Good=Jews and Jews= Politicals, So Politics=Good??
Shmuel Rosner, correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, is hosting an online conversation this week with the executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, Ira Forman.
So far, it’s been a pretty standard discussion of whether the Dems are truly as pro-Israel as the GOP, etc., etc. But Forman has also provided a very tidy summer of the history of Jewish political engagement in America.
To wit:
“Jewish Americans participate in all aspects of American politics to a degree which may be unequaled by any other minority group in America. Jews register and turn out to vote in very high numbers. Jews represent only about two percent of the population but they run for elected office in much higher numbers. A significant proportion of the most prominent political journalists are Jewish. Jewish Americans provide both parties (especially Democrats) a disproportionate share of their campaign contributions.”
So here’s my question: If Jews are the ultimate civic engagers, and they’ve gone full steam into politics, are the political cynics wrong after all? In other words, by the transitive property:
Good=Jews Jews=Politics Good=Politcs??
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