Obama's Robust Faith Outreach, Jewish Edition

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Stories about the Obama White House's robust religious outreach often read like articles on Christian outreach. The biggest myth about President Obama's overtures to religious Americans—and Democratic religious outreach generally—is that they are geared mostly toward evangelicals. The Forward has the inside story on the White House's intensive Jewish outreach, which garnered lots of attention in the news media during the 2008 campaign but has been overlooked since:

One month into the Obama presidency, Jewish communal leaders seeking high-level access appear to have come crashing through an open door.

Within four days in mid-February, community leaders were invited to two high-level conference calls—one with senior foreign policy officials to discuss the upcoming United Nations-sponsored Durban II conference on racism, and the other with Middle East special envoy George Mitchell. Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to speak in March at the annual plenum of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella organization of public policy groups.

"It's clear that Obama himself believes in outreach with a capital O," said Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations public policy director, Nathan Diament, who participated in the calls . . . .

Apparently, the outreach is about more than White House access. It has since been reported that the Obama White House is boycotting the United Nations' World Conference Against Racism next month because of the event's harsh tone toward Israel, a little-noticed development that was roundly applauded by Jewish groups.

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