The Penn. pulpit: How 7 battleground-county rabbis are navigating the election these High Holidays

Jewish political organizations are flooding Pennsylvania airwaves with millions of dollars worth of campaign advertisements appealing to the pathos of Jewish voters at a critical juncture in both American politics and American Jewish life. 

According to the American Jewish Population Project from Brandeis University, Pennsylvania is home to approximately 299,000 Jewish adults, comprising about three percent of the state's electorate. Pennsylvania is worth 20 electoral votes and was won narrowly by former President Donald Trump (+.07%) in 2016 and by President Biden (+1.2%) in 2020.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America plans to spend about $300k on advertising across Pennsylvania, a spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post. Their ads cast Trump as a fascist and seek to prove Vice President Kamala Harris's strong support of Israel and championing of American Jewish values. 

A Republican Jewish Coalition spokesperson said the group's Victory Fund is spending "several million" on advertising in Pennsylvania alone as part of a $15m battleground state campaign push, the largest amount spent during an election in the organization's history. RJC's ads portray Harris as an empathetic member of the far-left "squad" who is against Israel and is supportive of the anti-Israel protests on college campuses. 

Though on the Days of Awe, when Jewish Pennsylvanians are tuning into their clergy, and not commercials, what are the messages they'll be receiving? 

The Post spoke with seven Pennsylvania rabbis from critical electorate counties on their approach to writing their sermons this year, and if politics has a place on the pulpit. 

'Not the place to discuss personal political views'

Congregation Mikveh Israel is the oldest synagogue in Philadelphia and is the oldest continuous synagogue in the US, with its establishment dating before the Revolutionary War in 1740. 

The Orthodox congregation's first building was built in 1782. 

Its current rabbi, Yosef Zarnighian, will not be addressing the election during his sermons as he said the synagogue is not the place for him to discuss his personal political views.  

"People come to Congregation Mikveh Israel because they're looking to worship God in the tradition of our ancestors, going back to the period even before the expulsion of Spain," he said. 

Now that's not to say that the election doesn't matter, Zarnighian added, noting Mikveh Israel is the only congregation to send every sitting president a congratulatory letter offering to work together on issues of common interests. 

The City of Philadelphia overwhelmingly voted Democratic in both 2016 and 2020. 

In his sermons, Zarnighian will address the same theme he does every year: Teshuvah, or repentance. 

Every year, Zarnighian applies Teshuvah to contemporary events. 

"We have to ask ourselves every year, what is my repentance going to mean this year? What am I repenting for this year, that I did not improve on the year prior?" he said. 

This year, Zarnighian will address Oct. 7. He also feels it's especially important to focus on the attacks from Iran, being Iranian himself. 

The lingering effects of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 is something Zarnighian said his family went through, and he's experiencing the current events on a deeper level. 

"We're going to be addressing those topics and tying them into repentance," Zarnighian said. "What is it that we could do on a personal level, on a religious level and also on a political level?"

That could mean going to volunteer in Israel, which Zarnighian said many of his congregants have done over the past year. 

Zarnighian said encouraging congregants to volunteer in Israel has nothing to do with politics. 

"This same nation of Israel that's under attack now," he said. "Is the same one that the Jewish people have been praying about and have been wishing for well-being and prosperity for since the days of our forefathers."

'What would still matter to Judaism in 10 or 20 years from now?'

Rabbi Abe Friedman of Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel, a conservative congregation located in Center City Philadelphia, said when people express discomfort with politics and shul, he thinks they're actually uncomfortable with partisanship and shul. 

He described the Torah as inherently political, as it presents clear ideas on how a society should be organized. 

As a rabbi, Friedman said it's been vital for him to make the distinction if what he's saying is political or partisan. 

Friedman, who delivers the sermon on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, will speak about God's essential characteristic of seeing and paying attention to the ignored people. 

There's a really clear election message in there, Friedman said, even though the election doesn't come up anywhere in his D'var Torah. 

"What is this election about, if it's not about who we're willing to put in the center of the frame, who we're willing to say is the goal population and who is the tangential population?" he said. 

A question Friedman said he asks himself often, but especially at the High Holidays, is what could he say that would still matter to Judaism in 10 or 20 years from now. 

"The candidates on this year's ballot are not going to be on the ballot in 25 years, and the exact issues that society faces are not going to be the exact issues that society is facing in 25 years," he said. "These human questions of loneliness, connection, relationships and how we make sense of cruelty, tragedy and suffering in the world, those questions aren't going to go away."

What is there for him to say about the election, or October 7, Israel and Palestine, he asked, that is so rooted in Torah and tradition, that the questions and answers will still be worth talking about a generation from now?

Some congregants want their rabbi to tell them how to make sense of the current climate, though Friedman thinks congregants need their rabbi to "teach something that is true and essential about being Jewish, and human, and in that people can begin to make sense of a world that doesn't really make sense."

'You can be a good Jew voting for either party'

The message Rabbi Peter Rigler will convey in his sermons speaks more about the current climate of Judaism in politics. 

Rigler acknowledged the political significance of Delaware County, home to his synagogue Temple Sholom in Broomall. 

Biden and Harris won Delaware County in 2020 by about 87,000 votes. Democrats won the country by about 64,000 votes in 2020. 

While Rigler's focus on politics will be covert, as he'll just allude to candidates, his premise is transparent. 

In one sermon, Rigler will say when it comes to antisemitism and what's happening in Israel, American Jews cannot allow themselves to fall into the trap being set of having to go with one political party or the other as a way of showing their allegiance to Judaism. 

