A "Liberal Jew" Responds to Norman Podhoretz
I have often wondered how it is that Jews can be conservative Republicans, so I found it interesting to read Norman Podhoretz' flipping of that question in his "Why are Jews Liberals?" He bemoans Jews' tenacious support of Democratic political candidates and the Democratic platform. He decries those Jews who so "sincerely believe that their liberalism, together with their commitment to the Democratic party as its main political vehicle, stems from the teachings of Judaism and reflects the heritage of Jewish values."
Essentially, he can't comprehend why Jews do not vote in their own race and class interests. "Why are Jews Liberals?" Mr. Podhoretz asks. Let me tell you why....
Every Jew grows up learning that we must "never forget" the past: never forget the six million killed in the Holocaust; never forget the experience of slavery; never forget the pogroms; never forget the experience of institutionalized discrimination and inequality; never forget the continued sporadic anti-Semitic hate crimes; never forget the experience of facing the ever-present threat of violence and death simply because of our identity as Jews.
Like many other immigrant groups, Jews came to the US because of its democratic ideals and promise of freedom and opportunity. I continue to cherish those ideals. The problem, however, is that the American system has not made good on the promise of those ideals to all Americans. The American system did eventually make good on these promises for Jews; that has not been the case for the many people of color whose ancestors did not willingly immigrate to the US (Native-Americans whose land America stole; African-Americans brought here in chains and treated as property; and many Hispanics and Latinos whose land was confiscated in the Mexican-American war -- known in Mexico as the War of the US Invasion).
This is why so many Jews refuse to support the conservative politics of exclusion and fear. Podhoretz would have us chop down the ladder behind us.
"If anything bears eloquent testimony to the infinitely precious virtues of the traditional American system," he proclaims, "it is the Jewish experience in this country. Surely, then, we Jews ought to be joining with its defenders against those who are blind or indifferent or antagonistic to the philosophical principles, the moral values, and the socioeconomic institutions on whose health and vitality the traditional American system depends."
What is essential here is that we distinguish between American ideals and the "American system." The Democratic party is not antagonistic to the ideals of this nation. But it recognizes, if only minimally, that the system often keeps those ideals out of reach for many.
As so many historians, sociologists and other researchers have painstakingly documented (see a sampling of the peer-reviewed research in the references below) the category of "whiteness" was created to unite disparate Euro-Americans and to set them apart from African-Americans and Native Americans. Tim Wise summarizes this vast literature, noting that during slavery, "the term 'white' to describe Europeans en masse was born as an umbrella term to capture the new pan-Euro unity needed to defend the system of African slavery and Indian genocide going on in the Americas. And the trick worked marvelously, dampening down the push for rebellion by poor whites on the basis of class interest and encouraging them to cast their lot with the elite."
These tactics continued, and the category of white expanded, eventually opening up membership to Jews. For example, in her excellent study How Jews Became White Folks Karen Brodkin examines how massive affirmative action programs such as the GI bill, including FHA loans, college loans, and concurrent suburbanization opened up opportunities for white euro-ethnics, but denied these same benefits to African-American vets. As she highlights, "Those racially skewed gains have been passed across the generations, so that racial inequality seems to maintain itself 'naturally,' even after legal segregation ended ... For example, having parents who own their own homes or who have decent retirement benefits can make a real difference in young people's ability" to succeed.
Including Jews in the expanding category of "whites" provided Jewish families with access to a wealth of opportunities denied people of color. As a Jew, I cannot forget both the oppression that Jews have experienced throughout so much of our history, on the one hand, and the privileges we have received since being embraced as white, on the other hand.
Podhoretz would have us forget our history and embrace an identity and set of interests based on our current race and class position, in order to protect and preserve these privileges. This is to say, essentially, that inequality and oppression is okay as long as it is not aimed at us. But the majority of Jews that continue to identify as liberals feel some empathy, born of oppression, for other oppressed groups.
When I learned the meaning of the phrase "never again," I learned that it not only referred to Jews -- but to all humanity. Furthermore, I know that as long as we are able to treat any group of humans as unequal and undeserving of the same rights and opportunities, Jews will not be safe.
Podhoretz' views are not good for Jews, and they are certainly not good for America. It is time we align our system with our ideals.
Examine the historical research for yourself:
*Brodkin, K. How Jews Became White Folks: And What That Says About Race in America. Rutgers, 1998.
*Feagin, Joe R. Racist America: Roots, current realities, and future reparations. 2001. NY: Routledge.
*Ignatiev, N. How the Irish Became White. Routledge, 2008.
*Jacobson, M. F. Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. Harvard University Press. 1999.
*Johnson, A. G. (2006). Privilege, Power and Difference, 2nd edition. Mayfield.
*Katznelson, I. When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America, W.W. Norton, 2006.
*Kimmel, M. and A. Ferber, Privielge: A Reader. Westview, second edition forthcoming, 2010.
*Oliver, M. and T. Shapiro. Black Wealth / White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality second edition. Routledge, 2006.
*Roediger, D. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, Verso, 2007.
*Roediger, D. Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs. Basic Books, 2006.
*Shapiro, T. The Hidden Cost of Being African-American. Oxford University Press. 2004.
*Wise, T. Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male. Soft Skull Press, 2008.
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as long as we are able to treat any group of humans as unequal and undeserving of the same rights and opportunities, Jews will not be safe.
The converse is also true: " as long as we are able to treat any group of humans as more equal and more deserving of the same rights and opportunities, Jews ( or anybody else, for that matter) will not be safe.
And therein lies the fallacy of your argument. Either you recognize people as individuals, and allow free exrpression, or you end up in George Orwell's animal farm, a hierarchy of groups, individual freedom be damned.
