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'This is tikkun olam,' Bill Clinton tells Jews in Pembroke Pines about election

@PatriciaMazzei

To wrap up his three-stop Sunday in South Florida, former President Bill Clinton invoked a Jewish idea about doing good in the world through acts of kindness when he spoke in the early afternoon to the Century Pines Jewish Center.

"This is about tikkun olam," Clinton said at the Century Village at Pembroke Pines. "We have bridges in our country. We have to repair them."

The presidential election, he said, "is a fundamental test of the character of America and the inclusive future of our country."

Clinton noted he's twice been to Israel in the past year, including to speak at former Israeli President Shimon Peres' memorial service. "We had a wonderful friendship," he said. "I said that he was forever young and then, lo and behold, Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature! And many people quoted his song "Forever Young" -- "always climbing every rung."

"Why am I telling you this?" he continued. "Because America is now the longest-lasting free democracy in human history, and it's because we were given this mission by the founders to form a more perfect union -- which is an eternal mission. Our job is to do better."

Clinton, who wore a black kippah and joked as it slipped backward that he's always struggled to keep them on, was introduced and met by a coterie of Broward County politicians. U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch of Boca Raton didn't mention Donald Trump by name but poked him anyway: "He's not running a particularly mensch-like campaign."

Earlier Sunday, Clinton visited black churches in Miami Gardens and near Opa-locka, all to remind Democratic voters to vast their ballots early once in-person polls open Monday.

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