The Orthodox community in America was caught up in the
heightened excitement surrounding the recent US elections.
For the first time ever, the Lakewood Vaad endorsed a
particular candidate — President George W. Bush —
"in consideration for his outstanding positions on family
issues, domestic security and of significant consequences for
Acheinu B'nai Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel."
In a more traditional effort, every Orthodox rabbi in
Cleveland, led by Rabbi Chaim Stein rosh yeshivas Telshe,
signed a Kol Korei calling on every Orthodox Jew to
vote, and on the Shabbos preceding the election every
congregational rabbi in Cleveland stressed in his droshoh
the importance of voting.
Rabbi Yechiel Kalish, Midwest regional director of Agudath
Israel of America, logged thousands of miles in the last week
of the campaign in the key state of Ohio, traveling between
Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati on voter registration and
getting-out-the-vote activities. And his colleague, Rabbi
Moshe Matz, the Southern Florida regional director of Agudath
Israel, was busy doing the same in southern Florida, another
crucial state. Agudath Israel of America got involved in
voter registration efforts to an unprecedented degree, out of
a feeling that it would be a chilul Hashem for
Orthodox Jews to sit on the sidelines in an election
perceived as so vital by the American public, and especially
after the 2000 elections demonstrated that every vote does
count.
*
Orthodox Jews turned out in large numbers and they voted
overwhelmingly for President Bush. That support for the
president grew stronger as one moved rightward on the
religious spectrum towards the close-knit Chassidic
communities. Despite the theological anti-Zionism in the
latter, the concern for the well-being of Jews in Eretz
Yisroel remains overwhelming.
Thus in Kiryas Yoel, a Satmar community in Sullivan County,
New York, President Bush won 88 percent of the vote: 6314 to
529 (with the votes for Senator Kerry attributed to internal
communal divisions.)
Al Gore Jr. carried Rockland County by 21,000 votes in 2000;
this year George Bush carried it by 1,301 votes. That swing
was largely attributed to the heavy Orthodox vote for the
president. In New Square, for instance, President Bush won 99
percent of the vote; in 2000 he captured only 21 votes in New
Square. When asked to explain the shift, the Skverer Rebbe
answered, "Hakoras hatov." In those election districts
in Rockland County in which Orthodox Jews comprise more than
50 percent of the eligible voters, the President captured 84
percent of the votes.
In Lakewood, New Jersey the communal efforts of fifty
campaign workers (without direct support from the national or
state Republican parties) paid off heavily for Bush. Though
New Jersey went for the Democratic candidate, President Bush
carried Lakewood by better than two to one. In the 12
election districts with a majority of Orthodox voters, he won
85 percent of the vote, and in the one exclusively Orthodox
district he won over 99 percent.
Similar patterns were repeated in other heavily Orthodox
areas. The Bush vote increased by 80 percent in Boro Park and
over 100 percent in Flatbush. Both had gone heavily for Gore
in 2000, and this year swung into the Bush column.
*
Much of the political activity on the Republican side for the
Orthodox vote was the result of the vision of one man: Jeff
(Yehoshua) Ballabon, an Orthodox Jew from West Hempstead New
York. Ballabon, 41, has long been active in Republican
politics. After graduating Yale Law School, he worked on the
staff of Senator John Danforth, now U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations.
Ballabon, who had met then-Governor Bush in Austin in 1999
and had the chance to spend a few minutes talking with him,
felt confident that his personal commitment to faith and
values was profound, as was his feeling of respect, even
affinity, towards the Jewish people and faith. Ballabon
worked on the Bush campaign in 2000. Soon after he was
elected, despite winning only 19 percent of the Jewish vote,
President Bush began to prove his friendship.
Ballabon was particularly moved by the fact that President
Bush, alone among major world leaders, refused to send an
American delegation to the U.N. Conference on Racism at
Durban, which quickly degenerated into an anti-Israel hate
fest.
Ballabon felt that only someone firmly planted in both the
Torah world and that of values-based politics could be the
bridge for Torah Jews to the larger political world.
Otherwise the conversations across the table would always be
ones between strangers, each seeking to advance particular
interests, not a conversation of allies searching for common
ground. As a graduate of Yeshivas Ner Israel, and someone who
has always been very open about his religious observance in
both his political and professional life, Ballabon was suited
to that task.
As a kippah-wearing Jew in the public limelight, he
found himself constantly presented with opportunities to
correct distortions of Judaism by so many who claim to speak
in its name. Evangelical Christians and traditional Catholics
in particular were always thrilled to meet a Jew who could
reassure them that there are still Jews today living
according to the precepts of the Torah.
Reaching out to the Orthodox community, Ballabon argued
repeatedly, is not just a matter of having a kosher table at
a Republican Jewish event. Orthodox Jews, he explained, view
life and politics from a completely different perspective
than their secular Jewish counterparts.
Together with friends like Gedalia Litke, a New York
attorney, and Michael Fragin, today New York Governor George
Pataki's liaison to the Jewish community, Ballabon formed
ROSHEM, the Center for Jewish Values, in order to introduce
Torah Jews to politicians, and to sell the possibilities of
political action to observant Jews. Through ROSHEM, Ballabon
introduced politicians with a strong social conservative
message — e.g., Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and
Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania — to successful
Orthodox professionals and business people who could support
their political campaigns.
Ballabon participated in roundtable discussions at
conventions of Agudath Israel of America, in which he
discussed ways to approach social issues within the
guidelines of da'as Torah, in order to maximize the
Kiddush Hashem message, while at the same time, not
diminishing the uniqueness of Torah. He also addressed the
national convention of the Orthodox Union and the rabbinical
training conference of the National Council of Young
Israel.
By constantly stressing moral values, Ballabon was able to
make the Orthodox community into a more significant political
player than its numbers would warrant. There are fewer than
half a million Orthodox voters. But as a new demographic
group focused around issues of values, Orthodox Jews were
highly sought after by important constituencies within the
Republican Party. Ballabon's personal experience in
Washington confirms that principled action is often the most
practically effective. His influence has grown as he has been
perceived as a person of conviction and integrity rather than
someone who merely buys and sells access.
Though he did not then know it, he was following in the path
of the greatest of American Orthodox askonim, Rabbi
Moshe Sherer, the long-time president of Agudath Israel of
America. In discussions with politicians, Rabbi Sherer always
confined himself to the principles of the issue on the table
at that moment.
A longer version of this article appeared in
Mishpacha. The writer is the director of the Israeli
office of Am Echad, sponsored by the American Agudas
Yisroel.
