MIAMI (AFP)---South Florida is home to the largest US Jewish community after New York and with Florida again a potential make-or-break state in the presidential vote, White House hopefuls are wooing local Jews.
More than 600,000 Jews live in south Florida, especially in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach and other nearby cities, according to the 2005 latest regional report by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Palm Beach county.
Nationwide, US Jewish voters traditionally tend to vote for Democrats. But south Florida's Jews have close ties to Republican John McCain and have not flocked to Democrat Barack Obama's side in the same numbers as they did for his defeated rival Hillary Clinton.
"Obama is honest and I hope he wins," said Betty Shapiro of Boca Raton, who has decided to vote Democratic. "Even if he has Muslim relatives, what does it matter? We need Obama to get the economy back on track," she said.
For Hilda Weiner from the same city, it's not such an easy call.
"I don't like either of my choices. Both economy and security are important but I am more concerned with unemployment," Weiner stressed.
A national survey of Jewish voters by Gallup found support for Obama was running at 61 percent against 32 percent for McCain. That is down from an earlier survey when Hillary Clinton was still in the race; she was drawing 66 percent support.
And Obama's support level was 13 percent lower than that for Democrat John Kerry in 2004. Meanwhile, McCain was attracting seven percent more than Bush took in that election.
"In this election more members of the Jewish community will vote Republican than ever before," said Adam Hasner, majority leader in the Florida House of Representatives and Chairman of McCain Jewish Outreach in Florida.
"The Jewish community has a long relationship with McCain, he is prepared to be commander in chief, he has a flawless record with Israel and has the experience of bipartisanship to reach over the aisle and get things done. "McCain's record stands heads and shoulders over Obama's rhetoric," he insisted.
The total Jewish vote's heft is limited, since it is under four percent nationwide. But it still could be a king-maker in swing states with thin margins -- as was the case with Florida in 2000.
In Palm Beach county, on the Atlantic coast, there are some 300,000 Jews, mostly financially well-off retirees originally from northeastern US states.
Analysts say there was some degree of disenchantment with the Obama candidacy, likely influenced, they say, by relations between US blacks and Jews that have not always been easy.
Rumors that Obama, who is a Protestant, is secretly a Muslim and will take the oath of office on the Koran and not the Bible, have been swirling in Internet media where fact-checking is not always a priority.
Democratic state senator David Aronberd said: "Obama has always been pro-Israel. He respects the Jewish community and even chose to hold his town meeting in B'Nai Torah synagogue. He will tell the world that America is back.
"We cannot listen to McCain's ridiculous attacks on Obama insinuating he is a Muslim. We know he is not a Muslim and we are not voting for his relatives we are voting for him," Aronberd said.
And for Dan Gelber, the Democratic minority leader of Florida House of Representatives: "I endorse Barack Obama. As a Jew I am impressed with him. He has a refined sense of social justice and it is clear that not only does he support Israel but he understands Israel.
Obama "has supported everything we support and criticized everything we criticize even before he began to run for president. He is intelligent and scholarly and will be able to handle both economic and national security better than McCain," said Gelber.
Former Air Force pilot Shia Lome, on his way from synagogue in Delray Beach, told AFP that voters' choices were anything but simple.
"I was born a Democrat like most Jews but I changed in 1990. The people who vote for Obama aren't voting for him because they like him. They're voting for him because they hate (President George W.) Bush," Lome said.
