The Death Wish of the Jewish Intellectual Left
It’s always fascinating to find historical parallels to contemporary events. When one discovers an obscure gem of this type, cutting the stone to let it reflect the light of truth is irresistible.
For well over a century, the Jewish people have been beset by an eleventh plague inside their own house: extreme left-wing intellectuals who urge they throw away their own interests, concerns, and even lives for the supposed higher ones of humanity or the chimera of being morally perfect.
According to this view, their supposed true interests lie in bringing about utopia for everyone, paved by abandoning their own aspirations, dissolving their identity while other groups are encouraged to do the opposite.
While I admire Bertram Wolfe for things he did in later life, he spent thirty earlier years campaigning for Communism. During that period he produced one of the greatest examples in this genre of left-wing calls for Jewish suicide. On April 6, 1939, Wolfe made a speech to the Keep America Out of War Congress, opposing U.S. involvement in the looming war in Europe against the Nazis, the worst persecutor of the Jewish people (so far) in modern times.
Wolfe was then an exemplar of what has become known recently by the name “As-a-Jew.” That is, those who never identify as a member of the Jewish people or religion except when bashing some aspect of it, usually in our era, Israel. So they start their rant by saying, “As a Jew…” I oppose this or that thing. (With the implied meaning: Aren’t I a great and noble person!)
In this tradition, Wolfe’s speech ordered Jews to sacrifice themselves for a left-wing cause based on a distorted left-wing view of reality:
The element that makes the war party [who want to fight Nazi Germany] so much larger in New York than elsewhere in this country, [are] those whose anguish blinds their visions as each day their spirits are bruised and shocked afresh by the daily budget of news of Jewish persecutions throughout the world. Profiting by their anguish which amounts to hysteria, there are those who would sell them the coming war as a war against antisemitism. And this is the more dangerous delusion because the growth of militarism and reaction in this country is bringing with it the growth of antisemitism.
In those days, “New York” was a code word, often used by anti-Semites, for Jews. True, he expresses sympathy to gain credibility but only uses it to warn that the worst thing Jews could do was to advocate a war against Hitler.
Why? The left always portrays the true threat to Jews in America as being from the right-wing. Of course, historically there was real truth in it — Charles Lindbergh made a similar antis-Semitic speech at the time — and of course it was quite true in Europe at the time. Still, everyone remembers that conservative British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain practiced appeasement; nobody remembers that the Labor Party voted against Chamberlain’s last-minute reversal of that policy to rearm Britain’s army.
The threat to the east came from fascism, but the danger in the west came from not fighting fascism. You are free to make a modern-day parallel to that sentence.
Those conservatives in America — as well as the more numerous liberals doing so — advocating the United States ally with Britain and France to fight Nazi Germany weren’t anti-Semitic. On the contrary, the isolationists were anti-Semites. And those anti-Semites on the extreme isolationist right held precisely the same view as Wolfe and the Communists or pacifists on the left. Both extremes were enemies of the Jews, not just one. And you are also free to make a modern-day parallel to that paragraph.
Why were Wolfe and his comrades against American involvement in war? Not because they were pacifists or defenders of the poor and downtrodden, but because they were following the interests of the Soviet Union, interests which in a few weeks would lead that country to ally with Hitler and seize the Baltic states and eastern Poland. Indeed, that very Soviet state so idealized by all too many Jewish intellectuals was systematically destroying the Jewish religion and culture while killing Jews in numbers far exceeded in modern times only by the Nazis and their loyal allies.
To summarize, Wolfe, in line with the current Communist political line, was warning Jews not to support war against Nazi Germany, claiming that such a war would be against Jewish interests and stir up anti-Semitism in the United States. He and his comrades advocated standing by and watching while the Nazis conquered most of the world and murdered all of the Jews there. When they changed their line, in June 1941, it was only because Germany attacked their Soviet idol, not out of concern for the Jews of Europe or the defense of democracy.
“So just who was it that made such a mistake in 1939? Answer: Those like Wolfe on the Communist left (as well as the extreme right) who warned — in contrast to most democratic socialists, liberals, and conservatives — that anything was better than opposing Germany’s ambitions and system.”
OK, so what do we do today about a country like Iran? They are about to get nuclear weapons and the west does not seem to care much about it. Even though the nutty weasel who runs Iran, Ahmadinejad, says openly that he wants to “Erase Israel from the map of the middle east,” politicians in the west say “It’s just political bluster. He dosen’t REALLY mean it.” I seem to remember another nut in the 1930s who also said all of the Jews needed to be eliminated from the planet. Nobody took him seriously, either. Even though he wrote about it in his one and only book, nobody thought he would actually DO it. His name, obviously, was Adolf Hitler and he was VERY serious about eliminating all of the Jews.
When are we going to listen to dictators when they say they’re going to do something? Why don’t we ever take what they say at face value and prepare to fight against it? Seems like the world is hoping against hope that Iran is just joking about destroying Israel. But why would they bluff or make jokes about something like that? If all they wanted was power in the middle east, why don’t they just threaten their Muslim neighbors and totally ignore the Jews, who really only represent a tiny part of the land mass in the middle east?
