George Soros and the Problem of the Radical Non-Jewish Jew(Dennis Prager)

They were/are all radicals, born to Jewish parents, had no Jewish identity and hurt Jews (not to mention non-Jews).

The term "non-Jewish Jew" is generally attributed to the Jewish historian Isaac Deutscher, who wrote an essay by that name in 1954. The term describes the individual who, though born a Jew (Judaism consists of a national/peoplehood identity, not only a religious one), identifies solely as a citizen of the world and not as a Jew, either nationally or religiously.

Once the walls of Jewish ghettos broke down and European Jews were allowed to leave Jewish societies, many Jews became non-Jewish Jews. In most cases, either they or their children assimilated into the societies in which they lived. However, a small but significant percentage became radicalized. They came to loathe "bourgeois," i.e., traditional middle class, values and Judeo-Christian society; Western national identities (though they generally supported anti-Western national identities); and they particularly loathed Jewish religious and national identity.

Karl Marx, the grandson of two Orthodox rabbis (and, to be entirely accurate, son of parents who converted to Christianity), wrote one of the most significant anti-Semitic essays of the 19th century, "On the Jewish Question" (1844). In it one finds such statements:

"Money is the jealous god of Israel, beside which no other god may exist. . . . The god of the Jews has been secularized and has become the god of the world. . . . The social emancipation of Jewry is the emancipation of society from Jewry."

Leon Trotsky, born Lev Bronstein, may be regarded as the intellectual father of Russian, later Soviet, Communism. He along with Stalin and three others fought to succeed Lenin as leader of the Communist Party after Lenin's death in 1924. In 1920, when Trotsky was head of the Red Army, Moscow's chief rabbi, Rabbi Jacob Mazeh, asked him to use the army to protect the Jews from pogromist attacks. Trotsky is reported to have responded, "Why do you come to me? I am not a Jew." To which Rabbi Mazeh answered: "That's the tragedy. It's the Trotskys who make revolutions, and it's the Bronsteins who pay the price."

Noam Chomsky has devoted much of his life to working against America and Israel. He is alienated from the very two identities into which he was born. Indeed he has vilified both his whole life. To cite but one example, he traveled to Lebanon to appear with Hizbollah leader Sayyed Nasrallah and lend his support to a group that is committed to the annihilation of Israel and is officially listed as a terrorist organization by the United States.

George Soros is the fourth example of an individual born Jewish who has become a radical world citizen who is alienated from America and from his Jewish origins, and damages both.

As described by Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic, "George Soros is ostentatiously indifferent to his own Jewishness. He is not a believer. He has no Jewish communal ties. He certainly isn't a Zionist. He told Connie Bruck in The New Yorker -- testily, she recounted -- that 'I don't deny the Jews their right to a national existence -- but I don't want to be part of it.'"

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, writer Joshua Muravchik reported that Soros has publicly likened Israel to the Nazis.

Of course, Soros supports Palestinian nationalism, but that is a consistent feature of radicals -- anti-Jewish and anti-American nationalisms are good, Jewish and American nationalisms are bad. Thus, as reported in the Jerusalem Post, "Soros and his wealthy Jewish American friends have now decided to aim their fire directly at Israel . . . to form a political lobby that will weaken the influence of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC."

How to explain such Jews? People with no national or religious roots who become politically active will often seek to undermine the national and religious roots of others, especially those in their own national/religious group. It is akin to the special animosity some ex-Catholics have toward the Church. Non-Jewish Jews are far more likely to work to weaken Christianity in America than Jewish Jews, especially religious Jews. Religious Jews celebrate religious Christians.

Jews with no religious or national identity do not like Jews who have those identities, and Americans who have likewise become world citizens do not much care for Americans who wave the American flag.

Just as chauvinism -- excessive and amoral nationalism -- can lead to nihilism, so, too, the absence of any national or religious identity can lead to nihilism. The radical non-Jewish Jew loves humanity, but hurts real humans, especially his own.

I think it's too easy to categorize like this. There are non-Jewish Jews who are pro-Israel (unless you define non-Jewish as anti-Israel). I'm sure there are religious Jews who disagree with certain Israeli policies.

And there are plenty of moderate-to-religious Jews who may or may not be pro-Israel but who are pro-secular in the United States.

I myself am a "non-Jewish Jew" in that I have Jewish ancestry but am a Christian. You don't see me sympathizing with Hezbollah.

"It is akin to the special animosity some ex-Catholics have toward the Church."

A good many of ex-Catholics resent the Church's teaching on moral matters such as abortion and gay lifestyle and make an open break. There is also a group of Catholics who do not practice but do not call themselves ex-Catholics. Don't know what the Jewish parallels would be.

I've often wondered what happened to the Hebrew's. As far as I was taught, being a Jew was more religious. A Hebrew is an Israeli?????????????????

Hey.....if those "World Citizens" don't like me waving my American flag, they better stay off my mountain. It flys just about all the time and God help the person I see trying to burn one. When I was in the military, I took an oath to defend that flag and no one released me from that oath yet.

It is easy to categorize like this because it is generally true. That is the point about categorization--it is general. There are always specific exceptions to general categorizations. However, an exception to a general rule does not negate the general rule. The exception merely emphasizes the fact that the application of a general rule is limited.

There are certain ingredients to a Leftist. I think one is sort of a spiritual substitution of the Socialist State for religion. Not every non-Jewish Jew has not made this substitution. You for example, have adopted Christianity.

But the non-Jewish Jew who has made this substitution is naturally going to have a much more difficult time supporting the U.S. or Israel. I am sure you can find an odd-ball exception, but it would not disprove the general observation.

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