Romney Talks Economy and Iran in Call to Rabbis

Mitt Romney Image by Getty images
Mitt Romney discussed Iran, the economy and Medicare in a holiday call with rabbis and other Jewish leaders.

Mitt Romney Image by Getty images
The 20-minute call Thursday was organized by the Republican candidate’s presidential campaign.
Word went out through a number of Jewish list-serves and Romney did not directly mention President Obama in order not to compromise the nonprofit status of the rabbinical umbrellas that spread news of the call, which reached about 3,000 people.
In the call, moderated by Tevi Troy, a top Jewish adviser to the candidate, Romney outlined his five point plan for reviving the economy, which includes energy independence, tax reductions, enhancing education, reducing the deficit and improving trade relations with other countries.
He also reiterated his concerns about Iran, saying its suspected nuclear weapons program posed the greatest foreign threat to the United States, and that he would prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability – a distinction from Obama’s policy, which is toprevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“Jews are like other Americans,” Troy told JTA after the call. “Israel is important, but not the only issue.”
Romney fielded two questions, about Iran and about Medicare.
Responding to the Medicare question, he said his plan would not affect Americans 55 and over, and would offer greater choices to those under that age.
Romney wished the callers a sweet New Year.
Obama had a New Year’s call last week with 1,200 rabbis from all streams.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Will the next pope be good for the Jews?
-
Yiddish איבערזעצערין קאַרעד אָברײַען שרײַבט בוך וועגן די שטערן סימאָר רעכטצײַט און מרים קרעסיןTranslator Caraid O’Brien writing book on Yiddish stars Seymour Rechtseit and Miriam Kressyn
זי שטעלט אויך צונויף אַ פּאָדקאַסט מיטן בראָדװײ־אַקטיאָר האַל ראָבינסאָן אין דער ראָלע פֿון רעכטצײַט.
-
BINTEL BRIEF How do you deal with invitations from someone whose behavior drives you nuts?
-
Fast Forward An Israeli think tank used AI to analyze 4,400 American synagogue sermons. Here’s what it found.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.