I’ll tell you why. It’s because they’re serious about what they say. These are radical Muslim Islamists who just can’t tolerate the thought of co-existing with another religion. So if you can’t co-exist with it, then you have to destroy it. Once you cross that line of thought, anything is possible.
Don’t think that in this day and age another genicide is possible? Just ask the Muslims in Bosnia or Kosovo if it’s possible. Anything is possible when it comes to blind hatred and bigotry. The question is, does the west have the will to stop it again?
Hi Liberty,
Thats the hitch isnt it for conservatives? How do we tell the difference btw interferring in another soverign nations affairs vs helping and stopping an enemy before they become an threat. Liberal on the otherhand think that nothing is wrong until the attack happens and then its either our fault and/or we can just talk our way out of it. I think iran needs to be taken out soon. The problem is nobody( even most conserv) wants to get their hands dirty and understand you may have to break a few eggs to get that omlett. just like hiroshima and nagasaki, I would personally rather kill the enemy and 100000 innocents quickly to end the conflict, rather than spend 10 yrs only doing enough to stalemate, never win and never end
What a surprise. Nobody has ever noticed this. To say so, even privately, pegs one automatically as anti-semite, by those who deny their “jewishness”, i.e the “intellectuals” and writers,with forum /publishing houses /talk shows on NPR, PBS, network TV and notoriously BBC to propagate the nonsense to non – jews bullied into silence. And of course that most effective organ for their blather, ~Hollywood. Because they are central (deny it if you can ) to many of the organs of public discourse, have it credited as intelligent and cogent– ON THEIR TERMS. A win win for them, lose lose for those who DARE to suggest, state the obvious if contrary to the received “wisdom.” But they very often count particular “jewish” cultural advances and creations as integral to “jewishness” None so blind…
BUT BUT, these “intellectuals”, of jewish genicity if one dare say so, voted en masse for one of the most obvious destroyers of the “jewishness” of which these “intellectuals” are so ashamed. So much for these “intellectuals” intelligence. or perhaps just more evidence of your thesis of their desire for self-destruction. Which if things continue as they have historically they can blame on those always guilty of everything in the world since time began those miserable, vile goys / boys.
Jews don’t have a monopoly on Intellectual Morons.Just look @ the morons the Catholics & other assorted Christians have turn loose on the planet.Generation Z is getting better educations from Extended High-schools than the Ivy Leaguers do from the Ivory Towers.
Yeah but its the type of education im worried about. Its being so mutated. nobody teached straight facts anymore or encourage further study. they now present opinions of a historical event based on their own biases and make sure that any alternate viewpoint is soundly crushed before it can blossom into a debate. When a student risks failure of a class or worse for disagreeing with a teacher. even if the student is correct, that does not promote a good learning enviroment
What we have are those still pining for “true” socialism meeting those striving for “true” Islam. A perfect fit. Political correctness provides the most fallow ground possible for jihad.
Peer Pressure is a powerful force. Jewish culture stresses learning. Schools tend to lean very heavily to the left. It should surprise no-one that so many Jews are leaning to the left even despite assumed self interests.
Well, there certainly is a dis-proportionate number of Jews that work to undermine any society that accepts them. Deliberate, or a genetic death-wish?
Well, there certainly is [sic] a dis-proportionate number of amoral racists (such as yourself) that work to undermine any society that accepts them. Deliberate, or mere genetic defectiveness?
Facts are not racist. Fact is American Jews (and Jews in general) favor leftist policies.
Your facts exist in your minds. American Jews may be more or less liberals (and not so much left-wing) but most other Jews are right-wingers. The left in Israel got 20% of the vote. In fact, the real left in Israel just got 3% because the Labour can’t be seen as a left-wing or even liberal party.
French Jews voted 80% for the right-wing.
UK Jews voted for the conservatives.
Your facts are just wrong.
You are very confused. 90+% of US Jews vote for the Democratic Party, which is heading the US toward socialism buy socializing medicine and the banks and the auto industry. The subject of this article is Jews in America. Not in other countries. Stay on topic.
What about moral racists? Are they acceptable? We need to be clear about that since the devil is in the detail. There may be even some who hate both Jews and racism – like those self-hating leftie Jews, what? It is a conundrum, with or without morality thrown in. Well, so many races, co little time…
Prove it.
With real, verifiable, checkable, unbiased sources.
Don’t bother trying to spin it, or attack me, or anything else except providing your evidence. Every time you do anything but providing evidence, I will merely reiterate my challenge that you prove it.
“The left always portrays the true threat to Jews in America as being from the right-wing. Of course, historically there was real truth in it.”
True. Threat. To. Jews. In. America. In the 350 odd years since the first Jew came to the land we now know as the United States there never has been a pogrom (like in Russia) or a complete expulsion (as in Spain) or a genocide (as in Germany) or enslavement of Jews (as in Egypt in biblical times) in the USA. And you talk about threats. Threat to not be able to join a country club or go to a college. Give me a f_____g break.
