According to the Times, Moore and "his Great Schlep co-creator, Ari Wallach, 33, arrived in Boca Raton on Friday…they focused on places like nearby Wynmoor Village, a mostly Jewish retirement community in Coconut Creek. On Saturday, Mr. Moore said they found 10 to 20 people around the pool. Some were undecided, but most were avid Obama supporters, including a darkly tanned older man with a nipple ring and a large Jewish star around his neck. Mr. Moore said he was encouraged but not surprised. 'A large percentage of nipple-ring people are in Obama’s camp.'"

The Venn diagram of nipple ring wearers and senior citizens is pretty small, and a lot of the folks interviewed by the New York Times and several British papers are still not enthused about the Democratic senator from Illinois. "I switched to the Republicans after 9/11. I'm a Jew. Security is important because we've had 2,000 years of insecurity," Robert Aschheim, a lawyer, tells the Times of London. "My kid is pretty liberal — but what the hell, he's 24 years old. I'm trying to change him.”

However, both the Guardian and the Times of London have found anecdotal evidence of Jews who were successful in convincing their grandparents to vote Democratic on November 4. Jonathan Packman made the trek down to Fort Lauderdale to convince his 91-year-old grandparents, Bertha and Julius, to vote for Obama, and his travel paid off. “Jonathan, he's been using all the tactics on us but he doesn't have to try too hard. We've moved down from New York to live the life a little and I really don't like Republicans," Bertha tells the Times of London. “I just want to say how nice it's been to have our family visit us.” Awww!

Laugh at a Campaign Pitch? Sure. Visit the Grandparents? Not So Much. [NY Times]

Related: Young Make 'Great Schlep' To Persuade A Skeptical To Vote Obama [Guardian]
'The Great Schlep' May Seal The Presidency Deal For Barack Obama [Times of London]

Earlier: Waterboarding Apologist Says Sarah Silverman Is "Not A Jew"

Let's start at the top. In the New York Times article, Sarah Silverman says, “I have no religion. But culturally I can’t escape it. I’m very Jewish.” Reading this, Charen twists Silverman's words around, writing, "Though she comes from a Jewish background and can pronounce a few Yiddish words, she is not a Jew." Actually, Mona, it's not really for you to say whether or not Sarah is a Jew. There is disagreement within the Jewish faith about what constitutes Jewishness. Some say you are Jewish if you are born to a Jewish mother and father, period, end of sentence. It doesn't matter if you do not practice, you're still a Jew (maybe you should ask the Nazis about that one)!

Which brings me to my second point, which is that Charen claims that many Jews replace actual religiousness with secular liberal beliefs, which is just patently false. Charen writes, "For at least a century, large numbers of nominally Jewish Americans have demonstrated far more attachment to liberal politics than to actual Judaism. They declare that Judaism demands social justice, equality, gun control, liberal abortion laws, and an increase in the capital-gains tax and they adhere to these tenets, well, religiously." However, she doesn't give a single example of Jews who do this, beyond Sarah Silverman, and this is a willful misinterpretation of "The Great Schlep." Silverman doesn't say Judaism demands a damn thing; plus, it's a little more than convenient that Charen both dismisses "The Great Schlep" as "a little romp" but then also uses it as the basis for an entire theory about liberals.

Charen is just flat out wrong in some places. "Abortion, for example, is traditionally forbidden except to save the life of the mother," Charen writes, but that's a vast over-simplification of a rather complicated issue. As Slate points out, "The term 'threat to the mother' is more of a guideline than a strict principle and may be interpreted so broadly, even by respected Orthodox rabbis, that it includes situations in which the mother's life would not appear—to the non-rabbinic eye—to be at risk." In addition, Slate notes, "Jewish law also comprises dozens of commentaries on the Talmud and thousands of individual rabbinic responses, their opinions expanding on or refuting previous opinions." Finally, the one thing Judaism does explicitly define is that a fetus is not a person until after it is born. So saying abortion is "forbidden" is actually untrue and a misrepresentation of the Jewish attitude towards law, which is to say — almost everything is open for debate.

None of this should come as a surprise, however. Charen is waterboarding apologist who also claims, "Islam is problematic. While we would love to think that Islam is as pacific as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism or Hinduism, the facts suggest otherwise." But the fact that she chooses arguably the holiest day on the Jewish calendar to denigrate other Jews who don't fit her narrow definition of Jewishness is in remarkably poor taste.

Hating the New York Times, Part 573 [National Review]
Message to Your Grandma: Vote Obama [NY Times]
What Do Orthodox Jews Think About Abortion and Why? [Slate]
Taking The Easy Way Out On Torture [Jewish World Review]
In Praise Of Discrimination[Jewish World Review]