Nothing Wrong with Special Campaign Appeals to Jewish Voters on Issues of Jewish Concern, Says ZOA L

The president of the Zionist Organization of America endorsed the propriety of President Nixon and Sen. George McGovern making special campaign appeals for the Jewish vote on the basis of their records on issues of Jewish concern. Herman L. Weisman said Friday that it is “fallacious reading of American political history to deny that the votes of American Jews are not influenced by their concerns over issues in which they have a particular interest.”

Weisman’s statement, delivered at a press conference at his office here, sharply criticized a joint statement made several months ago by eight national Jewish organizations deploring the Presidential candidates’ appeals to Jews “based on the single issue of United States support of Israel,” and declaring that “Jews vote as individual Americans, according to their individual judgments.” He declared that while the Jew is “sensitive to a candidate’s position on issues which affect him as a Jew”–including the security and welfare of Israel–he shares the interest of all Americans on such general issues as a sound economy, the urban problem and the advancement of world peace.

But Weisman said that politicians and pollsters “long ago recognized that Jewish voters are, in fact, responsive to a candidate’s proven position on issues of specific concern to them as Jews.” The political desires, needs and preferences of the Jewish voter are “just as important as those of the Black or the Puerto Rican, the wage earner or the farmer, the college student or the senior citizen,” he said. Weisman stated that Jewish voters should be “proud and not afraid to freely exercise their franchise and, if they so choose, to participate in a campaign, on the basis of their evaluation of issues of special concern to them as Jews.”