Commentary

American Jews in Politics

Democrats

The election of 2024 resulted in the election of 32 Jewish members of both houses of Congress. This is six percent of the 535 members, of whom 100 are senators, among whom nine are Jewish. Since the Jewish population   of the United States is only 1.7%, it is indeed remarkable  that so many Jews have been elected by their largely Christian fellow citizens who are wedded to the American ethos to the effect that Jews are equal citizens despite their small numbers. Unlike the European experience, the Jewish community in America benefits from the adherence of the Christian community who take Christianity seriously and seek to live by the teaching that “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 9-19-20).  This despite the failure of 23 % of Americans who do not identify with any religion.

All of the Jews in the Senate are Democrats and only three Jews in the House are Republicans . None of the Jewish members of Congress could have been elected by any Jewish majority, since even in New York State the Jewish population is only 1.7 million or 9% of all New Yorkers.

Twenty-three Jewish men and two Jewish women , Madeline Kunin  of Vermont and Linda Lingle of Hawaii, have been governors of American states. Jared Polis was elected governor of Colorado  in 2019.

Numerous commentators have written about the adherence of Jewish voters to the Democratic party. These comments generally find it strange that Jews “live like Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans .” The belief among those who make such remarks is that American Jews are wealthy and vote like the poor. This seemingly incongruity is false from the start because there are many very poor Jews in this country as well as numerous middle class Jews. Moreover, Episcopalians do indeed have very wealthy members but among them are also the poor and the near  poor.

Only 22% of Jews vote consistently for Republicans . These are mainly Orthodox Jews, who are only 10% of the America Jewish population .  Forty nine percent of Jews label themselves liberal , but only 21% of  the general public consider themselves liberal. The phrase “liberal” at one time meant support for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution . That meaning has changed over the years, as “liberals” now like to see big government interference in the lives of all citizens. Fifty-four percent of American Jews favor government activity and government bureaucracies, although only 40% of other voters support more government in their lives. Thomas Jefferson, the Third President of the USA, wrote “ That government is best that governs the least.” Most American Jews believe that that government is best that governs the most. Eighty-two percent of Jews believe that homosexuality should be accepted by everyone, as only 54% of the non Jewish public believes this. Sixty-seven percent of Jews say that there is discrimination against blacks, only 47% of other voters say this.

Jewish voters deny that there is any animosity against Evangelical Christians although thirty percent of the general public thinks so. Even support for Israel is stronger among American Christians than American Jews . In fact, 40% of Jews say that President Trump favors Israel too much.

Those who observe this Jewish behavior claim that Jews identify with the Democratic party because of the Democrats ’ core values . Therefore it is necessary to examine these “core values” .

Jewish and other “liberals” claim that Democrats are the party of the poor and minorities. Jews therefore  side with the Afro-American community on most issues even as Orthodox Jews are beaten in the streets of New York by blacks, and the Minister Farrakhan (Louis Walcott) preaches anti-Jewish hate to his followers daily.

The belief that Democrats are “liberals” and friendly towards minorities ignores that the American black population was terribly mistreated by Democratic politicians for years. The entire South was governed by Democrats during and after slavery, and Democrats sought to prevent Afro-Americans from voting. It was the Democrat Governor of Alabama, George Wallace , who stood in the door of the University of Alabama in order to prevent black students from entering.

Liberals have forgotten or never knew that in 1960 four students sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro, Mississippi, but were not served because of their race. The lunch counter sit ins spread all over the South, leading one sheriff to set dogs upon the students involved. The riots that ensued brought about the leadership of Martin Luther King who had already been inspired by blacks who refused to sit in the rear of public buses. Al thos who violated the basic rights of the black population were Democrats .

It  is evident that American Jewish voters are largely attached to the Democrats because of the history of Jewish immigration and its consequences during the early years of  eastern European Jewish settlement in New York City and other cities, mostly on the east coast.