I am a Jew, born the day after Christmas 1934, and a retired physicist. My work to some very small extent, and the work of many Jewish physicists such as Einstein, Feynman, Oppenheimer, Wigner,….,to a very large extent have contributed to our country’s strength. The same can be said for American High Technology, High Finance, and Business. So comments such as Talnik’s that “Well, there certainly is a dis-proportionate number of Jews that work to undermine any society that accepts them.” can only be attributed, at best, to ignorance of American History. World History may show that Christianity undermined pagan societies and you may wish to blame that (quite unfairly) on the Jews, but otherwise, if one cares to look (outside of antisemitic literature) you will find that Jews played a major part in teaching the Germanic Barbarians who occupied the Roman Empire, the basics of business, trade, finance and many manual skills learned in the more advanced Near East.
And thanks for not making pogroms and burning us in ovens Mr. RKV, but I will tell you from bitter personal experience, growing up in the US during WW2, that the anti-semitism here was not something you or anyone else would take with such airy equanimity. While my dad was in the army we lived all over the country and there was continual jew-baiting in every school I went to. You try growing up that way.
Well, enough time wasted on you.
It is unfortunately the case that many people do not recognize the suffering of others as being worthy of concern. You appear to be one of those persons Ed. You and your fellow Jews aren’t the only ones ever to have been discriminated against (or much worse) for your race. Ask an Irishman about the English and you’d find as good a cause or better than your own. Get over yourself. As to Jews civilizing the West, science was a Greek idea, not a Jewish one. We in the West, had it long before your religion was adopted by Rome, and the Jews rejected universal application of the principles of monotheism (i.e. Christianity). If the Jews had Einstein the Scots had Maxwell and the English had Issac Newton, the French had Pasteur and the Italians Galileo, so your argument about Jewish scientific contributions is really weak and only persuasive to the undereducated.
One more minor point Ed, any debt for discrimination against Jews by Americans was paid in full with interest by white Christian Americans in WW2, in blood. You may be too arrogant and full of yourself to recognize their sacrifice, but the rest of us Americans don’t take your complaints seriously anymore given the price that was paid.
And who exactly kept you in the United States in chains?
Precisely. If you hate your life in the USA no one is forcing you to stay. Make aliyah if you have the balls. Go back to the shtetl in Europe. Or. Shut. The. Hell. Up. Others have suffered worse than you have and don’t whine about it. I could point you at my wife’s Armenian relations who were killed in Turkey for one example. Jewish blood and Jewish suffering are worth EXACTLY the same amount as gentile blood and suffering, and not one bit more.
Today’s Left in America makes excuses for Islamofascism in the same way that Jewish intellectuals made excuses for the Soviet Union and Walter Duranty made excuses for Stalin.
Habits of over-thinking lead to de-legitimizing one’s own impulse to stand up and defend oneself, to defend country, to defend one’s own right to simply exist.
(Is it cowardice, at base, that drives this absurdity ?)
The Totalitarian Impulse that is central to Islamofascism (from Hamas/Hezbollah to Imam Rauf) is grateful that the current American leadership is awash in so called intellectuals.
It makes it easy when the the Jew/the infidel is his own worst enemy.
I always enjoy Dr. Rubin’s commentary’s, they are a real treasure of information and insight.
I happened to read a letter written by an Left wing Israeli Jewish extremist in a magazine today, and it was very disturbing. I found out that the Jewish State of Israel is the most oppressive, racist, and fundamentally corrupt state in the world, so much so in fact, that it really should be destroyed. I also found out, to my great surprise, that Jews and Arabs can and should work together, and that cooperation was manifest by their common desire to put an end to Israel.
I read this letter, all written rather reasonably and moderately, and I realized that the fellow writing it really believed the misbegotten crap he was spouting, that for him, literally everything that Israel does, stands for, achieves is either rotten to the core or at best tainted by it’s origins.
Thankfully his despair over Israel is largely confined to those of his ilk, and definitely not shared by Israeli Jews in general.
And this I believe is what so disturbs this Leftist, that very few serious and informed Israeli Jews find anything worthwhile in his diatribe, and that most Israeli Jews simply discount him as a crackpot with crackpot ideas.
Good work, Dr. Rubin!
Shana Tova!
Don’t make the mistake of looking at Bloomberg/Schumer/Feinstein types as JEWS! American Jews are leftists FIRST, Jews only if necessary, convenient or profitable. Why in the world should anyone be amazed at leftists selling out anyone but another leftist??
I see this kind of talk all the time on these treads, by both Jews and gentiles. It is deeply offensive.
You don’t get to read individuals out of the tribe because you don’t like their politics. In fact, the sense of Jews as a tribe is so strong, most Jews feel that even if a Jew converts to Christianity, he’s still a Jew underneath. An atheist Communist Israel-hating Jew is an atheist Jew who believes in Communism and hates Israel. He’s still a Jew, albeit one someone else can be outraged by and oppose.
It is also very offensive to claim that leftist Jews only go that way for convenience and profit. You can make a very good case for the leftist agenda from Jewish values. I think you can make a better case for freedom and individual sovereignty, and many Jews have. (And the idea that an individual’s rights are inalienable and trump the demands of earthly government comes from us.) But the root of our tradition and laws is arguing these things out. It isn’t very Jewish to just toss people out because you think they are wrong. So say “Bloomberg/Schumer/Feinstein types” are wrong wrong wrong and their idea of Jewish values is a gross misinterpretation. But no, you don’t get to say they aren’t Jews. That’s way way way over the line. Ruthlessly enforcing a party line is what the leftists do, not us.
With all due respect, I’m not sure I agree with your position. The primary values of the left are not compatible with Jewish values. The basis of Judaism with respect to human beings is that everyone is created in the image of God, and therefore all human beings are of equal value. In the High Holiday Mahzor we read: “We believe that He is eternal King, therefore earthly rulers deserve no ultimate allegiance.”
The values of the left are exactly opposed to these 2 Jewish principles. For the left, the state is absolute, and deserves absolute allegiance. And for the left, human beings are pawns, little more than lego pieces to be manipulated to create the “perfect” society, and to be eliminated should they prove inconvenient or opposed to the goals of the state.
History is replete with examples of Jew-hating Jews. From Torquemada (who, I have read, was the grandson of a Rabbi), to Marx, to the Jewish left today.
Don’t forget Esau and Amalek. The split in personality between Jacob and Esau is our first clue.
1) Isaac’s dedication after the binding was obviously with mixed feelings. He preferred the worldly Esau, and it required Rebecca to direct the blessing to Jacob.
2) Esau was on again off again wanting to kiss or kill Jacob after the blessing had been granted. Understandable, but it seems he only mourned its loss after he lost it, as proven by the trivial price for which he sold his birthright. He then envied his brother — quite common among worldly men.
3) Esau’s grandson Amalek became the ultimate in anti-theists, his decendents being the only people named in the Tanakh as forever making war against God.
4) It seems that that split of personalities would occur in every generation, with some becoming as anti-God and anti-jewish as Amalek. Amalek cann never be wiped out, as Samuel warned, because he’s a condition and not really a tribe of his own.
So we are back to the question: Are they still Jews when they take up against God? Or have they fallen to the worldly side of Isaac, where they indulge in the world like Esau, or come to hate the world because it’s God’s creation as did Amalek?
Moses had no trouble making war against the rebellious. Let that be a lesson? It seems there are lines that cannot be crossed that Jews must assess for themselves as did Moses.
“You can make a very good case for the leftist agenda from Jewish values.” And what “Jewish values” might they be?
“Sharing the wealth”? Nope. Jews recognize the sanctity of private property and free commerce. Pacifism or appeasement toward an enemy? Nope. “Remember Amalek”, says the Torah, and one was required to fight even on the Sabbath. Affirmative action? Nope. Jews operate on the merit principle. Opposition to capital punishment? Nope. The Rabbis put numerous restrictions on its being carried out, but its legitimacy remains. Open immigration? One was only expected to “respect the stranger”, while the latter was expected to respect the laws and values of the local (Jewish) culture. Abortion and gay rights? Hardly. Big government? Its responsibilities extended only to establishing a community of laws and justice, and preserving the foundations of a free market (enforcing proper “weights and measures” and business contracts, etc.). Just consider Samuel’s warnings about what would happen when the people insisted on a King.
Raymond, you nailed it! I would only add this to your list: unlike the left, the Torah sees justice in terms of the individual, while the left views justice in terms of social class. That is why David the king, the head of state, had to be punished for cynically arranging the death of Uriah, a Hittite (not a Jew). Even an outsider is entitled to justice, and even a king must submit to the law. The Torah warns that a judge must not find in favor of any social class, a rich man and a poor man are entitled to equal protection of the law.
For the left, it is always about class consciousness and class warfare. Hence, one group is always racist, and another is always the victim. Kulaks must be killed because the group itself is guilty. The object is not to create a society in which the individual is protected, but in which one class prevails and the other is defeated. As Lenin said, it is a question of “Who whom!” Who rules whom.
“For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” Romans 9:6.
“You don’t get to read individuals out of the tribe because you don’t like their politics. In fact, the sense of Jews as a tribe is so strong, most Jews feel that even if a Jew converts to Christianity, he’s still a Jew underneath. An atheist Communist Israel-hating Jew is an atheist Jew who believes in Communism and hates Israel. He’s still a Jew, albeit one someone else can be outraged by and oppose.”
Even if they convert to Chirstianity? Scandlous. There lies your problem, don’t it? Your refusal to excommunicate your the treacherous, golden calf worshipping, apostates among you. Atheism is counter to Judiasm, how can you be an Atheist Jew? Just because someone ceremouniiouly goes through the motions of Jewish rituals shouldn’t mean anything. However, I think other Religions suffer this same affliction. Why has Nancy Pelosi been excommunicated by the Catholic Church? Why has Harry Reid not been kicked out of the Mormon church. I grew up with a Mormon friend in California whose sister was kicked out of the Church for her unrepentent pre-marital sex. Is someone going to tell me Harry Reid’s actions are less offensive to the Mormon Church?
