January 3, 2001
Dear President-Elect Bush:
As close as the election was, it wasn't much of a contest in
the Jewish community; polls suggest that an overwhelming
majority of American Jews supported the Gore-Lieberman
ticket. This would appear to confirm some long- and widely-
held perceptions about the political proclivities and policy
preferences of Jews in the United States.
Election results and conventional wisdom notwithstanding,
American Jewry is not quite the monolith we are often
portrayed as being. To be sure, there is an essential unity
that binds all Jews together. And there is a clear consensus
among American Jews on several issues of across-the-board
political concern -- most notably the importance of America
reaffirming and strengthening its longstanding special
relationship with Israel and the need to promote a domestic
climate of tolerance and equal opportunity. Beyond those
essential points, though, the Jewish community in the United
States is in a state of ferment and flux, and it is
important that our next president be sensitive to that
reality.
Much of that ferment and flux emerges from a historical
conundrum that lies at the heart of the contemporary
American Jewish experience. Our parents and grandparents,
for the most part, emigrated to this country in the early
and mid-1900's, escaping the ghettos and pogroms and
concentration camps of a genocidally hostile Europe. They
came, yearning to breathe free and partake of the American
dream. Yet they frequently encountered resistance, rebuffed
in their efforts to live in certain neighborhoods, join
certain country clubs, attend certain universities, gain
employment with certain firms.
Thus was established American Jewish Priority Number One: to
find ways and means, through the operation of law and the
influence of culture, to break down all barriers that
prevented Jewish assimilation into the great American
mainstream. Slowly but surely, those efforts succeeded.
Antisemitism in this country has not disappeared entirely,
but it has surely faded into the murky shadows. Jews have
become accepted in virtually every nook and cranny of
American society -- even in the once unimaginable position
of running for Vice President of the United States.
History's proverbial outsiders have become America's
successful insiders.
The strategy worked. But it worked a bit too well. Jews in
this country have done such a marvelous job of assimilating
into the broader culture that they are in danger of fading
into demographic oblivion. Intermarriage rates have
skyrocketed; Jewish ignorance is rampant; Jewish identity
has no relevance to millions of our children.
Many American Jews are beginning to recognize, therefore,
that the time has come to acknowledge and develop strategies
to achieve a new Priority Number One: ensuring Jewish
continuity.
Thus, where parents once rushed to enroll their children in
nondenominational public and private schools to ensure that
their sons and daughters would mingle with other children,
be accepted by other children and ultimately become largely
indistinguishable from other children, now there is a
growing groundswell of parents enrolling their children in
Jewish schools, to ensure that their sons and daughters will
mingle with other Jews, learn about their unique culture and
history and ultimately take pride in their religious
identity. Where liberal houses of Jewish worship once all
but abandoned traditional Jewish ritual in favor of an
emphasis on universalist themes of social justice, now there
is a movement to reclaim Torah and mitzvos as the central
defining characteristic of Jewish religious identity. Where
the Orthodox community was once expected to vanish from the
American scene as a historical relic confined to the dustbin
of old world nostalgia, now Orthodoxy is widely seen as the
most vital of all the Jewish denominational movements.
The shifting sociological pendulum in the American Jewish
community may prove to have profound implications in the
areas of politics and public policy as well. As Jews come
increasingly to acknowledge the importance of Jewish
schools, they are starting to become more receptive to
governmental policies designed to promote educational
choice. As Jews come increasingly to explore their religious
roots, they are starting to modify their embrace of social
liberalism. As Jews come increasingly to recognize the
potential dark side of the American melting pot and the
corrosive effect of a popular culture that unites Americans
around our nation's lowest common denominator, they are
starting to wonder whether free speech is in fact
incompatible with responsible regulation.
Senator Lieberman -- or at least the pre-campaign edition of
Senator Lieberman -- is a good example of the transitional
thinking that is taking place in certain parts of the Jewish
community. His support for school vouchers, his strong
stance on issues of personal morality, his criticism of the
violence and smut that dominate so much of the entertainment
industry, his open embrace of and appeal for religious
values in public life -- these all attest to an emerging
trend within American Jewry that is beginning to make its
mark on the national scene.
Tap into that trend, Mr. President-Elect. Seek out Jewish
partners as you invite religious communities to help meet
the needs of the needy through programs of "charitable
choice". Enlist Jewish support for policies that expand
parental options in education. Solicit Jewish assistance in
your efforts to elevate the level of American culture and
public life.
In short, Mr. President-Elect, look beyond some of the old
stereotypes of who we are and what we think. You may be in
for a surprise.
Respectfully,
David Zwiebel
Executive Vice President for Government and Public
Affairs
Agudath Israel of America
AM ECHAD RESOURCES: Reprinted with permission from Sh'ma:
A Journal of Jewish Responsibility January, 2001. This open
letter, in slightly different form, appeared as one of a
series of such letters to the new president-elect in a
special issue of Sh'ma (www.shma.com).
