Do you remember when Jerry Seinfeld would schlep to Florida to see his television parents at their retirement community and go for early bird special dinners at 4PM ? Maybe if he had married and had a family of some teenage or college aged kids (and not just dated a teenager at that time), they would have schlepped down to the Sunshine State and let their grandparents shep some nachas.
Jerry’s character had no kids. But a Jewish American PAC has come up with an interesting idea which gets grandkids to visit their grandparents in Florida (27 electoral college votes) after the Day of At-One-Ment and try to convince their nana’s and zayde’s that a vote for Obama ain’t so bad.
The Jewish Council for Education and Research — a pro-Obama PAC — is organizing “The Great Schlep,” in which Jews will trek South over Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 10-13. They will break their Yom Kippur fasts, travel to Florida, help build sukkahs, and organize political “salons” in their grandparents’ retirement communities in support of Obama.
Mik Moore and Ari Wallach are two of the leaders of the PAC(k).. vroom vroom. Mik worked for the Jewish Funds for Justice as the Chief Communications Officer. Mik, studied at Hebrew University and has a JD from Georgetown Law. Ari, a Berkeley grad, is on leave from studioBenZion (sBZ) and is the son of the late Raul Wallach, a Polish-born partisan with the Jewish underground in WW2, who was hailed by Sen. Henry Reid as “a national treasure.” Some talking points on the Great Schlep are: (1) Obama went to Columbia and Harvard and was head of Law Review; (2) Obama is not a Muslim; and (3) The Rev. Jesse Jackson is not keen on him. Maybe they should mention that Obama’s wife doesn’t buy retail?
Hee hee hee… good one Tom.
The young have much to teach their Sunshine State elders. How many of the old folk know that Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey want them to vote for Obama?
But they are sometimes stuck in groupthink, too scared to rock the collective vote.
Same applies to the must-vote-for-Obama-cause-he-is-different / young / ethnic / hip / [insert adjective of choice here] crowd.
If their grandparents were not involved in Civil Rights they exercized their rights not to do so at that time. As far as I’ve read in preparation for teaching a class on the life of MLK, he received support from various public Jewish figures of standing, but that’s a different issue altogether.
Current retirees were young people back then; they were highly politicized, lived through highly political times, in different poltical systems. My grandfather, born in 1924, was part of the resistance during the Third Reich – he literally risked his life for the values of democracy and liberty; his brother, who also was part of the resistance, eventually lost his life due to that. Barely compares to the overall mostly non-political-unless-it’s-in-fashion adolescents you get today. The electoral decisions of the elders not only possibly but in all likelihood were shaped by the experiences of a lifetime’s worth of politics, policies, and politicians. There might well be value in their wisdom. They likely would not vote for somebody that would cause their offspring harm just as little as they would force their grandkids to burn their fingers just to make them understand what pain feels like. I don’t think that anybody who fled a totalitarian state for the US needs a lecture by their grandchildren about the value of democracy, let alone the false dogma that voting for a specific candidate alone constituted as a better understanding of democracies and democratic rights. A new generation that believes that could do with a lesson on democracy and the democratic electoral principles themselves: elections must be general (everybody of legal age and citizenship is admitted), equal (every vote counts the same), immediate (without any middlemen), free (subject to one’s own convictions and conscience), and secret (the right not to tell who one’s voted for).
Must Jewlicious really give space to every Obama-embracing schmock?
The bulk of the Jewish communities did NOT embrace the civil righs movement of MLK Jr until late in the game. Saying they did is selective memory, just like everyone now remembers that they voted for JFK, many more so than the facts can support.
so… yes.. definitely yes. some grandparents need to hear from the new generation which will be living into the future about what they need in federal policy. A little preaching never hurts. Let there be dialogue and not monologues.. Let there be open discussions. Let them hear from the kids and ket the kids hear the concerns of their elders
What good is a monetary will if the society of the future is not as good as it could be?
The elders have a lot to impart. They are not senile. But they are sometimes stuck in groupthink, too scared to rock the collective vote. Let the kids be a blast of the shofar to awake a community from its slumber
Does anybody tell the kids about the possibility of getting cut out of their grandparents’ will?
Does this insinuate that grandparents per definition are too senile / ignorant to make up their political mind, read newspapers and be well-informed citizens? We’re talking about a generation that learnt that being political, being interested and getting involved in politics can easily change a whole world. Do they need their wet-behind-the-ears grandchildren preach democracy to those who grew up respectively were young adults during the Third Reich and its aftermaths, McCarthyism, the Yom Kippur and Vietnam wars? Those that not only understood the value but also fought for liberty, justice, desegregation?
Maybe the kiddies should listen to granny and gramps.
Maybe they should mention that Obama’s wife doesn’t buy retail?
Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!
Great!
More talking points:
1. He lives across the street from KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, the oldest synagogue in Chicago.
2. His kids went to day camp at the JCC there.
3. The synagogue gives their leftover oneg food to the secret service.