Richard Melson

October 2004

KERRY AND JEWISH OUTREACH

Dear Jewish Community Leaders,

Many of you know me from my days as President Clinton's liaison to the Jewish community. After leaving my position as Special Assistant to the President at the White House, I lived and worked in Israel for four years. I returned recently to take up the post as Senior Advisor for Middle East and Jewish Affairs for the Kerry campaign. In the coming days, you will also be getting to know my Deputy, Avi M. Spiegel. Avi just finished graduate school, completing his law degree at NYU and a master's degree in theology from Harvard. Avi and I first worked together at the White House where he assisted in our Jewish outreach efforts.

I have already been in touch with many of you throughout the past weeks and months, and I hope to continue to stay in close touch with all of you throughout the course of this campaign. This promises to be a long and exciting campaign season, and Senator Kerry needs your help. John Kerry’s record on Israel is second to none, and is committed to the important domestic issues that have always reflected the best values of our community. Together, we will fight to ensure that he receives the overwhelming support from our community that he so deserves.

Every Friday from now until November 2, we will be sending you important information relating to John Kerry and the Jewish community. We will update you on developments in Washington and send along statements and speeches by Senator Kerry, talking points, breaking news, and interesting news clips from the week. This week, we have attached a document entitled "John Kerry: Strengthening Israel's Security and Bolstering the US-Israel Special Relationship." We ask you that you forward these emails widely throughout your communities---to friends and neighbors, to synagogues, federations, youth groups, sisterhood and brotherhood groups, study groups, to your personal and professional networks. This list is always growing, and we would appreciate if you could forward this email to anyone whom you believe should be added to our weekly updates. Please ask them to email us and request that they be added to our listserve.

I cannot overstate the important role that you will be playing in this campaign. You are our eyes and ears on the front lines. You will play a critical role in alerting us to issues and concerns on the horizon in your communities. We try our best to keep track of national media, but we hope that you will be able to help us monitor local Jewish newspapers, radio and events. Please forward anything that you think the campaign should see (both the good and the bad) and anything you think that we should be responding to. There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding the Senator's record on Israel, and we know that many of you have voiced frustration about the lack of resources available to combat these attacks. We aim to rectify this immediately. Your assistance on the ground will help us formulate an effective rapid response operation to respond quickly and effectively to negative attacks against the Senator.

We are also in the process of building national and State Jewish leadership teams comprised of prominent national and local leaders in our communities. We hope that all of these groups will eventually act as surrogates for the campaign and speak out at local events and debates. We will keep you posted as our leadership teams develop.

We have already had our first organized meeting with the Massachusetts Leadership Team. Since they have known Senator Kerry the longest, they are in a unique position to articulate the Senator's longstanding personal support for Israel and his record on issues of concern to American Jews. They will be invaluable resources for us all.

Thank you all again for your continued support and optimism. Your help in this campaign will be instrumental, and I very much look forward to working with all of you.

Shabbat Shalom,

Jay

Jay K. Footlik
Senior Advisor on Middle East and Jewish Affairs
John Kerry for President
202.712.3000 (O)