The Jews and the Left
A sneak peak at my new book, which comes out June 2.
One of the things that feels like it’s in flux is how Americans feel about Jews. A few weeks ago, a Lebanese immigrant drove a car full of explosives into a synagogue in Michigan where 140 preschool children were skipping around and playing. By the grace of God, the explosives did not detonate. After a shootout with security guards, the terrorist took his own life.
At no point before we learned the terrorist’s name did I or I bet any of you think he was a White Supremacist. That’s because antisemitic violence, like most political violence in America, now comes from the Left.
Indeed, the Left rushed to explain and excuse Ghazali’s actions. His family members were killed by an Israeli strike in Lebanon, we were told by CNN and the New York Times and NPR, all of which failed to mention in their headlines that his family members were also terrorists.
Why was the Left explaining away antisemitic terrorism?
It’s because anti-Zionism has become as central a component of the Left as climate activism; celebrity climate activist Greta Thunberg herself now does more for the Palestinian cause than the climate, appearing everywhere ensconced in a keffiyeh. The majority of Democrats now sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israel in a shocking reversal that took place over less than a decade. Just 17% of Democrats now sympathize with Israel.
It’s especially startling for American Jews given that for 100 years now, they have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats. American Jews have been famously at the forefront of every liberal cause in America. They were overrepresented in the Civil Rights Movement, as public-school teachers, in the Labor movement, as champions of civil liberties, and in the gay rights movement. Nearly 60 percent of American Jews view pursuing social justice as one of the most central components of their Judaism. And yet, what has been their political home has become infested with hostility to Jewish interests.
The term “Zionist” has become a slur, used as “Jew” once was. Left-wing spaces have closed their doors to Zionists, which basically means that they have closed their doors to proud, pro-Israel Jews. Under the guise of being anti-Israel, the Left has become a no-go zone for Jews unless they are willing to denounce their own people. (Sadly, many take them up on this humiliating offer.)
The stark reality in America at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century is that most Jews are Democrats, yet the Left has turned on the Jews. How did we get here? Why did Jews become Democrats in the first place, and why did the Left turn on them?
That’s what my new book, The Jews and the Left, is about.
It was not a foregone conclusion that the history of America and its Jews would lead to 100 years of voting for Democrats. America has always had a unique relationship with Jews. In 1790, President George Washington wrote a famous letter to what he called the “children of the stock of Abraham” of Newport, Rhode Island, promising that here, bigotry would be given no sanction, persecution no assistance. In the letter, he explained that Jews, as all other Americans, would be treated as equals.
It was a monumental moment in the history of the Jews. But even before that, from the minute the first Jews stepped foot on these shores, they knew that after millennia of persecution, they were finally home.
The Jews and the Left is a tale of love and betrayal that begins in 1654 and ends in the here and now, explaining one of the great mysteries of American political life. It’s a story for America’s 250th birthday, a recovery of our part in this great nation’s founding—and how and why that story has been hidden from view.
If this sounds intriguing, I hope you’ll consider pre-ordering a copy. It comes out on June 2.
And if you are a paying subscriber to this newsletter, click here to download the first chapter—”Proof of Concept”—which tells the story of the first Jews to land on these shores in 1654.
Order here:
I am heartbroken over the betrayal of Jewish people by the Democrats. I will not vote for any Democrat ever again until the DNC denounces anti-Zionism (which is simply anti-Jewish hatred in practice). I have pre-ordered your book, and I am voting a straight GOP ticket despite being a lifelong Democrat. The Jewish people are done with setting themselves on fire to keep everybody else warm. There is a big difference between altruism and masochism. Am Yisrael Chai.
Looking forward to your book, in spite of the fact that I've been listening to Dennis Prager expound on this very topic for decades. I'm sure I'll learn something new! Not Jewish myself but have been deeply disturbed by what I'm seeing and hearing all around (including among the young conservatives in my life, who I seem to be constantly arguing with now on this topic)