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On a recent balmy South Florida night, dozens of people gathered at a synagogue along a palm tree-lined road to talk about the war going on thousands of miles away.
Located just north of Miami Beach, the Shul of Bal Harbour is in the heart of South Florida’s Jewish community. Its rabbi is a well-known supporter of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has long supported conservative priorities on Israel and spoken at the Shul.
But in potentially unfriendly territory for Democrats, several people who attended the meeting said they were pleased President Joe Biden’s support of the Israeli offensive against Gaza.
This swath of South Florida used to be a Democratic stronghold but has moved to the right, helping former President Donald Trump win the state in 2020 and DeSantis coast to a huge re-election win last year and flipping Miami-Dade County, long key to Democratic strength in the state. If Florida is to regain its status as a perennially competitive state, how Jewish voters perceive Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war will be critical.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack killing more than 1,400 Israeli civilians evoked feelings of deep frustration, grief and anger among American Jews.
“The comfort and the resolve that he’s demonstrated has been really critical at a time when people are really just desperate,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Biden surrogate who represents suburbs south of Fort Lauderdale. “I’ve never seen in my 30 years of public service this magnitude of pain, shock and anger burning in the hearts of all Jews.”
In 2016, Democrats had about 327,000 more registered voters in the state. The GOP now has about 626,000 more registered voters.
In South Florida, rabbis and community leaders are pushing their congregations to call their lawmakers and insist they back Israel as it ramps up its offensive. In Michigan, another swing state, many Arab-American and Muslim communities are angry about the Biden administration’s response as Israel’s offensive has resulted in thousands of Palestinian deaths. And some Democrats are concerned about younger voters who polls show have greater sympathy for Palestinian concerns than the party’s older and more centrist voters.
The administration is having to strike “a delicate balance of showing support for Israel rhetorically and militarily but trying to prevent the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from getting out of control,” said Eric Lob, a Florida International University professor and non-resident scholar at the Washington-based think tank Middle East Institute.
About 43% of Florida’s Jewish voters supported Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, compared with 30% of Jewish voters who supported him nationwide, according to AP VoteCast. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won 45% of Jewish voters in his re-election, when he flipped traditionally Democratic Miami-Dade County while also winning a majority of Latino voters statewide.
An estimated 525,000 Jews live in Miami’s metropolitan area which includes Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, according to the American Jewish Population Project at Brandeis University.
Jacob Solomon, president of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, said South Florida has a large Orthodox community along with immigrants from Central and South America for whom English is not a first language. South Florida’s Jewish population includes Cubans and Venezuelans who closely follow U.S. relations with their countries of origin and generally support Republicans.
“We are among the most pro-Israel Zionist communities in North America,” he said, adding that he thinks it is the community with the strongest connection to Israel in the U.S.
On her trips to Israel, Lauren Book, the top Democrat in the Florida State Senate, uses an app that warns Israelis about incoming rockets from Hamas. But even back in Florida, the alert still goes off sometimes awakening her 6-year-old twins.
“I keep it on, just so I know what’s happening and so my children understand that if we were in Israel, you don’t have the luxury of turning it off,” she said in an interview.
Elected to the state senate in 2016, Book is a vocal opponent of DeSantis on most issues and was arrested near the state Capitol earlier this year in a protest against a ban on abortions after six weeks that he eventually signed. But she told The Associated Press last week that she was thankful for his sending charter planes to Israel to transport people seeking evacuation.
“We are all deeply, deeply connected and only one or two degrees separated from all of the things that have happened there,” Book said.
Rabbis and community leaders are holding Zoom calls with survivors of the Hamas attack.
Many leaders oppose a ceasefire. Israel has launched a total blockade of Gaza; airstrikes have flattened buildings and homes, killing civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate as it prepares for a possible ground invasion, vowing to destroy Hamas.
Rabbi Andrew Jacobs, who leads a synagogue in Fort Lauderdale, Ramat Shalom, says he encourages members of the congregation to stay informed and reach out to leaders and thank them for standing by Israel. He said he warns congregants to be prepared for voices to change “when the ugliness of war comes out” as Israel, with support from the United States, continues to bombard Gaza.
