Posted on 08/17/2010 4:27:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
One should not assume that the anger expressed by American voters in recent weeks is somehow limited to a fringe element of this society. While Jews are generally not identified with the Tea Party crowd, there has been a corollary Jewish response these days to the events unfolding in the Middle East and elsewhere. Someone has suggested that this countercultural response could be labeled as a contemporary version of the Maccabees, namely, a revolt against the existing order.
Clearly, the community mobilization in the months following the Gaza flotilla incident has energized significant segments of the American Jewish community. Unlike previous news events involving Israel, this story has served to galvanize many who are particularly upset over how Israel has been depicted by governments, commentators and press reports.
Already deeply committed to a pro-Israel agenda, these Jewish activists and voters now feel increasingly isolated and concerned over how Israel is being maligned in the world. Over time, this cohort of voters and activists has taken on the political attributes and characteristics of “red state voters” through their support of single-issue concerns, a value-based and at times a faith-defined political agenda, and a specific hard-line position on American security and military defense issues. Voters from within this growing wing of the Jewish community have opted to support candidates who more definitively support their policy viewpoints and who in turn have questioned the current state of American democracy and politics. In particular, this group has sought to critique the current national administration for what it perceives as its less-than-full support of the case for Israel within the international community.
This type of renewed activism can be seen supporting pro-Israel PACs (political action committees), as confirmed by Morris Amitay, former executive director of AIPAC, who noted in a New York Post story this spring: “I have had some people sending me a second check this year, saying they hope it does good with our friends in Congress because of the animosity from the White House toward Israel.” Such fundraising success is also present among an array of single-issue organizations, both on the right and left within the Jewish community.
Similar to the Tea Party movement, there is a growing momentum to mobilize support for Israel among the electorate and to hold politicians accountable for their commitment, as well, to the Jewish state. Some of this discontent is being directed against other Jews who hold views that align with Peace Now and J Street or other center-left positions on Israeli policies, which are interpreted by the Jewish political right as giving aid to the enemies of Israel and adding fuel to the negative and problematic image of the Jewish state internationally.
This class of activists has created, in effect, an Israel loyalty test that defines and measures one’s credentials as a pro-Israel advocate. Nuance has given way in this current crisis to a more definitive expectation of support. The once-understood communal principle of governing by consensus has given way in these times to the presence of political positions that firmly divide the Jewish community into ideological camps. Increasingly, one finds that in place of a shared discourse and a commitment to civility, the communal debate often deteriorates to sloganeering and, at times, name-calling. In some settings, unless one holds a “politically correct” position on Israel, one’s voice is not welcomed or sanctioned by the formal institutional structures of the Jewish community.
We are not only witnessing a sharpening of the divide within the community, but a radicalization of the Jewish political right, accompanied by a corresponding disengagement of the Jewish liberal sector from the Israel discourse, as this latter group is often unwilling or too uncomfortable to participate from what some perceive as a defensive posture. Of equal concern are those on the left who come to believe Israel has lost its moral compass and have abandoned, in turn, their role as defenders of the Jewish state, preferring to align themselves with the nation’s most outspoken critics.
The Jewish Vote
The divisions that now define American Jewish voting patterns are framed and influenced by a number of elements. A new generation of voters includes a significant Orthodox cohort, along with a growing presence of Russian, Iranian and Israeli activists, who generally reflect a more conservative political bent and represent an important and growing factor in the ever-shifting Jewish political scenario. Possibly a far more interesting and emerging base of support can be found among male baby boomers (55 to 64 years of age), whose voting patterns have increasingly reflected a shift to the right. This political transition is particularly significant among Jewish voters, as this age cohort dominates the Jewish population base. Not only worried about their own economic status, this constituency is deeply concerned by what they observe as the erosion of support for Israel.
This spring, in a study of American Jewish voters, McLaughlin and Associates reported that 42 percent of those polled would support the president’s re-election, while 46 percent indicated that they would support another candidate. Among Orthodox/Chasidic voters, 69 percent noted that they would likely support someone else, in comparison to 17 percent who expressed support for the president. Among Conservative-affiliated voters, the proportion was 50 percent to 38 percent. Reform Jews, by a slim majority of 52 percent, supported Obama, while 36 percent indicated they would consider someone else. Fifty percent of the Jewish voters polled in this study expressed support for the president’s handling of U.S. relations with Israel; 39 percent said they disapproved. These numbers become significant when one realizes that the president received nearly 80 percent of the Jewish vote just two years ago.
