Three challenges for mainstream Jewry
By David Saperstein
Haaretz, December 24, 2004
The triumphalism of the religious right in the 2004 U.S. presidential election poses serious challenges for American Jewry and Israel. Conservative evangelical leaders have publicly claimed credit for the high turnout that determined the outcome of the election and now suggest they should be repaid for their loyalty.
Their euphoria was intensified by initial polls suggesting that "moral issues" were the most frequent determining factor in voters' minds. This was evidence, they asserted, that the religious right's focus on moral issues like abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research and opposition to church-state separation pulled in significant support from beyond its own ranks.
Similarly, the remarkable split in the Jewish vote, in which 68 percent of Orthodox Jews voted for President Bush, while only 23 percent of Conservative Jews and 15 percent of Reform Jews voted Republican, leads some to argue that the Jewish community is now fracturing along the same cultural-religious lines (between less- and more-observant segments) as Christian America. The future role of Orthodox Jewry in American political life, they argue, will more resemble that of the Christian right than that of the rest of American Jewry.
Many of these underlying assumptions are flawed. Polling data, for instance, shows that the Orthodox Jewish community remains far more liberal and pluralistic than the Christian right. It is far more likely that heightened support for Bush among Orthodox Jews was the result of a widespread perception in the Orthodox community (not shared elsewhere) that Bush was "better" on Israel than his Democratic opponent.
Against this background, the Jewish community faces three urgent challenges. First, as Israel moves to revive the peace process and withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, the Bush administration is increasing its efforts to regalvanize that process. Yet, it is precisely the Christian right and the Orthodox Jewish community that will be the most resistant to such steps and are likely to pressure the administration to pull back from an assertive role. Should the administration decide to repay its debt to its supporters from the religious right and Orthodox Jewry on this issue, it would be a major setback for the peace process.
Ironically, it is the mainstream Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and liberal evangelical communities who will be most supportive of the administration's plan for active engagement in the Mideast peace process. The mainstream Jewish community, representing the overwhelming majority of American Jews, needs to make clear to the Bush administration that it will enthusiastically support its effort to work with the new coalition under Ariel Sharon to promote the peace process.
Second, due to the success of the religious right's efforts to claim for itself the application of biblical and religious values to political discourse, the mainstream and progressive religious communities are engaged in intense self-evaluation and strategizing. These liberal streams, led in part by groups like my own Religious Action Center, are focused on reasserting religious and moral values as central to a socially just vision of America.
How can America accept the religious right's reduction of morality to issues like homosexuality and abortion, which are scarcely mentioned in the Bible? How do we get the American public to see such issues as poverty, protection of the weak and the ill, protecting God's creation through environmental safeguards, basic human dignity and equality - far more pervasive biblical themes - as the great religious and moral issues confronting America?
Finally, there is the constitutional challenge - attempts, for instance, through constitutional amendments or the appointment of very conservative judges to tear down the wall separating church and state and overturn the extension of rights for women and minorities. Such reversals would be a disaster for American Jewry and, in the long run, for Israel as well.
It was precisely the separation between government and religion that allowed religion to flourish in the U.S. with a diversity and strength unmatched anywhere in the democratic world today. Constitutional safeguards have allowed for a religious pluralism and tolerance that has led to far more people holding religious values central to their lives than in any other democratic nation - including Israel. It was the Supreme Court's expansion of women's rights as well as the rights of racial, religious and ethnic minorities that allowed Jews to move from the periphery to the very center of American political, professional, academic and economic life.
Our ability to utilize our legitimate democratic rights efficiently and effectively enabled us to pursue a more decent, equal and compassionate society, even as we used these unprecedented political freedoms and influence to strengthen the special relationship between Israel and the U.S. Now, in the name of religion, there are those who would undo these great accomplishments. Should they succeed, they would, ironically, weaken religion and weaken American Jewry, including its ability to ensure the future of the special U.S.-Israel relationship. American Jewish political activity over the next four years - working with the Bush administration where possible, and with its critics where necessary - must focus on stopping such efforts.
Rabbi David Saperstein is Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
