Jews support the left for many of the same reasons other racial and religious minority groups support the left — because it is the Coalition of the Fringe against the core. In a white America, Jews are more likely to stand out as different. In multicultural America, Jews blend in.
Jews support the left for reasons that have next to nothing to do with Judaism as the most religious Jews, the Orthodox, vote Republican.
Jews, like other Medditteranean peoples, identify as white when that is incentivized and as not-white when that is incentivized. Right now all the incentives are to identify as oppressed people of color.
Tom Teicholz writes for the Jewish Journal:
Jews will always believe Black Lives matter because Jews do not think of themselves as “White People.” You have but to walk down a street in Tel Aviv to see the multiplicity of Jewish skin colors. You have but to live as a Jew in any time in history, in any country including the United States, to recognize we are not the White People – we were not the White People allowed into certain clubs, schools, neighborhoods for most of American history. We are not the people rallying for “white people’s rights.” As Ta-Nehisi Coates has written more eloquently that I ever will, “Our notion of what constitutes “white” and what constitutes “black” is a product of social context.”
Dennis Prager makes much of how the Left has often betrayed Jews. He is not wrong about that. But he is wrong in thinking that means Jews should stop supporting the causes of the Left. Consider the alternative: How have Jews fared under the right? Far worse. In Egypt, or under the Greeks and Romans, in Spain and Portugal under the Inquisition, in Europe during the Reformation, in France at the time of Dreyfus, or in Hitler’s Germany or his Reichlands. Consider the fate of Jewish lives under right wing governments in Hungary or Poland – are they better off than they were under Leftist regimes? One can even ask, as members of the Israeli Knesset have, whether more Israelis have died as a result of the policies of the current right-wing Likud government than in those years when Labor was in power (they have).
Leonard Bernstein was ridiculed for hosting a party for the Black Panthers. But Bernstein’s compassion and sense of Justice led him to lead the Palestine Symphony Orchestra in 1947 and as it became the Israel Philharmonic in Beersheba in November 1948 and almost every year of his life. His heart was large, his passion great and he was not wrong to support the cause of Black Pride and African American self-empowerment, even if its leaders had not so great a heart as his.
Jews will always agitate for and support causes of the Left, because we are commanded to be a beacon unto others and to see social activism and seeking Justice, Tikkun Olam and Tzedaka, as part of the Jewish DNA. We are chosen to do so. Our support is not a two-way street, or an all or nothing proffer. The Torah does not hold others, particularly those we support, to the same standard as it does Jews. If Prager can interpret the Torah to allow for an a la carte approach to keeping kosher then why can’t Jews support just causes, even if their leaders also espouse opinions or platforms we reject. We are not condoning Anti-Israel agitation or Anti-Semitism, we speak out against it.
Comments:
* As a white person I would much rather have complete clarity on this issue. So if jews essentially believe it is their job to be opposed to white interests, or if you will, be anti-white, say it loud say it proud. I will then, I assume, be free let let my anti-semetic flag fly proudly.
* Firstly Jews are NOT commanded at Pesah to feel as if they are slaves in Egypt that is taken out of context and is pure manipulation. We are commanded to remember that we were once slaves in Egypt and to thank G-D for freeing us. Pesah is celebrated for 8 days which was our exodus from Egypt and in remembrance of FREEDOM. Secondly Judaism is a conservative religion not liberal. (there is no middle ground) only in America have they reconstructed the religion into different sects that I had never heard of before coming to USA. Only in America can you pay any rabbi to marry you even if there is no conversion. Thirdly ONLY American Jews feel this way… Jews in the diaspora throughout the world look at American liberal Jews with Disdain. Frankly any Jew that is anti Trump in this election is anti America and anti Israel. No Jew who supports Israel and the Tanah and Torah supports the palestinian cause. Jews are either Ashkenazi or Sephardi depending on our origins… There are many black Jews and Yemenite jews and Moroccan Jews and Iraqi Jews and Ethiopian Jews (thats another whole topic) but we do not refer to Jews as black or white. We are the same. We are just Jews. The only Jews that are a disgrace are these liberal idiots… who are clueless when it comes to Judaism anyway. Tom Teicholz has zero idea what he’s talking about and a disgrace for the Jewish Journal to even publish that but I guess it caters to liberal America. I have just got home from a fantastic event in LA hearing a close friend of mines daughter sing…. probably about 120 Jews (all SA and American friends) ALL conservative !!! mostly supporting Trump. All anti BLM. The assimilation of Jews in this country is the worst in the world. Its a disgrace and most don’t even know the essence of Judaism yet for some bizarre reason are proud to say they’re Jewish. Every family I know has a traditional shabbat every friday night with family and its passed down thru generations… We all light shabbat candles on a Friday and most of us don’t allow shell fish, pork or bacon into our homes. Liberal Jews do not support Netanyahu who is right wing (likud) There is no difference btw these liberal Jewish idiots holding BLM signs supporting palestine and BDS and George Soros who was born a Jew and in charge of Hitlers Youth. Nothing !!! American Jews have lost their sense of Jewish identity so much so that American Jewish life is in danger of disappearing and assimilating out of existence. Jewish education is the key to Jewish survival. The American Jewish community is the largest diaspora community and the most assimilated in the world. American liberal Jews stand out as a horrible example of demographic failure. This article is so distorted and manipulated. I bet none of these so called liberal Jews know how to sing Hatikava nor do they even know what it even means… and very few probably went to private Jewish day schools or were given a Jewish education and they never saw the heritage passed down from generation to generation nor were they taught traditional Jewish values in their homes. An article like this is totally foreign to me…. to my way of life and to every single Jew I’m in contact with and nope none of us would ever stand for BLM coz BLM does not matter. We stand for Israel.
* Jews are Caucasians racially. They are not Mongoloid or Negroid and no, you don’t have to be lily white to be a Caucasian. Just look at the people of Israel, Italy, Greece, Spain, Brazil, etc to see that. There has always been slavery in Africa and it was black Africans who captured members of enemy tribes and sold them to white slave buyers. No black in America has been a slave in 160 years so it is past time to get over it and move on.
* Jews will always be left? That’s so absurd. Leftist Jews aren’t having children, being outbred by the Orthodox 3-1. The Orthodox are largely Republican. Your kind is a dying breed because it ends up nowhere. What it is is you have a conflicted and confused identity, so you express yourself thru stupid causes. We marched for the blacks and what did they give us? Ruined cities, riots, beatings, robberies, muggings, “Eyyoooo, get Goldberg!” They are not our friends and never will be. We’ve thrived under right-wing European governments.
Now you scum want to import millions of brown Nazis because “it’s in your DNA”. Who cares that it will increase anti-Semitism on both ends. The goat lovers don’t like us and the Europeans blame us for bringing the terrorists here. As a rabbi once said, “Trotsky causes the trouble and Bronstein pays the price”