printThe excerpt is from “Jews Against Judaism,” which you can read on WND.com:
“Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) has become a popular participant on cable TV shout-fests. The pretty blond puts her velvety voice and forceful personality to use in promoting Obama’s statist schemes. (“Obama, a leftist big-government progressive”, has, naturally, captured the media’s imagination more so than “McCain, a conservative big-government progressive.”) …
Wasserman Schultz’s Jewishness is central to her political pitch. (But her double-barreled, affectatious surname isn’t; so I’m dropping it.) Her congressional page states that she is “the first Jewish Congresswoman ever elected from Florida.” Another of Wasserman’s listed accomplishments is to have called on the president to declare a Jewish American Heritage Month. He, and the House, obliged her. Wasserman regularly touts Obama, former friend to race-baiters and Israel haters, as a solid ally of Israel. …
Jews, with the exception of Wasserman and her ilk, have always been among the most individualistic, original, and entrepreneurial members of American society. Think of Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Milton Friedman. Or, of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the eponymous mastermind of Dell Inc., casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, and many more.
Unfortunately, fellow Jews like Wasserman have done more than their fair share to swell the counterproductive ranks of the State. The congresswoman fits the well-founded stereotype of the well-to-do, left-liberal Jew. …
An existential contradiction, really. Overwhelmingly self-reliant and self-made, Jews thrive in the free market—and in bygone, perilous times have survived by it. Nevertheless, they’ve consistently championed an elaborate, intrusive welfare state.
“American Jews are the most educated ethnic group in the United States,” write Corinne and Robert Sauer of the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies. …
“Champaign Socialism” is how the Sauers characterize this penchant among American Jews—they tenaciously defy “any empirical regularity that links higher income levels with more conservative, or economically liberal (in the European sense), political positions.”
The complete column, “Jews Against Judaism,” now on WND.com.
I too am dismayed by the high percentage of left-leaning Jews. Sometimes it makes me wonder how we Jews got the reputation of being so smart, when so many are dumb in this area (also regarding self-defense!).
BTW, Ilana, I think it should be “champagne socialism”? That is, if you’re referring to the drink and not the city of Champaign, Illinois. [Thanks; I took the spelling from the paper, I believe, but thanks for looking out for this here Hebrew’s spelling. Continue to do so.–IM]
I like your website redesign. The old design wasn’t bad, but the new stuff is definitely very nice.
Hi Ilana,
Liberal (communist) “Jews” cannot help themselves. They are a very sick, demented, hypocritical group of people wracked by psychopathic self-hate and guilt. They hate their Jewishness, Judaism, Israel, and wouldn’t know Abraham from Zechariah. As a politically conservative Jew in NYC who believes in the Bible, it infuriates me to see “Barack Obama” bumper stickers in Hebrew. If Obama wins, the “Jews” who voted for him deserve everything that they will get. The tragedy is that Jews like you and me will have to suffer along with these despicable and diabolical individuals. They will yet cause us another Holocaust.
It would seem most everyone, regardless of time, place, race, or nationality, desires a king, a strongman, or a government to put things right and make life easier. Desire turns to pleading, then insisting, and finally, demanding. The growth of the power of the king, strongman, or government keeps pace with the ever-increasing demands. The reckoning comes when the power becomes leviathan, turns on its subjects and, as Samuel warned, starts making demands of its own. The people are left to suffer the consequences of their demands until such time as corruption sets in. Then the time becomes ripe for revolution, for beheadings, hangings, and firing squads.
There is no explaining this perpetually repeating scenario – other than the observation that humans have a fallen nature, part of which manifests itself in never learning from the past and/or deceiving themselves that they and their time are exceptional. That and:
Ecclesiastes: There is no new thing under the sun.
I was not aware that Murray N. Rothbard was Jewish. His book The Mystery of Banking made it clear to me that fractional reserve banking is dishonest both for the lenders and the borrowers since it cheats others by inflation. To the extent that Jews or anyone else acquired their wealth through this banking practice either as a banker or a borrower, they acquired it dishonestly. This should explain much of their support for redistribution since they benefited from the worse kind of redistribution, from the poor to the rich.
The Jews are, of course, enormously talented and would do well under any honest banking system. They would do the country and themselves a great favor if they put their considerable influence behind the establishment of one.