You don’t get it. Jews are not a religion, they are a people with its own religion. “Judaism” is a foreign concept not a Jewish one – the word itself did not originally exist in Hebrew. So yes you can be a Jew and an atheist.
But it does not mean you can’t be expelled of the Jewish people. There was never an agreement about it but for example the Rambam (Maimonide) thought that a Jew who voluntarily leaves the Jewish people is no longer part of it. This is a minority opinion.
While in Iraq, I met an army doctor who was of jewish decent lamenting the “self hating jew”. It baffled him why American jews would advocate for those who would “be the first to send them to the ovens”. The west must realize that Israel is like us. They are our only friends in the region, do not condone beating their women nor blowing up their children. Like the brother in law who can sometimes be irritating at thanksgiving, we must not forget they are family.
Rubin’s is a shallow contemporary view of Jews and the long and dismal history of Jewish turncoats who favor fashionable Gentile culture over their own. The Asmonean Hellenizers–the execrable Melenaus in the lead–were enemies of their own faith and continually aroused Antiochus and the Syrian Greeks against their fellow Jews. Torquemada who led the Spanish inquisition was a Jew and he wasn’t the only Catholic convert to oppress the Jews. The secularizing Nineteenth Century Jewish Maskilim continually petitioned Eastern European governments to suppress Jewish teaching and force secularization on the Jews.
J-Street has a long and ugly history.
and ironically it was mostly conversos who DIED under Torquemada! He was suspcisious of their conversions and they were accused of secretly practicing Judaism! and thus otrtured for confessions- the people who clung to being JEWS openly defied were not the targets of the Inquistion
The Israeli left-wing intellectuals represent the only hope to end this conflict.
11. Vindico Libertas
Said — They are our only friends in the region—
Just this week the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia KSA and the USA agreed on a deal that KSA will pay the USA $60+ Billion for advanced US weapons systems–the deal will create 80,000 new American jobs. It is the biggest arms sale in US history–KSA is a true friend and long term ally— they could have bought from Russia, China, France etc— but they chose the USA!
The USA also has excellent relations with Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Dubai, UAE, Kuwait, and now with Libya and Iraq.
As Americans we must put our own foreign policy interests in the region first as both Petraeus and Gates have said repeatedly in the last few months.
i see the saudis are trolling now, “victor”.
well, “victor”, 15 of the 19 muslim killers of 3,000 innocents here at the wtcenter came from saudi arabia, were supported by saudi arabia. the saudi princes wouldn’t know what a democracy is if they fell over it.
the peculiar arms deal, which is not yet a done deal btw, could only be pushed by the likes of obama, our imam in the white house. the saudis have practically no army and no one is threatening them. the other me states, exclusive of israel, are jackals who will eventually eat each other, but why hasten the feeding frenzy.
and, that is precisely the reason israel has always been our “only ” friend. only israel is a stable, democratic state. the muslim states, will switch alliances and enemies faster than the u.s. can figure out who the players are tomorrow.
our friend, our ally israel, has become a beacon ofhope for those of us who value western civilization.
jews, intellectuals especially, question everything. for the most part, except for lunatics like chompsky and feinstein, these jews say many things on many sides of the same issue. only the part that is fit to spin makes it into common knowledge. not long ago, it suddenly became newsworthy that albert einstein said he didn’t believe in being a jew. what they neglected to mention, is that einstein was an ardent zionist and loved israel and was its great supporter.
“It is the biggest arms sale in US history–KSA is a true friend and long term ally— they could have bought from Russia, China, France etc— but they chose the USA!”
Victor, how interesting!
KSA bought advanced US weapons systems not because it is USA friend, not because it is our ally, but because USA gave them the best deal. Nothing more, nothing less. But somehow you implied that KSA choice is extraordinary and that perhaps they bought it because of friendship.
Give me a break.!
As for excellent relations with other ME countries – US bureaucrats think US has excellent relationship. With ME governments. But they are wrong. USA do not have excellent relationship, not with the governments and not with the people of the ME. The ME people are listening to the same ME governments blaming USA (in arabic, of course) for all the bad things happening to their countries. Such a good friends they are.
Really.
David Levavi
Torquemada was a Jew? Somehow you mixed him with his grandmother who (some claim) converted, in other worlds you think that if someone has a Jewish ancestry he/she must be a Jew. Further expanding your thought one must think that at least half of the ME and a quarter of Europe has to be Jewish.
That Torquemada was a Converso–or descended of contemporaneously recent Conversos-probably forced–is something I have long taken as fact. But I don’t have a source in front of me so I’ll concede that I am not certain.
However, the forced conversion to Roman Catholicism of whole Jewish communities on threat of horrible torture and annihilation had been going on at least a century and more before Torquemada took to looting and burning Jews.
