Rabbi Menachem Genack on Hillary Clinton - Oorahthon 2016

now joining us on the photos of menachem connect he's a Rove of congregation Sharma Munna and CEO of the oh you and has been named one of the 50 most influential Jewish people in the United States according to the Jewish daily forward rabba connectors is executive could on the executive committee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and he is a close friend with the Clintons Ralegan ack are you on yeah good luck I've connect thank you there i began ack is not here in his position he's here as an individual and here at aura we are not we're interviewing people we're going to talk a little bit about the different presidential candidates really just focusing on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump but no one is endorsing anybody from an official capacity or certainly is not endorsing this is just to kind of hear some different perspectives talk about a little open our minds and you know maybe take some calls to hear what is on people's minds regarding this important election which is facing the country and and the Jewish people but not here to endorse any campus okay rabba connect yeah you you are a close friend of the Clintons and just a question how did you form that the relationship and tell us a little bit about the Clintons as we know Hillary Clinton is running for president you have a insider view that most of us don't have and we'd like to just give us a little you know personal interaction that you've had with them and how this relationship came to fruition well the relationship really began initially when bill clinton then was then governor clinton was running for for the president for the democratic nomination and i was at an event and I introduced him in it at the time I said if you were called George Bush first there's an article in Time magazine sort of criticized him but his lack of vision and he's responding all that vision thing again and playing on that I wanna introduce president then governor Clinton I said that the Bible tells us in micholi that there is no vision the people perish and the vision is an essential ingredient of of leadership and he he tell me you know he liked their comment that he Mele remarks and he was he was then he had just at that time clinch the nomination was clearly he's gonna get the nomination and he said you know I'm going to use that in my acceptance speech at the convention and and he did and it big feel call playback you'll see with the used it as a torical pivot for the speech coming back to it became for this for the first part of the campaign they saw the slogan of the campaign with a business division of people perish and from that we became friends he was invite me off into the White House and we began a correspondence about ten asked about the Bible no bill conscience of Southern Baptist but it's extremely familiar with the Bible and we had this correspondence I got other people to write as well and often we had published it as a book and letter to President Clinton and published both his letters and response and he wrote the foreword to the book oh wow that's amazing did you actually believe that he would say it at the at his speech what you thought he won't we first told me it wasn't sure whether it was joshin but then he sent me tickets to the convention and any and I was happy to hear it so you're a seasoned veteran in these matters could you have predicted that this whole new political will one that's going on and could could could could you give us a little bit of your understanding of just the there's an earthquake I'm out there of what's going on and and did you see this coming I think it was extraordinarily unpredictable one would have thought I'm both on the Republican and the Democratic side you know that Sanders would have been still in the race and that he represented a movement in a force I think was astonishing and they must aid I think a very unfortunate negative development especially for Israel and and also the advent of Trump think when I heard his speech initially his introduction I thought he was going nowhere and the Republican said I thought a very deep bench between Jeb Bush and Rubio and you know Cruz cases those are all serious candidates and that Trump would have ended up with the nomination I think was unpredictable but the boot between the two common denominators a sense of of anger concern especially amongst young people dislocation in the economy and in the sense that people are you know young people concerned about the jobs they can get so that anger sort of bubbled up both in the public and Democratic side to you know to in terms of these two candidacies both Sanders and Trump so my question is on the and i'm going to ask this to everyone who comes up on the show tonight of that on the political angle is our Jewish political establishment meaning the people like yourself and others who are in this field you know most a guy like me or others were just armchair quarterbacks we don't necessarily understand you know all the implications but but it is our political Jewish establishment missing what the establishment of the Republican and the Democratic Party's missed and if we are are we are we going to sort of speak pivot and move and try to get the feeling of what's going on because ultimately this anger or feeling has to infiltrate so to speak our circles as well well I would say this that I think there's a reason I think speaking about the pro-israel community I think this reason on both parties for a real concern in this respect we know that within studies some of the republican party at least its constituency tried to this were pretty solidly for Israel there was strong stronger lotion within the Democratic Party we saw hey hey siren to it in terms of the last convention when when the Jerusalem Clank was booed though it was booed actually not by delegates but other people were present but was still a warning sign and and so that's a real concern Sanders has picked that up you know it's terribly ironic that the only candidate running for president the beginning of this you know primary season who is anti israel is at you but that's something that we have to be concerned about because we can't afford that his will become a partisan issue it has to be bipartisan support from both sides and we have to be careful you know to try to develop those relationships and both sides of the aisle support of Israel but I hasten to add even under Republican side these few studies have shown they know the one of the core areas of support the anchors of support within the Republican Party have been evangelicals back to Jerry Falwell and before and and studies have shown that they're chilled the next generation not committed to the same ideological both and social issues and other and other political issues as the as their parents and and within that community also there could be a shift in terms of support for Israel and that's and you seen less being bad easier now but that evangelicals are loaded for you know for Donald Trump who you know on his face is that wouldn't be the poster child for evangelical candidate of the support of him shows this kind of his shift as I said it's rooted in this kind of concern and anger and could you know the question of the middle class all of those things but it has implications for Israel as well we have to be sent it to it and build relationships in lots of different communities especially in emerging Hispanic community which continues to grow and it amongst young people so it's something that we have to be sensitive to Y so Malaysian rare sure you know it's reassuring to us that we have somebody of your Torah caliber that is out there to be able to make a kiddush changsha maíam in this arena may you be zaika to continue to do so and represent us properly