I agree with The Sauers. As viewed from the prism of a gentile, the socialist leaning of the descendants of Judah and Benjamin has more to do with secular Zionism than the Torah. The Jewish people have achieved greatness in all fields of intellectual endeavor throughout the ages. Most have enlightened the world, some have darkened it.
As a Christian, I believe the world will continue to engage in the perpetual war between good and evil until G_d gathers all of Israel together once again. That will be both a dreadful and a wonderful day; the day that history’s wrongs are righted, and (self evident) Truth manifests Itself to all.
Thank you! Finally! Champagne socialists indeed!
My mother hipped me to these ninnies in the 1950’s.
Please ma’am, I want some more.
Like our first Sephardic Supreme Court Justice, Benjamin Cardozo, I like my Judaism to be Jewish (even though we were both atheistic theologically). Hence, I expose my daughter (whom my wife wanted to be raised Jewish) to the traditions at Chabad. I find that Reform and most Conservative Judaism to be leftish-faddism embracing such Jewish values as gun control, free abortions, universal medical care, gay marriage, and whatever. Some of the leftishness of Jews is arguably in reaction to the right-wing nationalistic bigotry encountered. The rest is a pseudo-messianic belief in a Tikkum Olam (saving the world) via Socialistic Obamanistic Utopia. But the “leftish” approach not only affects Jewish Americans on economic issues, it also causes some Israelis to embrace giving land to Palestinians not for practical reasons (like perhaps having 10,000 soldiers patrolling Gaza is silly) but out of a guilt that borders on self-hatred.
The Sauers’ study contains echoes of the Weber thesis. Max Weber, the late 19th – early 20th century German sociologist, argued that the Protestant Reformation, particularly in its Calvinist manifestation, was a precondition for the rise of economic liberalism in Europe. The “list of basic principles” you cited could have come straight out of Weber.
The Protestant reformers never saw themselves as founding a new branch of Christianity. They were trying to take the faith back to its first century — i.e., Jewish — roots.
Even today, Calvinism is probably theologically closer to traditional Judaism than any other branch of Christianity. So your suggestion some time back that the Calvinist Boers of South Africa move to Israel was not all that far-fetched.
The posts by “Steven” and “Steve Sip” above are two examples of the phenomenon of placing wildly disproportionate blame on Jews for things that have nothing to do with Jewishness.
Steven: Why are “liberal Jews”, rather than simply “liberals”, a “sick, demented, hypocritical” group? Your unreasonably hostile attitude toward some Jews whose actions don’t meet with your approval makes you come across as a Jew who has been intimidated by anti-Semites. You share their attitude toward a significant fraction of Jewry but conveniently exclude yourself. Do you think all liberals “deserve” the equivalent of a “second Holocaust”, or just ethnically Jewish ones?
Steve Stip: Why do you single out Jews as presumed beneficiaries of unfair banking practices? And are you seriously suggesting that Jews can act in unison to establish whatever banking they might prefer?
Stan,
I was careful to not single out Jews exclusively but it is an unfortunate accident of history that Jews are heavily into banking. And this is the really bad news: fractional reserve banking with a monopoly currency is dishonest as Rothbard, a Jew points out. Plus it leads to economic instability as von Mises, another Jew pointed out and as current events show.
I don’t know what Jews can or can’t do in unison but I presume that on the whole they are in favor of honesty. I therefore suggest they read Murray N. Rothbard’s book The Mystery of Banking.
BTW, The Mystery of Banking in a new 2nd edition is available as a free download at:
http://mises.org/Books/mysteryofbanking.pdf
ILana made a good point in Samuel about wicked Kings. That truly describes Obama. [And McMussolini.–IM](If) he is put into office, as in the past, till the end, this man Obama will be installed as President by the Sovereign hand of the Lord and not by the electoral votes like many believe. God is in total control. Yes, we should vote, but never lose sight of the fact that the earth is the Lords foot stool. He is the potter, and we are the clay. There is a vast difference between liberal left wing Jews and conservative Jews, no doubt about it. Then, there is a vast difference between Messianic Jews and non Messianic Jews. I will close with what the Prophet Isaiah said in chapter 6:9,10>>> And He said, “Go and tell this people:’Keep on listening,but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive,Their ears dull,And their eyes dim, Lest they see with their eyes,Hear with their ears,Understand with their hearts,And repent and be healed.” ~Martin Berrow~