My father sends me lots of email. None of it is personal. Some of it is funny, some misogynistic (”What’s worse than a male chauvinistic pig? A women who won’t do what she’s told”) and much of it is political. I think I opened that can of worms five years ago when I jokingly sent him a copy of Living History, the boring and unrevealing book by Hillary Clinton, the woman my father adores to abhor. “I would vote for anyone on earth besides her,” he said. It wasn’t much of a threat, since for the last 20 years my father has been a registered Republican living in New York City, which overwhelmingly votes Democrat in everything.

The latest infuriating subject line of his email read: “Best Reason to Make Aliya,” referring to the biblical commandment to move to Israel.The content of the email (which had been sent to hundreds of people in Brooklyn, Long Island and New Jersey before making its way to me in Los Angeles) was simply a picture of a bumper sticker: “Vote Obama.”

“That’s downright racist,” I wrote to him.

“Why is it racist?” he fired back. “If black people can vote for Obama because he’s black, can’t people vote against him because he is?” The logic was faulty but his real reason for not voting Obama was his next line. “Anyway, I think Obama would be the worst possible candidate for the Jews and this country and that’s why I’ll vote for anyone else.”

The reason I “talk” to my father about politics (it quickly degenerates into a cross-country phone shouting match) is that I want to know what the other side is thinking. And if anyone is the other side, it’s him.

I live in Venice, California, probably one of the most liberal enclaves of the country aside from Berkeley. Like most people on the West Side, the majority of my friends are Democrats - liberal to such an extent that they would never even consider voting Republican, not even under the defensive guise of “But my candidate’s a Libertarian.” Yet, unlike most people who live in this bubble, I know lots of people who vote Republican. Proudly. They like George W. Bush. They support the war. They even still believe that the WMDs were there. Yes, those are people like my father: Orthodox Jews.

I know it’s illegal to make bets on the presidential election, but when John Kerry was running against W., I couldn’t resist: Everyone in my bubble here was so certain that Kerry would win, I had to bet against my own interests. You see, I spoke to my friends in Hancock Park, the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood that also encompasses parts of La Brea and Fairfax. I spoke to my friends in Jerusalem, hawks who admired W. and still voted via absentee ballot. And I was in regular touch with people in Long Island, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, who even four years ago were increasingly moving to the right. Although these Jews didn’t come close to swinging the election, I knew that that many of them supported the Republican nominee.

A breakdown of poll numbers supports this: According to a recent Gallup poll, among the 39% of Jews who identified religion as “very important,” there is an even split between McCain and Obama at 45%. For the majority of Jews who say religion is not that important, Obama leads 68% to McCain’s 26%.

What this means for the Democrats - and for Obama in particular - is that he must decide which Jews he wants to win. He already has the unaffiliated Jews - the progressives, the Hollywoodians, the activists. But, as my father’s “move to Israel” bumper sticker email showed, he should forget about the Orthodox vote. Democrats need to focus instead on those people in the middle who are somewhat concerned about security but more preoccupied with the economy. In other words, they should focus on the “swing” voters, and not “the Jewish vote” — which, in the end, isn’t a monolithic vote at all.

–Amy Klein