Every weekday from now through Election Day — minus holidays — JTA will post a brief profile of one Jewish voter. Here’s our first installment. (Thanks for the inspiration, Humans of New York.)
Name: Ayalon Eliach
Age: 33
Lives: Boston area, Mass.
Works: Rabbinical student at Hebrew College, rabbinical intern at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York, N.Y.
Voting for: Hillary Clinton (supported Bernie Sanders in the primary)
“To me, the most important Jewish values are ones that have to do with social justice, ones that have to do with being kind to fellow human beings. At one point, Bernie Sanders was asked about his belief in God, and his answer had to do with really feeling pain of the other, and feeling shared destiny. To me those are deeply Jewish values, deeply religious values that have to do with really feeling connected to each other and feeling connected to the totality of existence in a deep way. So to me, I look for a candidate who I think really embodies that connected-ness. And I think of all the candidates that are out there today, it’s clear to me that Hillary Clinton is the one who emphasizes most this idea of connected-ness.”