The newcomers, who spoke Yiddish ,and had many children and few skills, worked 16 hours and more in garment factories which were not ventilated, overcrowded, and dangerous. Both women and men were employed making garments and so called “shirt-waists” for minimum wages. Many took work home in order to work at night and earn a few pennies more. The owners of these “sweatshops ” mercilessly exploited the newcomers since they, the owners , could hire an endless stream of newcomer just  off the latest ship if anyone quit . Labor unions were prohibited by the owners and the government and even children were employed in brutal labor in coal mines. All this continued until Franklin Roosevelt was elected President. On assuming office in 1932 he promised a “New Deal” with the support of Congress.  The “New Deal” included The National Labor Relations Act and Social Security and a vast number of new government bureaucracies which protected labor from exploitation and made Labor unions legal. In short, the Democrat Roosevelt and his allies lifted the American worker out of near slavery.

Years before the Roosevelt Administration , Samuel Gompers , a Jewish immigrant ,founded the American Federation of Labor , which sought to strike as well as negotiate better working conditions for the labor force of immigrants of all ethnic and l religious groups arriving daily. Yet, governors of several states used the police and national guard to shoot and even kill striking workers . All that ended with the “New Deal” and therefore identified the Jewish community permanently with the Democrats . Sociology teaches that men are ritualists. This means that beliefs and behavior which at one time was useful and important to deal with current problems are continued for generations even when the original events promoting such conduct are long forgotten. Thus Jews in 2020 vote Democrat because their parents and grandparents voted Democrat , failing to notice that Abraham Lincoln , who freed the slaves, was a Republican. Even the effort of President Trump to help Israel makes no difference to American Jews , many of whom care nothing about the fate of their co-religionists six thousand miles away. Instead they hang the picture of FDR on the wall of their living room despite Roosevelt’s refusal to rescue the German Jews from Hitler’s gas ovens .

Jews in Congress

On November 2, 1992 Jerrold Lewis Nadler was elected a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. A Democrat from New York City, he is a lawyer in his fifteenth  term in Congress. Nadler is the chair of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, a position which gave him considerable publicity during the impeachment hearings concerning the alleged “high crimes and misdemeanors “ of President Trump . The hearings began in February of 2019 although a number of Democrats shouted in the streets for the impeachment of Donald Trump before he took office on January 20, 2017. Nadler persecuted President Trump vigorously by allowing an endless array of witnesses to testify that the president was an agent of the Russian government who interfered in the election of 2016 to the benefit of Trump.

When the so-called “special counsel ” appointed to investigate these allegations concluded that no one colluded with the Russians, Nadler and his committee now accused the President of illegally influencing the President of the Ukraine to the detriment of the United States. President Trump was impeached by a majority of Democrats in the House, but found not guilty by a majority in the Republican Senate as the Constitution requires a two thirds majority to decide the outcome of the trial held by the Senate. Nadler is also a member of four House committees or sub-committees. The committees are highly influential and often decide what legislation is passed and made into law.

Adam Schiff , another Jewish member of Congress from California,, is the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee. A  lawyer , Schiff has been elected to Congress  ten times.

On March 22, 2017, Schiff claimed ,during an interview with Charles Todd on MSNBC that there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” that President Trump “colluded” with Russia. Challenged by Todd, Schiff repeated the accusation. Schiff also appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union ” where he again hinted at knowing that President Trump had “covered up” evidence of Trump-Russia “collusion.” Schiff at another occasion said that President Trump ’s comments “are beneath the dignity of his office.” After the special counsel, Mueller, concluded that there was no evidence of “collusion by the president with Russia, Schiff persisted in claiming that Mueller did not have all the facts. Failing to convince the House that the president was a Russian agent, Schiff  finally argued that the President’s election campaign “colluded” with Russia and that Donald Trump is corrupt and Immoral. 

Chales Schumer is the minority leader in the Senate of the United States. Schumer has been elected to the Senate four times . He began his career as a politician in 1975 when he was elected to the New York State Assembly . He remained an Assembly member through 1980, when he was elected to the House of Representatives. Although he graduated from Harvard College and from the Harvard Law School , he decided not to practice law but to become a politician. He was re-elected to the House eight times.

In the Senate, Schumer became a constant critic of President Donald Trump, opposing the building of a wall between the U.S.A. and Mexico, and criticizing everything President Trump proposed, except moving the U.S. embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Schumer was born in 1950. His parents descended from Ukrainian immigrants . Schumer has one brother and one sister and a wife and two children . Schumer was the “Valedictorian” (Latin- hello sayer or greeter)  of his high school class who graduated with honors from college.  He is one of the few students to achieve a perfect Scholastic Aptitude Test score of 1600 .Senator Schumer is the first New Yorker to become Senate minority leader . He wrote an autobiography called “Positively American” . Seanator Schumer voted for the ban on assault weapons and other “liberal ” causes. He visits every one of the 62 counties in New York annually. Senator Schumer voted for a ban on assault rifles.

