Neoconservative Norman Podhoretz endorses Trump

(JTA) — Norman Podhoretz, a founder of the neoconservative movement, said he backs Donald Trump for president. With his endorsement in an interview last week in the Times of Israel, the former editor of Commentary magazine parts ways with the many neoconservatives who say they cannot support the Republican nominee because of his foreign policy views.

Podhoretz, 86, said that any concerns he had about Trump are outweighed by his trepidation at a Hillary Clinton presidency. He cites especially her role, as secretary of state in President Barack Obama’s first term, in shaping last year’s deal in which Iran rolled back nuclear development in exchange for sanctions relief. “I think the Iran deal is one of the most catastrophic actions that any American president has ever taken,” Podhoretz told the Times of Israel. “That’s how seriously I regard it. It paves the way for Iran to get a nuclear weapon.”

Commentary, a vanguard of neoconservatism when it was edited by Podhoretz from the 1960s through the mid-1990s, has now become a locus of conservative discontent with Trump because of his admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his derision of President George W. Bush for his handling of the war in Iraq and of terrorism.

Podhoretz’s son John Podhoretz, who now edits the magazine, is a prominent figure in the ad hoc #NeverTrump movement.

Norman Podhoretz says his son continues to try to persuade him about Trump’s demerits. “He thinks that Trump is worse, and I think that Hillary is worse,” he said. “He keeps trying to persuade me. He sends me things, articles, showing how bad Trump is. And I keep saying, ‘I know all this. I don’t need to be persuaded.’”

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz endorses Clinton

(JTA) — Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said he is backing Hillary Clinton for president. Schultz, a billionaire Democrat who has mostly donated to Democrats and backed President Barack Obama in his campaigns, said last week that Clinton has the experience needed to be president. “I think it’s obvious Hillary Clinton needs to be the next president,” he said in New York at a conference convened by CNNMoney, the news channel’s financial news website.

The Seattle-based Schultz has written about his hardscrabble Jewish upbringing in New York, and about his transformative encounter in Jerusalem with Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, who headed the Mir Yeshiva. He received an award from Aish Hatorah, a Jewish Orthodox pro-Israel group, in 1998.

Elan Kriegel: Hillary Clinton’s (Jewish) numbers cruncher

By Ron Kampeas

Elan Kriegel sports a Hillary Clinton holiday sweater. Photo credit: Clinton campaign

Politico ran a profile Thursday, Sept. 8 of Elan Kriegel, Hillary Clinton’s analytics person, and portrayed him as something of a hidden hand, a genius lurking behind curtains. Kriegel crunches the numbers over how much the campaign spends on voter outreach, and when and where. He earned his chops on Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, and is among the highest paid staffers at Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters.

The story is almost breathless in describing Kriegel as unknowable and unreachable. “And yet Kriegel remains so unknown, even in this most heavily scrutinized of campaigns, that of the millions of tweets sent about the presidential race, his full name ‘Elan Kriegel’ hasn’t been tweeted once in 2016. (His handle was tagged about a half-dozen times.)”

Unknowable? Not so much. Here are two Jewy things to know about Elan Kriegel:

1) His mom, Sarah, and dad, Rabbi Aaron Kriegel, are beloved at Congregation Beth Ahm in Verona, N.J. “Our Rabbi has a rich history with Beth Ahm where nearly 80 years ago, his father, Alter Kriegel helped to create Beth Ahm and served as its founding Rabbi until 1974,” the local news site MyVeronaNJ (My Verona? Really? Yes.) reported when Aaron Kriegel retired in 2013. Sarah directed Jewish education at the shul.

2) He knows from yichus. He got a huge hug just after the 2012 election from President Barack Obama. His mom got to pose at the White House press room podium in 2014, an honor reserved for the spokesman and occasionally, adorable offspring of, well, reporters. (Guilty!)

CAP: Elan Kriegel sports a Hillary Clinton holiday sweater. Photo credit: Clinton campaign