time
and refers to respected statesmen
by childish nicknames. President
Donald Trump has left our
country sicker, poorer and more
divided than ever. And we, as
American Jews, feel the brunt of
so much of this.

We need a leader who is
committed to leading. A leader
who is committed not just to
ending the pandemic’s grip on
us and restoring the American
economy, but also committed
to restoring decency, honesty
and compassion to our nation.

That’s why I’ve cast my ballot for
former Vice President Joe Biden.

We are a nation torn asunder
by the deepest political divisions
since the Civil War. We need a
president who knows that there is
more that unites us than divides
us. We need a president who
knows we are better when we
lift each other up instead of tear
each other down. Biden will heal
the nation’s wounds and bring
us together. A united America is
good for Jewish security, and good
for the security of all Americans.

Joe Biden is a mensch.

He and Sen. Kamala Harris
will champion a government
for which we yearn — one of
responsible leadership, respect
for all Americans, justice and
compassion. They will restore
the soul of our nation and
preserve our democracy, and it
is in democracy that we as Jews
thrive best. Make no mistake
about it, in this election, the
most important election of our
lifetimes, it is democracy itself
that is on the ballot.

Biden will meet the challenge
of the COVID-19 pandemic
with healing and truth. Biden
values science and listens to
experts. He will ensure that all
those with preexisting condi-
tions receive the medical care
that they deserve. He will grow
and expand the Affordable
Care Act so no American goes
without health care.

He will address systemic
racism with empathy, repair
a battered economy, protect
Social Security and Medicare
and deal with climate change
to secure our planet’s future
for our children and grand-
children. He will work with
Congress to repair a broken
immigration system, knowing
that the United States is a
beacon of hope and freedom to
those who seek a better life for
themselves and their children.

Women will not be denied
control of their own bodies, as
Biden knows whether to bear a
child is a woman’s decision not
a governmental one.

Biden will not wink at white
supremacists and anti-Semites.

He will not see “very fine people”
in torch-carrying mobs chanting
anti-Semitic, racist, sexist and
homophobic slogans. We will not
have a president who is unable,
when asked during a presiden-
tial debate, to renounce white
nationalists or the Proud Boys,
a group the Anti-Defamation
League describes as extremist,
some of whose members endorse
white supremacist and anti-Se-
mitic ideologies.

Biden — who decided to
enter the presidential race
because of Trump’s outrageous
Charlottesville comments —
for over 40 years in public life
has unequivocally condemned
hatred against Jews regardless of
the source. He has not hesitated
to take on those on the left whose
modern form of anti-Semitism
takes the form of rejecting Israel’s
legitimacy as the nation state of
the Jewish people.

Biden is a longtime friend
of Israel. He will follow policies
that guarantee the security of
the Jewish state — based on his
convictions, not political expedi-
ency. Biden has a long record
of support for Israel and his
commitment to protect Israel’s
security and strengthen our two
nations’ partnership is deeply
personal and unshakable.

As vice president, Biden helped
ensure unwavering support for
Israel’s security. As Sen. Harris
said during a virtual fundraiser
in August covered by Jewish
Insider: “During the Obama-
Biden administration, he was a
key advocate in securing support
for lifesaving technologies [like
the] Iron Dome, David’s Sling,
The Arrow — three anti-rocket
and missile defense systems. And
Joe has also helped shape the
unprecedented $38 billion-a-year
memorandum of understanding
for defense assistance to Israel
that was signed in 2016 … the
largest military aid package in
See Zipin, Page 24
Disagreement Shouldn’t Mean Disunion:
Fair and Free Elections Are a Jewish Value
BY ARLENE FICKLER, RABBI ANNIE
LEWIS, RABBI ERIC YANOFF
WE ARE LIVING in a
moment of deep division and
disagreement. Political polar-
ization in our country is more
pronounced than at any point
in our lifetimes. We watch
people using social media to
dehumanize those who hold
different viewpoints, and we
worry about the threat of polit-
ical violence in our city as the
election draws near. Within
our Jewish community, there
is fundamental disagree-
ment about which candidates
22 OCTOBER 29, 2020
and policies are best for the
American Jewish community,
for Israel, for the United States
and for the world.

