I can’t count the number of times that
non-Jews have asked me why Jews remain liberals, why they vote Liberal (or
further left) in Canada, and Democrat in America.
My answer is always the same.
There are Jews for whom liberalism is their primary identity, the “church” so
to speak, in which they worship. They are liberals first-and Jews second or
third, if at all.
Liberal beliefs are what animate them, more so than any other
understanding of, or commitment to Jewish principles and ideas. They happened to have been born Jewish, that's all.
I was reminded of this yet again when I
read some articles that started circulating this week.
Here is a press release from
Official Canadian Jewry celebrating the election of the new leader of our
furthest left party, the “New Democratic Party”.
Did they not notice that one of his first
actions was to have Libby
Davis as a number two in the party? Doesn’t that mean anything
to them? Such short
memories.
I’m not the only person thinking that
establishment Jewry is somewhat
obtuse.
In fact, I see very little evidence that any conservative or right-of-centre
positions are incorporated into any official stances and programming.
Who are these Jewish PR mavens that keep
getting it wrong? And how much are they getting paid?
There is an old story about the Jew who got
stranded on a desert island. Finally, after many years, he gets rescued. His
rescuers note that for one Jew, on one island, there are two synagogues-lovingly
hand-built by the same castaway Jew.
“Why do you have two synagogues for one
Jew,” they ask.
“Eh,” he says, pointing to one synagogue.
“That?”
“That’s the shul I will never set
foot in!”
Jews have strong convictions-we are “stiff-necked”
and actually proud of it. We can be
stubborn. That’s not always bad. It really bothers the Jew-haters of the world that after the Holocaust, we were stubborn enough to found our own state, so that a second Holocaust couldn't ever happen again.
We are stubborn enough to have weapons now and nukes, and an army! We are stubborn enough to not surrender our national security to the fetid putrid United Nations. We are so uppity and stubborn that we continue to refuse to just die, or enjoy being killed! The nerve!
Jews are supposed to nurture many opinions
and question our faith and decisions. Jews are supposed to wrestle with G-d
(see Jacob-Israel) and wrestle with text (Talmud) and philosophy.
How
did we get to the point where there is no diversity of opinion within Jewish
officialdom, where dissent is considered troublesome at best and ignorant
at worst?
Why is there an absolute dearth of debate? What are people afraid of?
How is it that Stephen Harper, our
incredible Prime Minister and Jason Kenney, his official badass dude are more
publicly, and apologetically Zionist than our own “leadership”?
Are we lacking brains?
Balls?
Or is that our lay leadership is being led
by a tired, increasingly annoying and repetitious cadre of elite, liberal “mavens”
who are simply unable to place facts as community priorities above their own
liberal convictions?
By that, I mean identifying actual existential
threats (terrorism) versus imaginary ones (white, Christian, with magic markers or black spray paint) to our communities
and to Israel-and by extension- to the entire Western world.
How can we stop the
rot that has infected our communities?
How can it be that there is not a singular
forum to discuss these issues publicly, to debate the merits of the official
Canadian Jewish opinions on any given issue?
For example, there was never a forum to
discuss the merits of the Canadian Jewish Congress’ stance on Section 13 and
the entire approach to “hate” speech and censorship. And although the CJC has
morphed another kind of relatively ineffectual kind of wishy-washy advocacy
organization (see NDP official Mazel Tov message), there is still a need for
debate.
Three Jews, four opinions or more-isn’t
that the way it used to be?
Isn’t that the way it ought to be?
Is anybody listening?
Care to debate?
