September 18, 2008
Tradition has it that the month of Elul, preceding Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, is a time for personal introspection. Jews are to examine how they are conducting their lives and how they might improve them in the year ahead.
This self-examination focuses not only on our relationship to God but also, equally so, on how we treat our fellow human beings. In this latter regard, one must consider how we relate to both Jews and non-Jews. In the silly season of American politics during the approximately 50 days before Election Day, this also might be a good time for some Jewish political introspection as well.
Illustration by Barrie Maguire
Election cycles always engender a significant amount of venom and anger, both substantive and personal. It seems that this year the Jewish community has generated a degree of hostility that in many cases has pitted Jew against Jew. This unprecedented aggression will ill serve Jews in the future regardless of the outcome on Nov. 4.
Much antagonism has been directed against some of the policy ideas of the candidates — including their views on the Middle East. But there also have been direct ad hominem and guilt-by-association charges — both campaigns, for example, have been asked to account for views espoused in candidates’ respective churches. For the Jewish community the attacks and innuendo have dramatically lowered the tone of what might have been a serious substantive debate over the candidates.
Aside from concern for U.S. policy toward Israel, two largely unspoken themes underlie this trend. Historically Jews have voted overwhelmingly Democratic, although since the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan — who received some 39 percent of the Jewish vote — more and more Jews are comfortable supporting Republican candidates, especially at the presidential election level. Such political behavior is historically consistent with virtually all immigrant groups in America. Once immigrants achieve a level of financial success and affluence, many become much more supportive of the Republican Party. Right or wrong, affluent voters perceive the Republicans as more likely to support their economic self-interest.
For the sin we have sinned against thee…by engaging in lies and rancor
Second, all white Americans — including Jews — present a major difficulty to pollsters in the 2008 election, since it is the first election in which there has been an African American at the head of a national ticket. Historically, in New York City, in Los Angeles, and in California as a whole, elections involving black candidates have produced more invalid polling than virtually any other contests. Pollsters surmise that white respondents do not tell pollsters what they believe but might find socially or politically incorrect — namely, that they would not support the black candidate. There’s no reason to believe that Jews — young and old, religious and less religious, wealthy and middle class — are immune from the so-called Bradley Effect, named for the African-American gubernatorial candidate, Tom Bradley, who lost California’s 1982 election despite being ahead in the polls.
The truth is there are very legitimate reasons why one ought to vote for John McCain over Barack Obama and vice versa. There is a genuine debate over experience, philosophy, support for Israel, immigration, energy, health care, etc. These issues ought to be considered by Jewish voters as they weigh their options.
But that we permit the distorted whispering campaigns to persist and reinforce racism on the one hand, or allow distorted economic priorities to outweigh a real need to address America’s policies toward the needy, struggling, and underserved, is extremely troubling.
If Jews take the teshuva period of the month of Elul seriously — on a national level — then there is clearly a message here. There need not be a monolithic position for American Jews. In fact, as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee itself would advocate, it’s good for the Jews and good for Israel if there are Jews supporting both parties and all candidates.
Yet hatred, anger, and name-calling will ultimately — and tragically — redound to the detriment of all American Jewry. Differences in opinion demand respect and tolerance of diversity.
The Jewish community should recognize what has happened, understand the essence of Jewish values, admit that this is not the way to disagree, and commit itself to addressing how we dialogue in the future. Such an effort would indeed be a set of political new year’s resolutions worthy of the Jewish tradition.
Dr. Gilbert N. Kahn is a professor of political science at Kean University in Union (e-mail gkahn@kean.edu).
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