By JTA
John McCain appealed to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement to support his presidential run.
Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, made the appeal in a conference call Wednesday with 40 of the movement’s rabbis.
“I believe this is going to be a tough race,” he says in the report and recording posted on Shmais.com, which reports on news and activities within the Chabad-Lubavitch community worldwide.
“We have for the first time gone ahead in the polls. But I think we are the underdog. We’ve got a lot of work to do. I’d be grateful for your support; it would mean a great deal to me.”
Chabad-Lubavitch is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization and is forbidden from endorsing candidates, a status that the Shmais report stressed.
The McCain campaign initiated the call.
McCain also pledged never to “allow another Holocaust” and to keep Israel “secure and peaceful and prosperous.”