 On March 17, 2020, the Democrat voters in Florida voted in a primary election which resulted in giving former Vice President Joseph Biden 1,293 delegate votes . Bernard Sanders , Senator from Vermont, received 937 delegate votes , the others being distributed among several candidates. Senator Sanders lost a previous primary. Furthermore, he gained only 13% of the large Jewish vote in Southern Florida. Consequently, Sanders announced that he would no longer be a candidate for the Democrat nomination for president of the United States in the election in November of 2020.

     The only ethnic groups which voted in large numbers for Sanders were Muslim Americans. The Los Angeles Times displayed a picture of Senator Sanders among Muslim admirers with a caption “Why Many muslims treat Bermie Sanders Like a Rock Star.”. Sanders’ popularity within the Muslim community is related to several actions by the senator which pleased Muslims and their allies. Sanders appointed Linda Sarsour , a New York Palestinian activist, as an adviser. Sanders  also defended two Muslim Congress women who had been accused of anti-Jewish speeches by President Trump . Sanders gave a speech to the Muslim Collective for equal Democracy  but refused several invitations to speak to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee , whom he called racists. He was also instrumental in furthering the candidacy of Keith Ellison , An Afro-American Muslim who aspired to become the Chair of the Democratic Party. Ellison is the first Muslim elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Although there are a number of Jewish Americans who are indifferent to Israel , if not its enemies, Sanders has no Jewish associates or campaign participants. He has praised Professor Noam Chomsky of M.I. T. for his outspoken criticism of everything Jewish because Chomsky abandoned Judaism , and like Sanders, is an agnostic. .

Bernard Sanders was born n New York Citty in 1941. His campaign for the Presidency in 2016 did not succeed when Hillary Clinton was nominated by the Democrats , only to lose to Donald Trump.

In both campaigns Sanders promoted civil rights for Afro- Americans and Hispanics, labor unions, single payer health care , paid parental leave, tuition free college education and measures to counter climate change. Sanders favors reducing military spending and has advocated giving Israel no further military or diplomatic support. . Accused by Republicans of being a communist, he considers himself a democratic socialist.

Sanders graduated from the University of Chicago in 1964. While a student, he agitated for the Congress for Racial Equality and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee . In 1968 he settled in Vermont , a state with less than 700,000 inhabitants. There he entered politics and ran successfully for Mayor of Burlington in 1981, a position to which he was elected three times. In 1990 he was elected to the House of Representatives, where he remained for 16 years before being elected to the Senate in 2006.

In April 2015 Sanders announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.  He delivered a vigorous campaign, winning 25 primaries. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton was nominated. . Sanders rejected large donations from Public Affairs Committees , relying exclusively on small contributions from individual donors. Then, in 2019, Sanders announced a second presidential campaign, seeking to unseat President Donald Trump, the 44^th, not the 45^th, President of the United States.

In his second effort at gaining the Democrat nomination, Sanders used the huge mailing lists he had accumulated in his first campaign, thereby reaching a million potential volunteers and voters.

Sanders turned out to be an outstanding debater. After he entered the debate by all contenders for the Democrat nomination in October 2019, his first appearance after his heart attack, the media rated his performance as “A”.

Although Sanders attracted large crowds  to hear and see him, he lost the chance to become the Democrat nominee for President of the United States two times . The reasons for his losses were visible from the start of his campaigns. First, he promised to make health care and higher education free by taxing the rich. This claim  seemed bizarre to many Americans who would not believe that rich citizens would allow themselves to be taxed out of  their wealth.   In nine European countries  , including Sweden, a 63%% “progressive income tax ” was imposed on wealthy citizens. In France 513 wealthy citizens left the country every year for 35 years, taking $175 billion in assets with them. That meant that France and Sweden and Denmark and others lost innumerable jobs and investments. Indeed, Sweden raised $50 million with its wealth tax, but lost $160 billion because so many industries left the country. Moreover, government has proved incompetent in the past . President Johnson’s “War on Poverty” failed, as did “The War on Drugs.” The second reason Bernie Sanders could not win are the peculiar contradictions in his speeches measured against  his deeds. He kept telling TV interviewers that he is proud to be Jewish but he also promised to give Israel no support, despite the fact that he lived on a communal farm in Israel for several years.  That antagonized many Christian Zionists . Furthermore, public opinion surveys show that most American voters want Israel to survive. It seemed strange to many that a Jewish senator was so antagonistic to the Jewish state. According to the Pew Research Center , about 25% of Americans or 76 million people are  Evangelical Christians . At least 60% or 46 million of the Evangelicals are Christian Zionists. In addition, many Christians and others also favor the survival of Israel, so that Sanders antagonized the majority of American Zionists who are not Jewish.

