Why Jews Should Not Be Liberals Read online

  When I sought to repeat my argument that Reagan was for reducing the powers of government, that he was a strong supporter of enhanced freedom for all, and that is what I thought Judaism stood for, she walked away muttering under her breath. As it turned out, "Dutch" Reagan did not have an anti-Semitic bone in his body, and was a great supporter of Israel while president. I should have known then that I was fighting an uphill battle in my desire to "convert" my co-religionists away from their liberal views. Still, the battle needs to be waged and eventually won! After all this is certainly not the first time that the Jewish people have followed the wrong course and the wrong leaders, and have eventually seen the light as to where their true interests lie.

  I like to think that it would not take a large number of Jewish leaders to spark a turn-around in the thinking of American Jews. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz writes in The Essential Talmud, that in most periods, learned men, leaders of each community chosen from its best scholars, ruled Jewish society. That was aristocracy in its truest sense. Those Talmudic scholars who became the leaders of their communities were endowed with spiritual and humanitarian qualities, and practiced what they preached. He also wrote, and this should be applicable today, that the Talmud specified that a man, however erudite, whose conduct was contemptible, should be condemned and despised. The Talmud often related that learned people of dubious character were punished, chastised, or excommunicated.

  If we have such spiritual leaders today, and they may come from the ranks of rabbis, writers, media people, teachers, plain citizens, or even politicians, who would meet these standards, let them rise up and devote some of their precious time and scholarship to changing the political thinking of our people as we enter the twenty-first century. I suggest that next to keeping our American Jewry alive and well, there is not a more important cause that is as worthy of their time.

  One would hope that in the twenty-first century with the growth of the Internet and the vast amount of information available, more and more Jews will assume leadership roles and transmit the sustaining values, responsibilities, and texts of our Jewish tradition. As Rabbi Daniel Lapin writes in Americas Real War, what must be reversed is the secular humanism of modern liberalism that preaches that their "faith" is identical to Judaism. Rabbi Lapin believes that the reason many nonobservant Jews pursue liberalism is frequently to escape from the eternal laws of God. But that yearning for God exists at the core of every Jew, and no matter how much we observe or do not observe the traditional rituals of Judaism, we must never abandon the essential core of our religion, the worship of and belief in the One and Holy and Eternal God.

  Although there does not appear to be one large national organization today of Jewish political conservatives, there are some smaller ones, such as the Republican Jewish Coalition, who are fighting the good fight. I tend to believe there are more Jewish conservatives hiding in the underbrush than we know about, and who perhaps are just waiting for a call to arms. I am hopeful that out of these groups will emerge a new, strong cadre of politically conservative Jews to serve as a needed counterbalance to the current Jewish liberal leaders.

  I am encouraged in reading about the worldwide activities of Chabad-Lubavitch, the Hasidic movement, as reported in the August 2000, edition of Moment magazine. Chabad now has emissaries in 109 countries around the world, where their young emissary couples are working to create active Hasidic branches. The key to the movement's success in its expansion is due to the thousands of smart, idealistic men and women who leave their comfortable homes and travel to a foreign county to build and establish Chabad Centers and to stay in those countries for the rest of their lives.

  The Chabad emissaries, or shlichim as they are known, are encouraged to be quite lenient with other Jews' observance levels, while at the same time, maintaining their own strict observance of Jewish law. Although politics is not really a part of Chabad, it is a fact that Orthodox Jews are much closer to political conservatism and tend to vote that way quite consistently. As this movement grows worldwide and here in the United States, I hope it will spill over into other branches of Judaism.

  Just as liberals never seem to abandon their favorite causes, so it is that we conservative Jews must not waiver in our struggle to recruit more of our co-religionists to our banner. Our cause is just, our goals are pure, and eventually I pray, our efforts will be rewarded. There is a new generation of young Jews coming on the scene. It may well be that only when they assume the mantles of leadership, and hopefully this book will serve as an aid to them, will we see a true change in the political complexion of American Jewish leadership.

  I am particularly anxious to have my message conveyed to young Jews. I have written several letters to the Hillel Foundation headquarters asking for their assistance. Hillel is making a strong drive to help young Jews combat anti-Jewish sentiments on their college campuses. I had hoped that the Hillel leadership would at a minimum be interested in reading my book and using it in their classes. Alas, the only letters I have received to date are requests for additional donations.

  WHO ARE THE TRUE

  FRIENDS OF THE JEWS?

  During my lifetime, any discrimination I experienced whether in trying to obtain a job, or in some business or personal situation, could not be connected by me to any hate group or organized anti-Semitic group. Rather it came from individuals who had their own opinions and prejudices against Jews. One incident that I do remember is when I was being interviewed for a job as an agent with the Internal Revenue Service shortly after graduating from UCLA in 1949. I wanted that job badly for two reasons. One was to get the tax experience to further my accounting career, and second was that it paid $277 a month, which was higher than most auditing jobs at the time. The two men who interviewed me somehow left me with the impression that perhaps my Jewish sounding name was not exactly the optimum one they had in mind. I did not get that job, which may have been a blessing in disguise, because I could have become a career income tax sleuth and have been hated by all instead of just by the liberals.

