Staff Writer

Ruth Greenspan Bell had tired of the e-mails spreading false rumors about Barack Obama's religion and questioning his support of Israel. So the District woman sat down and responded.

She wrote an open letter to the Jewish community, had some friends and fellow Obama supporters give feedback, and then they all e-mailed it to a bunch of their friends and family. Out on the West Coast, someone volunteered to set up a Web site where the letter could be posted.

The result is JewsforObama.net, a Web site that has garnered close to 700 signatures and comments agreeing with the letter and more than 11,000 hits since going online about two months ago.

"It's been a really lovely experience," said Bell, an expert on climate change policy.

She had been distressed seeing so many people simply forward along e-mails without trying to find out if there's any truth to them.

"I would hope people would do a little research ... and try to understand ... what they're being told," she said.

Miriam Sapiro, 47, of the District, a friend of Bell's and fellow co-founder of the site who does international consulting on Internet policy, said that "through the Web site, through outreach, I think we've helped set the record straight."

The site's centerpiece is the original letter, "We are Jewish! We support Barack Obama! You can too!" It states that its writers "represent the breadth of the American Jewish community" and are "interested in setting the record straight."

It then notes that Jewish community leaders have spoken out against some of the false allegations and offers quotes from Obama and others to demonstrate his pro-Israel bona fides.

"Upon careful examination of Barack Obama's record, we believe he has the policy instincts, judgment, wisdom, and passion that we need in our next President of the United States," reads the missive. "We hope that American Jews everywhere will join in our support for Senator Obama."

Bell and the other founders note that the site is not designed as a place to debate the merits of the presidential candidates, but a community for Obama supporters. (A link to filmmaker Michael Moore's endorsement of Obama appeared on the site last week, but had disappeared by Tuesday, a day after the WJW asked Bell about Moore's past criticism of Israel. Bell said that "on reflection, we decided that the Michael Moore link went beyond 'our issues' to issues we are not directly addressing. It didn't seem to make sense to have it up on our site.")

There's even an e-mail exchange posted between an Obama supporter troubled by the sermons of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and site co-founder Tara Sonenshine of Chevy Chase.

Sonenshine tells the woman that "Yes, his sermons are filled with venom and faulty logic. But Pastor Wright is not running for President. Barack is," and the candidate's March speech showed he could "heal some of the wounds from the Pastor's words."

"It's retail politics at the grassroots level," said Sonenshine. She said that the site has received e-mail "from Peoria to Prague" and offers the opportunity for a really large game of "Jewish geography."

Co-founder Barbara Green, a District resident who's been volunteering for campaigns since the first Adlai Stevenson run for the presidency in 1952, said the group also wants to demonstrate that "the Jewish community is not monolithic" and to combat the inaccurate portrayal in some media that much of the Jewish community is opposed to Obama.

Sonenshine, a strategic adviser on communications who also has worked as a producer for ABC's Nightline and at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, said that a couple of other groups around the country are starting to form with similar models.

The site is a fairly decentralized operation. The Washington-area founders who moderate the comments on the site have never met the West Coasters also involved in the group, and even the D.C. folks have been together in a room only once since the site's formation in late February, mostly communicating through e-mail.

While a number of those involved with the site are Obama campaign volunteers, they stress that the site is independent and not affiliated with the campaign -- although they have received positive feedback on it from campaign officials.

One local founder isn't Jewish. Paula Durbin of Chevy Chase, a friend of Bell's and an Obama supporter, got involved when the group needed some more help.

"I said, 'As long as you don't mind an Episcopalian moderating the site,' " she quipped. She likes the "positive energy" she feels from the commenters on the site, and said the only problem that's arisen is when people include Hebrew or Yiddish words in their messages. She'll always ask one of the others to check it out, although she said it's often just a translation of the Obama slogan, "Yes We Can."

Obama has come under criticism from some in the Jewish community for his positions on some Middle East issues, such as his willingness to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his desire for a stepped-up effort to negotiate a Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.

Bell believes that the lack of "energy" in the peace process during the Bush administration has not been good for Israel, and that "the only real protection for Israel is to establish a peace. ... Building walls doesn't do it."

As for Wright, who injected himself into the campaign again this week and whose praise for Nation of Islam founder Louis Farrakhan has made some Jews nervous, Bell said she hoped voters would "listen to Obama himself" to find out what the candidate believes.

Green said she tells those with questions about Obama about some Jewish friends in Chicago who have actively supported his campaigns and wouldn't back someone who was not a friend of Israel or was a "closet Muslim."

"There's no substitute for being willing and available to engage in one-on-one conversations," said Sonenshine. "It's really gratifying to use this medium to connect with people."