Why Are Jews Liberals?
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From the bestselling author of World War IV, a brilliant investigation of a central question in American politics and culture. During his career as a neoconservative thinker, Norman Podhoretz has been asked no question more often than “Why are so many Jews liberals?” In this provocative book he sets out to solve this puzzle. He first offers a fascinating account of anti-Semitism in the West to show the historical roots of Jewish mistrust of the right. But, Podhoretz argues, since the Six Day War of 1967 Jewish allegiance to the left no longer makes sense, and yet most Jews continue supporting the Democratic Party and the liberal agenda. Reviewing the history of Jewish political attitudes and examining the available evidence, Podhoretz argues against the conventional explanations for Jewish liberalism—finally proposing his own. Publishers Weekly Eminent neoconservative Podhoretz (World War IV) surveys the centuries of atrocities that, he says, have pushed most Jews to the Left, notably the persecutions by medieval Christendom, from blood libels to expulsion to ghettoization, and in modern times the Dreyfus affair and Nazism. Immigrant American Jews were attracted to the Democratic Party, says Podhoretz, because it was the closest counterpart to the European leftists who had favored Jewish emancipation. Phenomena like conservative opposition to fighting Hitler and Truman's recognition of Israel in 1948 kept Jews faithful to "the 'Torah' of liberalism." But Podhoretz calls on Jews to shift their allegiance, maintaining that Democratic attitudes toward Israel range from unsympathetic to passionately hostile while the Republicans, with some exceptions, have been solidly to fervently supportive since the end of the 1967 Six-Day War. Podhoretz writes scathingly about what he views as the Nation magazine's naked anti-Semitism, taking particular aim at a 1986 piece by Gore Vidal, but, refreshingly, also excoriates conservatives like Pat Buchanan and right-wing publications like Chronicles magazine for their anti-Semitism. Although preaching to the converted and at times rambling, Podhoretz is an astute and joyously provocative and partisan observer of the political landscape. (Sept. 8)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction 1Pt. 1 How the Jews Became Liberals1 The "Witness" Doctrine 92 Ghettos 183 Poets and Exegetes 254 Emancipation: Phase One 305 The Enlightenment Puzzle 386 Haskalah 457 Emancipation: Phase Two 518 The Second Great Puzzle 609 The Golden Land 7110 Jews from Germany 8111 Anti-Semitism, Patrician Style 8712 Jews Without Money 9413 Emancipation: The Backlash 10414 "Defilers" of the Culture 11315 Enter FDR 11816 In Roosevelt's Wake: Truman 12717 From 1952 to 1968 135Pt. 2 Why the Jews are Still Liberals18 The Golden Age of Jewish Security 14719 Something New Under the Jewish Sun 15920 Nixon and Israel 16721 Carter: "Joining the Jackals" 17522 The 1980 Election 18123 Reagan and Israel 19124 Anti-"Zionism" 19825 The Case of The Nation 20426 The Case of National Review 21127 George H. W. Bush and Israel 21628 The Case of Pat Buchanan 22429 Clinton, the Religious Right, and the Jews 23330 George W. Bush and Israel 24331 2008 25232 As Liberal as Ever? 25833 The Wrong Answers 26934 The "Torah" of Liberalism 280Conclusion 291Notes 297Bibliographical Note 319Index 321
