The Future Of Jewish Politics in America

By Shlomoh Sherman
Friday, February 9, 2012

A week ago, after Shabbat services, a man came up to me and engaged me in conversation. I don't remember how the conversation drifted to politics but the man asked me, "Why do Jews vote against their own economic self-interest"? I said that I didn't know what he was talking about because the ONLY people in America I know who vote against their own economic self-interest are trailer-park evangelicals. Of course I knew what he meant and he made it even more clear by bringing out the old saw, "Jews
in America live like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.

Hmmm. I must say that neither I nor any Jew in my family nor any Jew who is a close friend of mine lives like an Episcopalian, if by Episcopalian he meant Rockefeller.

As to Puerto Ricans, I imagine that means that Puerto Ricans vote liberal or Democrat. That's hard to verify. Hispanics come out of socially conservative communities typically. It's difficult to predict how the growing Latino community of America will vote this year or in the future.

Given that, I began to think of just how "Jews" vote or will vote. Jews in quote marks indicates that in no way have America's Jews ever been or are now a monolith.
Earlier Sephardic and German Jewish communities in the United States tended to be very conservative. The face of American Jewry appears to have changed when America was settled by Jews from Eastern Europe. These Jews became very active in politics, principally in union organization and civil rights. But the Jews who immersed themselves in these movements were, by and large, leftists, some socialists, and largely nonreligious.

Jews living religious lives and those living secular lives are on opposite sides of a philosophical divide whose roots go back to the mid-19th century.

Religious Jews, prior to the modern era, held the attitude that there is nothing better for the Jewish community than the status quo, the reason being that when the status quo changed in Europe, that change usually led to outbreaks of violence or changes in the state laws which seemed to single out Jews as the chief victims. So the
attitude among Jews became expressed as "Support the king and the government because this devil is probably better for us than the barbarian devil at the gates."  This attitude caused Russian Jews to support the Czar against Napoleon even though Napoleon promised Russian Jews liberty and equality in the event that he became Emperor of Russia. What those Jews said was if Napoleon wins, Jews of Russia will become "modern" and "Western" and abandon their faith, so it's far better for the Czar to win even if it meant ongoing Czarist suppression of Jews, with a few pogroms thrown in.

That this attitude has continued into modern America can be seen by the Orthodox Jewish support for antisemitic Nixon both during the Vietnam war and the Watergate crisis. I was once present at a Shabbat lunch when one of the hosts got into an argument with one of the guests. The guest, in defense of Nixon, said that the our religion says that you always support the king. The host replied that Nixon was no king, only a president. Clearly the host missed the point. Of course Nixon was not a king but in the minds of many Orthodox, ANY leader of a nation sits in the seat of a king. Of course, when the king is Jimmy Carter or someone like him, it's ok to overthrow his throne by voting for his opponent next time.

On the other hand, Yiddish speaking Jews with leftist leanings believed the opposite philosophy. Their opinion was that you get rid of any leader or any law that oppresses people. This philosophy went hand in hand with the idea of universal brotherhood of man, liberation of disenfranchised classes, and intense focus on the First Amendment's supposed separation of Church and State. Jewish Progressives were so fearful of a repetition of the use of religion in government leading to suppression of people's rights, and especially those of Jews, that they vehemently opposed all open expression of faith, including "family values." "Values" became a curse word to liberals, and they would not brook children praying in school or public displays of Nativity scenes or the Ten Commandments. Added to this opposition was the struggle against persecution of homosexuals, the fight for abortion and birth control, women's rights and stem cell research, just to mention a few things on the liberal agenda.

What these old time Jewish liberals missed was that America is and always has been a country of white, Protestants steeped in family values, mainly rural, and bitterly opposed to the very agenda of what appeared to them as the evils of cities, drug use, free sex, minority control, and non-white, non-Protestant immigrants. Indeed this is what prohibition and the "war on drugs" is all about. It is not about the harmful effects of substances but that somehow these substances are diabolical and anti-Christian. In a very REAL sense, this IS a Christian nation, in sentiment if not in law.

