philadelphia | When Anne Richman traveled to New York City for her grandson’s wedding this summer, his friends could not understand why she hadn’t yet decided to vote for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for president.
The 82-year-old promised them she would. But her other grandson, the one who served in the Israeli army, wants her to vote to re-elect President Bush. She said he “wouldn’t let up” with his assurances that Bush was best for the state of Israel.
Less than a month before the election, she’s still not sure what to do.
“I’ve been thinking, in all my years, I’ve never thought about it so much,” Richman said, sitting in the lobby of the Klein branch of the Jewish Community Centers of Philadelphia. “And I’m still undecided.”
Like many Jews in Pennsylvania and beyond, Richman is struggling with whom to support in this pivotal presidential election.
The Keystone State is considered an important swing state, with 21 electoral votes at stake. In 2000, the state went to the Democrats.
In interviews with several dozen individuals in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs, many Jews, who make up 2.3 percent of the state’s population, say this is the hardest, and most important, choice they can remember.
Those that have not made up their minds seem to be struggling between the two candidates, supporting them on some issues they care about, finding them falling short on many others.
At the University of Pennsylvania, Alexander Chester has been spending a lot of time trying to swing fellow Jewish students to Kerry’s side.
Since he returned to campus last month, the 21-year-old Orthodox Jew has spent time helping to register students and, at the Hillel in particular, extolling the virtues of Kerry’s Israel policy.
“They need reassurance because they just don’t know enough about Kerry on Israel,” he said, looking a bit disheveled as he stood in the lobby of the school’s Hillel, having just returned from spending Sukkot with his family in Jerusalem.
Many of them want to vote for Kerry because of his take on domestic policies and other issues of importance to them, he said, but Israel has become a bellwether issue that Kerry has not yet passed.
But once he lays out his argument that Kerry is not only as good as Bush on Israel but better, many of them connect to the Democratic views their parents hold.
“They say, ‘Thank you, I can now vote for Kerry,'” he said.
But that sentiment is not universal at the school.
Take Eli Cohen, a Brooklynite with short cropped hair and the beginnings of a beard.
Cohen, 19, said he doesn’t agree with Bush on many domestic issues, like the environment, but said those are low on his priority list. National security tops the list, and that’s why he supports the Iraq war and the current commander in chief.
Cohen said Iraq was the “lowest hanging fruit” in the global war on terrorism, and the Bush White House was justified in dealing with a problem that would have eventually required international intervention.
“Iraq was the most marketable war,” he said, suggesting Syria and Iran were other options. “We could not have things remain the way they were.”
At Hymie’s Deli, just a short drive away, the image of Annabell Mogul, 80, sitting and eating her soup could easily be one of the dozens of caricatures that line the wall. Behind her thick, jet-black sunglasses are the eyes of a woman who still does not know how she will vote.
“I’m vacillating on the war,” she said as the main course, half-sandwiches, is served to her and her friend.
“In some ways, it was very good. If someone had done that for the Jews, think of all the Jews that would have been saved,” she said, alluding to World War II.
But, she said, the economy has just gotten worse. She thinks both candidates will fight terrorism. Right now, she says, she thinks she will vote for Kerry.
Perhaps Susan Appel, a 42-year-old mother from Gladwyne, best summarized the thoughts of many when she said, “Who’s worse?”
She ordered a Reuben sandwich and Coke, and added: “I don’t know what to do this year. I’m just looking at who’s going to be more dangerous.’