Does the rise of some visible Jews as prominent conservative voices alter the stereotypes that most Americans hold about Jews in America?
Yes, I know that the stereotype has some validity. As a group Jews in America tend to vote Democratic and tend to be more liberal and so on.
But there are some much more visible Jews (some practicing Jews, some by heritage alone) as voices of Conservatism now - from Lieberman and Cantor among others in the political realm - to the Medveds, Savages and several others in the talk radio rounds. And of course there have been a fair number of visible Jews among the neocons.
Will the visibility of these individuals alter the perceptions of America at large? Or will America merely embrace multiple conflicting stereotypes at the same time?
Well, you’ve got Jews voting Democratic because they have a social conscience, and socialism is associated with the Democrats. And you’ve got Jews voting Republican because they’re rich, and money is associated with the Republicans.
Joe Lieberman is a perfectly normal conservative Jew. He’s socially conservative and fiscally liberal. So is Ben Stein. This isn’t new. Nor is it atypical.
I do realize that my title was poorly worded “Conservative” is of course politically conservative in this thread. “Conservative” as in the Jewish Religious Movement (which actually refers to the conserving of some religious ritual even while encouraging adaptation to and integration within modern society) is a different beast. That aside clarified …
Of course Jews have in reality always come in all political stripes, and the Orthodox have often been on the same side of issues as many Christian fundamentalists. My Dad liked Nixon because he felt he was strong on Israel. You have fiscal conservatives who are socially liberal and visa versa.
But the face, the stereotype, has been the Jewish liberal. Short of Kissinger there just have not been many Jews who are visibly conservative.
IOW E-Sabbath, I’m not speaking of the reality - I am asking about the perception.
And neocon-hawkish on foreign policy because he seems to have at least a secondary national loyalty to Israel; that’s part of the conservative-Jewish stereotype too. Come to think of it, it’s also part of the liberal-Jewish stereotype.
You mean like Ed Koch? Yep. Ed flipped out after 9/11, too. But I wasn’t saying conservative-Jewish, I was saying Conservative Jewish.
(More liberal that the guys with the pigtails, those are Orthodox. Less so than your typical Hollywood Jew, that’s Reform.)
I think maybe the stereotype is adding ‘Strong on Terror, stubborn to a fault’. Which is more or less true. There isn’t much that can outstubborn a jew.
Throughout European history from the Dark Ages on, Jews, wherever they lived, were under enormous social pressure to convert to Christianity. In every generation, some did, and their grandchildren forgot they had ever been Jewish and married into the gentile population. (Most of us “white gentiles” probably have some Jewish ancestors in the woodpile.) Those we now call “Jews” are the descendants of those who, in every generation, resisted the pressure. They have been artificially, selectively bred for stubbornness.