The American Jewish Politicians

Although the Jewish population of the United States was exceedingly small in most of the  the nineteenth  century, numerous Jews were elected to public offices before 1924, when the quota system shut off most Jewish immigration. By that year there were about 400,000 German Jews in America among a population of  about 63 million inhabitants. Most of these German Jews came to America after 1848, when the revolutions in Prussia and other German speaking states failed. Particularly in Preussen (Prussia) and Bayern (Bavaria ) but also in several other German speaking principalities the attempted revolution were struck down by the German nobility, whose armies suppressed all revolts. The revolution had begun in Italy, then spread to France , and finally to Preussen (Prussia) and other states  in the German Confederacy. Germany did not then exist, nor is there any country anywhere today called Germany. The inhabitants call themselves Deutsche, their country Deutschland and their language Deutsch. It was Julius Caesar who first named Deutschland Germania, a name that has been used in the English speaking world ever since the invasion of England by the Romans (43C.E.-41C.E).  Deutschland was only a geographic expression until in 1870 the Prussian army and other German states invaded France. After defeating the French army, the Prussians and representatives from all German speaking states other than Austria and Switzerland, met at the Palace of Versailles, a suburb of Paris. In the ancient palace, once the home of French kings, the Germans elected Frederick William of Prussia Emperor or Kaiser (Caesar) of all of Deutschland, so that that country began its history that year.

     Germans of all religions flooded into the United States after 1848. This included Jewish Germans who, although not persecuted physically, were held in contempt by the Christian majority and excluded from government service as well as from the military and from trades guilds. In 1880 the pace of immigration to the United States increased dramatically, as 24 million immigrants arrived between 1880 and 1924.

It was mostly in those years that Jews were elected to public offices in sizeable numbers. This was due in some part to the composition of the American majority, who were almost all Protestant followers of the 17th century Puritans, who studied the  Five Books of Moses, used Hebrew as the language of instruction at Boston College and lived under laws resembling the laws of the Bible.  Those Jews were mostly peddlers who traveled all over the United States and even the thinly populated West to sell their goods. Some remained in a small town and opened a store. They remained for some time and were the often elected mayors, or, in some cases, governors of territories.

One example of an elected Jewish politician was Washington Bartlett , who became the 16^th governor of California in 1887. He had been the Mayor of San Francisco from 1883-1887. Bartlett was born I n the United States. Bartlett was a bachelor and a printer by trade. He had also been a San Francisco newspaper publisher, county clerk, lawyer , state senator, and mayor.

 Edward S. Salomon was the ninth governor of the Washington territory from 1870-1872. He was born in the Duchy of Schleswig in Deutschland and served in the Union Army during the Civil War as Lieutenant Colonel and Brigadier General. He immigrated to Chicago, Illinois in  1856 and five years later, at age 24, was elected an alderman. During the Battle of Gettysburg , (July 1-4, 1863), Salomon became a hero for assuming command of his regiment when the commanding general, Hecker, was wounded. Salomon had two horses shot from under him but continued fighting . After the Civil War, Salomon returned to Chicago, where he was elected clerk of Cook County.

Then in 1870, President Ulysses Grant appointed Salomon governor of Washington Territory. After his resignation from that office, General Phillip Sheridan honored Salomon at a ceremony in recognition of his service to the country. Salomon then moved to San Francisco, where he practiced law until he was appointed assistant district attorney. In 1888 he was elected to the California Assembly.

