Feb 20, 2008 11:04 | Updated Feb 20, 2008 19:21 Israeli actress supplies Hebrew for Obama video By JACOB BERKMAN / JTA ISRAELI-BORN actress Maya Rubin can be heard in Hebrew on a Barack Obama YouTube video. Photo: Courtesy

The video features split-screen images of several prominent celebrities, past and present, singing alongside clips of Obama's victory speech in South Carolina.

For those listening closely and with an ear for Hebrew, it's one of the lesser known, albeit just as eye-catching, performers who stands out: Israeli-born actress Maya Rubin.

Twice in the video, Rubin can be heard saying "kein anu yecholim" - Hebrew for "Yes We Can."

The video was released as the Obama campaign was laboring to rebut assertions that he is unfriendly to Israel and an e-mail campaign falsely painting him as a closet Muslim who attended a radical Muslim school, took his oath of office on the Koran and refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Was Rubin's Hebrew cameo part of the campaign's effort to shore up Obama's standing among Jewish voters?

No, director Jesse Dylan told JTA, insisting that he hadn't even known about the smear campaign when he put up $10,000 to cover the costs of the two-day shoot.

"We just thought it would sound nice to have Hebrew," said Dylan, whose father, the Hall of Fame singer Bob Dylan, became a legend with his politically themed music.

"There was no intention on anybody's part," he added. "I am a Jew myself and was unaware of the e-mails, and that was never a thought."

Rubin, whose Hebrew line is now being used on pro-Obama campaign signs, said the video has played well with Jewish people she knows.

"People love it," she says of her appearances in the video. "It was very subtle, which I think is even more cool."

The fledgling actress was born in Jerusalem, served in the Israeli army and moved to the United States in 1998 to pursue her career.

Rubin, 28, starred in the Showtime movie Milk and Honey, has had guest spots on CSI: NY and appeared in several commercials.

She convinced Will.i.am, who has cited Anne Frank as one of his inspirations for the video, and Dylan to use her on the video based on her work on an unreleased Jewish rap album called Chutzpah she cut with some friends.

Speaking of her desire to be in the pro-Obama video, she said, "I believe what he says and think he is an inspiring politician. He's probably one of the most inspiring politicians that I have seen in my lifetime."

Though Rubin, who returns to Israel about once a year, studied political science at Ramat Aviv University in Tel Aviv, she says her knowledge of the other candidates in the presidential election is a little thin and that she is not fully steeped in Obama's policies.

But she trusts him on Israel based on what she has read from information sheets she was given by Obama-ites.

"It sounds like he is aware," she said.

Jews need to understand that Obama has enough ties to Louis Farrakhan, of the Nation of Islam, that Jews should be worried. One of those NOI members is Cynthia K. Miller, who served as Treasurer of his Senate campaign. Another NOI member is Jennifer Mason who currently serves as Obama’s Director of Constituent Services and who oversees the hiring of interns for Obama.

"Sen. Obama attends Trinity Church of Christ in Chicago. His pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., describes himself as a black liberationist who is committed to Africa and an Afro-centrist Christianity. Wright has publicly stated that he was inspired by the works of Dr. James Cone, who wrote Black Power and Black Theology in 1969. Dr. Cone is currently a contributing editor to the Sojourners Journal, a far left publication run by Rev. Jim Wallis.

Dr. Wright has equated Zionism with racism; has compared Israel to South Africa under apartheid; and characterized the terrorist attacks on American soil on 9/11 as the result of violent American policies overseas.

Dr. Wright also has some troubling ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, one of the most rabidly anti-white, anti-Jewish racists in the country.

NewsMax.com recently revealed the close ties between Rev. Wright and Farrakhan. Reporter Ronald Kessler notes that in December 2007, Wright presented Farrakhan with the “Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeter” award. According to Wright: “When Minister Farrakhan speaks, black America listens. His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening. He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest.”

A month before Wright presented his lifetime award to Farrakhan, this is what the Nation of Islam leader said about Black Entertainment Television (BET): “Do you know some of these satanic Jews have taken over BET. Everything that we built, they have. The mind of Satan now is running the record industry, movie industry, and television. And they make us look like we’re the murderers; we look like we’re the gangsters, but we’re punk stuff.”

In 1984, Dr. Wright traveled with Minister Farrakhan to Tripoli to visit with terrorist leader Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Is Dr. Wright woefully ignorant of Nation of Islam theology or does he agrees with Farrakhan’s views on whites, Jews, and racial issues? This is the man who counseled Barack Obama before he decided to run for the U.S. Senate—and a man to whom Sen. Obama has relied on for spiritual advice.

Liberal Washington Post writer Richard Cohen recently criticized Dr. Wright for his connection to Louis Farrakhan. Sen. Obama’s staff quickly issued a statement distancing Obama from racism or anti-Jewish hatred. The senator disinvited Wright from attending his kick-off rally last February, apparently fearing a backlash from Wright’s Afrocentric teachings. "

Please understand where a man goes to worship says more about him than any speech he makes while running for President.

Obama scares me.