There appears to be a more general shift in the reshaping of “liberalism” on the part of the Jewish electorate, where moderate positions are replacing the more traditional left-of-center political perspective. This shift is reflected in a number of ways, as voters are more selective in identifying with liberal causes and, in turn, are redefining how they interpret the nature of their ideological credentials and voting positions. This pattern of social moderation is not limited to the Jewish liberal community but is prevalent among a growing sector of Democratic voters.
The center-left Jewish groups, including the labor-Zionist organizations, are struggling in this environment to maintain their base as well as to attract new audiences to their political perspectives and institutional message. The downsizing of this once-formidable bloc of liberal Jewish activists is reflected as well in the shifts we are likely to see in the changing patterns of institutional affiliation among younger Jews, whose loyalty and commitment to Israel has come into question.
The Angry, Fearful Jewish American
The national anger found among the electorate encompasses concerns over the economy, jobs and health care reform as individualized issues. But the deeper despair is tied to what researcher Frank Luntz has described as the lack of accountability and the lack of respect when dealing with one another. Such themes are not only evident among Jewish constituencies but take on a specific bent in expressions of anger offered through recent online comments:
Israel needs to turn down further American “military aid” so as to no longer be beholden to a communist Muslim interloper or his nudist Israeli messenger boy.
American Jews embracing, supporting, justifying or even praising Obama and his pro-Arab, anti-Israel — and, as such, anti-Jewish — policies and declarations, remind one of American Jews of the 1940s who were too afraid to show compassion for their brothers and sisters perishing in Europe, for fear of losing favor with the Roosevelt administration.
The absence of a shared Jewish political agenda reflects this deep, and at times angry, social divide that now defines the state of American Jewry. This new political reality portends a serious crisis; as a minority community, Jews cannot afford the luxury of being seen as a house divided. Ethnic communities operate within a particular framework of influence and credibility. When their power is understood to be compromised or weakened by internal discord, their capacity to be politically effective is proportionally reduced.
******
Steven Windmueller serves as the Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk Professor of Jewish Communal Service at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles campus
Because in the *Golden Age of Hollywood* they were not liberal.
Newsfash: Hollywood’s drift to the left came from university-trained executives, not the old-time moguls.
You might be interested in
http://www.forward.com/articles/9245/
Young Jewish Republicans Toss Off Their Family Ties
By Max Gross
...According to the survey, conducted by Steven M. Cohen for the Florence G. Heller/JCCA Research Center, 26% of respondents under the age of 35 identified themselves as Republican, compared to 11% of respondents over 65.
Similarly, a 2000 Jewish Exponent/Zogby exit poll of Jewish voters in Greater Philadelphia revealed that while almost 78% of Jews voted for Democrat Al Gore, 59% of Jews under the age of 30 voted for George W. Bush...
The milieu was different then.
Also the Jewish men who founded Hollywood were not artists but businessmen, some very patriotic immigrants.
If the boss is conservative, the artist in a studio system will try not to upset him.
Jews only live in Hollywood?
I’m laughing because if you ever said that in Boston, NYC or DC you’d be stoned. LOL
I wish Conservatives would saturate all of Hollywood, then we might see the people who look to celebrities in how to vote (WHY? I have no idea!) except we live in a Self Absorbed society where celebrity idol worship goes on, especially with the younger ones coming up.
THIS IS AN ENCOURAGING STORY
Catholic actor canned for refusing sex scenes to star in ‘Vigilante Priest’ series...
Hollywood, Calif., Aug 17, 2010 / 03:09 am (CNA).- The Catholic actor Neal McDonough, who lost a lead role for his refusal to do heated love scenes, will produce and star in a new series about a policeman turned priest.
McDonough, who has played roles on shows such as “Desperate Housewives,” “Boomtown” and “Band of Brothers,” lost his role on the new ABC series “Scoundrels” three days into filming. While ABC described the action as a “casting change,” news reports linked it to the actor’s refusal to do sex scenes
Thanks I will take a look!
They couldn’t have done a better job proving Republicans are religious bigots and idiots.
papabrody...It's okay. Don't worry your little head about us Jews. We just refuse to drink the Kool-Aid.
