Voting for My Values
Why am I voting for Kamala Harris? Because I am an Orthodox Jewish woman. Not despite, but because.
Admittedly, Harris is not my ideal candidate, and I would love to vote for an ideal candidate on my first visit to the ballot box, but in a time when calm, steady leadership matters more than ever, compared to her opponent, she is my clear choice. Here’s why.
The first is Israel. From the start of her career in politics, Kamala Harris has consistently supported the Jewish people and our right to live in our ancient homeland. The very first resolution she co-sponsored as a senator, in 2017, was aimed at combating anti-Israel bias at the UN. As vice president, Harris has strongly supported President Biden’s pro-Israel policies, advocating for Iron Dome funding and supporting Israel in its self-defense. And in the face of criticism from the extreme left, Harris has remained steadfast in her support for Israel. She is consistent and reliable.
In contrast, Donald Trump often seems more driven by personal pique than by principle and policy, including relating to his supposed support for Israel. This was on public display when Trump refused to talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu for months after Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden on winning the 2020 presidential election. Out of office, this kind of personal spite that we have come to expect from Trump is not damaging. In office, it could spell disaster. And does anyone truly believe that Trump cares more for Israel than he does for his ego?
Furthermore, Trump is strongly allied with the isolationists in his party. He is no Reagan, McCain or even McConnell on Russia and threatens to stop sending financial aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia (and Russia’s weapons-providing ally, Iran). How can we be sure that Israel is not next on the list of countries whose aid would be cut, if not out of spite, then out of disinterest or political expediency?
The bottom line is that Israel is far too important to leave up to an erratic man who makes common cause with isolationists. On this issue, I can only support an institutionalist, from either party — someone who believes in alliances, in supporting democracy abroad and who recognizes the value in consistent policy over decades. Of the choices on offer in this election, that is only Kamala Harris.
The second issue is related but distinct: the Jewish people and antisemitism. Harris has always been a strong advocate for the Jewish people. She has condemned antisemitism consistently throughout her career, calling it out on both sides of the political spectrum. As district attorney and later as attorney general of California, she prosecuted hate crimes, including charging a man who assaulted Elie Wiesel. In 2017, as a senator, she was the lead sponsor of S.Res.118, a resolution condemning hate crimes that highlighted antisemitism. As vice president, she has called out attacks against Jews, as well as pro-Hamas rhetoric and violence on college campuses. In short, she takes responsible, consistent positions.
And her opponent? In a recent speech, Trump said clearly that “... in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss” should he not win the upcoming election. This kind of rhetoric is standard for him: he has pandered to antisemitic tropes, calling Jews wealthy, referring to Israel as “your country” when speaking to American Jews and complaining that he did not get more than 25% of the Jewish vote in a poll, despite having Jewish family members. We should know well that our position in galut is precarious. We should therefore be exceedingly wary of any political leader who calls out Jews and casts potential blame on us as a group.
The third reason I am voting for Kamala is because she, unlike her opponent, implements humane rhetoric and balanced policies surrounding the treatment of immigrants. As a Torah Jew, I have a difficult time rationalizing rhetoric that comes from Trump and his supporters about people who are less fortunate. Should we not remember that we were once strangers in a strange land? Should we not remember the biblical injunction to “befriend the stranger”? Should we not recognize that if the Trumps of their day had won these kinds of arguments then, most of the readers of this publication would not be in America now? Whether our grandparents or great-grandparents arrived after the Holocaust, or one or two generations earlier to escape the poverty and persecution of the Czarist empire, America opened its borders and took us in. That does not mean that we must support letting everyone in at all times, but humility and decency towards people whose plight resembles that of our grandparents is in order, not mockery and vilification. Supporting a person who is able to address these issues with balance, someone who holds strong protective policies combined with empathy is consistent with what the Torah would expect of us.
The final reason I am voting for Harris has to do with democracy itself. It is clear that the remarkable growth of Jewish life in the USA over the past 100 years is due to the norms of our democracy. In a Parshat Zachor piece in “Darash Moshe” from 1939, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l reflected on the strength of American governance, contrasting it with Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Rav Moshe praised the U.S. Constitution for resisting totalitarianism by ensuring freedom of opinion, speech and religion, a system where no ideology can dominate through force. He referred to our system of government as a malchut shel chesed. Without a doubt, our system has its flaws, but if it has produced an environment in which Torah Judaism has flourished, should we not celebrate and express gratitude for that system? And should we not then support candidates who fundamentally accept and value that system?
In this regard too, Kamala Harris is an institutionalist and can be expected to conduct herself as we used to expect of any leading politician of either party in this country, championing democracy, protecting voting rights and fighting extremism both in the U.S. and abroad. Trump, on the other hand, deliberately undermines basic principles of our democratic order, including the peaceful transfer of power. He has recently suggested using the military on the “enemy within,” a notion that only years ago would have been universally condemned by all Americans, and not too long ago would have produced instinctive shudders in our collective Jewish memory. Many of us make the mistake of assuming that the idea of soldiers on the street fighting against the enemy within is not a problem as we, the Jewish people, happen not to be the enemy today. That is a short-sighted and historically foolish perspective, and we should know it. America is a malchut shel chesed because it functions differently than malchuyot of power and control. Let’s keep it that way.
This is a critical election. Israel and Jews in the U.S. have benefited from our system of government for decades, through Democratic and Republican administrations and congressional majorities. Consistency, reliability, decency and democratic norms have created a malchut shel chesed that has worked for us. Let’s not burn it down by voting for a candidate who promises to do so. In most American presidential elections, this simple argument would allow us to choose either major party candidate, based on other, less existential policy choices. But not this year.
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Photo caption: Vice President Kamala Harris at her desk
Photo credit: Lawrence Jackson / Wikimedia Commons
