The Jew As Radical Liberal And Conservative

Excerpt from The Jew as Radical, Liberal and Conservative It is easy to assert that these and similar accusations are a legacy of war hysteria; that the world is-pass ing through a period of emotional instability wherein the vaporings of diseased minds, ignored in times of tranquillity, have become the text book of racial prejudice. It is easy to assert that men have suffered themselves to surrender to the habit of hate, incurred as a measure of success in war, but now enthroned with increased potency in days of peace; with victory over former enemies a new object of vilification must be found; hence the Jew, as theweakest national group, is selected as the target for mankind's passions and hostility. Yet neither analysis of the world's present neurosis serves to crush the accusations of Jewish radicalism. A statement of the true situation alone can suffice. For it is palpably false to affirm even that most Jews are radicals and most radicals Jews. We are a many sided people, complex, variegated, with a kaleidoscopic diversity of Opinion; we are a group, not of one. But of many minds. It has been rightly said that where there are ten Jews there are at least eleven views. The anti-semite errs fatally and com pletely if he generalizes from one or even fifty Jewish radicals to snap judgments concerning the entire Jew ish people. Jews throughout history have allied themselves with world movements, each according to the dictates of his individual conscience; Jews have been Whig, Tory, progres sive, moderate, independent, liberal, reactionary and Mugwump, each in line with the prompting of his social and intellectual environment and his own voluntary choice. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Over the course of the twentieth century, Eastern European Jews in the United States developed a left-wing political tradition. Their political preferences went against a fairly broad correlation between upward mobility and increased conservatism or Republican partisanship. Many scholars have sought to explain this phenomenon by invoking antisemitism, an early working-class experience, or a desire to integrate into a universal social order. In this original study, David Verbeeten instead focuses on the ways in which left-wing ideologies and movements helped to mediate and preserve Jewish identity in the context of modern tendencies toward bourgeois assimilation and ethnic dissolution. Verbeeten pursues this line of inquiry through case studies that highlight the political activities and aspirations of three "generations" of American Jews. The life of Alexander Bittelman provides a lens to examine the first generation. Born in Ukraine in 1892, Bittelman moved to New York City in 1912 and went on to become a founder of the American Communist Party after World War I. Verbeeten explores the second generation by way of the American Jewish Congress, which came together in 1918 and launched significant campaigns against discrimination within civil society before, during, and especially after World War II. Finally, he considers the third generation in relation to the activist group New Jewish Agenda, which operated from 1980 to 1992 and was known for its advocacy of progressive causes and its criticism of particular Israeli governments and policies. By focusing on individuals and organizations that have not previously been subjects of extensive investigation, Verbeeten contributes original research to the fields of American, Jewish, intellectual, and radical history. His insightful study will appeal to specialists and general readers interested in those areas.

From the bestselling author of World War IV, a brilliant investigation of a central question in American politics and culture. During his career as a neoconservative thinker, Norman Podhoretz has been asked no question more often than “Why are so many Jews liberals?” In this provocative book he sets out to solve this puzzle. He first offers a fascinating account of anti-Semitism in the West to show the historical roots of Jewish mistrust of the right. But, Podhoretz argues, since the Six Day War of 1967 Jewish allegiance to the left no longer makes sense, and yet most Jews continue supporting the Democratic Party and the liberal agenda. Reviewing the history of Jewish political attitudes and examining the available evidence, Podhoretz argues against the conventional explanations for Jewish liberalism—finally proposing his own.

Over the last 30 years the post-war centre-ground which recognized the welfare state, the funding of education, protection of the environment and the management of capitalism as the proper business of the state, has fragmented. Emphasis on the freedom of the individual and the proper limitations of state power has changed the climate of everyday life. This book locates the roots of radical conservatism in the writings of Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, Heidegger, Junger and Schmitt. It documents the radical conservative worldview and points to limitations in its perspective. Dahl asserts that we should be wary of considering radical conservatism as a singular phenomenon and discusses global divergences in belief and policy.

In this fascinating history of the genesis of the backlash against Jewish liberalism, Staub recounts the history American Jews who advocated Palestinian statehood, showing how ideology has split the Jewish community.