GOP and Conservatives wooing Jewish Dems

Daily Point

GOP, Conservatives woo Jewish Dems

More than 100 House Democrats voted Wednesday to oppose military funding for Israel, shining a spotlight on the widening split within the Democratic party over Middle East policy and straining the party’s historic support from Jewish voters.

Now Republicans and Conservatives political leaders in New York are looking to lure those voters to their parties.

The New York GOP is starting a digital and print ad campaign featuring a letter addressed to “Our Jewish Neighbors and Fellow New Yorkers” from its Chairman Ed Cox.

“The New York State Republican Party stands with you,” the letter begins. “Unequivocally.”

The letter features strong support for Israel, calling the country a “democratic miracle,” and a pushback against antisemitism “wherever it appears.”

“We watch with sadness as the Democratic Party, which alleges to stand for marginalized groups, spirals into that ugliest and oldest hatred, anti-Semitism,” Cox writes. “Jews are leaving today’s Democratic Party in droves. From Maine to Michigan to New Jersey to right here in New York you are told you are no longer welcome.”

And Cox had a message for those voters.

“Please know that, unlike the Democratic Party, the New York State Republican Party values you and would be proud to have you among our ranks,” he wrote. “You have a home with us.”

Cox’s message on the New York GOP website will also appear in Jewish publications and on social media. It criticizes New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for calling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbies on behalf of Israel and supports political candidates, “monsters.” It also notes that Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries last year endorsed the mayor, while “Chuck Schumer… cowers in silence.”

The effort, which is being paid for by the state Republican Committee, comes after the Suffolk County Conservative Party took its own stab at wooing Jewish voters late last month.

“Attention all Jewish and Family Values Democrats!” said an ad that included a Jewish star and was featured on the county Conservative Committee Facebook page. “The Suffolk County Conservative Party will always stand with you to protect Israel, the traditional family, and fight for lower taxes.”

The post, which got nearly 1,000 reactions and more than 250 comments, said that “radical antisemitism” had “taken over your party.,”

“Switch Parties Today!” the ad said. “Vote Row C on Election Day.”

But comments on the post seemed to go in a different direction, with many pushing back against President Donald Trump and his record, or the pro-Israel argument itself.

“Why would anyone, regardless of party, support Israel?” asked one.

“Your party is hardly the pro-Jewish group you claim,” said another.

The attempt to convince Jewish Democrats to join the Republican or Conservative ranks, especially in the context of Wednesday’s Israel funding vote, may hit differently on Long Island. After all, Long Island’s four congressional representatives, including Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen, all voted against the measure that would have eliminated funding for Israel.

“The State of Israel is one of our most important allies and the only democracy in the Middle East,” Gillen said, calling the amendment “extremely hateful” in a statement Wednesday.

Said Suozzi: “I am a steadfast supporter of Israel and will not walk away from one of our closest allies.”

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Art of Iran

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Reference Point

Getting up an hour earlier, circa 1917

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill this week that would end America's biannual changing of the clocks to make daylight saving time permanent nationally. The bipartisan Sunshine Protection Act now heads to the Senate, where opposition is already brewing.

Back in 2022, similar legislation passed in the Senate but did not get through the House. However, this time shift debate goes back way further than that.

"Daylight saving time is here," declared Newsday's editorial board decades ago in 1942, explaining that Congress now expected "all of us to get up an hour earlier" once again.

DST was returning after being first enacted in 1917 during the "last war" following Europe's lead. The board wrote that farmers then did not like it because animals tend to wake with the sun.

"Now there is war again so the opinions of cows and chickens, and even farmers, don't matter," the board said. The reason driving the mandate in 1942 was electricity.

"The present peak load in the use of electric power, between dusk and bedtime, is cut down. Science, most notably in the production of aluminum from bauxite, has found many more uses of electricity," the board concluded.

A few months later, Long Island found itself part of a military order affecting the entire eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida that directed lights out at dusk along 1,600 miles of the coast. The idea was that a pitch black coastline would deter enemy submarines.

The board wrote that Long Island took the dim out order better than other coastal towns, but the New York State legislature proposed to add a second hour of daylight saving for the summer to ease the burden on the shoreline towns so that they did not have to shut down activities earlier. It did not pass.

At the end of World War II in 1945, permanent daylight saving time was repealed. In 1966, the Uniform Time Act established the basis of the current system, and in the decades since states and Congress have repeatedly debated when exactly the clocks should change.

In 1946 the editorial board summed up their position like this:

"Here on Long Island we're becoming less a farming community and more a race of commuters. For commuters daylight saving is fine," the board said. "In fact, we like the whole daylight saving setup."

— Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com

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