Posted on 04/25/2006 4:51:39 AM PDT by unionblue83
The most frequently asked question I receive from non-Jews about Jews is, why are Jews so liberal?
The question is entirely legitimate since Jews (outside of Israel) are indeed overwhelmingly liberal and disproportionately left of liberal as well. For example, other than blacks, no American group votes so lopsidedly for the Democratic Party. And the question is further sharpened given that traditional Jewish values are not leftist. That is why the more religiously involved the Jew, the less likely he is to be on the Left. The old saw, "There are two types of Jews -- those who believe Judaism is social justice and those who know Hebrew," contains more than a kernel of truth.
In no order of importance, here are six reasons:
1. Judaism is indeed preoccupied with social justice (as well as with holiness and personal morality), and many Jews believe that the only way to achieve a just society is through leftist policies.
2. More than any other major religion, Judaism has always been preoccupied with this world. The (secular) Encyclopedia Judaica begins its entry on "Afterlife" by noting that "Judaism has always affirmed belief in an afterlife." But the preoccupation of Judaism has been making this world a better place. That is why the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) is largely silent about the afterlife; and it is preoccupied with rejecting ancient Egyptian values. That value system was centered on the afterlife -- its bible was the Book of the Dead, and its greatest monuments, the pyramids, were tombs.
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
IT'S A COOKBOOK!
"repairing the world"
Without the Temple sacrifice to cover their sins,
b'shem Y'shua
most Jews have turned to Tikkun Olam It is important in Judaism and is often used to explain the Jewish concept of social justice.
In some explanations, the more mitzvot that are performed, the closer the world will be
towards perfection. Some Jews that believe that acts of tikkun olam will either trigger
or fulfill the prophesied coming of the Mosiach (messiah) or messianic age (the World to Come).
The belief in tikkun olam is also central to the Zohar, the most important book in kabbalah (Jewish mysticism).
These explanations are true enough, but somewhat limited.
If you study history, you will find that secular Jews were "progressive" long before they came to America, long before the time of FDR or Senator McCarthy, even long before the time of Karl Marx.
The great, failed revolution of 1848 involved Jews, as did the Russian revolution of 1917 and the brief Hungarian revolution of the 1930s.
Some historians trace this Jewish fascination with worldly progress back to the failed Jewish Messiah, Sabbatai Zevi in the late 18th century, more or less the time of our American Revolution and before the French Revolution. There's a brief article on him here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbatai_Zevi
Isaac Bashevis Singer has written some fascinating novels about this period.
When the craving for a religious return failed, it has been hypothesized, many Jews of that time turned instead to the goal of secular progress.
I don't know if that's true or not. But the fact is that Jews have been in the forefront of many progressive movements for more than two centuries, sometimes for the good of humanity, and sometimes not.
Actually Shabtai Tzvi lived in the late 17th century.
The migration of Jews to secularism began with the French Revolution, Napoleon's "New Sanhedrin" and the 19th century Emancipation.
Thanks, Alouette, yes, that's what I should have said, and of course it puts it earlier than those revolutions I mentioned. Back to the period coming out of the Anabaptist revolution of Muenster in Germany and the Puritan Revolution of 1640-1660 in England.
It was a tragic story of confusion and disillusionment for many of the Jews of that time.
As you say, it was mostly the French revolutionaries who added the secular element. The American revolution was much more compatible with religion.
P.S. My great-great grandfather was heavily involved in the revolution 0f 1848, which attempted to overthrow the Hapsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire. He fled from Hungary to London after it failed, along with Kossuth.
This focuses on the Liberal Jews vs. the Conservative ones (the ones manning the wall, in other words). Do try to pay attention in class, children.
Yes, but your post referred to Israel in the first sentence, even though Prager's article specifically excluded Israelis.
I agree, Sam. I'm downright impressed at the Israeli security forces. I used to criticism them, but that was based on faulty information from the MSM before I discovered the alternative media.
I really can't say why so many Jews in this country are liberal. I don't know enough liberal Jews to form an opinion. I just think the comments so far have been enjoyable and interesting.
Yes, the IDF is a top military force. Israel gets lots of money from the US, both privately and from our government, but so do the Arab countries.
It drives me crazy that Jews tend to be so leftist, so I usually go to these threads if I see them, since I'm concerned personally with the subject.
That's good thinking, and something I've argued as well. Prior to the FDR period, Jews were heavily Republican. In fact, the earliest Jews elected were Southern Republicans. But, as you said, that began to change with the next wave of Jewish immigraiton in the 19teens and 1920s.
You're telling us. It drives us conservative Jews even more crazy. Our own people dashing right, left and centre away from the values of our own culture and the Book.
I was a liberal most of my life, until I woke up to the utter hypocrisy (and virilant anti-semitism, especially from minorities) on the left. I believe that other Jews have come to same conclusion and more will follow.
Great, succinct post.
Bruck, ping to #5
I think the answer to why Jews are predominantly liberal is pretty close to the answer of why anybody is.
I am a conservative Jewish prolifer - there are a few of us - and we are appalled at these leftists who are self-haters and know NOTHING about Judaism - absolutely nothing. Their parents did not give them any spirituality and still worship FDR, who did nothing to stop the Holocaust and prevented Jews from entering before WWII broke out. They do not care about their own self preservation.
REpairing the world is misunderstood and misused. it does not mean going on marches for socialistic causes and it does not mean voting the democratic line. It is absolutely MISUSED.
