Judaism, Liberalism, Youth

Norman Podhoretz had an opinion column in yesterday's WSJ, asking the question "Why are Jews Liberals?" His book, of the same title, I saw today at a bookstore. As a 26-year-old living in a city with an admittedly small but nonetheless visible Jewish community, I was perplexed as to why anybody might ask this question. Most of the Jews I know, who are my age or not far from it, wouldn't question their liberal political beliefs.

Podhoretz himself traces back the integration of American Jews into the Democratic party to the days of FDR in his article. And it goes without saying that party loyalty dies hard in the U.S. among ethnic, and to some extent, religious groups. Of course, any population gets more conservative gets with time and success, as Podhoretz did decades ago.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, "The Jewish population is aging, compared to 1990, and is substantially older than that of the total U.S. population." But it is worth noting the influence of youth on the aging Jewish population of the country.

Among one of my closest friends is one radically liberal young man who has worked in the Palestinian territories and Israel to come to a peaceful solution. He's of Jewish descent, but non-practicing. A recent article in Sojourners profiles a similar person. As younger generations of American Jews are more cognizant of the problems facing the Israel-Palestinian conflict, they may start doing more to solve the conflict. Why? Because the distance of their Americanism may give them a chance to step back from immediate involvement, but the intimacy of the US-Israel relationship provides an urgency, not to mention the ancestral link to the conflict. This suggests to me that the younger generation of Jews is less attached to the question of support for Israel, and more attached to the idea of peace.

Cultural Jews, to borrow a phrase, take an increasingly important role in the mind of the younger Jewish population. To take a kind of offbeat example, you can further look at the influence of entertainers such as foul-mouthed comedy princess Sarah Silverman, and her urging of (NSFW) young Jews to get their grandparents on Obama's side via her "Great Schlepp."

So why are Jews liberals? Not being Jewish, I can only speak from an outside perspective, but to the extent that I might be so bold, I would argue that the older Jewish community has a strong bond with its progressive though often non-religious youth, which tends towards liberalism.

Other theories? I'd love to hear them. And what to make of the "buyer's remorse" Podhoretz hopes for in the introduction of his article?

photo by zeevveez