"Why Are Jews So Liberal?"

[New Tet]

Horton reviews a review:


Why Are Jews So Liberal?

By Scott Horton (http://www.harpers.org/subjects/ScottHorton)
Last week, the New York Times Magazine ran an intriguing interview with the longtime editor of Commentary, Norman Podhoretz, which was closely attuned to his new book Why Are Jews Liberals? The question is posed in a predictably negative way, and the interview helps us understand why. Podhoretz argues that America’s right is now friendlier to Israel than America’s left.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/09/hbc-90005703

[Annoying Person]

I have no idea why most of us Jews are like that. Most of us are also gun control, and we went through the holocaust because our ancestors in Germany were unarmed; go figure.

[Dimentio]

I have no idea why most of us Jews are like that. Most of us are also gun control, and we went through the holocaust because our ancestors in Germany were unarmed; go figure.

Well, Jews are most often historically speaking a minority in a non-Jewish society.

A tolerant society is good for minorities, hence Jews are generally more socially liberal regarding society. Jews in general also has better education and are living in large cities.

The more educated people are in general, the less conservative they are. The more urban people are in their whereabouts, they attain more liberal and tolerant values.

[black magick hustla]

There has been a ton of important jewish communists too. I know a few jewish communists also. This is one of the reason why nazis go nuts about communists. Maybe because of their standing as pariahs they were able to develop outside "traditions"?

[New Tet]

Socialism is such a good fucking idea that smart people and people of good faith are easily won over to it when they give it a fair hearing.

It's no surprise that intelligent Jews are no different than intelligent people elsewhere in the world (as well as being significantly no different than us dumb people either!).

The apparent preponderance of Jews in the socialist movement in Europe and America is, I think, more a sociological phenomenon than one attributable to any particularity of Judaism. I may be wrong here, but it's possible that most, if not all religions of the world, at some point in their evolution, pass through a communist phase. IOW, a stage at which all participants/believers share all or most property in common.

[9]

I think we make a mistake to assert that "Jews are so liberal". Of course, there is much truth to this in America, but American Jews are not the only Jews. There are, roughly, five and a half million Jews in America, and virtually the same number of Jews in Israel. The Jews in Israel, needless to say, are not "liberal" at all - quite the contrary.
With regard to the large number of Jews historically involved in revolutionary leftist movements, I tend to disagree with the assertion by New_Tet that it was a "communist phase" of Judaism, or anything like that. I think the number of revolutionary Jews had virtually nothing to do (at least nothing directly) with religion at all, and everything to do with the fact that Jews were historically oppressed minorities throughout most of the world. There is little doubt that the most oppressed communities are the communities which tend to possess the most revolutionary potential, and the Jews were no exception to this. Unfortunately, Zionism has been a profoundly reactionary force within the international "Jewish community", and it has drained much of the once-revolutionary predisposition from huge swathes of secular Jews. It is interesting, however, that American Jews, in spite of no longer being "oppressed minorities" in any sense of the term and enjoying considerable economic success in relation to much of the rest of Americans, are still for one reason or another sharply to the left of the rest of the population. I don't know why this is; I could speculate, but I'll spare you all any further ranting. :)

[JimmyJazz]

There has been a ton of important jewish communists too. I know a few jewish communists also. This is one of the reason why nazis go nuts about communists. Maybe because of their standing as pariahs they were able to develop outside "traditions"?

The standard fascist explanation is that "rootless Jews" are particularly prone to internationalism. But non-fascist racists repeat it too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_z8DjpOo4Y

[9]

The standard fascist explanation is that "rootless Jews" are particularly prone to internationalism. But non-fascist racists repeat it too

Wasn't the "rootless cosmopolitan" charge against Jews also common in the post-Lenin Soviet Union?

[JimmyJazz]

Wasn't the "rootless cosmopolitan" charge against Jews also common in the post-Lenin Soviet Union?

Do you mean it was actively stated by government officials and Party members, or that common people persisted in believing it? I actually have no idea either way, just curious what exactly you mean.

[9]

Do you mean it was actively stated by government officials and Party members, or that common people persisted in believing it? I actually have no idea either way, just curious what exactly you mean.

I don't know either to be honest, nor can I recall where I've heard this accusation, but I know I've definitely heard it. Which, needless to say, is no indication that its true. Anyway, I'm too tired/brain-dead to look into it now, so I'd probably have been better off not to bring it up.

[The Ungovernable Farce]

The standard fascist explanation is that "rootless Jews" are particularly prone to internationalism. But non-fascist racists repeat it too:

t_z8DjpOo4Y
Which is also kind of entertaining considering how rabidly pro-Israel he was, and how anti-zionists always get called anti-Semites. Walter Benjamin had some interesting (if weird) stuff about communism and Jewishness.

[Sasha]

ever since moses mendelssohn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Mendelssohn) there has been an strong liberal tendency in western judeaism, espacely in the german weimar replublic/interbelum.
since a lot of the current US jews are children from german jews who fled to the US but didn't go to isreal when it was created you can asume that a lot of these jews still believe/are brought up in this kind of "enlighted/liberal judeaism" instead with the reactionary nationalist/kolonialist zionist ideas of theodor herzl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl) or the downright fascist jabotinsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabotinsky)