By Sally Zelikovsky, AM THINKER October 29, 2023
Jewish conservatives, while considered a bit of an oddity despite growing numbers, are commonly asked Why are so many Jews liberals?
From conservative luminaries like Norman Podhoretz and Dennis Prager to B-team influencers like me, Jewish conservatives have struggled to provide a satisfactory answer. Like any other group, we do not march in lockstep, certainly not when it comes to our religion and definitely not politically. Still, Jewish conservatives readily acknowledge that, like Black Americans, most of us tend to be liberal if not downright progressive and, regrettably, sometimes Marxist.
Books and articles have been written, and theories abound as to why this is, including, among others, the idea that Jews are liberal out of residual devotion to FDR and his pro-unionism; as pushback against the brutality they suffered under right-wing totalitarians like Hitler; and because, when Jews became secular, they replaced their religion with progressivism
None of these quite hits the sweet spot, but they all resonate to some extent.
Image: Jews for Palestine by Alisdare Hickson. CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED.
I long ago abandoned any hope of uncovering the definitive reason for this phenomenon but, in thinking about the strong reaction that many liberals and Jewish liberals had to the October 7th Hamas Pogrom, I had a revelation. Bear with me.
In Konstantin Kisin’s must-read article The Day the Delusions Died, he notes that some Americans woke up as liberals on October 7th and went to bed that night as conservatives.
In A Political Reawakening?, Bari Weiss and Oliver Wiseman explain that this change can be attributed to the “sheer depravity of Hamas’s terrorism” as well as “the sense of how thin the line is between civilization and barbarism. And how the West, which so many take for granted, is more vulnerable than we ever imagined.” According to Weiss, “[t]he contradictions and moral bankruptcy of a worldview that spends years worrying about microaggressions and tone policing, but can’t decide what side it is on after the beheading of babies, aren’t exactly difficult to spot.”
Liberals who went to bed conservatives sincerely believed they were making some grand gesture by supporting Israel’s right to exist while recognizing the plight of the Palestinians until the reality of October 7th exploded their worldview. They are scared sh**less and rethinking the politicians, party, and policies they’ve long supported.
Protesters might feverishly burn Israeli flags in Istanbul, but threatening Jewish students barricaded in a university library in New York City and announcing your exhilaration from your Cornell ivory tower does not win hearts and minds among American liberals suffering from an identity crisis due to what Melanie Phillips, a British journalist and author of Londonistan, has coined a “civilizational crisis.”
This all got me thinking about the “Jewish liberals” question.
American Jews collectively want to be the good guys with big hearts who are devoted to public service and champion the world’s underdogs. After all, who better than the Jews to understand what it feels like to be an underdog?
And, having made lemonade out of Diaspora lemons, we have a strong commitment to giving back.
This “feel goodism” political alignment between Jews and liberalism is deeply rooted in Jewish biblical teachings and tradition. We were “chosen” to spread the concept of one G-d and to follow His commandments and laws. We were supposed to heal and bring peace to the world (tikkun olam), spread the words of “love thy neighbor” and “do unto others,” be charitable (tzedakah), do good deeds (mitzvot), etc. One can see why many Jews find the liberal path consistent with their Jewish roots and upbringing.
(Whether it’s liberalism or conservativism that actually accomplishes these virtuous things is not the subject of this article.)
Furthermore, there is a modified Stockholm Syndrome at play here for many Jews who, after centuries of being told how dirty, cheap, conniving, greedy, and horrible they are, may have either come to believe that about themselves or cannot cope with the reality that others perceive them that way. They have chosen to do everything they can to change that perception as a kind of expiation for their guilt. They seek absolution by doing good, which is quintessentially Jewish: on our Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), we say that repentance, prayer, and charity temper the severity of G-d’s decree for our sins.
What better way to prove you are not any of those things than by living a life you believe others will view as epitomizing the exact opposite? You will be upright, magnanimous, altruistic, philanthropic, and wonderful.