The Democratic Party has gone from champion of the little guy, to champion of the aggrieved group; "social justice" determines the group pecking order. Lost in the shuffle is the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for you and me; my pursuing my happiness now infringes on you pursuing yours, my group against yours. All power to the state, committee, fearless leader, whatever.
And so evolved Mao, Lenin, Pol Pot, Fabian Socialism, Fidel, Manuel Noriega, Burma's military oligarchy, Patrice Lumumba, Robert Mugabe, etc.
I'm astonished that anyone who witnessed the holocaust would want anything less than individual freedom and limited government powers. Freedom with all its imperfections brought the United States its amazing fruits, economic and spiritual. To paraphrase Dirty Harry, "The system may suck, but until somebody comes along with something better, I'll stick with it."
Nobody's come close.
How caring for others including those who can't care for themselves became a dividing line in politics is beyond me. Even the name United States we chose implies a group effort.
The whole Christian conservative wing ought to be kicking and screaming instead of lobbying for money for their own churches. Morality and all that don't ya know.
I've ranted on the topic many times, but I sure would love some resemblance between "conservative" and the dictionary definition of the word.
"never again" not just to Jews, but to all humanity.
11 milliion PEOPLE died in the Holocaust
Excellent piece. Jewish people pushing conservatism have always confused me, just like black conservatives. I now know how to respond to them: a printout of your article LOL.
Maybe we should all send a copy to Eric Cantor. A shande for the goyim!
Podhoretz has been a highbrow cryptofacist for decades, too often given deference in intellectual publishing circles. Past time to depose the "wise old men" of the far right...th
Well written and convincing BUT;
I wonder how well this works if one substituted "The World", or even "Europe" in the place of the USA. How much does your argument depend on an American context? If it must depend- how valid is your argument?
In many ways, your position and that of the M. Podhoretz only diverge in a zone of esotherica. The basic conditions that allow you to hold your views and M. Podhoretz to hold his views depends on a context where Jewish continuity (and life itself) was possible. Had the Nazis ruled even temporarily in the USA, what would have become of the Jewish peoples? One needs to be more that just "White" to exercise equality in America.
As a Native American, I still feel vulnerable. I know that I shall never be white. Does this mean that I can never aspire to be free? How important for example is Aliyah to the overall sense of Jewishness? My ultimate pre-columbian Americanism is my scorge but it also my shield...W
Excellent column. I did not know that other Jews felt the same way. Thanks to your column, I understand, for the first time, why SC Justice Clarence Thomas makes my skin crawl.
"No one is free when others are oppressed.
great article by the way
Another interesting addition to this that never seems to be brought up in mainstream discourse is the inclusion of Metis into the white mainstream (people of European/American Indian ancestry) throughout history...
The one drop rule was used in reverse with natives: the US sought to diminish the sovereignty of native nations by usurping the rights of native nations to define their own members and to define it for them in a racist way such as to minimize the population and perhaps over time extinguish claims to sovereignty on the grounds of exhaustion of the nation.
So if you had one drop of non-native blood, you were no longer native. That worked in favor of the oppressor.
Thanks to both of you for raising these issues. Further, in the US, the amount of white blood Indians had was a measure of civilization to this day. Blood Quantums, BQ, still are used by many tribes to determine membership. After the Dawes allotment act in 1887, Indians with white blood were able make the argument that they could have control of their lands in fee simple while full-bloods had a harder time. What happened is that many Indians were cheated out of their lands using that ruse. Many did not know their lands had been taken out of trust and were subject to local property taxes. Down in Oklahoma district courts had a monthly court just to adjudicate Indian lands. On "Indian Day," you could take Indians lands out of trust, or apply to take control of Indians lands in payment of taxes or a simply grocery bill.
I have always believed and said this: If Jesus Christ were alive and political, he would be a pure LIBERAL. Liberalism encourages the message of "community" and "brotherhood" and the sense of "we are in it together". Conservatism preaches the message of "you are on your own". Conservatism is not good for any society that wishes to progress.
Yes, I know that the Dem party pays lip service most of the time to the minorities, but they still feel more or less at home there. At the level things are in this country, only the Dem Party could proudly nominate a minority guy and vote him in as the President of the most powerful military nation in the world. That's a virtue of liberalism
Ms Ferber, that's an excellent article---very well written and grandly articulated.
One of the more powerful and best defining facets of Liberalism is that it encourages one to transcend prejudices, to accept new insights, and new ways of realizing one's ideals.
Jesus' was an observant Jew who was, arguably, fully grounded in the Torah. As such, he was, in any classic sense of the term, Conservative. But his teachings are the shining example of Liberalism.
I think his greatness (identical to that of modern Chassidim, Buddhists and, well, enlightened people of every tradition) was the balance between his deep knowledge of his tradition and an equally deep knowledge of how that tradition is to be realized. With compassion, creativity, and the recognition of the inherent unity of humanity, despite the destructive behavior of those who believe otherwise.
If Jesus were alive and political today, he would be so radical and left-wing that liberals would be as quick as conservatives to disavow him. He would make the way liberals treat Hugo Chavez seem positively starstruck in comparison!
And I didn't even know that this Pod-person was still alive, but I suppose he must be....
Maybe they just don't like being in the same party as Pat Buchanan, G. Gordon Liddy, Pat Robertson and the Southern C Street Boys...for some reason....
great article
A wonderful article! This is the kind of logic and history that needs to be reinforced right now in the media. I would also add that the lumping of all Euro-whites together has led to those populations demise in the US. We no longer know our own languages, histories, cuisines, skills and cultures.
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