“We have to be vigilant to all calls and cries for ceasefire or putting blame on Israel right now because this work needs to be done once and for all to bring peace to that region,” Jacobs said. “President Biden has expressed very strong support for Israel and those of us who support the Jewish state are going to continue to expect him to keep doing the same thing.”
At the University of Miami, vigils and rallies have been held by both students mourning the loss of Israelis and calling for the return of hostages as well as those grieving the loss of Palestinians in the war. The university’s president, Julio Frenk, issued a statement in solidarity with Israel.
One Miami student, 20-year-old Nicole Segal, says she is hoping for continuing support from the administration, but has been disheartened by what she sees as a lack of support from other progressive groups.
“It’s very shocking that not enough non-Jewish people are standing up for Israel. I feel as if when there were other political matters, they stood up,” she said. “It’s upsetting.”
7 comments
Kathryn
November 4, 2023 at 4:35 pm
The current Israeli situation and the war in Gaza are truly complex, yet reminiscent of many past years gone by. I support Isreal wholeheartedly and have always been loyal to the Zionist state. However, this conflict has brought with it an utter sense of hopelessness to me. I’m feel such a sadness as I forge ahead within a shadowed deja vue. Perhaps I am just old and too blind to see the light that once was at the end of the tunnel. I mostly think that in all these years, nothing has really changed. We fight the good fight, but still, no permanent peace has come. Our people are still living in diaspora. Who wants to come to this land of unrest and strife? When I was younger, I thought it only proper that the old ones cling to their ways, continue with prejudice and hate in their hearts, whilst fiercely loyal to the country they didn’t want to share. After all, they deserved to be that way. They were Sabras. Ah, tolerance and good will shall come with the youngers. I lived in hope, and placed my bets on the generations to come. Those strong-willed progressives. Intellectuals who would study side by side with all the peoples of the world, working towards peace and creating societies that welcomed all. But alas, my hope is gone. Gone with the youngers who took off for peaceful lands afar, for they were tired of living in that country and disillusioned by what it had become.
My Take
November 4, 2023 at 5:35 pm
I have seen the interpretation that the earlier Jewish immigrants to Palestine then Israel were from western Europe and its old colonies and came from a more humane and democratic national tradition. And that the bent toward oppression came later later with immigrants from Africa, Aabic còuntries, and Russia.
My Take
November 4, 2023 at 5:42 pm
We fight the good fight
=========
For various reasons, much of the world diisagrees with that.
But I am with you, how can it end?
In both Israel and the US, sweepimg the far right from power for a few decades would be a good start. But we and Israel may be about to do just the opposite.
Ocean Joe
November 4, 2023 at 5:56 pm
If we go back to the Carter presidency, when Rabin and Arafat shook hands and the Oslo accords there seemed to be a path to peace.
A rightwing Israeli assassinated Rabin and far right yahoos on the Palestinian side decided an intifada would be a smart move.
Up went the walls. And we (the US) did not help by ignoring the expansion of settlements.
That said, let both sides come to the realization that neither is leaving, let Israel restore order by removing a self-imposed cancer, in as much as it is claimed Israel supported Hamas as a means to weaken the Palestinian Authority.
My Take
November 4, 2023 at 10:49 pm
And people really forget that even “Butcher” Sharon was ready to make peace and maybe forgo some land. But Naziyahoo and other far rightests were opposed. And Sharon had his stroke.
Kathryn
November 5, 2023 at 1:26 am
It’s difficult to conjure a scenario where Israelis and Palestinians cohabitate in a peaceful world. Israelis and Palestinians seem so far apart as prejudices prevail on all sides. I watched as the Oslo Accords came to fruition as men as different as night and day shook hands, and marked the beginning of a new era replete with optimistic prosprience of a transformed nation. This proved to be the beginning to the end. However, we have exciting news. The Oslo Accords were recently resurrected with all good intentions to begin again, taking up where they left off. Hmmm, many moons have come and gone since that time 30 years ago, when hope sprang eternal. I regret that I have very little hope left in me, except for a smidgen where that candle barely burns.
Kathryn
November 5, 2023 at 1:50 am
Perhaps those from the very large Jewish community residing here will take up the cause by migrating to Israel, whereby effecting positive and progressive change whilst creating a diverse society as they make their voices heard.
Whew! I do believe that’s a run-on sentence, yes? ☺️
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