I think you both are all in a flutter because of the liberals around here. But I don't happen to be one of them.
In my area there are some conservative Jews but they are few and far between.
I was involved with a ministry to the Jews and at the many get togethers we had, it was evident what we were dealing with.
And we saw no change in their voting habits or attitudes in over 35 years.
They loved every liberal that was ever running. Of course we wanted to win them to Christ so we never argued politics with them.
But their hearts were very tuned to everything that was against what conservative was.
Going by what I have experienced, what I said, is still true.
So, HearMe, if you think Republicans are bigoted and idiots maybe you need to move yourself right on over to the dem sites.
And papabrody, I'm glad to know the scales dropped from your eyes. You are needed in the conservative ranks. :-)
Yes! You’re probably right. But FR is also one of those places it seems. :-)
You mean the same jews who voted for the guy by a 2-1 margin?
AIPAC is not a political action committee- it doesn’t fund candidates. It is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and was created before there was any such thing as a PAC. Something is happening in the Jewish community. In June at the New England AIPAC dinner, Barney Frank was booed by the crowd of 1400. It was so loud, it came through the sound system into another room where my son was.
I am obsessed with the fact that Jews are more liberal than the rest of America. It kills me. Almost all the sign holders in my town for Scott Brown were Jewish as were all the delegates at the Republican State convention in MA.
I asked my rabbi why religiously conservative Jews were more likely to be politically conservative than religiously liberal Jews. He thought that it is because the conservatives take our founding documents more seriously, whether it’s the Torah or the constitution. Conservatives are less willing to alter founding ideals for our own short-term needs. Liberals want to throw it all out- Torah and constitution. I thought that was an interesting notion.
...it says “the god of this world”...
2 Cor. 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
4. in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.
Thanks for that response.
Yes, it is a anomaly when you realize that liberals hate the Jewish state and her people. And do everything they can to minimalize it’s being.
Christians are the only group that accepts the state of Israel and her people with open arms.
No Thanks.
I think I'll stay to comment on the RARE anti Semitic and idiotic statements from the occasional ignorant like you.
For the life of me, I do not understand why so many Jews, at least in most polls, are so liberal.
I was born into a Jewish family and while I’m now a Christian the lessons learned being raised in a semi-Orthodox family still are with me.
I spoke with my Grandfather a great deal about his beliefs, his faith, his love of Israel and the freedom he came to in America. He taught me his families history and how they came to the US with virtually nothing but a will to succeed; and they did. He wanted to be a Rabbi but after his father passed away when he was 13, as the oldest boy it fell on his shoulders to support his 7 brothers and sisters and his mother. Though he did not get to follow his dream, two of his brothers became Rabbi’s.
The Democrats of today would not have the support of my Grandparents. Between their social policies and their now openly anti-Israel stance there is no chance of that happening. My cousins, all at least 10 years older than I have either became Independents or Republicans. One of my cousins worked for the DNC for many years, decades in fact - he did not vote for Obama, either did his daughters or his Grandson who voted for his first time in 08.
Most of my family had left the DNC before Obama’s election but those few who remained have turned on him and the DNC. The lefts openly hostile stance towards Israel was the last draw.
Change does not come quick but I do believe we will start seeing many more Republican Jews and God willing, many more Conservative Jews.
Your Rabbi is right and I’m glad you shared that story with us. I’ve never thought about a relationship with the Torah and the Constitution in that way, yet it makes so much sense. I believe one reason my family members have been able to break the long-line of votes for Democrats is because so many of them have held fast to their Jewish roots and remained pious Jews.
You’re awfully new to be name calling? That’s a no-no here.
And there is no anti Semitic anything on this thread, or have you not read?
Do you read what you write?
Then I suggest you read #19 again. If you still don’t get it, ask someone to help you.
Well, let's hope this is true and that the sentiment lasts at least until the November elections.
FYI to many who have posted to this thread, there are a lot of Jewish Freepers who are Conservatives and have always been Conservatives. Labeling all Jews as Liberals is inaccurate. Let’s examine some of the other religions that have been led down the Liberal path, e.g., Zero speaking at Notre Dame.
Labeling all Jews as Liberals is inaccurate.
Right you are. And, I think more Jews are becoming more conservative by the day. At least I hope so.
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