Arutz Sheva spoke to Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America. Fingerhut expressed his hope that American Jews would engage in productive dialogue out of a desire to come to mutual understanding rather than change each others' opinions.
"We need to really understand where each side is coming from so that we can find common ground on the things that matter," he pointed out.
Pressed on whether these elections were a census on which candidate was better for Israel and the Jewish people, Fingerhut offered some historical insight, referencing President Trump's tendency of "being bombastic and exaggerating." He seemed to walk back the attack on Trump's character, naming some of the President's accomplishments on behalf of Israel, such as moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, helping the settlement movement, the Abraham Accords, and withdrawing from the Iran Deal.
Fingerhut acknowledged that Trump's support for Israel needed to "engender debate" in light of his seeming implication of the President's shortcomings when it came to "domestic concerns" on issues such as the COVID-19 crisis.
Asked what changes the Jewish community would need to undertake on "the day after," Fingerhut called for "respect and civility for those who disagree with us."
"This is an [important] Jewish value," he stressed, alluding to respectful differences of opinion between the rabbis of the Talmud with those who prevailed doing so "because they treated the other side with dignity and respect."
"We've never been uniform, but we must be unified," he concluded.