|
|
|
Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner
| eNews
September 2012 | |
Guest Introduction: J.J. Goldberg
Election season always brings with it a sudden, brief national fascination with Jewish politics and the Jewish vote. What is it, and how does it work? The answer is a bit like Hillel's famous explanation of the Torah on one foot: It can be captured in a phrase, but invites a lifetime of study.The short version is, as the late scholar Milton Himmelfarb once said, that Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans. The longer version is the subject of this month's Berman Jewish Policy Archive Reader's Guide, and the selection of readings offered here only hints at the topic's complexity. It includes not just the vagaries Jewish opinion and voting patterns but the workings of Jewish lobbying, the role of Jews in American public leadership, the triangular relationship between Israel, America and American Jews, the power structures of Jewish communal life, ties and tensions between Jews and other faith and ethnic communities and, perhaps most important-because it infuses all the rest with meaning and purpose-the nature of Jewish social values.
J.J. Goldberg
Senior Columnist, The Jewish Daily Forward
|
New on BJPA:
Research and reports on Israelis abroad (and returning) from Dr. Lilach Lev Arie
|
|
|
|
Blog: Politics & Scripture
By Seth Chalmer
Both President Obama and Governor Romney recently granted an interview on faith to the magazine of National Cathedral in Washington. Both candidates named favorite passages of scripture, with the choices revealing a fascinating difference in emphasis. One candidate's chosen passage focuses on charity, and specifically on helping the needy with their physical needs. The other candidate's passage discusses God's power over the world, and to provide protection for human beings who trust Him.If you think you know which favorite scriptural inspiration belongs to which candidate, think twice.It was Pres. Obama who cited Isaiah 40:31-"But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" (NIV)-and Psalm 46. And it was Gov. Romney who cited Matthew 25:35-6-"For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me" (KJV).What, if anything, can we learn from this seeming inversion of what we might expect the two candidates' theologies to emphasize? Why does the President, whose politics insist we are all collectively responsible as a human society to tend to the physical needs of the needy, emphasize God's sovereignty and ability to provide protection? Why does his conservative opponent emphasize handouts of food, hospitality and clothing?
If the candidates chose these passages with an eye toward political traction, perhaps the inversion is a deliberate attempt to reassure religious swing voters that they are not the caricature the other side would paint. Pres. Obama is attacked as a secret Muslim and/or godless Communist, so his biblical passages imply his Christian faith is rock solid. Gov. Romney, on the other hand, knows that conservatism is often attacked as heartless, and one of his gaffes was a declaration that he was "not concerned about the very poor". So his biblical passage implies that he cares deeply about the needy, and his desire to cut government programs doesn't mean he doesn't value charity on a private basis. Both choices can be read as damage control... More from the BJPA Blog... |
|
|
|
|
|
BJPA is funded by the Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation and the Charles H. Revson Foundation. |
|
|
|
|
