Divestment roils Jewish-Presbyterian ties

Florida Jewish News ^ | May 19, 2006 | Rachel Pomerance

[hinckley buzzard]

Presbyterians are considered the “conscience” and reason of the Protestant community, serving as something of a “swing vote,” Rudin said.

Really? First I've heard of it. And I've been a protestant of one kind or another all my life. Never been a presby though, and never looked to them for guidance. I think Rabbi Rudin got sold something somewhere along the way.

[hinckley buzzard]

Where in the heck is this anti-Semitism coming from? It's unbelievable that protestant church leaders are taking this position.

You have to realize that for the mainline, the "church leaders" are leftwingers first, Christians second...or maybe third depending...

[hinckley buzzard]

There has never been a call for the destruction of Israel or anything like that at all,” he said.

Yeah, isn't that re-assuring? What a drooling psychopath. Much like Ahmadinejad

[Irene Adler]

" ...since the Left is traditionally anti Semitic and anti Israel."

Not really so traditionally. Actually, an awful lot of the early hard left WAS part of Jewish imigration from Eastern Europe starting in the late 1800s. During the first half of the 20th century, NYC was loaded with predominantly Jewish leftism. When Julius Rosenberg went to CCNY, it was a hotbed of leftism among its overwhelmingly Jewish student body. Virtually all of the Rosenbergs' friends, and acquaintances and Julius' business associates (such as the ones he got to do industrial espionage for the Soviet Union) were party members (just one small example). When he was a member and a spy, Whittaker Chambers was highly valued by the Communist Party in the U.S. specifically because he was NOT Jewish and could be used to liaison with other nonJewish Communists such as Alger Hiss (another small example).

With the exception of various short-term purges of Jewish Communists in places like the Soviet Union and Czhechoslovakia, I can't quite identify when the left decided to abandon one of its up-to-then biggest groups of supporters. I have looked for clues in the history of leftism since say 1960 and can't quite get a good explanation. It continues to puzzle me.

[rmlew]

You can start by reading Marx's "On the Jewish Question".

Judaism, while theoretically protected int he USSR, was violently suppressed. Religious Jews were simply prosecuted for the crime of Zionism.
It was only before 1917 and between 1941 and 1950 that communists pretended to give a s__t about Jews. Before Stalin died, he was setting the groundwork for the expulsion of Soviet Jews to Siberia. Please see "The Doctor's Plot"

[Sam Cree]

Well, when I said the Left was traditionally anti Semitic I suppose I meant within my own memory. For instance, when I was in college, back in the late 60's, all the left wing campus groups (the so called New Left, I guess) were very anti Semitic, and made a point of supporting Arafat, etc. Weirdly, they probably had a lot of Jewish guys in them. So that goes back over 35 years now. And of course the USSR was always officially anti Semitic, I believe.

But you are right, Jews themselves, in spite of the above, seem always to have had a love affair with socialism and even communism, right from the beginning, with Karl Marx. Anyhow, I believe it is correct to say that the great majority of Jews who came to the US around the turn of the last century brought with them a tradition of leftism which has been handed down generation to generation. I believe that may be changing, thankfully.

FWIW, I've always thought that Jewish leftism is based on a fear of anti semitism, Jews think that the egalitarianism of socialism will protect them. I don't particularly accept all that claptrap about tikkun olam and sticking up for the "oppressed."

But unfortunately socialism increases the danger of anti semitism simply because it identifies people as members of a group rather than as individuals. It also insists that everyone should work toward a common state set goal, thereby providing itself with another beautiful excuse to persecute any segment of the population deemed not to be toeing the line.