A promise no Jewish liberal can ignore

After watching the debate this evening, I added some new remarks about it with parts of the feature I wrote Tuesday for the print edition.

Most children raised as Jews remain Jewish as adults, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found in its recent report, "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey." About 9 percent convert to another religion, and another 14 percent drop their religious affiliation altogether.

Although those numbers are high, they are lower than was previously thought. On the whole, some 44 percent of U.S. citizens change their religious affiliation as adults, an astounding figure that indicates Americans' religious fluidity. Even if one disregards shifts between the different Protestant denominations, the figure is still an impressive 28 percent.

I keep reminding myself of these numbers as I think about the constant noise made by people who are now trying to portray Senator Barak Obama as a Muslim. One has to conclude: If religious fluidity is such an American routine - then Obama's personal biography is even more representative of the American experience than anyone could have imagined.

Connecticut's Jewish senator Joe Lieberman is a steadfast supporter of John McCain, while the state's other senator, Chris Dodd, announced his support for Obama on Tuesday. During the Super Tuesday primaries, Connecticut Jews made up 9 percent of voters, and 61 percent of them voted for Obama - one of the most telling signs that Obama can pull the Jewish vote. However, this week was remarkable for those following the story of Obama and the Jews. This is the week in which the story became national news. Not that there's anything new to report. It is just the fact that the national media is suddenly paying more attention (it is an interesting story to watch, as readers of this column already know). Newsweek wrote about it this week. CNN had a short segment (I know because I was in it). And tonight, at the Democratic debate, a fairly long slice of the evening was dedicated to this issue.

Tim Russert started the debate by pressing Obama on the endorsement he got from the anti-Semitic African-American leader Louis Farrakhan. Obama said: "I have been very clear in my denunciations of Minister Farrakhan's anti-Semitic comments. I did not solicit this support."

Enter Hillary Clinton.

If anyone had any doubt that Hillary's campaign is trying to score points against Obama in the Jewish community - today she gave us the proof, publicly. "You asked specifically if he [Obama] would reject it [the endorsement] and there's a difference between denouncing and rejecting", she argued. Meaning - Obama is merely denouncing Farrakhan instead of rejecting the endorsement.

What was she trying to say - that Obama is somewhat anti-Semitic? Let's assume she was just thinking that Obama was playing politics and is trying not to offend Farrakhan's supporters while he denounces his views.

In any case, in this exchange Obama got the upper hand: "If the word 'reject' Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word 'denounce', then I'm happy to concede the point and I would reject and denounce [Farrakhan]" he said.

Obama spoke about this same issue a few days ago as he was meeting a group of Jewish activists in Cleveland. Some who attended the event and do not belong to his camp said he was very convincing. "At his best," one of them said. But in the debate he was even better and was able to score again on the same topic, elaborating on something of great importance to Jewish liberals.

Just recently we were all watching The Jewish Americans series on PBS, in which the story of Jewish involvement in the civil rights movement was front and center - and the part describing how the bond between black Americans and Jewish Americans was breaking was almost puzzling.

Obama, talking about Farrakhan - and about anti-Semitism among African-Americans, which he also denounced in his speech on Martin Luther King Day - touched a sensitive nerve when he was talking about one possibility that's inherent to his candidacy: he has the chance to restore the alliance between blacks and Jews.

This will not necessarily get Obama the votes of every Jewish liberal in this country. But it is also one promise that no American liberal Jew can simply ignore.