State Democratic Caucuses Attempt to Resolve

Observant Jewish Participant Issue

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

The timing of last Saturday's State Democratic Caucuses presented a major snafu for democracy as

far as the participation of observant Jews was concerned. And it's nothing new.

“Obviously,” says Newton Democratic Committee Chair Martina Jackson, “the big conundrum is always

that if you have the caucuses on Sunday there is a problem for Christians, and if it’s on Saturday

it’s a problem for Jews. The difficulty with having the caucuses during the week is that people

have felt that that too precludes a certain amount of people from attending.

“I gather that in the past, they decided Saturday afternoon would bring the maximum participation.

Since I first came to Newton 26 years ago, given the large Jewish population, I’ve had the

caucuses at schools that aren’t far from synagogues.” Jackson, who is Jewish herself, chose the

Mason Rice Elementary School in Newton Centre, near Temple Emanuel, the Bethel-Atereth Israel and

B’nai Jacob-Zvhil-Mezbuz Beis Medrash.

“I chose a school near where I’ve seen many Jews walking on Saturdays. Because we have an

unusually large number of participants, some people would have felt more comfortable at a larger

venue such as either high school. There is always a trade off.

“We also found non-Jewish scribes to write for people. To the extent that people wanted to

participate, we tried to make it possible.”

In the future, she says, she will “explore the possibility of perhaps doing it on a Sunday

afternoon. The State Committee has always permitted the waiver process, which is that if for some

reason a community finds it a burden to have the caucus – we actually had a window of Feb. 2 to

Feb. 10. Sunday was the Superbowl, and Saturday the 9th would have put us in the same situation.

“I will discuss with the Newton clergy when and what might be acceptable. My sense is that if we

did it at 2:00 on a Sunday afternoon, we would probably be in business then after most people have

come home from church.”

This waiver window might thus present a viable possibility in towns with heavy Jewish populations,

pending of course the feelings of non Jewish leaders.

And in one community, this happened. Bolton’s Democratic caucus occurred on 2:30 p.m. on Sunday,

Feb. 3, specifically in order to avoid interference with Shabbat observance. “Bolton does not have

an active town committee,” says Delegate Etta Lappen Davis. “In mid-January I inquired about how

to have a caucus in a town without an active Democratic Committee. The state committee staff told

me that any ten Democrats could call a caucus. I wrote a petition (with the language supplied by

the staff) and stood at the transfer station until I had ten signatures.

“Since I initiated the process and offered my home for the caucus, I selected the date. As a

practicing Jew who goes to Shul every Shabbat morning, I selected Sunday afternoon rather than the

usual Saturday time.”

Although Lappen Davis can’t say that any practicing Jews took advantage of her arrangements, at

least the opportunity was there.

“Five people attended the caucus,” she says. “I do not know their religious affiliations. I doubt

that there are any strictly observant Jews living in Bolton. I did not get any feedback about the

date or time of the caucus.”

Brookline’s caucus was held at the Devotion School on Saturday.

“We did have an observant Jew run,” reports Brookline Democratic Committee Chair Cindy Rowe. “We

made accommodations for him; we made sure that there was somebody who would write for him. He

seemed satisfied with the arrangements, he was able to do everything that he needed to do in order

to run.

“We also read a letter,” she continues, “saying that if anybody was in that situation that we

would make accommmodations; we had people ready to help them.”

What of the State Caucus dates of May 31 and June 1, a Friday night and Saturday? “I imagine that

anyone who runs for delegates or alternates would be aware of the date,” she replies. “They

wouldn’t run if they were not comfortable attending events then. Obviously each individual has to

judge their own comfort level.”

Might the voting occur after sundown on June 1 anyway?

“It is usually over by sundown,” Rowe, who is Jewish, says. “But, this is going to be a highly

contested convention. I don’t know how many votes it will take before we will know who will be on

the Democratic primary ballot.”

“It was pretty simple,” says Sharon Democratic Committee Chair Marguerite Murphy Solomon. “I had

discussions with the people at the Democratic State Committee; the feedback I got from them was

that, of course, where this is an open democratic process, everyone was welcome. What we did in

Sharon was provide two types of ballots; one was a folded ballot and one was a regular, write-in

one. We also had people ready to write for them if they chose that option.

