These are the last great wedge issues they have to try to keep the Jewish bloc as part of the Democratic Party bloc. We need friends and we need fellow supporters. Many Jews worry that the increasingly political influential Christian right's support of school choice, which would allow parents to draw on state funds to send their children to private schools. This, opponents say, could further weaken the public school system. For his part, Brooks prefers to look at those stances shared by Republican Jews and the Christian right.
People are concerned about being able to walk and be safe on the streets at night.
They are concerned about issues like affirmative action and health care. Brooks acknowledges that Jewish Republican have some gripes with the conservative Christian lobby. The National Jewish Coalition was founded in 1985 by members of the American Jewish community who had supported Ronald Reagan and George Bush in 1980 and 1984. Now several thousand members strong, the NJC this part summer hosted Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson on his first strip to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, members of the Israeli cabinet and other officials. The group has also hosted Haley Barbour and the late Lee Atwater on similar high-level trips during their terms as RNC chairmen.