David Emanuel , became the 24^th governor of Georgia in 1801. He had been the President of the Georgia Senate when the previous governor resigned to become a senator. Since David Emanuel had a Hebrew name, it seemed to some Georgians that he was not Jewish but a Puritan. Those who believed this called David Emanuel an “Old” Testament name. Emanuel was born in 1744 in Pennsylvania. During  the Revolution, he served as a colonel  in the Georgia militia. After the war he became a legislator in the Georgia senate, having been elected three times as president.

In 1917, the German born Simon Bamberger was elected governor of Utah, a Mormon state. He was the only non-Mormon and the only  Jew and first Democrat to become governor of Utah. Bamberger was born in Darmstadt. He came to the United States at age fourteen. He traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, as that city was the leading community of German speakers at that time. He then moved to Terre Haute, Indiana where he stayed until the end of the Civil War in 1865. He then moved to St. Louis , another city with a large  German population.. He then moved to Utah. In 1888 he married Ida Maas, with whom he had four children .

In Salt Lake City he operated a hotel. Having invested in a silver mine, he became a millionaire when the mine struck silver. He then built railroads and sponsored a Jewish agricultural community in Farmington, Utah. Bamberger founded an intercity railroad between Salt Lake and Ogden, which was called the Bamberger Railroad. Subsequently Bamberger was elected to the Salt Lake Board of Education. . In 1902, Bamberger was elected Senator and was thereafter re-elected several times. He was the elected governor although many predicted that he would lose because he was Jewish. Herbert Lehman was the 45^th governor of New York from 1933 to 1942.  He was Lieutenant governor during the administration as governor of Franklin Roosevelt from 1929 to 1932, and was elected U.S. Senator in 1949, serving until 1957.

Lehman was born in New York City in 1878, the son of two German immigrants. His father and his uncle founded Lehman Brothers, a financial firm, beginning their New York business as a cotton exchange .

Herbert Lehman earned a B.A. degree from Williams College. He then became a partner in the banking firm Lehman Brothers. In 1917, during the First World War, he became a colonel in the U.S. Army. He entered politics in 1920, becoming finance chairman of the Democrat party in 1928. That  assignment led to his election as Lieutenant Governor in 1928. Following his election as governor in 1932, he was re-elected two times. He resigned as governor to become Director of Relief and Rehabilitation for the United Nations from 1943 to 1946.

In 1949, Lehman was elected to the U.S. Senate for the remainder of Robert Wagner’s term and was reelected that same year. Lehman was considered a “liberal ” and was therefore ont a member of the unofficial senator’s club consisting of McCarthy and Eastland. Lehman retired from the senate but remaned active in New York politics by defeating the long time “boss” of New York, Carmine De Sapio. Lehman was the first and only Jewish governor of New York until Eliot Spitzer became governor in 2007. Lehman died in 1983.

Ernest Gruening became the 7^th Governor of Alaska before Alaska became a state. He governed the territory from 1929 to 1953. Later he became Senator from 1959 to 1969. Gruening was a veteran of the U.S. Army, having  serve during the First World War .  He graduated from the Harvard Medical  School but became a journalist.  He was appointed Governor of Alaska territory by President Franklin Roosevelt. When Alaska became a state in 1959, Gruening was elected a senato,r where he served until 1969, when he was defeated in the  primary..

Gruening had graduated from Harvard University and later graduated from the Harvard Medical School. Subsequently he forsook medicine for journalism, becoming a reporter for the Boston Evening Herald. He became an editorial writer and managing editor for the Boston Evening Traveller . He then became editor of The Nation and later editor of The New York Post . He then decided on a political career which let mim to appointments to several positions in the Department of the Interior. Gruening wrote a book about Mexico which was used by members of the State Department for years. After Japanese forces attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Gruening built up the defenses of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

Although Gruening was not a native of Alaska, he continued to live near Juneau , the capital, after he retired. His grandchildren were elected to a number of offices . There is an Ernest Gruening building on the campus of the University of Alaska. A statue of Ernest Gruening is located in the US Captal’s Statuary Hall. Numerous streets and schools in Alaska are named in his honor and a hill in Alaska is called Mount Ernest Gruening .

