Thursday, January 20, 2011

THE JEWISH EFFECT ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 1939-1988

The Jewish vote has had a significant effect on Presidential elections.  Our votes for Franklin Roosevelt increased with each reelection, bouyed by his domestic initiatives in spite of his immigration stance.  We were instrumental in the defeat of Richard Nixon in 1960, and were the only white ethnicity to vote against Ronald Reagan's reelection in 1984.  Only 30% of us voted for George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Friday, January 14, 2011

JEWISH SUPPORT OF LIBERAL CAUSES

We were the most liberal white ethnicity in America.  In the 1950s we helped champion the cause of African America, including the leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), until the emergence of Martin L. King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, and others.  We defended civil liberties, fighting discrimination in the courts because it was counter to the United States Constitution.  Also, we were active in social legislation for the deprived.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

EMIGRATION TO THE SUBURBS

Instead of emigrating to Israel, Jewish America emigrated to the suburbs, where living among non-Jews made us more aware of our Jewishness.  The effect of the "necessity" to assimilate caused many to believe our Jewishness was merely an "accident of birth".  Intermarriage (38% by 1987) caused many to ask, especially in Israel, "Who is a Jew?".  Suburban synagogues became nothing more than meeting-places, with figurehead rabbis and minimum educational facilities.  However, Jewish orthodoxy was reemerging, led by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson.  These new Orthodox Jews set out to "proselytize" the Conservative and Reform Jews (including me - I was raised Conservative and started on the Chabad path in 2001), and developed their own yeshivas.