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ADAM C. SMITHSome Jews, especially those who remember the Holocaust, worry that his presidential campaign could ignite anti-Semitism.
PEMBROKE PINES - Sophie Bock remembers the thrill of seeing vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman campaigning in 2000 in South Florida's sprawling condo complexes.
"Everybody was so excited. We wanted just to touch him. He was like a God," she recounted in her tidy second-floor condo where a Passover Seder plate hangs on the wall.
"We loved him when he was running for vice president. We absolutely adored him, but there's quite a difference between vice president and president," she said as two friends nodded in agreement. "Most people here don't think he has a chance, and that the rest of the country will hold his being Jewish against him. Maybe we're being unfair, but the seniors here lived through the time when people had to change their names so they wouldn't sound too Jewish to get jobs."
"He'll get more Baptist votes than he will Jewish votes," chimed in neighbor Noel Steinberg.
It may be the greatest irony of Lieberman's groundbreaking candidacy as the first Jewish presidential contender that some of the strongest skepticism he faces comes from Jewish voters.
In South Florida condo complexes loaded with elderly Jewish residents and ardent New Deal Democrats, wariness over Lieberman's candidacy is common. Some complain he's too conservative, too hawkish or too prone to interject faith in politics.
The consistent concern, though, is anti-Semitism. Even residents who strongly prefer Lieberman over the other Democratic candidates worry about it.
"He'll never be elected. He's Jewish," retired New York City school employee Yetta Kudrowitz said as she walked toward the library at a Century Village in Deerfield Beach. "Maybe it didn't hurt him when he was running for vice president, but it definitely will running for president."
Her friend Leah Lefkowitz, who expects to vote for Lieberman, agreed. She also worries about his personal safety as a Jewish candidate.
As Al Gore's running mate in 2000, Lieberman was greeted like a rock star when he frequently visited South Florida's condo complexes where tens of thousands of Jewish seniors live.
Nobody assumed monolithic Jewish support for Lieberman after Gore took himself out of the running for 2004, and the large Democratic field emerged. But the Connecticut senator appeared positioned to capture the bulk of campaign money and grass roots support among the hundreds of thousands of Jewish Democrats in South Florida.
That now looks anything but certain. And Florida Sen. Bob Graham's presidential campaign is just one factor.
"You'll hear people say, "Thank God he didn't make it to the vice presidency. They would have blamed all our problems on the Jews. They would have blamed the deficits on the Jews, they would have blamed Iraq on the Jews," said Ginger Grossman, a veteran Democratic activist in north Miami-Dade.
In her circle of friends, Lieberman's biggest long-term problem is not another Democratic candidate but President Bush. The president's support of Israel has been so strong he should not be replaced, fellow Democrats tell her.
"They'll give Joey money, they love him and kiss him and go to every one of his private affairs. He's like family," said Mrs. Grossman, who sees Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry as the strongest candidate. "But none of them are going to vote for him because they're afraid of losing Bush and losing Israel."
Like most of the Democratic candidates, Lieberman strongly supports Israel. Last week he slammed former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, whose wife is Jewish, for saying America shouldn't take sides in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Lieberman said it amounted to a reversal of 50 years of American policy, and Dean was forced to clarify his position and stress his support for Israel.
The concerns voiced by some Jewish Democrats about Lieberman may be irrelevant in Florida, because the Democratic nominee is likely to be decided by the state's March 9 primary.
As it is, Lieberman has wide support among South Florida Democrats, many of whom are just starting to pay attention to the presidential race.
Even those with doubts about his electability stress that they will support Lieberman if he wins the Democratic nomination. Statewide polls generally show him trailing only Graham in Florida.
But the nervousness some Jewish voters have about a Jewish presidential candidate has not been lost on Lieberman.
Last month, a rabbi from his hometown of Stamford, Conn., wrote in the Jewish Week about a meeting Lieberman called to try to understand why more Jews weren't supporting his candidacy, financially and otherwise.
"It's not that I want Jews to vote for me because I'm Jewish," Lieberman was quoted telling the assembled rabbis. "I just don't want Jews to not vote for me because I'm Jewish."
In South Florida last week, Lieberman acknowledged that he hears concerns about his candidacy from some Jewish voters. But he said it is having little effect on his candidacy.
"I understand the anxieties. They come from history," Lieberman said between fundraisers.
"But I don't find any of that among the 98 percent of American people who are not Jewish, where people have greeted me with fairness and openness and a lot support," he said, noting that polls show support that stretches across region, age and ethnicity.
Mitchell Berger, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who serves as Lieberman's national finance co-chairman, said the angst over Lieberman's religion is largely generational.
"There's a simple explanation: the Holocaust. One out of every two members of that generation died in the Holocaust," he said of seniors who live in South Florida's condominium complexes. "It's a tragedy, but if you talk to that crowd, there are people who fear that if there's a Jewish president and something goes wrong in the world, it could be like the Japanese in World War II, and they get interned."
Among roughly 30 young professionals who met with Lieberman Thursday in Miami, several Jewish fans of the senator dismissed the anti-semitism concern as insignificant. In contrast to many of the 60-plus condo residents, they were optimistic about American attitudes toward Jewish leaders.
"It's a product of their life experiences. They have those images they remember that I do not have," said 38-year-old attorney Scott Srebnick, acknowledging concerns he hears from older Jewish residents. "We've made such progress in this country in the last 40 years."
Many Americans doubted in 1960 that John F. Kennedy could be elected because of his Catholicism. The Lieberman campaign cites polling that shows more than 90 percent of Americans today say they would vote for a Jewish president, a significantly higher level of acceptance than polls showed Americans had for Catholics 40 years ago.
In Sophie Bock's living room, though, the Century Village residents aren't buying that. They tell stories of growing up with anti-Semitic graffiti appearing regularly on their homes and of parents admonishing them not to call attention to their Jewishness among non-Jews.
"Being Catholic back then and being Jewish are two different things," Paul Pugach said. "One thing that's changed is 9/11. We've even been blamed for that."
Lieberman considers such sentiments background noise to a broad-based candidacy. He's campaigning as a candidate who happens to be Jewish, not as a Jewish candidate, he often says, and says he's the Democrat whose moderate views can best win over the broad electorate.
"I have no doubt the American people are ready to select a Jewish person as their president if they believe that person is otherwise the best qualified to do the job," he said.
"I understand the anxieties, but I believe in America, and I have confidence in the promise of America that everybody will be treated equally. I've found nothing in this campaign to say otherwise."
- Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com