In any event it does not detract from my underlying point: Leftism is the fashion du jour–a modish faith for many Jews suffering from a shame-based need to reject Jewish tradition and seamlessly and unremarkably “fit in.” Sophisticated and with-it Jews are an ancient sickness that has afflicted the Jews for millennia.
For the corrupt Asmonean priests (Kohanim) The faith du jour was Hellenism–sacrifices to Zeus Helenus,naked sport among men and circuses where captives and slaves slaughtered each other for entertainment by the wagering mob.
The Asmoneans couldn’t do too much to get with the program, fit right in. In order not to stand out in the gymnasium, they even had false foreskins painfully retrofitted.
They incited Judea’s post-Alaxandrian Syrian-Greek overlords to outlawing and burning the scrolls of the Old Testament and forbidding its study on pain of death. They schemed with the enemies of Judaism and and openly made war on Jews. The desecration of the Holy of Holies, and the enormous death and destruction under Antiochus Epiphanes are all ultimately accountable to these ancient J-Streeters.
That many opportunistic Jews–rabbis not infrequently at their fore–voluntarily (if the word applies given the circumstances) converted to Roman Catholicism–an influential number the rabbis even taking Catholic priestly vows and rising rapidly in the Church–is a matter of Jewish history.
The nineteenth century Maskilim were modernists. It infuriated them that their fellow Jews could be so ignorant as to so cut themselves off from the secular world of invention and discovery where new things were learned every day. Many contemporary American Jews can well sympathise with the Maskilim point of view.
The modernizing Maskilim’s contempt for Biblically and Rabbinically observant Jews is is well understood and much emulated among contemporary Jews.In the USA, eighty percent of these Jews lean left. This has no more to do with socialism than the Asmonean’s attitudes had to do with the Gods of Olympus or Maskilim’s attitude had to do with science and technology.
The motive impulse is fashion. Mode. Style. Left has been cool in America for better than half a century.
Pray tell what does Hellenism have to do with Jews believing that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah?
I never got this ethnic thing–from our view America was founded on the policy of E Pluribus Unum– imperfectly at first– and we had to go through the racial and the Know Nothing eras –
80,000+ jobs is 80,000+ American jobs and $60+ Billion is what it is— for the future of American families and our children.
Identity politics does not serve the best interests of America moving forward and that it is a good thing for Americans that it is out of fashion—for good.
In my view one of America’s greatest strengths has always been that it’s really more of a “salad bowl” than a “melting pot”.
For many (if not all) people, uniformity is bland and predictable, while diversity is creative and exciting.
With all due respect for those whose palates only tolerate mayonnaise on wonderbread, America is wonderful for also offering dishes on the national menu where each individual spice contributes to the overall flavor, which adds to the integrity of the whole, without any one spice smothering the others.
George, I, too, used to believe in the salad bowl vs. the melting pot analogy. However, the past few years have led me to look at my country in different (more mature, perhaps?) and I have come to believe now that the salad bowl has turned rancid.
The salad bowl has given us such identity politics that I believe we as a country might have truly lost sight of what America is, and that is a sad thing.
As a second generation Litvak (my granparents were Jews from outside of Vilna) I look at England as “the Mother Country” not the Pale of Settlement. England is where the Magna Carta was written, from where we have 800 years of the development of property rights, individual rights, corporate rights, and the development to a higher degree of representational government than had been developed anywhere else. England, too, threw the Jews out and is going through some very serious issues on the matter even today, but without England, we wouldn’t be who we are as a people no matter how many on the left try to erase that fact.
Just look at all the identity politics we’ve developed. This group vs. that group. It’s torn (or is in the process of tearing) our country asunder.
You can still have your group identity in the melting pot. I can still be an American and have mustard on rye.
I’m all for helping Jews any way I can. But as long as they work so hard themselves to commit collective suicide, I’m not going to. They have to be part of the solution. As it is now Jews are the biggest obstacle.
The worst, most insidious, snarky haters on the left are Jewish. They are actually leading the left wing anti Israel cult. I’m usually staring at the TV in amazement and wondering what psychological mechanism is causing this collective death wish.
George Soros, John Stewart, Steven Colbert, Keith Olbermann, Obama’s administration, Congress, Hollywood…. etc. etc.
JL,
I’m Jewish – my ethnicity is Jewish – , I used to, until very recently, consider myself politically “Liberal”, I am American. I am distressed and vexed and enraged and maddedned at the pathology (deep profound Stockholm Syndrome) of most diaspora Jewish people and of some Israeli Jewish people. It is horrifying and demoralizing to be a member of a social group not only whose so-called “leaders” (Israeli government officials, and “Professional Jews” (leaders of “Jewish Organizations”) and most of whose members not only refuse to verbally defend their people against lies that vilify their people but to be a member of a social group some few of, but relatively very many of, whose members are fervent propagators of, and the most influential propagators of, lies that vilify their people, which are lies that are a part of huge genocidal movement to destroy their own people. I have come to realize that it has always been this way with Jewish people throughout, at least, the last two thousand years.
I am distressed about this.
JL, please don’t give up on or disparage the Jewish people. The Jewish people are a wounded people. Don’t give up on Jewish people.
