Deborah E. Lipstadt is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. The author of the seminal book Denying the Holocaust, in the year 2000 Lipstadt was sued for libel in British court by Holocaust denier David Irving. In a landmark decision, she won the case by proving that her accusations against Irving were true.

In her wide-ranging endorsement of Barack Obama, Lipstadt writes that she is “firmly in the Obama/Biden camp… as an American, a woman, and a Jew.” Lipstadt discusses many topics, including: anti-abortion legislation and its potential impact on our ability to follow Jewish law; the relationship between the candidates’ proposed policies and the Jewish obligation to give tzedaka; and Obama’s solid support for Israel and the confidence in him expressed by Israeli leaders across the political spectrum.

Click here to read Lipstadt’s endorsement.

CNN interviewed Alan Dershowitz following Obama’s AIPAC Speech (which you can watch and read in full, scan an abridged 15 minute version, or view in your home theatre as a 6:13 minute DVD.)

We’ve edited the original CNN video down to 2 minutes, just for you:

CNN: Alan, great to see you. What did you think of his speech?

DERSH: I thought it was a home run. It went a very, very long way towards assuring Jewish voters that he is good for America, he is good for the world, and he’s good for Israel. He said all the right things and went a long way towards assuring Jewish voters yesterday. (more…)

Rabbi Mehlman is the Emeritus Rabbi of Temple Israel of Brookline and Professor of Midrash at New York’s Hebrew Union College. He spoke at the July 11th meeting of the Obama Jewish Community Leadership Committee of New England and has kindly allowed Jews4Obama to have a “scoop,” publishing his remarks here first:

As a Jewish American, I am deeply disturbed by the direction in which our country has moved under the Bush/Cheney Administration. The election of Barack Obama is of critical importance to me for the following reasons:

1. We stand on the threshold of change in our Supreme Court. The next president of the United States may replace three justices of the court. Barack Obama offers the best hope for our judicial future. His appointments would counterbalance the appointees President Bush made, justices who have moved the court in a direction that threatens a flexible, progressive, and humane reading of the United States Constitution. I believe that a President Obama will end the leaning of the Supreme Court to the right.

(more…)

Obama for President

The formal act of endorsing a candidate is generally (and properly)limited to editorial pages and elected officials whose constituents might be influenced by their choice. The rest of us shouldn’t assume anyone cares. My avoidance of offering a formal endorsement until now has also been affected by the pull of old friendships and my reluctance as a teacher and commentator to be openly partisan. But my conscience won’t let me be silent any longer.

I believe that Barack Obama should be elected President of the United States. (more…)

The Obama I know
from Huffington Post

Not so long ago, the phone rang in my office. It was Barack Obama. For more than a decade, Obama was my colleague at the University of Chicago Law School.

He is also a friend. But since his election to the Senate, he does not exactly call every day.

On this occasion, he had an important topic to discuss: the controversy over President George W. Bush’s warrantless surveillance of international telephone calls between Americans and suspected terrorists. I had written a short essay suggesting that the surveillance might be lawful. Before taking a public position, Obama wanted to talk the problem through.

In the space of about 20 minutes, he and I investigated the legal details. He asked me to explore all sorts of issues: the President’s power as commander-in-chief, the Constitution’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Authorization for Use of Military Force and more.

Obama wanted to consider the best possible defence of what Bush had done. To every argument I made, he listened and offered a counter-argument. After the issue had been exhausted, Obama said that he thought the programme was illegal, but now had a better understanding of both sides. He thanked me for my time.

This was a pretty amazing conversation, not only because of Obama’s mastery of the legal details, but also because many prominent Democratic leaders had already blasted the Bush initiative as blatantly illegal. He did not want to take a public position until he had listened to, and explored, what might be said on the other side. (more…)