Linda Lingle was the sixth governor of Hawaii from 2002 to  2010. She was the first Republican governor since 1962, and the only Jew and the only woman to hold that office. Earlier she had been elected mayor of Maui. She was also chair of the Hawaii Republican Party. She lived in Illinois for a short time, and served as adviser to the then governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner. On her return to Hawaii in 2017, she moved to Molokai, where she started the Molokai Free Press. Her political career began when in 1980 she was elected to the Maui council, where she remained for two terms. The polls showed  that she was far behind her opponent but she won just the same. The media declared her victory as one of the biggest upsets in American political history, although there have been numerous similar failures of media predictions before and since then. She became chair of the Republican party in Hawaii. In 2002, Lingle was nominated by the Republican party to become governor and won. She took the oath of office upon a Hebrew Bible. In 2004 she led a delegation to Israel . Lingle was reelected and served a second term. After the end of her second term, Lingle moved to California and taught at the Northridge Campus of the State University.

Lingle was married and divorced twice. She kept the name of her first husband but is now single. She has no children . She is active in the Republican Jewish Coalition .

Rahm Emanuel was the 55^th mayor of Chicago, from 2011 to 2019. From 2009 to 2010 he was White House Chief of Staff in the Obama administration. Earlier, in 2007, he was chair of the House Democratic Caucus after serving as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2000 to 2007. He was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2003, and remained a representative until 2008.

Rahm Israel Emanuel are three Hebrew names which his father, an immigrant from Israel, gave him. Emanuel is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied ballet dancing. He later transferred to Northwestern University. In 1992, Emanuel joined the finance committee for the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, leading to his appointment as assistant to the president. He then served in the House of Representatives in the seat vacated by Rod Blagojevich, who had been elected governor of Illinois. He became mayor of Chicago when he received 55% of the vote. In 2018, Emanuel did not run for a third term as mayor.

Rahm Emanuel and his wife, Amy Merrie Rule have two daughters and one son. Rule converted to Judaism shortly before their wedding. Since then the Emanuel family has been exceptionally involved in synagogue  affairs, as Amy is a teacher in the congregational school. Madeleine Kunin became the 77^th governor of Vermont in 1985. She served until 1991. She was the first Jew and first woman to be governor.  Kunin was a member of the Democratic party and was ambassador to Switzerland (Die Schweiz) for three years, 1996-1999. Prior to becoming governor, Kunin was lieutenant governor from 1979 to 1983. She had also been a member of the House of Representatives from Vermont from 1977 to 1979.

Kunin was divorced from Arthur Kunin and married a second time to John Hennessey. Kunin was a graduate of the University of Massachusetts in history and earned an M.A. degree in journalism  at Columbia University and a second M.A. in English  from the University of Vemont. She became professor at the university of Vermont after her political activities.

Kunin was born in  Zurich , Switzerland (Die Schweiz) of two Jewish parents who moved to the United States when she was a child. After gaining two master’s degrees, she became a reporter for the Burlington Free Press, while also teaching part time at the university. In 2012 she published a book The New Feminist Agenda.

Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg had the most peculiar career of any politician.  He was Secretary of Labor, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the American ambassador to the United Nations .

He graduated from the Northwestern University school of law in 1930 and became a prominent labor lawyer when he became instrumental in merging the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations.  He served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War Two.  In 1962, President Kennedy appointed Goldberg Secretary of Labor.  He was then nominated to the Supreme Court by President Kennedy after Justice Frankfurter retired.  Arthur Goldberg was a firm opponent of the so-called death penalty.  He argued that the death penalty was condemned by the international community, and should be regarded is cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the constitution’s eighth amendment.  He was instrumental in abolishing the death penalty for rape, as 33 states had already outlawed the practice.  In 1972, the supreme court suspended the death penalty on the grounds that it was imposed on blacks far more than on whites.  All states had to insure that the juries dealing with a death penalty case included Afro American jurors.  In Coker v. Georgia , the death penalty for rape, even of children, was abolished by the Supreme Court through Goldberg’s influence.

His best known opinion came in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut .  He wrote that the ninth amendment to the constitution supported the right to privacy as a fundamental right which cannot be abridged.

Goldberg resigned from the Supreme Court to become ambassador to the United Nations because he believed he could help keep the peace in Viet Nam and he thought President Johnson would re-appoint him to the supreme court after the Viet Nam crisis had passed.  He also believed he could persuade President Johnson to get out of the Viet Nam War .  He was disappointed in both cases, as Johnson never reappointed him and the Viet Nam war continued.

