From: Jonathan Gottfried
To: Paul Gottfried
Subject: Are Jewish Democrats less American?

Dad,

So we’ve been asked whether it’s time for Jews to vote Republican, and it seems that you object to the question on the grounds that the Democratic and Republican parties are merely so much hot air used to inflate an ever-increasing federal government. Before responding to the question and your comments, I, too, want to take issue with some assumptions underlying the question.

To ask whether Jews should vote Republican is to assume that American Jewry is a monolith of homogenous interests. I’m not sure that such a political creature does or should exist. A mildly observant Jew in Alabama likely has more in common with his mildly observant Christian neighbor than he does with most Jews in New York. The two religions’ theological differences—as understood and practiced by your average Jew or Christian—pale in comparison to the similarities of geography and culture shared by my hypothetical Southern neighbors. Other than a favorable U.S. policy towards Israel, I’m not convinced that there is a political platform to which most Jews, as Jews, adhere (and this is not to argue that the U.S. policy towards Israel has been good for Israel or even for America’s Jews).

Even if we assume that Jews across this country do share political interests, I’m not sure that we should cast our lot with any single political party. Consistently voting Democrat or Republican eventually creates a situation where the Jewish vote is taken for granted. Better to rock the boat every once in a while in order to ensure that one’s voice is heard.

Enough of my bickering with the question, and now let me turn to your objection to the quGoodbye Baghdad, Hello Kyoto: America under President Goreestion. You argue there is no longer any difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. I find that hard to believe.

Had Gore been elected, do you believe that our country would have invaded Iraq, that we would have withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol, that we would have opposed the establishment of the International Criminal Court? You may question the import of Kyoto and the ICC; however it is hard to ignore the 3000 American dead as a result of this war. You may respond, perhaps, that this war has nothing to do with the Republican Party. Perhaps you’re correct. Had Bush père or another Republican been in power, we may not have invaded. And yet the point remains that a Republican president pursued a war that I don’t think that the Democratic candidate, if elected, would have. For that reason alone, I believe that there is a difference between the parties.

I'm surprised by your reason why Jews should vote Republican. Jews do not vote Democrat because they fear the non-Jewish Americans around them. Jewish Democrats do not linger in the shadows of the shtetl, fearful that America’s non-Jews are sharpening their knives for the next pogrom. Nor do I think that Jews need to vote Republican in order to prove they are Americans worthy of playing on the polo fields with WASPs. Are you suggesting that voting Republican is somehow a sign of successful, Jewish assimilation? Of becoming “American” in a way that Jewish Democrats are not?

Jonathan

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