The Great Schlep was thought up by Jews Vote, a Jewish advocacy group, and is aimed towards familiarizing Jewish senior citizens with Barack Obama. To drum up support, they created a web site where donations are accepted and “schlep” paraphernalia is available for sale, and they even created a face book group. The advocacy group also solicited the support of Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman who made a short video calling for Jewish grandchildren to “schlep” to Florida and talk to them about Barack Obama.
In the video, Silverman points to similarities between blacks and Jewish grandparents in a humorous, foul way. She cites their shared preferences for track suits, Cadillac’s and “bling”, and tells Jewish grandchildren that they are the most influential people in their grandparents lives and that if they threatened to withhold from contact with their grandparents, they would be forced to listen. Even though the similarities brought up by the video aren’t substantive, it serves its purpose by exciting young Jews to bridge the generational gap and talk to their grandparents about racial and religious tolerance.
The Great Schlep was needed because many Jewish grandparents are uncomfortable with the idea of voting for a black man who is rumored to be a Muslim. Many of these senior citizens unknowingly agree with Obama’s policies, including his plans for economic reform, healthcare, and social security. Obama should have been an easy sell, but their racial concerns were outweighing their political beliefs. Many of them simply couldn’t look past the color of Obama’s skin and his rumored link to Islam didn’t help considering their affinity for Israel. The Great Schlep stirred up excitement and provided accessible information about Obama, which could lead Jewish grandparents to look past their racial and religious concerns.
In the past month, Obama’s support among the Jewish population of Florida has risen within striking distance of the three previous Democratic presidential candidates. In a Gallop tracking pole conducted over the first 3 weeks of October, Obama was found to be leading the Jewish vote by a margin of 74% to John McCain’s 22%. His support is up 5% from September, 8% from August, and 15% from July. His steady gains in the polls have coincided the media frenzy surrounding the Great Schlep and the increased exposure certainly hasn’t hurt his cause.
Considering only a hundred Schleppers traveled to Florida for the event on Columbus Day weekend, there must be other factors in Obama’s recent reversal of fortune. For starters, the economic crisis has become the most salient issue in this election and has shifted the focus of many voters. This has especially helped Obama in the sense that voters who might have been hesitant to support him because of racial fears now feel compelled to because of their pocketbooks. Also, as Jewish voters, and the elderly in particular, have become more familiar with Obama, they have substituted questions of his inexperience for those of Sarah Palin’s inexperience and her almost fanatical conservative views on some social issues like abortion. Whether the great Schlep had anything to do with it or not, the Jewish elderly have begun to look past their racial doubts to see the similar policy views they share with Barack Obama.
At the very least, the Great Schlep has raised awareness and increased excitement for Obama’s campaign in Florida. His rise in the polls may have occurred independently of it, but the great Schlep has proved to be an exciting way to involve voters with the electoral process.
For Further Reading:
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/2008102420081024galluppoll.html
http://www.thegreatschlep.com/site/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/great.schlep/index.html
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