In 1967, Ambassador Goldberg succeeded in getting the United Nations to vote for Resolution 242, which held that Israel was not obliged to withdraw from the territory they won during the Six Day War , which had been initiated by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan with the intent of “driving the Jews into the sea.” 

It seemed peculiar when Goldberg resigned from the Supreme Court in 1965 to accept the position of American ambassador to the United Nations .  In 1970, Goldberg ran for governor of New York, but was defeated by Nelson Rockefeller.

It is hard to understand why a Supreme Court Justice would resign from the Supreme Court to become Ambassador to the United Nations .  Supreme Court justice is a very important position with major consequences in the lives of Americans.  Ambassador to the United Nations is a position in which the American ambassador has to listen to invective and insults to the United States by malicious enemies who burn the American flag, assault the friends of the USA, and pass endless resolutions seeking to express hatred for this country, while collecting the taxpayers’ money.  In the end, the United Nations has little influence and power other than to shout vituperation.

Goldberg was born in Chicago, the youngest of eight children of two Jewish parents.  His parents were immigrants from the Ukraine.  His father was a produce peddler with died in 1916, so that the children had to quit school to support the family.  Mandatory schooling was not the law until 1920.  Arthur, the youngest, was allowed to continue in school and graduated from high school, thereafter working while attending a junior college.  Later, he earned a BS from De Paul university and a J.D. from Northwestern University.

Goldberg became interested in the law because he witnessed the trial of Leopold and Loeb , two wealthy men who had murdered for the sake of killing.  They were spared the death penalty because of the skill of their famous attorney, Clarence Darrow .

 In 1931, Goldberg married Dorothy Kargans, with whom he had one daughter, Barbara, and one son, Robert.

Europe and America

This review of the election of Jewish Americans to political office contrasts sharply with the treatment of Jews in Christian Europe where, since the Edict of Milan in313 and the Edict of Toleration two years earlier, Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empires, both East and West. The ascendancy of Christianity led to the 1600 years of persecution of the European Jews which ceased for those Jews who had migrated to America but did not end for those who stayed behind and were slaughtered during the Holocaust ending in 1945.

Because the American Jews were accepted as equals  among Americans the Jewish population participated in the political process by creating Public Affairs Committees . These PACS are widespread in the USA and serve the purpose of pressuring Congress and the Administration to pass and enforce legislation promoting the interests of the PAC sponsors.

The National Jewish Democratic Council is mainly interested in the American-Israel relationship, separation of church and state and reproductive rights. The NJDC also seeks to “educate” Democrat candidates for office and office holders concerning issues important to Jewish voters. The NJDC also seeks to oversee the efforts of so-called “right” religious groups suspected of seeking to undermine “the wall of separation between church and state”. .

The NJDC also targeted 250,000 Jewish households with literature urging Jews to vote for Democrats .Despite thes efforts the NJDC disappeared from the political scene in 2016 leaving only a “Jews for Progress ” group behind to advance the cause of Hillary Clinton , the Democrat candidate for president. In2017 the Jewish Democratic Council of America was formed. The Democratic Council seeks to educate voters concerning the difference between Republican and Democrat candidates. Educate Democrat candidates of the concerns of the Jewish community as Democrats understand these needs. The Council also advocates for Jewish candidates among the media and “fightng the radical right” i.e. Republicans in Washington and among journalists. Cultivating young Jewish Democrats to become leaders in the Democrat cause and making all Jewish Americans aware of Jewish issues by sponsoring breakfast roundtables and Democratic forums .

The Council also denied Republican arguments that President Obama was unwilling to support Israel .

     The Republican Jewish Coalition seeks to elect Republican candidates and is also the determined opponent f anti-Jewish haters such as the Reverend Al Sharpton who is regarded as a civil rights advocate by Democrats . Republicans , including resident Trump, point to Sharpton’s record as an anti-Jewish hate monger.

     In 1987, a fifteen year old black girl was found in a garbage bag smeared with feces. A number of racial slurs were written with charcoal on her body. She claimed to have been raped by six white men, of whom two were law enforcement officers . When a jury found that Ms. Brawley had fabricated this story, the Rev. Al Sharpton defended her lies and accused Jews of having perpetrated a crime which never occurred. In 1991, a Jewish driver accidentally killed a black child in an auto accident when the child ran into the street in front of the river who could not stop I time. At the funeral of that boy, Al Sharpton shouted “Hitler did not do his job ” by not killing all Jews.