  However, these occasional incidents were never career threatening or that personally distasteful. Even when as a teenager I spent a month working on a farm in De Kalb, Illinois, where the town boys unknowingly described all Jews as "kikes" was there any real animosity. Perhaps I have lived a charmed life in this regard, but I don't think my experience is that much different from most Jews of my generation.

  On the contrary, as the years passed by it turned out that my closest friends and business associates were non-Jews. Some were strong Christians, some were lukewarm Christians. Some were simply deists. They all had one thing in common. They looked to me in business for the contributions I could make to helping grow their business or further their individual careers. There may have been occasional attempts to enlighten me on the joys of Christianity, but these were never intense or threatening. In personal relations, it was rather the community of interests that governed our relationship, not our different religions. And so it appears is the case on the national or political scene.

  It has not always been our American Jews that have been the strongest supporters of Israel these past fifty years. It was President Harry Truman who was quick to recognize the new State of Israel when it declared its independence in 1948. It was another non-Jew, President Richard Nixon, who saved Israel during the 1973 war by insisting that the United States send all the war materiel it could supply to Israel during those dark hours soon after the Arabs' sneak attack. This insistence, so I have read, was over the objections of our fellow Jew, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who is reported to have counseled to let the Jews bleed a little more so they will be more malleable at the next negotiation session. Yet Nixon is regarded by many non-knowing Jews as one who was at worst anti-Semitic, and at best, a less than enthusiastic supporter of Israel.

  One of Nixon's shrewdest political managers, Murray Chotiner, was Jewish. My wife and I knew Murray, who met an untimely death in an auto accident just before the Watergate incident
became public. We have always thought that if Murray had still been alive, he would have guided Nixon to confess his sins before the American public, who would probably have quickly forgiven him and permitted Nixon to serve out his full second term.

  As the new millennium approaches, the strongest supporters of Israel are not the Jewish organizations, but rather the leaders of the Religious Right. It is the Evangelical Christians who will defend Israel's right to exist, while many American Jews are perfectly content to live with a Palestinian State, which may eventually lead to a complete takeover of Israel by the Arabs. (Although God will not permit this, I pray.)

  I remember a personal incident in October 1981, when my wife and I were in Israel for the first time. We wandered into a large convention hall in Jerusalem where the Feast of the Tabernacles pageant was taking place. Delegations of Christians from all over the world were present, marching into the auditorium with their banners and their joyful singing. It was an awe-inspiring sight. The featured speaker was the then Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin. When the diminutive Begin rose to speak, the thousands of Christians in that auditorium leaped to their feet and roared ovation after ovation in tribute to both Begin and the State of Israel. I'll never forget what Begin's opening words were. "And they say we have no friends," he began, at which point the crowd again expressed their love and devotion for Israel and the Jewish people with thunderous applause.

  The point to all this is that too often American Jews do not know, or refuse to recognize, who their true friends are, not only from the standpoint of protecting and preserving our individual freedoms which are inimical to Judaism, but from the point of supporting the cause of Israel, which is still of vital importance to most American Jews. Since 1948, it has been the emergence of Israel that has helped give us that additional pride in our heritage and which has, at least until recently, been the one cause that could unite most Jews in America. Keeping Israel strong was the dominant theme. As of this writing, there is a division of opinion. Can Arabs be trusted to live up to any peace agreement by giving up increasing slices of that small country's territory, or is it simply part of a plan to eventually take Israel over and eliminate the Jewish State from the face of the globe? Only time will tell, but many of us counsel against taking that chance.

  Our true friends are those who are saying we should slow down and make the other side live up to their commitments before moving ahead. The liberals, on the other hand, and our fellow Jews, who were in power in the State and Defense Departments, kept pushing Israel hard to grant more and more land and authority to the Palestinians. Israel apparently cannot get an even break from our American Jewish leadership when it comes to support for any policies other than the current Oslo "peace" process. And where are the Jewish liberals here? Few and far between, when it comes to supporting a hard-line position for Israel.

  This appears to be another example of the belief of liberals that all people are really good at heart, and you only have to treat them decently to obtain the desired results. This disregards the fact that others may have a different agenda from yours. The other side may not consist of honorable and trustworthy individuals. Perhaps the Arab leaders really cannot stand the thought of permitting Israel and the Jewish people to continue to exist in the middle of the Arabs' "Golden Crescent." Certainly this is what Arafat was saying to his followers when he spoke to them in their own language, as contrasted to his more moderate words of peace when he spoke in English. Arafat's death in late 2004 may open a window to friendlier relations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but nothing will change until the Arabs cease their murderous activities and accept Israel without conditions.

