Man Who Fought for Holocaust Restitution Resigns in Scandal

Just for the record, New York state comptroller Alan Hevesi had to resign after admitting that he illegally used state chauffeurs to drive his wife and pleading guilty to a felony. Hevesi, the great-grandson of the prewar chief rabbi of Budapest, was one of the most outspoken advocates of restitution for victims of the Holocaust, and he was an advocate of greater investment by New York in Israel, according to the Forward. It just takes some of the luster off the whole Holocaust cause.

Jews on Center Stage

Just a note of three recent articles:

"Does Abe Foxman Have an Anti-Anti-Semite Problem?" from the NYT Magazine yesterday, which says, "...Colin Powell ... links President Bush's Middle East policy more to Jewish-neoconservative influence than to principle." And Foxman says, "One out of three people in these United States believes that the Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the U.S.... That's a classic anti-Semitic canard." The article's author says, "I asked [Foxman] isn't slinging the dread charge of anti-Semitism at people like Jimmy Carter and Tony Judt and Mearsheimer and Walt really a way of choking off debate? 'No, it isn't,' Foxman said.... I asked if it was really right to call Carter, the president who negotiated the Camp David accords, an anti-Semite. Foxman replied, 'I didn't call him an anti-Semite.' 'But you said he was bigoted. Isn't that the same thing?' 'No, "Bigoted" is you have preconceived notions about things.'"

"Fury Over Delegate's Remarks on Slavery" from the Washington Post. Virginia state delegate Frank Hargrove criticized a proposal for the state to issue an apology for slavery, likening it to requiring Jews to apologize for "killing Christ." The ADL (Abe Foxman) condemned Hargrove's comments about Jews.

"The Neo-Cons Route to Disaster," from the Financial Times, which says, "The neo-cons stand accused of many errors: imperialism, Leninism, Trotskyism (New York school), militarism. Some believe that the real problem is that so many of them are Jewish – this is an alarmingly popular theme, to judge by my e-mails. But the problem with the neo-cons is not that so many of them are Jews. The problem is that so many of them are journalists."

Record Number of Jews in Congress

I wasn't looking for this. It just appeared in the Washington Post, so presumably it is newsworthy. According to the article about 2% of Americans identify themselves as Jewish, but there are 30 Congressmen and 13 Senators who are Jewish. Clearly there is no prejudice against them. The article says that in the midterm elections 90% of Jews voted Democratic. I should like that.

The Economist on Jews and Israel

The Economist magazine has a long article on young Jews' attitudes toward Israel. It makes a number of interesting points:

-- Although Chaim Weizmann, the head of the World Zionist Organization, told President Truman that the choice for Jews was "between statehood and extermination," Jews who had fled eastern Europe's pogroms for America two generations earlier already felt safe and established there.

-- When Israel was founded, Jews felt they had only two options: assimilate in the countries where they lived, or identify very closely with the new state, if not migrate there.

(The Economist article routinely cites "assimilation" as an evil for Jews outside of Israel. While there should be no pressure for Jews to give up their religion, why should it be good for Jews not to assimilate, but rather to think of themselves as Jews first and Americans second? Many do think of themselves this way, and particularly because of older Jews' love for Israel, it means they put Israel first and America second, although they are American citizens.)

-- Currently, however, Jews face the question of how should a conscientious Jew react to Israel's new image as military giant and flawed oppressor. (Can you say Jimmy Carter?)

-- The article says, "Most diaspora Jews still support Israel strongly. But ... their ambivalence has grown. Many are disturbed by the occupation of the Palestinian territories.... The most radical say, as the Palestinians do, that the idea of an ethnically based state is racist and archaic." (Can you say Jimmy Carter?)

-- "In November, Ze'ev Bielski, the head of the Jewish Agency ... got in hot water for saying that one day American Jews 'will realize that they have no future as Jews in the US due to assimilation and intermarriage." (Can you say Israel first and America second for American Jews?)

-- "Nonetheless, Jewish Americans have long been Israel's strongest supporters.... The main Jewish lobby groups have tended to back right-wing Israeli governments."

-- "The pro-Israel heavy guns still predominate.... In the long run [Mr. Cohen] predicts a polarization of American Jewry: a small group growing more pious and attracted to Israel, while a larger one drifts away."

-- "In Britain, even more than in America, Israel is an anchor of Jewish identity."

-- "Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sachs, ... has cautiously criticized Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and recently chided it for lacking 'a Jewish sense of ethics permeating the great institutions of society."

-- "France, by contrast, has more Jews than anywhere else in western Europe.... They are less attached to France.... Young French Jews ... are also likely to more anti-Arab and right-wing. I think that Bibi [Netanyahu] is more popular in France than in Israel." (So America is not the only country where Jews put their ethnicity ahead of their loyalty to the country of which they are citizens.)

-- Most Jews in Germany have come from Russia recently. "Young Jews in Germany ... are less likely to go to Israel than to England.... But Zionist activism ... gets very little response."

-- "The world's least-expected Jewish revival, however, is going on in Russia itself.... As many as 100,000 Russian-Israelis have gone back to Russia."

(The article does not mention than many of the billionaire Russian "oligarchs" are Jewish. Although many of the oligarchs have left Russia, except for jailed ex-Yukos head Khodorkovsky, their success and financial help have no doubt encouraged other Russian Jews to return.)

According to a graphic in the article, there are more Jews in North America (5,650,000) than in Israel (5,314,000).