In 1995 Sharpton once more assaulted the Jewish community with his rhetoric leading to the deaths of eight men all of whom were not Jewish. The occasion for Sharpton’s assault on the Jewish people was a dispute between the Jewish landlord and a black tenant. The Jewish landlord owned a clothing store called “Freddie’s Fashions .” He sought to evict the black owner of a record store for non-payment of rent. When Sharpton heard about this, he interfered by shouting at a crowd of black men, “Burn down the Jew store ” meaning “Freddie’s Fashions”. A follower of Sharpton therefore ran into the clothing store and poured kerosene on the merchandise which he then set on fire. Seven employees, all of Hispanic origin, died in the fire, as did the arsonist. Sharpton had become responsible for eight deaths. Yet, no charges were ever filed against him. Instead, the Democrat candidates for President of the United States in 2020, Elizabeth Warren , and Kamala Harris praised Sharpton as one who “spent his life fighting for what is right”. During the Obana administration,n Al Sharpton was repeatedly invited to the White House and served as one of the President’s advisers. 

Republicans speculate that if a Jew had attacked Afro-Americans in the manner attributed to Al Sharpton he would have been anathema among all parties and all independents.

In part the National Jewish Republican Coalition was formed in 1985 because soe Jewish voters were uncomfortable with the attitude of Democrats toward Jewish issues. In 2020 the RJC had 47 chapters in the country . The RJC seeks to influence lawmakers in favor of Jewish concerns and includes in its platform terrorism, national security, Israel , Syria , Iran, immigration, school prayer, the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, adoption, crime, taxes Medicare, and Social Security .

There is a possibility that the Jewish vote for republicans may increase in 2020 because of the exceptional support President Trump has given Israel and the American Jewish community. Ritual behavior is known among all peoples and is unlikely to disappear quickly. Nevertheless, it is possible that Jewish Americans will vote in larger numbers than heretofore for those who support their agenda.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is another PAC concerned with Jewish issues. Founded in 1963 by Saul Kenin , AIPAC is a lobbying organization seeking to influence Congress in favor of Israel. It has over 100,000 members.  

AIPAC holds annual conferences at which politicians  both Republican and Democrat   have spoken over the years. It has numerous donors, of whom many are not Jewish. In 1984, Senator Charles Percy of Illinois, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was defeated by Paul Simon after Percy sought to arm Saudi Arabia with sophisticated airplanes and missiles threatening Israel . AIPAC spent $3.5 million in lobbying expenses in one year. AIPAC introduces wealthy supporters to American political candidates who seek financial support for their election campaigns. This means that Congressional candidates receive about 10% to 15% of their campaign contributions from AIPAC members. AIPAC also pays for journeys to Israel by non-Jewish politicians and uses its money and influence to persuade public opinion in its favor.

According to The Virtual Jewish Library , sympathy for Israel among the American public varies from 30 to 60% . Sympathy for the Arab cause among Americans varies from 1% to an average of 12%.

Yet another Jewish political action group is called J Street . The organizers seek the end of American support for Israel and prootes the Arab view that Israel has no right to exist.. This PAC was founded in 2007 by an American born son of an Israeli immigrant. He calls himself ben-Ami which is Hebrew for Son of my People. That is not a name. Ben Ami’s American name has not been revealed. The organization is funded by money contributed by Arab interests and by Jews who have adopted the beliefs and attitudes of anti-Semites. This phenomenon is called the Stockholm Syndrome by sociologists. The Stockholm Syndrome is so named because    in August 1973, a bank robber took four people hostage who sided with their captor and praised him after their release The Stockholm syndrome has been found in similar situations in which the victims of a crime became supporters of the criminal. Likewise, Jews like ben Ami seek the destruction of Israel as justified. An organization founded and empowered by American Jews   and called Peace Now seeks to support the aims of J Street , advocating that the US government  reject all pro Israel activities and stop supplying Israel with weapons , money and diplomatic help.  In 2018 J Street backed a number of candidates seeking a variety of political offices. According to J Street, 33 of 41 candidates supported by them, won in the 2018 election. It remains to  seen how much damage the J Street supporters can inflict upon the American-Israel relationship.

Shalom u'vracha.

Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including 30 books and 45 journal articles.

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