Related are the scars Jews collectively bear from centuries of anti-Semitism and the underlying fear that, no matter what we do, we will always be perceived negatively. Despite our contributions and assimilation throughout Europe, we were reviled as an infestation so pernicious and alien that we had to be exterminated. Whether as slaves in Egypt, auto-da-fé victims in Spain for failing to renounce our Judaism in Spain, essentially imprisoned residents of shtetls throughout the Pale of Settlement, shunned and marginalized citizens of the USSR, or outcasts from schools and jobs throughout the Anglosphere … the consistent messaging has been that Jews are subhuman, lesser than, the Other.
For many, the solution was to embrace political parties, policies, and ideologies that reflected positively on them by demonstrating how good, caring, and involved they were, especially with people who were also of different ethnicities and races—including the Palestinians.
Then, out of the blue one day in October 2023, they were gob-smacked by Palestinian brutality and antipathy towards Jews and their joy in annihilating the Chosen People. American liberals were forced to acknowledge that the very politicians, policies, and institutions they have supported have undermined not only Israeli safety but, now, their own, as they witness Jews threatened on university campuses and in major cities throughout the world; are barricaded by protesters in university libraries; and are being targeted with hate crimes in their neighborhoods—up 1,350% in London and 400% in the US.
They cannot help but wonder what awaits Jews everywhere as Hamas’s Reign of Terror is brazenly feted by a crazed, irrational mob.
As Kisin comments (with my modifications in brackets): the “events of the last two weeks have shattered the illusion [held by Liberals, in general, and Jewish Liberals, in particular,] that wokeness [born of liberalism] is about protecting victims and standing up for persecuted minorities.”
Thanks, Ketzel. God help us.
This is simple, and you can verify it every time you talk to one of these liberal Jews. They say this openly whenever they’re interviewed. The main idea is, solidarity among minority groups against those evil white men. Blacks, gays, women, Muslims, Jews, etc. must support each other against the majority, white Christian heterosexual men. That’s it.
This morning I was watching the war coverage on i24, and some prominent liberal rabbi was interviewed. He said, remember when Trump tried to ban Muslim immigration, how we Jews supported Muslims against that. But now that we need support from Muslims, it’s not there. His solution: more outreach to Muslims. They must understand it the way we understand it.
Years ago, a gay male acquaintance came up to me at a bus stop, shaking and traumatized. He’d been at a gay street fair, and some black youths harassed him. He said to me, shocked, but how could black people threaten gays, we are all oppressed by the system! I explained to him that I’ve known for years about black homophobia, but even after he was almost beaten up, he refused to understand what I was telling him.
Please watch today’s show on i24, you really have to watch the short interview with this rabbi, a major leader and fool. Rabbi Mark Schneider (sp?), Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, i24 news Day 25, at 1:14. He’s not a complete idiot, as he has good high level contacts among Arab leaders, but he illustrates the problem with liberal Jews. His whole program is about outsourcing Jewish safety to Muslims, as long as we can get them to like us, we’ll be safe.
Whether true or not, this is a troubling headline:
Report: Jews in Berlin Forced to Consider — Is It Time to Leave Germany?
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/10/31/report-jews-in-berlin-forced-to-consider-is-it-time-to-leave-germany/
This is all too crazy to comprehend. I’ve been flying an Israeli flag on my home since Simchat Torah, and we haven’t been burned out yet. (This is the US). That’s a good sign.
We probably have several thousand Jews in this city, nearly all nominal Jews and pro-HAMAS. I don’t know what to expect from them. Most of our Christian, pro-Trump friends are pro-Israel, a sharp contrast to the local Jews.
These are very dangerous times.
Cattle in favor of the butcher
Thanks, Ted
Ted, I am sure that I posted a comment on this article, in which I said that I didn’t think that leftist Jews had been “converted” to support Israel, but instead continued to support Hamas and Palestinian terrorism. I pointed to evidence for this in New York and Washington DC. Could you please fish this out of electronic oblivion and restore it to this space?