Jews were disproportionately represented in the Left long before McCarthy. Look up the Sparticist League and Bela Kun, among others
Waves of immigrants who came to the USA from 1880-1920: the poles the italians the irish the jews. Most of them voted for FDR by large majorities in 1932, 1936 & 1940. Today only the jews still vote democratic by hefty majorities. Why? The reason for this dates explicitly to the McCarthy period from 1950-54. The reason this is so is because Hollywood still strenuously maintains the communist lie about that era. This lie is maintained by movies in the last years called "A Beautiful Mind," and "Good Night and Good Luck".
There are various reasons given as to why Stalin initiated the Doctor's Plot in the early 1950's before he died. The KGB hated Israel. Many Americans who were enthusiastic supporters of the UN were Jewish.
Edvard Radzinsky in his book "Stalin" argues that while at one time Stalin hoped Jewish financial capital would help rebuild the Soviet Union after the WWII, Stalin hated the prospect of suborning himself to the Baruch Plan and he flat out rejected IAEA nuclear controls--presented in 1946. The Russians were working on their own abomb based on stolen US designs.
Whatever the reason, Stalin fomented the Doctor's plot hysteria and broke off diplomatic relations with Israel. He was within days of preparing to exile the Soviet Jews to the Gulag (as was done previously with various other ethnic minorities such as the Crimean Tatars, Chechens, etc.), and initiate another great purge along the lines of 1938.
The important thing to recall is that the Doctor's Plot happened at the same time as the McCarthy anti communist business from 1950-54
Stalin already had the concentration camps set up. And some of the preliminary accusations had gone out for the Doctor's Plot when he died in 1953.
At the same time the Rosenburgs were tried and executed for treason in the USA in 1953--and this less than a decade after the Holocaust. This naturally caused fear and suspicion in the US Jewish community. This fear and suspicion was played upon by knowledgeable communists and leftists--large numbers of whom were jewish. These folk not only knew about what Stalin had done in the 1930's and was about to do with the doctor's plot--before he died-- but also saw the Rosenburg trials as show trials american style ... that is, a prelude to an american pogrom.
What Stalin had planned to do-- in a brilliant piece of jujitsu --leftists and communists imputed to Americans on the right. But it was done soto voce. Basically a blood libel was perpetrated on Americans without their knowing it. Worse, protestant america were painted as tribal enemies tooth and claw of the US jewish establishment without protestant america even knowing it. Never again! -- Was the battle cry. But there weren't any protestant tribal enemies of Jews in the USA. If there protestant tribal enemies tooth and claw in the USA -- Meyer Kahane would have provoked them them to a fight. Instead, he married an american woman & helped expedite Stalin's last wish--to rid Russia of Jews. When Kahane died it was at the hands of a Moslem in 1990.
While the American public outside NY/LA were generally given the view that the McCarthy era was an age when innocent men were unjustly tried by suspicious anti semites like McCarthy & Nixon--the NY/LA Jewish establishment was given a different story. They were given to understand that the democrats/liberals had prevented the US from visiting a holocaust on them. And that therefor American Jews owed their loyalty to the liberal democrats because the liberal democrats were the protectors of the Jews.
And this Meme went on untouched for decades after McCarthy.
This dual track story line didn't crack until the early 1990's when the kgb/nkvd/gru opened up their files on the WWII-McCarthy Period. In 1995 the US's NSA agency opened up their Venona files. Both Russian and American spy agency files showed that McCarthy was right. The US government --as well as the Manhattan Project--had been at one time soaked with Russian Spies. The Rosenburgs were guilty. While McCarthy was wrong in most the details he got the general outline of the story right. Why did he get the outline right and the details wrong. The reason is McCarthy's relationship to Hoover was the same as Hoover's relationship to the NSA.The NSA told the FBI about the Venona intercepts but insisted that the FBI could not use NSA intercepts as evidence in court. The FBI had to develop their own leads. As a result most of the spies escaped prosecution. The FBI did not get their man.
In 1950 J Edgar Hoover began weekly meetings with Joseph McCarthy. Those meetings ended in 1954. The beginning and end of those meetings coincided with the beginning and end of McCarthy star turn in the national spot light. McCarthy got most of the details of the spy story wrong but he got the general outline of the story right. His predicament was the same as that of the FBI. To this day the FBI denies that Hoover told McCarthy anything about the Venona Cables and maybe Hoover said nothing explicit to McCarthy for which Hoover could be liable in court.
Needless to say, an American style shoah was never in the cards.
The reason that hollywood hated Ronald Reagan so much was that he was an anti communist in hollywood during the McCarthy period. During this period to be staunchly anti communist in Hollywood or NYC was to be at least vaguely anti semetic because in the 30's to the 50's communism was considered to be almost a secular form of Judaism in the Jewish communities of NY/LA.
Reagan was among the first wave of FDR democrats to switch parties. Reagan was blacklisted from Hollywood. He couldn't get work there after McCarthy. However, his experiences in Hollywood served him well when he went into public service. He always understood the jujitsu of media talk of the age. Something that cannot be said of Nixon.
When I hear American based Moslems talking about McCarthyism being visited on them. I have to laugh. They don't know that they have pronounced themselves guilty in the eyes of many Americans.
As for the democrats, part of the reason for the loss of their inner coherence has been that part their foundational raison d'être steming from the McCarthy era was revealed to be based on a lie. So now the core of the democratic party is the sodomites. Those folks are not just confusing. They are confused.
David Horowitz interviewed by Rush Limbaugh this past week talked about how his parents were communists and he was a communist in college. He said when he was in college his views were always treated respectfully by his professors. But he said recently a young christian college student told him that his homosexual college professor had singled him out in class and asked him "Why do you christians hate queers." Asked why he continued to do what he did in the face of all the abuse he gets, David Horowitz said like Rush he took public political positions because he had to. But also he said he did it as a matter of atonement.
He gets it.
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