However, disagreement in
itself need not tear us apart.

Rigorous disagreement is an
essential element of a healthy
democracy and is central to
how we develop our ideas in
Jewish discourse. Our rabbinic
tradition teaches us that it is
possible for us to disagree and
still respect each other’s essen-
tial humanity. We write today
with the hope that our shared
commitment to this country
and its guiding values is deeper
than our divisions. At a time
when the division is so great,
it is more important than ever
to protect the mechanisms and
institutions of our democracy,
particularly the principle of a
free and fair election where
every eligible American can
vote, knowing that their vote
will be counted.

We recently began the Torah
again, rereading the story of
creation. The Torah’s depiction
of each day of creation ends with
a common refrain: “And God
saw that it was good.” Following
the second day, however, this
description is missing. The
JEWISH EXPONENT
midrash suggests that this is
because on the second day of
creation, disunion was brought
into being, as God separated
water from water, like from
like, introducing division into
the structure of the world.

Thus, our tradition cautions
that division and disunion can
lead to disarray, chaos and the
disintegration of relationships.

Our tradition also recog-
nizes that disagreement can
be a powerful force for positive
change, what the rabbis call
mahloket l’shem shamayim,
disagreement for the sake
of heaven. Mahloket is at the
See Fickler, Page 24
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O pinion
Donald Trump: Promises Made, Promises Kept
BY WILLIAM WANGER
TRUMP HAS accomplished
more in 45 months in office
than Biden has in his near half
century. I know many cringe at
some of Trump’s tweets. I have.

Clearly, the
former businessman isn’t a politician. He
loves his country and that’s what
guides him. He’s not about finan-
cial benefit or a hypocritical insider
with disdain for our values. Unlike
career politician Biden, who, with
his family, became a millionaire
serving in the D.C. swamp, Trump
has forgone millions to serve.

Biden’s policies are a mix
of recycled bologna and pie in
the sky. He’s sold out so many
of his moderate positions
taken during his career that his
resume resembles Swiss cheese.

The Trump presidency is
highlighted by “promises made,
promises kept.”
Trump’s actions on behalf of
Israel are especially noteworthy.

He supports Israel, not just
because he has an observant
Jewish daughter, son-in-law
and grandchildren. Trump
recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital, moved the U.S. Embassy
to Jerusalem, recognized Israel’s
sovereignty over the Golan and
clarified that Israel’s settle-
ments in Judea and Samaria are
legal. Trump stopped payments
to UNRWA for its misuse of
funds, and cut funding to the
Palestinian Authority until it
ceases making “pay to slay”
payments to terrorist families.

Trump embraces Israel as
a strategic ally, rejecting the
“daylight” stiff-arm by Obama-
Biden. Trump released a bold
vision for peace between Israel
and the Palestinians. His
leadership led to historic peace
agreements by the UAE and
Bahrain with Israel.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley
delivered Trump’s powerful
message that America won’t
tolerate U.N. anti-Israel bias. Haley
repudiated UNSC Resolution
2334. Passed with Obama-Biden’s
complicity in December 2016,
2334 called East Jerusalem, the site
of the Western Wall, “occupied
Palestinian territory,” and
condemned Jewish “settlements”
in Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter.

Biden’s support of 2334 was
reminiscent of his bullying Israel
four decades earlier, when he
threatened to withhold economic
aid if Israel didn’t comply with his
demands regarding settlements.

Biden’s poor record on
Israel is worse now. Anti-Israel,
anti-Semitic activist Linda
Sarsour spoke at his Democratic
National Convention, along
with other Farrakhan friends.

His party embraces the warped
anti-America, anti-Israel, and
anti-Semitic remarks of the Rep.

Ilhan Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib,
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
and Rep. Ayanna Pressley squad.

While Biden welcomes
anti-Semites, Trump fights
anti-Semitism. A Trump execu-
tive order extended Civil Rights
Act anti-discrimination protec-
tions to Jewish students fighting
anti-Semitism on campuses.

He signed the JUST Act to
strengthen Holocaust restitution
efforts and the Never Again Act
to fund Holocaust education.

