The Republican nominee for California governor, former eBay chief Meg Whitman, spoke at Stephen S. Wise Temple on Oct. 10 to a crowd of 700 enthusiastic supporters. Carly Fiorina, the GOP candidate for senator, will speak at the synagogue Oct. 24. Stephen S. Wise Senior Rabbi Eli Herscher said invitations had also been extended to the Democratic nominees for both offices, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is campaigning for a fourth term, declined the offer. A spokesperson from the Jerry Brown for Governor campaign said the campaign never received a formal invitation and only learned about the event from a third party, at which point Whitman had been named featured speaker and the Republican Jewish Coalition was a co-sponsor of the event.
Despite the invitations to both parties’ candidates for office, the event — which was also co-sponsored by Stephen S. Wise along with the Los Angeles Jewish Chamber of Commerce — raises questions about whether the temple’s actions constitute interference in the political campaigns. “The event still does not seem to qualify as the strictly nonpartisan community information session as required by the tax law,” said Ellen Aprill, professor of law and the John E. Anderson chair in tax law at Loyola Law School. “The synagogue is not to be a location for competing rallies, but a forum for nonpartisan information and discussion.”
American Jews have voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1972, which could explain why the Democratic candidates don’t appear to be doing as much to rally their Jewish voter bases this year. Both Fiorina and Whitman also addressed attendees of last weekend’s 30 Years After Conference, for which Brown and Boxer both declined invitations.