The majority of Israeli Jewish people are very good people (and are socially very tolerant and loving and open-minded and naturally egalitarian and are politically classically Liberal (not contemporary immoral politically “Liberal”) and love and cherish their country, Israel) and, unlike very many diaspora Jewish people (non-Israeli Jewish people) and unlike some few Israeli Jewish people, are not delusional and are not deranged.
Those of us who are Jewish who are not delusional and who are not deranged need support – psychological, emotional support – from decent – good, aware – people who are not Jewish.
I apologize for my grammatical mistakes (the grammatical mistakes that I made) in my previous comment.
The crazy Jews are a minority. Self-hate is not a Jewish phenomenon but it is true it is more widespread among *Ashkenazi* Jews – and not the other Jews by the way – maybe because of the history of Jews in Europe that was truly horrible.
But look at Europe today – self-hate is very commonplace among left-wing Europeans and they are not Jews. In fact sometimes, Jews are on the frontline of the fight against self-hate in Europe – particularly in UK and France.
Then take comfort in the fact that there are people who support you — perhaps not so much of your ethnicity or religion, but because you are a good person individually.
Realize that no one group has sole proprietorship to the foolish, the misguided, and the simply evil in their ranks — we all labor underneath that burden…and we all need to remember that in the end people of good will shall have to stick together no matter their differences to fight back against those who would destroy or enslave us all.
Realize that in standing up we not only try to save ourselves, we also save those who have sided (either through wilful choice or having been conned into believing it) with the forces of foolishness, misguidance, and oppression (I would say “evil” but that is an unfahionable word these days…I might get accused of being a Bible thumper, lol…even though the word does have relevance when dealing with situations where death. suffering, and destruction can be the outcome).
Thing is that as the Chosen People, the actions of the Jews are magnified, and it cuts both ways. The good they do is magnified, and so is the evil.
“Chosen” can have many aspects to it — both positive and negative; while it signifies special consideration, it also imparts the admonition to be especially responsible.
unknown jane,
The problem it is specifically Jewish people who have been vilified for almost 2000 years, as tenets of the religions that were based on the traditional religion of the Jewish people, Christianity and Islam, and it is specifically Jewish people about whom huge conspiracy theories have been invented about, and hugely believed about, and it is because of conspiracy theories specifically about Jewish people that genocidal movements are developed and come to arise, and it is specifically Jewish people who are the central targets of huge genocidal movements that developed and came to arise because of huge conspiracy theories about Jewish people.
Being Jewish I do not have the luxury of feeling at home in the world and accepted in the world as a normal human being. Although even before the contemporary surge of the Western anti-Jewish anti-Israel movement in the past ten years I still felt somewhat apart from, and not accepted as a normal human being by the world, I didn’t used to feel my self-identity as being so tied up with being Jewish as I have come to since the throughout the past several years with of the rise of the contemporary Western anti-Jewish anti-Israeli movement. I would like to have a self identity in which my ethnicity was not a huge part of my self-identity as it currently is, and in which my self-identity was a part in only the same way that people who are not Jewish have a self-identity in which their their ethnicity is a part. Because I am Jewish, I do not have that priveledge.
Almost all Jewish people (including myself), especially non-Israeli Jewish people, and especially ethnically Jewish-European Jewish people, experience, to varying degrees, as a psychological coping mechanism, and have experienced, for centuries, to varying degrees, as a psychological coping mechanism, a deep profound form of Stockholm-Syndrome. Some Jewish people, during times of huge societal attacks against the Jewish people, succumb completely to that Stockholm Syndrome and become deranged and immoral and become vicious attackers of the Jewish people, as has happened throughout the past 60 years, and especially and extremely throughout the past ten years. I have experienced this Stockholm Syndrome myself and I, in the past, immorally, out of fear of being disliked by culturally Christian European (Christan and post-Christian) non-Jewish people, and, as part of that, out of wanting to be seen as superiorly moral, and because I felt compassion for the “Palestinian” Arab people (for whom I still do feel compassion), and because I was ignorant about many facts of the factual history of the situation, wrongly verbally attacked Israel and excused the attackers of Israel.
Again, I apologize for the grammatical mistakes in my previous comment.
Important Clarifying Correction:
I wrote
“The problem it is…”
which should be,
“The problem is that it is…”
Yehudit –
‘You don’t get to read individuals out of the tribe because you don’t like their politics.’
The yom kippur liturgy -
Kol Nidre: with the permission of this congregation, we will declare it to be lawful to pray with those who have transgressed.
But they have to attend the service- you can’t pray with someone not there.
When we have people, actively, against us, we cannot call them coreligionists, if they only intend to destroy us.
Victor –
the favorite antisemitic propagandist, I was wondering when the Buchanan wannabe would show up. Very effective deception, as always. A hater remains a hater even in the guise, especially in the guise, of an intellectual.
The fact that Islam is a supremacist movement, similar to a bowel, must have escaped your attention.
Please wipe up after your done, don’t forget to flush, and leave the seat down.