Liberals were therefore shocked when the Reagan supporters were able to "steal away" the very poor of America that these liberal Jews were trying to protect. What they missed is that "Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of HASEM." - Deuteronomy 8:3

Reagan succeed in bequeathing to the Republican Party an ongoing loyalty of America's enthusiastic Christians. In doing so, he also unleashed a popular public attitude that these liberal Jews feared most, the intrusion of Christian religion into politics and government, and the very social intolerance that comes with it, that is , that there is only "one way" to live, - the rural, white-Protestant way.

Of course, this was either missed or ignored by America's Orthodox Jews who aligned themselves with Evangelicals in order to support the status quo. Orthodox Jews saw all too clearly the violence and mindless outlawry of the 1960s, and they became part of The Silent Majority that swept first Nixon, and then Reagan into office.

My own belief is that both of these men did things detrimental to America and its citizens but clearly they also acted in America's best interest in times of crises although it was not always easy to interpret their actions positively. Certainly Nixon, despite his prejudices, will go down in history as one of the 20th century's great presidents, and I am in agreement. As a Jew, I can overlook his paranoia that led to Watergate when I remember his help to Israel during the YOM KIPUR War. As to Reagan, I was damned if I was going to vote for Haman Carter again.

So what about now and in the future? Do we Jews really vote against our own economic self-interest? There is no easy answer because the very expression "economic self-interest" is at best ambiguous when it comes to American Jews in the 21st century.

It's too bad that we only stare at the present and don't look at the probable future.

Yes, many Jews in America who are the children or grand-children of Eastern European Jews continue to vote for liberals and Democrats, and support the progressive agenda. They think back upon the plight of their ancestors in Europe and they are afraid of a "Christian takeover" of a country where they have found true freedom and the chance for equality. But these Jews are aging; they are mainly over 40 years of age, and they see that many of the liberal and progressive gains of the 20th century
continue to be in danger of being taken away. And what's worse, they keep confusing the shrillness of Evangelical America with the honest religious faith of millions of decent Americans who only have the desire to go to work, go to school, make a better life for their children, and support the best desires of the Founding Fathers, those exceptional men who were very different from the Puritanical masses to whom they gave freedom. Why wage a war against decent Christian citizens by telling them that their children do not have a right to pray in public? Why deny people the right to have a public religious display during December? I know that I would find it disturbing and mean spirited if the municipality of Cleveland forbade the public MENORAH lighting in which I took part last December.

What I see is this as the future of Jewish politics in America.

This generation of secular, liberal Jews will continue to age and eventually die. The generation of 20 and 30 year old Jews will become increasingly more Conservative and vote Republican, whether they are secular or religious. I see it happening already. Orthodox Jews will be Conservative because that stand is philosophically in line with the Jewish religious stand continued from the European experience. Secular Jews will be Conservative due to an inherent belief in merit and the rewards of diligent work. Correctly we Jews have seen the negative results of Affirmative Action which clearly outweigh the positive ones.

But then again, in the coming years, the Jewish community in America will become increasingly more religious and less secular as Orthodox Jews continue to have large
families and secular Jews have fewer children, and as about 2000 people in America convert to Judaism every year. As stated above, religious Jews tend to be conservative and vote Republican.

Of course there is always chaos which will prove me wrong but right now I don't see that I am wrong. All of my Jewish family and friends back in New York, both religious and secular, formerly Democrats, have now become Republicans and Conservatives, including my own daughter. I have nothing bad to say to them as people who have the right to be whatever they wish. I don't agree with them but I am the last of a disappearing Jewish breed who will fight the noble fight for "the Impossible Dream" of real equality and the right for disagreement. The older I have become, the more secular, socialist, and anti-religious I have become. No, I am not against either the Jewish or Christian religions. I was brought up by parents who believed in the American Way, that one must respect all religions and opinions, and the people who follow those religions and opinions. When I say that I have become anti-religious, I mean that I have become opposed to those religionists who have abandoned the American Way and show no respect for differences of opinion among America's diverse citizens, and who want to LEGALLY oppress and suppress people with their ignorant agendas.

I am almost positive that my descendants will not be either liberals or Democrats. That's ok. It will be their America; the one that they help create. I hope it works out for them and at the same time I hope they never abandon the concept of TIKUN OLAM, the betterment of society and of the world.


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