Is Social Justice the Soul of Judaism?
Of course not, but Jewcy wanted to have Dan Sieradski of Jewschool and I argue it out, which we did in an e-mail dialogue over the summer that’s being published now. I wouldn’t say it’s my best work, or Dan’s, but in any regard, it starts here with my first dispatch, and will continue throughout the week.
I don’t know how much credibility Jewcy wants to give me, in characterizing me as a “bile-spewing iconoclast,” but I’d bet Dan’s pretty pissed that they gave me that title while calling him the “eccentric true believer.” No doubt, Dan would love to have the two switched, since he’d probably prefer to have “iconoclasm” as his middle name.
On another note about the introduction, Jewcy’s editors write:
It’s Martin Luther King Day, and as American Jews pause with the rest of the country to reflect on the civil rights struggle, we also take pride in our own community’s role in it. The legendary image of the bearded rabbi and theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel marching together with King in Selma, Alabama in 1965 epitomizes the passion for justice that seems so much a part of the Jewish tradition. Why, just look at any issue of Tikkun, and you’ll see it a thousand times over: Tikkun olam! Pikuach nefesh!
But is the quest for social justice truly intrinsic to Judaism? Or is this just the wishful thinking of liberal Jews distorting an archaic and illiberal tradition?
This came up recently in regard to an upcoming Makor event with Marc Schneier on “Blacks and Jews.” I was asked to come up with some questions for Schneier that the 92Y blog could use as a teaser for the event. Unfortunately, Schneier didn’t have the time to answer the questions, so it was for naught. The second one read:
A lot of Jews like to say that Members of the Tribe were a big deal in the civil rights movement, but other than a handful of rabbis and some lawyers, the historical record doesn’t show Jews playing all that big a role. Why do you think so many more Jews today are claiming that history than made that history when it was actually happening, and how do you think that’s affecting Jewish activism and black-Jewish relations today?
Now, I think if you look at Jewcy’s introduction, you’ll find that it answers itself. A picture of Heschel does not an overwhelming Jewish participation make. Look particularly at the Jewish Boomers who so often cite an alleged major role for Jews in the civil rights struggle. They were the same age as so many civil rights activists, and yet how many of them lifted a finger in the ’60s? Among the major Jews around today, whether rabbis, Jewish organizational leaders, or large Jewish figures, who is there? Well, there’s Joe Lieberman, but not many more.
This has a parallel in the misplaced arrogance many Jews display in their upset at the “War on Christmas” issue. There may not be many things Abe Foxman and Sieradski have the same take on, but both saw attacks against the ACLU as attacks on a symbol serving as a stand-in for “Jews.” The idea that leads to that is the false notion that Jews led the fight for civil rights on the legal end, too. But why would a non-Jew identifty the ACLU with Jews? It’s just a hubris on the part of some Jews that lets it be so at all. I asked the guy who wrote the book on the War on Christmas, John Gibson, about it, and he replied “is there an ACLU lawyer who’s Jewish? Uh, yeah. But are there many, many more ACLU lawyers who are Christian? Absolutely.”
January 15th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I agree with your view that boomer Jews exaggerate the Jewish role in the civil rights movement. However, I am not so sure that you are correct about the ACLU and Jews. I used to work for the ADL, and I once gave a speech to a college class on anti-semitism. When I mentioned that the ADL supported, but the ACLU opposed, hate crimes legislation, the PROFESSOR asked in bewilderment “aren’t they both Jewish organizations?” I doubt he was alone in that view. Also, as for “are there many, many more ACLU lawyers who are Christian? Absolutely” - I’m not so sure that’s true, I’d like to see statistics. Regardless, though, I’m sure that the percentage of ACLU lawyers who are Jewish is far greater than the percentage of Americans who are Jewish…
January 17th, 2007 at 1:03 am
> Look particularly at the Jewish Boomers who so often cite an alleged major role for Jews in the civil rights struggle. They were the same age as so many civil rights activists, and yet how many of them lifted a finger in the ’60s?
You mean, like Schwermer and Goodman? I’m curious what your source is for “the historical record” — particularly since the major part of the civil rights movement wasn’t carried out by the Boomers — the oldest of whom were only 18 in ‘63 — but by the older generation. Who was filing amicus briefs with the NAACP? Who were the attorneys arguing against the apartheid regime before the Supreme Court? And which houses of worship not frequented by blacks were being bombed?
January 31st, 2007 at 10:58 pm
I have read estimates that 60% of the civil rights activists of the 50s-early 60s - the Freedom Riders, the ones who went south to organize - were Jewish. Even if that’s an exaggeration, everyone active in the movement has noted what a high percentage of Jews there were.
The 60s radicalism that began with the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and finally burned out with the Weathermen was overwhelmingly Jewish. That’s a somewhat different emphasis, but it is the political descendant of the civil rights movement.
February 1st, 2007 at 1:54 am
Yehudit,
60s radicalism began a bit before Mario Savio learned how to say “fuck” and give his middle finger to the news cameras in 1964.
SDS, Students for a Democratic Society held its first meeting in Ann Arbor in 1960. The Port Huron Statement, SDS’ political manifesto based on a draft by Tom Hayden, was adopted at the SDS’s first convention in 1962.
Of course, 60s radicalism was based on foundations laid by lefties in the 50s and earlier.