David Levavi -
If all people who have had ‘a drop of Jewish blood’ can be considered Jews, we must surely be the majority of the world population. This article is about self-hating ‘Jews’, generally speaking not Halachic Jews. See J-Street for primary example.
JL: Actually, I believe Colbert is Catholic – several years ago, I saw a rather strange video of Colbert spastically dancing to a Catholic hymn. I have to say, I thought it was extremely funny, but then, I’m a product of parochial schools. It struck me as a bizarre sort of Catholic in-joke.
Daniel Bielak: I strongly support Israel, but, like JL, I get very, very frustrated when I see or have to deal with left-wing Jews who are indifferent or even hostile to Israel. They despise the Jewish state and yet are certainly not adverse to pulling that “As-a-Jew…” claim to special authority regarding all things Israeli, which is a card they cannot play with Jewish Zionists. It’s maddening – these are people who call the Jewish state racist and imperialist and yet, when arguing with a gentile supporter of Israel, consciously or unconsciously manage to give the impression that being Jewish automatically gives them expertise on this subject. I don’t think that’s a “Jewish trait” – it’s a leftist one, to think you have all the answers to everything. Still, it’s very maddening, especially since I’ve found that their knowledge of the ME is frequently limited to what people like Edward Said or Chomsky wrote on the subject.
Far more common, but still baffling to me, are people like my boss. She is not a self-hating Jew, she says she supports Israel – but she votes the straight D ticket and still loves Obama. There is a complete disconnect in her head between the Democratic domestic agenda and their increasingly hostile stance toward Israel. And I really don’t get it. I don’t get the impassioned, unreasoning attachment many Jews have to the Democratic Party. My Catholic immigrant grandparents and their children had the same deep attachment to the Democratic Party as the Jews had, but that attachment began to significantly weaken after the Party made a hard left turn in 1968. (It also weakened when the Catholics began leaving their urban ethnic enclaves and moving to the ‘burbs. Many Jews made the same progression to the suburbs, but continued – and still continue – to vote like they are still slaving away in the Lower East Side sweatshops. And I have a tough time understanding that – it’s an inability to accept that the world has changed during the past 50 years, conservatism is no longer monopolized by snooty WASPs, and Southern Baptists are about as big a threat to American Jews in 2010 as the Czar is.
Don’t worry, Daniel B. because I’m not about to adopt the Pali cause. I know which side is the just one here. It just becomes very maddening, when a gentile finds herself arguing with anti-Zionist Jews and thinking “Why do I care, when they don’t?” Oh, and being calling a crazy Christian fundamentalist, when my support for Israel is not based on religious concerns at all, that’s fun too
Interesting post. Actually, the anti-Zionist Jews play exactly the same card with us. I believe the standard phrase is, ‘as a Jew I can’t be silent over what Israel does’ – and it is supposed to silence Zionists. Of course, what they are really ‘saying’ is ‘I’m not Jewish when it comes to denouncing Israel.’ Tell them that, and…
There is a fundamental misunderstanding here. These people are not ‘intellectuals’ except in their own imagination. They are, in fact, very thick, unable to analyse history or learn from it.
Mr. Rubin – You ask an interesting question. Norman Podhoretz asked the same question in the title of his book, Why are Jews Liberals? The question was asked more crudely some decades ago as, How can Jews live like Espicopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans? (Question: How can George Soros do what he is doing?)
Indeed, if one looks at the current “Liberal,” agenda, which is anything but liberal, it is inimical to Jewish interests both abroad and domestically. Even still, 58% of Jews think Obama is doing a fine job (although down from the 75-80% that voted for him). I have argued with my own co-religionist and close family relatives on this, but they don’t seem to get it. Maybe I am not intelligent enough to understand the allure that the Dummycrat party has for them.
One correction – Lindbergh was not associated with the right. He was associated with the Nazis, and as Jonah Goldberg amply demonstrated in his book, Liberal Fascism, the Nazis (National SOCIALISTS) were anything but a right-wing party.
Don’t underestimate the power of propaganda and the desire to “fit in”. Also, don’t underestimate force of habit and family tradition — they a all very difficult things to overcome.
Why do Blacks vote Democrat in the main? (now there’s an interesting irony if every there was one!) Why do many ethnic groups in America? It surely isn’t due to any truly good deeds that the Democrats have done for them; it surely can’t be because the Democrats have displayed anything but the most noxious, virulent and pandering bigotry towards them (if you really look at the history of that party), but packaging can cover a lot of things up, no? And the Democrats have wrapped themselves up in shiny, pretty ribbons for a very long time.
Of course, there are many on the Republican side who are guilty of not being the most welcoming bunch — and there are some sensitivities that are close to the nerve, and old phobias are hard to break (especially when they get touched on quite frequently).
Donna V,
Thank you for your support for the Jewish people and for the country of the Jewish people. It means a lot to me. It is a support to me.
And people wonder why God commanded the Jews to stone seditious people, even close relatives? This is why: because those seditious Jews partner themselves with those who would wipe out the Jewish people, and with their gods.