Unfortunately the main point of ms. Zelikovsky is not true. Jewish Democrats have not been “converted”to opposition to Hamas and the “Palestinian cause,” In New York,” Jewish Voice for Peace” played a very prominent role in the pro-Hamas demonstrations. In Washington DC the crowd which mobbed the outer rooms of Congress (an insurrection ???) consisted mainly of the Jewish Voice for Peace and similar anti-Israel, pro-“Palestine” Jews. There were few “conversions” to support for Israel among Jewish Democrats or other Jewish leftists. The Democratic Socialists, for example, a largely Jewish group, is unswerving in its support for Hamas. This is the sordid reality. The hideous massacre of Jews on October 7 did not “convert”. many Jewish Democrats to Israel.
Raphael-
You are diving far too deeply into it. Amateur Psychoanalysis is no good.
Look just below , I told you all exactly how the American Jews became so solidly Democrat. My info is a historical fact.
It was after WW1 that the majority from the former Russian/Poland Latvia/Lithuania/Ukraine, landed at Ellis Island.
There had been Jews arriving in the US for a couple of hundred years in both the North and Southern US. But nothing like the Ellis Island human flood.
And, as I stated they were immediately grabbed by Democrats waiting for them who used them as immediate “voters”, They were brought to the voting booths although not citizens. The Dems had it all worked out.
Experts in deceit.
JOHN GALT,
The US Jews are certainly NOT Communist-with all that Implies.
This is a ridiculous comment to make.
They have been almost solidly Democrats generationally.
I recall their whole history and why.
Since middle 19th Cent. Boss Tweed, Frank Costello and pals, the Democrats have ruled the US from Tammany Hall, where they refined political crookery and fraud to a very fine art. The Bosses (like Mafia Don Costello (Mr Prime Minister) picked all the candidates and made sure they got in.
They were brilliant in that the ward heelers met the incoming refugee Jews landing at Ellis Island, with Yiddish speakers, etc and brought them to accommodation, food and clothing. They showed them how to vote, which they had never been allowed before.
They notified them when to shave beards, then sideburns then moustaches, each time bringing them to different voting areas, to vote under different names .
Since then The Democrat Party has been an heirloom to hand down.
That’s exactly how it was and IS. Only Trump was able to make a dent in their total allegiance .
American Jews for the most part are Communists and still think the Nazis and Fascists are right wing. So long as they are stuck on stupid the rest of the Left and Muslims will use these Jews as useful idiots just as Stalin did. I don’t see anything changing that at all. Chuck Schumer is a prime example. He would sell his family and America out just as fast as Obama, Clinton or Obama would. There is no difference at all in these four.
I wish that I could shed light on the age-old question of why so many Jews are Leftists. I have some observations, but they fall short of constituting any kind of theory.
First, Leftism could be a backlash against anything of the Right. “No matter what our Leftist politicians do, as long as it is in opposition to the Right, we must support it because it must be correct.” “We believe that those on the Right are corrupt, money-grubbing fat-cats who live lives of luxury off of the toil of the working class.” This is an image left over from the depression, or earlier.
Second, Jews are frequently highly educated at “good schools” back East. Where they have been indoctrinated in Leftism for generations. Many obtain good-paying, influential jobs. They live in urban centers where they attend concerts, plays and talks. They rub elbows with the uppity-ups. They are arrogant, and think themselves as more intelligent and sophisticated than the masses. In order to maintain their status, they must not deviate from their class norm and it’s narratives.
Third, Being a Leftist is trendy beyond words. It is fashionable rebellion. The common people think trans-genderism is wrong, so we will look oh-so-cool by supporting it. Illegal aliens are flooding into our country, causing all kinds of problems. Again, it’s cool to be seen demonstrating against “the oppression” by the Border Patrol. It goes on and on…just name a cause. If it’s weird, objectionable, or even harmful to society, supporting it is cool, because it shows what fearless Social Justice Warriors we are.
So, there’s some ideas.
P.S. Even in the wake of Oct 7th, I don’t expect to see many Leftist Jews change. They will find a way to rationalize any inconsistencies.