The Jewish Lobby According to the Forward
In the editorial “Fear Factor,” the Forward explains “the mystery of the power of the so-called Jewish lobby.” The Forward writes,
Most surprising, a parade of Jewish politicians and organizational leaders, the elite of what’s called the Jewish lobby, has spoken out aggressively to reject the rumors and defend Obama — but it hasn’t helped much. Early indications are that Jewish voters will spurn Obama in numbers large enough to hurt him. And all the efforts of the vaunted Jewish establishment haven’t convinced them otherwise.
That’s the secret of Jewish lobbying success: It’s not about the professional influence-peddlers and fundraisers. It’s about frightened, angry Jews, thousands of them, determined to stop anyone they suspect is against them. Once they get going, no one can talk them out of it. They feel powerless and vulnerable before enemies great and small, and they have the clout to do something about it. And they don’t always check the details before hitting the barricades.
Isn’t this phenomenon going to get worse as the Orthodox become a greater and greater percentage of of the Jewish community? After all, Orthodox Jews have a more pronounced perception of division between Jew and gentile, and are disproportionately descendants of Holocaust survivors, a heritage not known to allay Jewish paranoia.
12 comments
it will get better. orthodox jews are much more pragmatic in politics.
That editorial misses a huge point: lots of Jews aren’t voting for Obama because they prefer Hillary. It has nothing to do with Islam or fear or Jewish lobbies or the Jewish vote or Israel or the latest pastrami sandwich they may have enjoyed. They simply like Hillary better.
I’m not American, but I’d vote for Hillary just so she may get a boy toy. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Wow, you could not have this more wrong.
Orthodox Jews are so much more comfortable with religious Christians — what you would call our fellow “fundamentalists,” DK — than liberal Jews are that it’s not even funny. We both believe in God, and in the divinity of the Bible. We both believe in traditional morality and that present-day society is sadly lacking in this regard. They tend to be more Zionistic than we are but, unlike most liberal Jews, we have a lot to do with Israel (because so many of us have family members and friends who live there or have spent a lot of time there) that there’s great passion on the topic.
We are not afraid of their daughters seducing our sons precisely because our delineations are so clear, and they are comfortable with us for the same reason — we are not “threatening” to assimilate.
You would be surprised how many gentiles take pleasure in interacting with Jews who are conspicuously Jewish, and give us every benefit of the doubt precisely because of that.
“You would be surprised how many gentiles take pleasure in interacting with Jews who are conspicuously Jewish, and give us every benefit of the doubt precisely because of that.”
No, not really surprising.
But don’t forget you both harbor and support literal creationists who reject scientific method. You are supportive of those who prefer fantasy to the imprint of God. And since you allow those who worship their rebbe as an intermediary deity of sorts to be in “frum” camp, why wouldn’t you soften towards those who base their whole theology on such a concept outside of Judaism? Orthodox Judaism has become much more expansive in accepting those who are no longer strictly monotheistic as we used to understand it, provided they aren’t liberals.
Let’s call it Big Tent Creationism?
You have a very bad but, luckily for readers, not too subtle habit of changing the topic whenever your incorrect assertions are corrected.DK, there is no question that the beliefs of many of the non-Jews in question are not our beliefs. The question you raised was whether we could work with them effectively, being so backward and un-cool.
I don’t personally allow any of the rebbe worship you refer to into the “frum camp” and I don’t know anyone who does. Your favorite target, the Agudah, made the Lubavitcher Rebbe a non-person well before he got his promotion.
May I add my two cents? There are more than 1,200 Christian denominations in the US, only one of which has officially exempted Jews from missionary attempts. Jüdische Allgemeine as well as Hagalil have featured various articles on what the actual intention behind the extreme Christian right’s support of Israel is, and it’s not too a desirable one to say the least.
“May I add my two cents?”
Always.
Is that how emancipated you are or how flattered I should be?
Mind the ignorance, but why the 3GNY logo?
Sarah, so what? They’re entitled to their religious beliefs. Why would Israelis educated in the fine secular public school system of the State of Israel have anything to fear?
I didn’t say to donate money to them. I said we can work with them on common goals.
Some aim at converting all Jews / destroying Israel through spurring controversies among Jews (there’s some Evangelical Bible Center in Brooklyn that “breeds” that kind of people; I even met one of them. Their approach is to pose as newly converted / newly Jewish-identity discovered MO; one angle they work on is to try the lesser religiously educated Jews to get engaged in debates to a point of utter disagreement, the other angle is to try to get their preachers into cultural institutions there in Israel to “bring Jesus to the Jews of Jerusalem”) as they believe that Judgement Day will come sooner then. BTW, it’s part of Protestant theology, going back to Luther and Melanchthon, to not challenge political authorities and hierarchies, so freedom of speech is neither in the extremists’ theological nor political interest.
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