Debbie Schlussel, a 19-year-old Orthodox Jew from the Detroit suburb of Southfield, is a non-voting Michigan delegate to the Republican National Convention, and a staunch and articulate spokeswoman for conservatism.
“Jews should be conservative,” Schlussel said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“Judaism is a conservative religion, its teachings, its tradition, its philosophy–they are conservative.”
Schlussel, a junior at the University of Michigan majoring in political science and Judaic studies, concedes that most young Jews her age do not share her philosophy.
“But I will say this, a lot more are conservative today than even four years ago,” she said.
“Things are changing.”
Schlussel arrived at the convention by a circuitous route. She was originally elected as an alternate delegate for Rep. Jack Kemp of New York.
A dispute in the Michigan delegation was settled recently when 30 delegates who were elected to represent Kemp and the Rev. Pat Robertson were given non-voting places in the delegation.
Schlussel filled a spot in her congressional district and became the second youngest delegate at the convention.
However, Schlussel and her fellow non-voting delegates were chagrined Monday when they found they were seated 50 feet from the 77 voting members of the delegation.
Schlussel is also scheduled to play a key role in the upcoming campaign to elect Vice President George Bush to the presidency.
She is the head of the Jewish campaign for Bush in Michigan and is national co-chairman of the Bush youth campaign.
RALLIED FOR NORTH
She also has practical experience in government. Since 1985, when she was a 16-year-old high school student, Schlussel has spent her summers working as an intern in congressional offices in Washington, D.C.
She worked for two summers for then Rep. Mark Siljander of Michigan, last summer for Rep. Donald Lukens of Ohio and this year, Rep. Philip Crane of Illinois, all of whom, needless to say, are Republicans.
During the Iran-Contra hearing, she led a large rally on Capitol Hill in support of Lt. Col. Oliver North, the former National Security Council aide.
“I believe Jews should not just be Democrats, we have to be Republicans too, else we will be taken for granted,” Schlussel asserted. “I felt there wasn’t enough of a Jewish presence in the Republican Party and I wanted my voice to be heard.”
But it is not just pragmatism that led her to the Republicans. She is ideologically committed, too, readily reciting conservative litany
The Republican party “is the party that’s pro-Israel,” Schlussel exclaimed.
Schlussel noted that unlike the Democrats, the Republicans enunciated opposition to a Palestinian state.
“If you look at other issues, the Democrats–the liberals–are soft on communism, which has a great effect on Soviet Jewry,” she said.
She also stressed the strong defense position of the Republicans, noting that “a strong America leads to a strong Israel and vice versa.”
Schlussel also listed Republican support for the Strategic Defense Initiative, “which is one of the major projects that Israel is conducting now, bringing a lot of revenue to Israel. The Democrats are opposed to that.”
COOL ON SCHOOL PRAYER
Schlussel is a little more ambivalent about the Republican push for prayers in school.
In his address to the convention Monday night, President Reagan again urged voluntary prayers for school children.
“I don’t believe there should be mandatory prayer in schools,” Schlussel said. “But it’s a violation of freedom of speech if you don’t allow prayer in school. It’s also a violation of freedom of religion. I think a moment of silence would suffice.”
Schlussel is more emphatic in criticizing what she said was the shunning of fundamentalists by the Jewish community.
“I think fundamentalist Christians, like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, conservatives like that, are some of the best friends Israel and the Jews have,” she said.
“We should really have a natural alliance. We share a lot of the same values and the same beliefs; at least Orthodox Jews share them.
“I find it really disturbing that these people are ostracized by the Jewish community. Israel now is at a time when it cannot afford to pick and choose its friends.”
Schlussel credits her political involvement to her two grandfathers. Her paternal grandfather, Irving Schlussel, was a leader of the Detroit Jewish community
Although he was an active liberal Democrat, she believes if he were alive today, “he would be a conservative.”
From her maternal grandfather, Isaac Engel, a Holocaust survivor, she learned the necessity of preventing a totalitarian government from arising as happened in Germany in 1933, Schlussel said. She said that is why she also favors decentralized government.
Schlussel first became involved in politics as a sixth grader, when in 1980, her father, Dr. Herschell Schlussel, was active in Michigan in the National Jewish Republican Coalition campaign for Ronald Reagan.
DEMOCRATS UNTIL 1980
By the time Reagan was running for reelection in 1984, she was taking an active part on her own in the Jewish campaign in Michigan.
Schlussel said her family had been Democrats until 1980. “We switched to the Republican party because we saw Jimmy Carter was the man who helped force Israel to give part of the country away. He wasn’t good on Israel, he wasn’t good on the Soviet Union, he wasn’t good domestically for this county.”
While a serious young woman, Schlussel is also enjoying the fun of the convention, especially meeting the many friends she has made across the country through her political activities.
While concentrating on the 1988 campaign, Schlussel has her eye on 1994, when she will be old enough to run for Congress.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