Trump destroyed the ISIS
caliphate, and is extricating the
U.S. from endless foreign wars
favored by the military-indus-
trial complex. He withdrew
from Obama-Biden’s disas-
trous Iran nuclear deal that
gave Iran a pathway to nuclear
weapons and billions in cash.

Trump reinstituted sanctions
against Iran, cutting-off its
oil exports and denying Iran
revenue to fund terrorism.

Trump eliminated murderous
Qasem Soleimani.

Biden says he’ll rejoin the Iran
deal, and resume payments to
Iran. Trump withdrew from the
job-killing, China-advantaged
Paris Climate Accord, and
NATO allies now pay billions
more on their own defense.

Trump has nominated
Supreme Court justices and
judges who understand they’re not
policymakers. Trump’s tax reform
legislation provided relief for
82% of middle-class families. His
Opportunity Zones foster govern-
ment investments to revitalize
previously overlooked and under-
served communities.

Trump’s regulations roll-back
lifted-up American families
and businesses. He termi-
nated NAFTA, and signed the
U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade deal
putting American workers first.

While Biden champions open
borders without any vetting,
Trump champions revamping
legal immigration to protect
America’s workers and our
security. He has made the U.S.

energy independent, and the
world’s top energy producer and
net energy exporter, all while
keeping our drinking water and
air the cleanest they’ve ever been.

Despite what Biden and
Harris now claim, they oppose
the fracking and clean coal that
have revitalized Pennsylvania’s
economy, and supports the
Green New Deal that would
kill U.S. energy independence.

Obama-Biden shipped jobs
See Wanger, Page 31
Quarantining With My Holocaust Survivor Grandmother
EMILY BARASCH | JTA.ORG
A WOMAN I quarantined with
inadvertently shamed me on a
regular basis. As strange March
rolled into tragic April which
rolled into tragic and strange
May, she found ways of keeping
herself occupied that were both
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM maddeningly self-enriching
and deeply sophisticated.

Though we are related, our
approach to quarantine was
different. As she watched the
French film “Portrait of a Lady
on Fire” and the French series
“The Bureau,” both sans subti-
tles, I gleefully watched the
most depraved Bravo shows.

She played bridge on her iPad
— lessons and tournaments in
which she competed for cash; I
learned the ins and outs of the
TikTok “Hype House.”
Where my social Zooms
petered out, she was invited
everywhere: into people’s
living rooms for birth-
days, bat mitzvahs, even the
occasional bris. As ambulances
ravaged our home city, New
York, and deaths mounted,
we both turned to food. I’d
botch Alison Roman recipes
and smother cream cheese
frosting onto cinnamon buns
and then lick it off the spoon.

She’d slow cook ratatouille and
regularly remind me that she
drinks at least nine glasses of
water by 6 p.m. Infuriatingly,
she did online yoga, kept up
her skin care routine, and wore
flattering lipstick.

Even seeing no one, her
style could be described as
uptown-doyenne-takes-a-day- trip-to-Brooklyn-galleries. She
wore sweatpants, yes, but they
were somehow chic paired with
sumptuous cream cashmeres,
JEWISH EXPONENT
well-ironed button-down
Oxfords, and several different
pairs of festive Birkenstocks.

It was a good day if I wore a
bra, or better, something that I
didn’t wear the day before.

This woman was, of course,
my octogenarian grandmother
— we call her Oma — who my
husband and I found ourselves
quarantining with
from mid-March to July.

She didn’t mean to shame me;
she was just better prepared to
live in a “cool zone” of history —
as in a “period in history that’s
super cool to read about, but
much less cool to live through.”
Oma is no stranger to “cool
zones”: She was born a Jew in
Arad, Romania in 1934, where
her family narrowly side-skirted
the Nazis and then fled from
the Soviets on foot and horse
to Belgium. There she met my
grandfather, himself a survivor
of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.

Fast forward seven decades,
two children, six grandchil-
dren and widowhood; my
grandmother is now a bona
fide New Yorker. And like any
New Yorker with taste and an
independent streak, she has her
preferences: her favorite butcher
and shoe cobbler, her favorite
companion for the symphony
and art house movie, her
favorite walking route around
Central Park.

See Barasch, Page 31
OCTOBER 29, 2020
23