February 7, 2008 | 9:35 am

Orthodox rabbi: Vote pro-family or don’t vote

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Follow JewishJournal.com on

It looks like James Dobson has a philosophical sympathizer in Rabbi Yehuda Levin, who on Monday urged Torah Jews to cast a no-vote in protest unless a pro-family presidential nominee comes forth.

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the US and Canada (UOR), also known as Agudas HaRabbanim, issued a video statement Monday in which he called for Jewish Americans to avoid voting for a candidate “whose position is in any way antithetical to our Torah based morality.”

Specifically, Rabbi Levin said, “Candidates who support abortion on demand, the toeiva agenda, liberal attitudes towards pornography of any sort - are antithetical to our way of life and it is forbidden to support or vote for them.” The “toeiva agenda” is generally understood among religious Jews to refer to the homosexual lobby’s legislative and social causes.

Adopting an uncompromising position, the UOR head advised, “If one has to vote in an election or primary where both candidates are anti-Biblical family values, G-d forbid…. let the voter cast a write-in protest vote, but do not compromise by voting for the ‘lesser evil.’ If we value the purity and holiness of our children and grandchildren, we dare not compromise.”

Levin is founder of Jews for Morality, which by its name states what he thinks of Jews on the whole. One of my colleagues has taken to calling Levin “the fatwa rabbi.”