"That binary choice is not necessary," he said. "What I'm stressing is that you can be a good Jew voting for either party. Your love of Israel does not need to drive you towards one party or the other."

Rigler will also spend one of his sermons encouraging his congregants to use the power they have, which is showing up at the polls and voting. 

Temple Shalom is part of a broader voter registration effort in conjunction with Reform congregations across Pennsylvania through the Religious Action Center. 

Rigler added he's really just speaking with messages of hope this year, and finding hope on the other side of the election. 

"I am definitely talking about how we as a people have found hope before, and this is a very dark, difficult moment. I think that's why, perhaps, I'm straying away from some of the larger political things," he said. "I think people are really in pain, and I sense that, and they don't need me to bring up what the pain is. They need to be thinking about where, in our tradition, we can find comfort."

'We certainly can be helpful in solving the problems'

Rabbi David Ostrich of Congregation Brit Shalom in State College is also turning toward tradition. 

Centre County, home of State College and Penn State University, sits at the halfway point between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. 

The Democrats won Centre County by a mere 433 votes in 2016. The margins widened in 2020 with Democrats earning about 4,000 more votes than Republicans. 

Ostrich has always been aware that his congregants have different political philosophies and identify with different political parties, so he said it seems inappropriate for him to try and tell them what to do. 

Ostrich has always chosen to teach about moral positions and the guiding principles of Judaism, like being concerned about the poor. 

"If the Democrats have one attitude about how to help the poor, the Republicans have a different attitude. But what's important is that we remember to help the poor," he explained. 

Ostrich's approach this year has been to comment on certain issues, but not to endorse any candidates. 

His goal since Oct. 7 has been to help his congregants think through and clarify their thoughts on the difficult situations both in Israel and at home. 

From the Bimah these High Holidays, Ostrich will address personal piety, and what he called "expanding the dimensions of responsibility."

"There's certain sections of the Talmud that talk about this, that we are responsible for others," he said. "We may not be responsible for problems, but we certainly can be helpful in solving the problems."

'Never understood strange need to play pundit'

Daniel Yolkut, Rabbi of Congregation Poale Zedeck, an Orthodox synagogue in Pittsburgh, will not be addressing politics from the Bimah, though he knows there are rabbis who talk about politics on the most significant religious days of the year. 

Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, voted for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine in 2016 by almost 108,000 more votes than Trump. Biden and Harris won about 148,000 more votes in 2020 than Trump and Pence. 

"The idea that I would abuse that time for my personal political opinions about things that are debatable, I have really important things to talk about that matter to people's lives on a much more fundamental and real-time level," Yolkut said. "I never understood this strange need to play pundit."

Yolkut will use his sermons to talk about issues of hope and faith, particularly he said when people have invested so much energy this past year praying for Israel and feeling connected on how to counter this sense of desperation. 

Theologically, Yolkut said, that means understanding the idea of the point of prayers and seeing the value in other Jews.

'My sermons will speak comfort to anxieties'

Rabbi Aaron Meyer, another Pittsburgh rabbi who serves the reform synagogue Temple Emanuel, said he's skeptical that there are undecided voters at this point in the election cycle, and he's even more certain his words would not sway voters' opinion. 

"In place of political commentary or airing concerns that are already oversaturating the airwaves here in Allegheny County, my sermons will speak comfort to the anxieties and concerns all Jews feel in America post October 7 and address the need to prioritize frayed relationships over ardently-held but unconvincing personal ideologies," Meyer said over email. 

"Continuing to die upon ideological hills already strewn with the bodies of others who have died in vain only alienates others rather than changing their hearts and minds," he added. 

'Telling people who to vote for is not what we do in a synagogue'

Rabbi Shoshanah Tornberg of Keneseth Israel in Allentown told The Post she's done more work preparing for her sermons this year than any other year. 

In Lehigh County, home of Allentown, Hillary Clinton won about 8,000 more votes than former President Donald Trump in the 2016 election. In the 2020 contest, President Biden and Vice President Harris earned approximately 14,000 more votes than Trump.  

Tornberg is cognizant of her Reform congregation's political diversity, and she's delicately trying to thread the needle between politics and the pulpit. Though she also doesn't want to be the rabbi that just says the safe thing when there's something really important her community needs to hear and talk about.

From the Bimah this Rosh Hashanah, Tornberg will address how the Jewish community is facing several crashes of the narrative that has held together its sense of meaning and its values.

"Regardless of your vote on Nov. 5, that fracturing of our story as Jews, our story as Jews in America and our story as Jews who care about Israel is really upending how we understand ourselves," she said. 

Tornberg feels like it's a rabbi's job on the Days of Awe to give voice to "how we are progressing through human history and through the choices that we make as a community and as a world."

Everyone, no matter the distance in political opinion between the right and the left, feels like the ground underneath them is giving away, she said. 

Tornberg will also talk about the act of protesting or speaking out against injustice as important Jewish values. 

However, telling people who to vote for is not what we do in a synagogue, she said. 

"There's such a richness of challenges and crises that we need to address. Each person's coming with a spiritual package of who they are and what they need," she said. "I'm just trying to bring in people's personal experience into what we as a community, and as humanity, can be doing to push forward this project."

The more accurately Tornberg threads that needle between politics and the pulpit, she said, the more people are going to be able to truly hear her, as it's not just about saying something controversial to rile congregants on purpose.

"It's about trying to get people to understand the core of the spiritual, religious and moral message in language that will touch how they are going to live," Tornberg said. "No matter which direction they come from."