ALAN SOLOMONT, left, with Sen. Barak Obama

National briefs

By JTA

Solomont prodded Kennedy on Obama

NEW YORK (JTA)—A key Jewish fund-raiser for Barack Obama prodded U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy to endorse the presidential hopeful.

Alan Solomont, a prominent Jewish philanthropist and fund-raiser for Democratic candidates, was among the Massachusetts Obama supporters who approached Kennedy (D-Mass.) about endorsing the Illinois senator.

The endorsement from Kennedy, who announced his support for Obama Jan. 28 at a joint appearance in Washington, is expected to lend crucial momentum to the Obama campaign heading into the Super Tuesday primaries on Feb. 5.

“He understands the difference a transformational leader can make because he saw it in his own brother,” Solomont said of Kennedy, “and I think that this took a lot of courage on his part.”

Obama tells Jews: ‘I never practiced Islam’

WASHINGTON (JTA)—U.S. Sen. Barack Obama confronted rumors that he is a secret Muslim in a conference call with the Jewish news media.

“It is very important for everybody to know that it is fake,” Obama, a Democratic presidential contender, said Jan. 28 in a conversation with the Jewish media.

Obama listed falsehoods that appeared in an e-mail campaign aimed at Jewish voters. “I never practiced Islam. I was raised by my secular mother. I have been a member of the Christian religion and an active member of a church,” he said. “I was sworn in with my hand on my family Bible and have said the Pledge of Allegiance since I was 3 years old.”

Obama, who also answered questions about his Iran and Israel-Palestinian policies, as well as noting that he had rebuked his church’s past association with Louis Farrakhan, concluded: “My strong and deep commitment and connection to the Jewish community should not be questioned.”

Methodist Church mulls Israel divestment

WASHINGTON (JTA)—A top Methodist body heard arguments for and against divesting from Israel. The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society heard from four speakers Jan. 25 discussing whether to present a divestment-from-Israel plan at the church’s general conference in April, according to the New York Sun. The Rev. Douglas Mills, an executive on the church’s General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, made the case against divestment, the Sun reported, partly from concerns that a church-wide decision to divest would damage relations with Jewish groups. Among those making the case for divestment was Susanne Hoder, a member of the New England Conference’s Divestment Task Force. Two of the 11-million member church’s regional groupings, in New England and Virginia, have recommended divestment from companies that allegedly are complicit in Israel’s West Bank occupation. The meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, also considered divestment from other nations, including Sudan.

Bush marks Holocaust

WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Bush commemorated the Holocaust by condemning “the resurgence of anti-Semitism.” Bush marked the International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust set by the United Nations three years ago and timed for the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. “I was deeply moved by my recent visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum,” Bush said in his statement Jan. 27, referring to the culmination of his visit to Israel in January. “Sixty-three years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we must continue to educate ourselves about the lessons of the Holocaust and honor those whose lives were taken as a result of a totalitarian ideology that embraced a national policy of violent hatred, bigotry and extermination.”

Rudy’s Jews eye McCain in wake of Florida vote

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Many of Rudy Giuliani’s Jewish backers are defecting along with the former New York mayor to the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. John McCain, one McCain official said.

Fred Zeidman, McCain’s top fund-raiser, confirmed late on Tuesday, Jan. 29, after the senator clinched the Florida Republican primary, that Giuliani—who had enjoyed the strongest Jewish backing among the GOP candidates—would endorse the Arizona senator in California on Jan. 30, before the Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley. Giuliani came in a distant third in Florida, the state he had hoped to win big.

Jews voted overwhelmingly for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in Florida’s Democratic primary. Exit polls showed Jewish Democrats voting 58 percent for Clinton. Clinton has declared that she will work to have Florida’s Democratic delegates seated at the Democratic National Convention, even though the national party has said they would not be seated because the Florida party defied the national organization by moving their primary up to January.