  One of the few Jewish organizations in this country to have figured out the real agenda of Arafat is AFSI, Americans For A Safe Israel, headed by Herbert Zweibon. In their monthly publication, Outpost, Zweibon and his associates appear to be a lonely voice in warning Jews everywhere of what the Arabs are really planning, and that the Labordominated Israeli government was endangering the future security of that nation with its position of blindly implementing the Oslo agreements. Another organization doing exemplary work on behalf of Israel is FLAME, Facts and Logic About the Middle East. All one has to do to become knowledgeable about Israel and the PLO is to read the beautifully written ads placed by FLAME monthly in various national publications. FLAME represents a labor of love for its president, Gerardo Joffe, the direct-mail wizard, who donates all of his time without compensation. We do not hear these same warnings from the major Jewish organizations, and this may be another example of how wrong the majority can be on a critical issue.

  Dennis Prager again points out that one of the main differences between liberals and conservatives is the liberals' belief that all people are basically good, and that if they do had things it is only because of some outside force. Conservatives, on the other hand, are more in tune with Jewish traditional belief that people are a mixture of good and evil. We possess an inclination to evil and to good, and each individual is responsible for his own actions. This basic difference is at the root of many of the disagreements between liberals and conservatives over how to solve our social problems. Until Jewish leaders in this country recognize the errors of their ways on this important point, we shall continue to see American Jews on the wrong side of most social and economic issues.

  Nowhere is this expressed more clearly as in Deuteronomy 30:19-20, which reads in part, "I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed; to love the Lord thy God, to hearken to His voice and to cleave unto Him..." In the Soncino notes, Maimonides is quoted that "Free will is granted to every man. If he desires to incline towards the good way, and be righteous, he has the power to do so; and if he desires to incline towards the unrighteous way, and be a wicked man, he has also the power to do so. Since this power of doing good or evil is in our own hands, and since all the wicked deeds which we have committed have been committed with our full consciousness, it befits us to turn in penitence and forsake our evil deeds; the power of doing so being still in our hands. Now this matter is a very important principle; nay, it is the pillar of the Law and of the commandments."

  So we are a mixture of good and evil, and we are responsible for our own actions, and it is not society that is responsible for our misfortunes. It is only by improving our own natures and choosing to do the right things in life that we progress to ultimately fulfilling our individual destinies.

  If we Jews believe what is written in our Holy Book, how can our leaders then tell us that all that is necessary is for us to have good intentions in what we advocate, regardless of the results that flow from those good intentions. Until we understand that we cannot do for others what they do not want to do for themselves, all of our "feel good' and "do good" programs are doomed to failure. Conservatism seeks to assign accountability to each of us for our own actions, and if we need help at various times in our lives, we must look to our families, our religion, our faith, and our God for that help; not to Washington, DC or Sacramento, California or any other political entity.

  Throughout our 4,000-year history, Jews have traditionally been known as a "stiff-necked" people, which the dictionary defines as being "haughty and obstinate." I would add to that definition that Jews in general have been less than anxious to rush to make friends with their non-Jewish neighbors. We have had to develop a healthy skepticism towards others in our communities because we were never quite sure when the other shoe might fall, and we would no longer be welcome neighbors because we were Jews. For hundreds of years we congregated in ghettos and had little contact with the outside world.

  In America, we did not seem to have had this problem. We were accepted almost from the beginning as equals in the development of this nation. Still, we faced prejudice in many fields, although it was never inspired by the federal government. So it is perhaps natural that we tend to find it difficult to accept help from Ch
ristians, especially those Evangelicals that we cringe from in fear of their persuasive conversion tactics. From my personal experience, these Evangelicals are the very friends that are today most steadfast in helping us maintain the independence of Israel, without ever seeking to convert us to their own religions. They truly believe Genesis 12:3: "And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

  They are also the same friends who tend to abhor and oppose the increasing powers of a centralized government. These people, by and large, do not belong to the mainline churches, but they are a growing majority in their individual faiths. These people are the true friends of the Jewish people and of Israel. One couple, Don and Norma Winton, whom we count as among our closest friends, are members of Calvary Chapel of Newport Beach, California. Don is a well-known sculptor and has created some outstanding works of Begin, Herzl, and Jobitinsky, which he donates to organizations in Israel. Don and Norma have visited Israel more than twenty times, and I don't believe any stronger supporters of Israel and the Jewish people exist anywhere. It is time that we recognize who our true friends are, that all Christians are not alike, and that we want tojoin forces with those friends to bring about our mutually desired results.

  Rabbi Lapin's organization, "Toward Tradition," relies heavily on his Christian supporters. He believes strongly that Jewish safety and prosperity in America is due to the fact that America was founded on the Judeo-Christian tradition and that there has never been a single, government-sponsored Christian religion. Jews should be just as sensitive to anti-Christian practices around the world as they are to antiJewish deeds.