Political tidbits: Streisand talks Talmud, McCain gets a vote in Israel

• Is Barack Obama’s race a problem for older Jewish voters? A number of Jewish leaders across the country think so, writes Jim Besser in The Jewish Week.
• CNN checks out the battle for Jewish votes in Florida.
• The woman who is believed to be the oldest American voter living abroad, Miriam Pollak of Israel, is voting for John McCain, according to the Jerusalem Post.
• Brad Hirschfield, writing at Beliefnet, feels the controversial Republican Jewish Coalition poll reminds him of the tactics of anti-Semites.
• The New York Daily News quotes Republican Jewish lobbyist Jeff Ballabon telling a Jewish newspaper that Barack Obama is “incredibly dangerous.”
• Some Las Vegas Jewish leaders say their congregations are more split over this presidential election than any other in recent memory, writes the Las Vegas Sun.
• Commentary’s John Podhoretz considers the implications of a New York poll which has McCain leading Obama by 22 points among Jewish voters. Unfortunately, Podhoretz didn’t read JTA’s blog entry on the poll, which quotes multiple pollsters–including Republication Frank Luntz–saying the small sample size makes the survey extremely unreliable.
• The Associated Press writes up the Republican Jewish Coalition’s latest ad, in which Pat Buchanan endorses Obama’s views on the Middle East.
• In Haaretz, Bradley Burston quotes a journalist friend saying “Sarah Palin has restored my faith in Israel” because the Jewish state would never consider such a neophyte on foreign policy as a leader.
• A Chicago rabbi, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, criticizes the Jewish community for passing along those false e-mails about Obama.
• Barbra Streisand opened her fundraiser for Obama with a Talmud lesson, according to the L.A. Jewish Journal.