{"id":75761,"date":"2015-09-29T19:10:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T03:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=75761"},"modified":"2015-09-29T19:10:46","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T03:10:46","slug":"trump-carson-have-republican-jewish-establishment-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=75761","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Carson have Republican Jewish establishment worried"},"content":{"rendered":"

From JTA<\/a>: WASHINGTON \u2013 The Republican Jewish establishment is watching the surge of political outsiders \u2014 like Donald Trump and Ben Carson \u2014 in the presidential primaries with dismay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like we have a conference call every morning, and we ask, \u2018What can we do to screw ourselves up today?\u2019\u201d said Fred Zeidman, a longtime fundraiser for Republican presidential candidates.<\/p>\n

Zeidman\u2019s exasperation pervades the Jewish Republican world: A party that has, in recent years, established a cozy relationship with Jewish conservatives seems to be careening \u2014 at least since the presidential race began.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, the billionaire reality show star, has lobbed rhetorical bombs at Hispanics, women and GOP rivals, and promised to deport 11 million illegal immigrants. Ben Carson, the retired world-famous neurosurgeon, said this weekend that a Muslim can\u2019t be president.<\/p>\n

The two men are jostling for the lead in polls, with former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in third. All three have never held elected office \u2014 and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, along with other establishment candidates, lag behind the outsiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis election is proving that nobody really knows anything, including me,\u201d said Seth Mandel, the Op-Ed editor of the New York Post.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a disorienting experience for longtime Republican Jewish donors and activists, who have made inroads into the party\u2019s establishment over the last two decades, and who have been at the forefront of advocacy for tolerance and pluralism within the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tone of what they\u2019re saying, we get painted as a party of intolerance,\u201d said Zeidman, who practices law in the Houston area and backs Bush\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n

The anti-immigrant rhetoric especially infuriates Zeidman, a past chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, who was driving near his home during his phone interview with JTA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think half the people I\u2019m looking at doing roadwork in 100-degree heat are not legal \u2014 and they are working their tuchus off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From JTA: WASHINGTON \u2013 The Republican Jewish establishment is watching the surge of political outsiders \u2014 like Donald Trump and Ben Carson \u2014 in the presidential primaries with dismay. \u201cIt\u2019s like we have a conference call every morning, and we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29752,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-trump","category-jews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t