“My husband is Jewish,” she says. “Being in an interfaith marriage, I have a heightened

sensitivity on interreligious matters. I tried to make each individual as comfortable as possible.

We also hope to open a dialogue in the future.

Murphy Solomon says she saw yarmulkes there, and though no one utilized the services of the

alternate writers, there were individuals who opted for the folded option. “Because of my

instructions from the State Committee to make it as participatory as possible for people who had

religious restrictions on that day,” she says, “just we would for people who had disabilities any

other type of restrictions, we made every effort to accommodate all participants.”

“As soon as we found out that the Democratic caucuses and some of the Republican caucuses were

scheduled to occur on Shabbat,” says Nancy K. Kaufman, Executive Director of the Jewish Community

Relations Council of Greater Boston, we sent out an Action Alert, explaining how to ask the local

Democratic and Republican town chairs to re-schedule the caucus date. Unfortunately, by then it

was too late for the Democratic and Republican state parties to do anything about it on a

statewide basis.

“Both parties need to realize that holding caucuses on Shabbat effectively disenfranchises many

Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews from participating in the political

process,” she continues. “The separation of church and state does not prevent the Democratic and

Republican parties from fixing the problem. This is simply a matter of basic understanding and

fundamental respect for the members of the Jewish community throughout Massachusetts.

“Unless the parties do something about this, many Jews of all denominations will continue to be

unable to participate in the polical process on an equal footing with members of other faiths.

“We hope that both parties realize that holding caucuses and state conventions on Shabbat is a

serious problem, and that they fix it once and for all."

Brad Kramer, Director of Government Affairs for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater

Boston and for the Massachusetts Association of Jewish Federations, adds: “We will be working with

both the Democratic and Republican state parties to make sure that this does not happen again, and

that future state conventions are not scheduled on Shabbat either. In the meantime, we are

compiling a list of registered Democrats and Republicans who, due to caucuses falling on Shabbat,

were unable to participate in their respective local caucuses or who participated reluctantly.”

In Brookline, there were three slates running against each other - one supported Steve Grossman,

one Tom Birmingham and one three candidates, Shannon O’Brien, Warren Tolman, and Robert Reich. The

combined, or unity, slate was the one that won. Combined slate? “There is no limit to slates,”

says Rowe. “People can run as individuals or in combination with other candidates.

“In this case, 44 people got together and decided to combine. Some ran individually, some

uncommitted, etc., so you don’t know who they might necessarily support. Now, candidates will

likely be courting them.”

Also, she says, even though 22 people supported the slate for Steve Grossman, each had to be

nominated individually.

In Newton, Steve Grossman appears to have won Wards 7 and 8, and Robert Reich seems to have done

very well in the other wards, 1-6.

No unity slate as in Brookline was proposed.

In Sharon, 13 total and 6 alternates were chosen. Of these, five were for Grossman, five were

potential O’Brien supporters, one was for Tolman, and two were Reich delegates.

“I must tell you, it was somewhat chaotic,” says Murphy Solomon, “and I don’t know anything with

certainty. We had delegates speak who did not clearly state who they were for.”

“The delegates,” explains Rowe, “represent three quarters of the delegates who will be at the

state conventions. These are ‘elected’ delegates. You get another 1400 or so who are ‘appointed’,

or ‘ex officio’, delegates – i.e. all state representatives and all state senators, all city and

town Democratic Committee Chairs - there are lots of categories. There are add-on delegates as

well.”

In an attempt to diversify the delegate body, she says, further choices will be made. “The party,

after they see who is elected, will try to balance out any gaps, for instance, appoint people who

are 35 or under, who have disabilities, are minorities, and so forth.”

Individual activists on behalf of the gubernatorial candidates are the ones who design these

slates, she says. “They hand out literature. They have no official role at the caucus; anybody can

be nominated to be delegates to the state convention.”

(Registered Democrats and Republicans who, due to caucuses falling on Shabbat, were unable to

participate in their local caucuses or who participated reluctantly, are urged to contact Brad

Kramer, Director of Government Affairs for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater

Boston and for the Massachusetts Association of Jewish Federations, at

bkramer@jcrcboston.org or at 617-457-8658.)