What Sarah Silverman Would Do for Obama

Sarah Silverman Image by getty images

Josh Nathan-Kazis July 16, 2012

Sarah Silverman has an “indecent proposal” for Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

If Adelson will switch his allegiance to Barack Obama from Mitt Romney, Silverman will… well, we don’t want to give away the punch line.

Why don’t you just watch the video? Unless you’re at work, that is, or there are kids around.

The video is a follow-up to Silverman’s pro-Obama 2008 video, part of an effort to send young Jews to campaign in Florida called The Great Schlep.

This year’s video is a bit racier. It’s also a bit more politically provocative. Last week, the National Jewish Democratic Council bailed on a campaign targeting Adelson’s support for Romney in the face of heavy opposition from major Jewish establishment figures.

The NJDC campaign hit Adelson over unsubstantiated allegations by a former Adelson employee that he had condoned prostitution at his casinos on the Chinese island of Macau.

The new Silverman video’s critique of Adelson is less specific.

“If you give that $100 million to Obama instead of Romney, I will…” Silverman begins. We’d better leave it there. The video points to a website that includes a petition calling on Romney to turn down further donations from Adelson.

“Adelson is the same man who stopped backing AIPAC for supporting aid to the Palestinians, freely mocked Obama at a Birthright event, and who Republican Senator John McCain suggests is bringing foreign money into American elections,” the petition reads.

The video is a project of Schlep Labs, a Jewish pro-Obama advocacy effort that’s a continuation of 2008’s The Great Schlep. The operation is funded by the Jewish Council for Education and Research, a super PAC.

George Soros’s son Alex Soros gave the super PAC $200,000 earlier this year. According to a July filing, the group has spent $104,000 so far in 2012 and has $200,000 on hand.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO