Rahm Emanuel is a fighting policy wonk with a Jewish soul [VIDEO]

One thing Rahm Emanuel is not, all agree, is the president-elect's conciliatory signal to the Jewish community after a campaign fraught with worries that Obama would tip toward even-handedness in dealing with the Middle East

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Passage of Prop. 8 reveals rift between denominations

By Rachel Heller

Jewish voices had joined both sides of the bitter and costly Proposition 8 debate leading up to Election Day. Reform and Conservative leaders largely condemned the stripping of civil rights from a fellow minority population, while Orthodox officials praised constitutional protection for the biblical definition of marriage.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Dear Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin: I apologize for the Jewish vote for Obama

By Dean Rotbart

For now, we must leave the Lost Tribes of Obama on their own. If their ears could not hear and their eyes could not see all the pre-election warnings that a President Obama may cost Israel its very survival, and in a domino effect destabilize the Western world and America, I have yet to discover the magic words that would wake them from their trance.

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Post-election healing — kumbaya in class and at the beach

By Julie G Fax

Now that the election is over and campaign exaggerations can give way to reality, in schools, and everywhere else, people are making efforts to put things back into perspective. While a lot of healing may still be needed before that sort of unity can move beyond a Saturday night at the beach, one uniting factor all agree on is that this election brought a new level of political awareness and passion across party lines and across ages.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

It can’t happen here

By Rob Eshman

"People choose to remain gay, and people choose to remain Jewish," said an organizer. "Why should the majority of us be forced to honor that choice?"

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The kids are all right

By Marty Kaplan

As I drove across Los Angeles on election night, I saw clusters of teens and kids in their 20s celebrating on random street corners, high-fiving drivers at red lights. They may not have marched on the Pentagon to end the war in Iraq, but they have given the nation a new president who has pledged to do just that. For the first time since the springtime of the baby boomers, they have become not just consumers to be marketed to, but a political force to be reckoned with.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Ari Emanuel, is a Hollywood superagent

By Danielle Berrin

" . . . In a business deal, he's going to try to kill for you, and its just going to be about putting as much money in your pocket as he can, until you tell him that there's something else that's important to you . . . " -- Aaron Sorkin

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Jews looked past worries to embrace Obama

By Ron Kampeas

For months, polls showed Obama languishing at about 60 percent of the Jewish vote, a critical chunk short of the 75 percent or so Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) garnered in 2004. But exit polls from the Tuesday election showed Obama matching those results, garnering about 78 percent of the Jewish vote against 22 percent for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), his Republican rival.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s pick for Chief of Staff, is tough, direct and wedded to his Jewish roots

President-elect Barack Obama’s pick of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) will put a tough, proven political operator at the center of a new Administration. It also raises the profile of a Chicago Jewish family firmly rooted in the worlds of Hollywood, medicine, politics . . . and Judaism.