To the Editor:

Regarding David Streeter’s rather shrill indictment of our ad in the Washington Jewish Week for a shabbaton featuring a public talk by Gov. Sarah Palin, in conjunction with the pro-life group Heroic Media:

JewsForSarah is proud to be offering this event in conjunction with the banquet dinner of Heroic Media. Our sole reason for not describing Heroic Media’s pro-life mission in our ad for the shabbaton (a question raised originally by Politico’s Ben Smith) – there simply was no room to do so.

It is typical of news media treatment of Mrs. Palin to want to divert the conversation about her to side issues. As our ad indicates, JewsForSarah’s main reasons for supporting her are our opposition to the “progressive” takeover of the American government, our opposition to Pres. Obama’s relentless diplomatic pressure on Israel, our support for American energy independence, and our opposition to the runaway fiscal and spending policies of Pres. Obama and the “progressive” Democrats. We support Gov. Palin because we find her to be the most effective public advocate for these positions, and the President’s most effective critic.

But since he fairly raises the subsidiary question of our cooperation with a pro-life group, may I say that Mr. Streeter does an injustice simply by throwing the label “anti-choice” onto Heroic Media and their work. Anyone may visit HeroicMedia.org, where this self-description is found:

Heroic media’s mission is to reduce abortion and create a Culture of Life by connecting women facing unexpected pregnancies to life-affirming resource centers.

This type of work may not be pro-abortion, but it is hard to see how it is “anti-choice.”

Now Mr. Streeter may take a certain comfort that many American Jews keep him company in the precincts of the “pro-choice” movement. And some JewsForSarah supporters agree with him, nevertheless rallying behind Gov. Palin for the reasons stated above.

But we are astonished by the silence in otherwise morally-attuned Jewish circles to the stark fact that 87,273 abortions were performed in New York City alone in the year 2009 (we do not have Philadelphia data), where a staggering 41% of pregnancies ended in abortion. Among African-American women in New York in that year, nearly 60% of pregnancies were ended by abortion. (New York Sun, 4-9-11)

Moreover, in our view, the Jewish community suffers from a demographic crisis of our own, and would do well to more fully embrace a “Culture of Life.” (Perhaps even needing our own Heroic Jewish Media.)

Finally, as to Mr. Streeter’s denunciation of Gov. Palin’s “extremist position on women’s rights,” PJVoice readers are recommended to Kay Hymowitz’s excellent essay, “Sarah Palin and the Battle for Feminism” in the Winter 2011 edition of City Journal (CityJournal.org). If Mr. Streeter believes that orthodox, left-wing feminism still holds a monopoly on the American women’s movement, he was disproved on Nov. 4, 2010, when an unprecedented number of conservative, mostly Republican, women shattered numerous glass ceilings and entered American public office, and he is in for a rather rude awakening in November 2012.

Cordially,
Benyamin Korn
Director
Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin
JewsForSarah.com