Elizabeth Camuti
F358
Final Paper
December 8, 2006
Judaism in Politics: Jewish Identity and the Elections Process
Judaism and politics have always had a bit of a contentious relationship. The number of Jewish people involved in politics in the United States varies, but more recently the number has gone up due to many factors including distribution of wealth in the United States, recent on goings in Israel, and the growing popularity of Judaism in the entertainment sector. With the recent mid-term election on November 7th, the role of Jewish identity in an election has become a more pertinent issue and while it may not be directly affecting elections nationwide that facts are clear that the debate is clearly ongoing. However, the question remains, does being Jewish, having a Jewish identity, have an effect on being a public official and more specifically getting elected?
Christianity is the predominant religion in the United States; a 2001 survey determined that seventy six and a half percent of the population in the United States was Christian, followed immediately by approximately thirteen percent identifying non-religious/secular. Only 1.3% of the U.S. population is Jewish; with such numbers it should not be surprising that being Jewish can be an issue in an election. However, it has yet to be seen whether being Jewish in the U.S. is a positive thing in an election. Though the statistics set it up so that, the potential conflict is there; the larger problem would conceivably be having no religion at all as opposed to being Jewish or over a minority religion. Take the November 2006 election for example; for the first time in United States history, a state elected a Muslim U.S. Representative, Democrat Keith Ellison of Minnesota. However, according to an International Herald Tribune article on the election, Ellison himself down plays the fact that he is Muslim and the first non-white Congressional member from the state. Ellison said:
“I think the most important thing about this race is we tried to pull people together on things we all share, things that are important to everyone. (…)We were able to bring in Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists. We brought in everyone.”
Such sentiments clearly show that in this case being of a non-Christian religion played, according to the candidate, not as large of a role as one would think based on the demographics in the United States. What accounts for this? Could it really be that the electorate truly does not take religion into account when voting?
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, world renowned for its research on people’s attitudes and perceptions of the press, policy and politics, conducted a study/survey released in July 2003 on religion and politics, entitled Religion and Politics: Contention and Consensus. Pew found that “Most people (67%) say that their religious beliefs play at least an occasional role in helping them decide what to do in their lives. But far fewer (38%) say religion has the same influence on their voting decisions.” With this and the outcome of Rep. Ellison’s election, it is clear that although religion does play, a role in the elections process, at least as far as numbers are concerned, though it is quite small and clearly not the only factor. Although the scientific evidence on paper does stack up opposing the idea that religion affects how someone votes; but in practice, this is not necessarily the case. Moreover, these statistics do not look at what happens when someone is voting for someone of another religion as opposed to other groups such as racial or ethnic, as not everyone from the United States is of one religion,
When running for office in the United States, largely because the whole foundation of the country was based on the ideals of religious freedom, religion does come into play. From questions of intelligent design, to abortion, to stem cell research, one’s religious views can often shape a campaign. However, with Judaism being a minor religion, in terms of numbers in the United States, Jewish identity must be carefully crafted in order to not become the single wedge issue of an election. Indiana State Representative Orentlicher, the only Jewish member of Indiana General Assembly, found that his Jewish identity became a bit of a wedge issue with relation the debate over legislative prayer during his campaign. He says:
“While a number of legislators opposed [legislative prayer] as it was being done because it crossed the line of separation between church and state, the media and others focused on my opposition because I am Jewish, and an issue that primarily reflected disagreement among Christians was viewed by many as an issue between Jews and Christians.”
This situation called into question Rep. Orentlicher’s Jewish identity; he could have simply brushed the issue off as a separation of church and state violation, but rather he chose to make his religious identity, his Jewish identity an issue and truly explain to his constituency of Indianapolis, IN why he though the way he did. This worked out in the Representative’s favor and he won his first race by thirty-seven votes.
Such embracement of Jewish identity has not worked out in favor of politicians in other cases though. Take, for example, United States Senator Joe Lieberman (CT-I); his Jewish identity has become a large focus of pretty much everything he does, though interestingly enough on his own personal biographical webpage the words “Judaism” and “Jewish” do not show up at all. However, recent controversy surrounding the politically liberal non-profit Move-On.org called into question Sen. Lieberman’s Jewish identity. On the blog Vern Beachy’s Raves, author Vern Beachy, a forty-two year old radio news director living in Iowa, writes about how anti-Semitic rants about Sen. Lieberman appeared on Move-On.org’s forum. These comments according to Mr. Beachy’s blog stirred a response from the head of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman; in a letter from the Lieberman Campaign for Senate in 2006, Vern Beachy’s Raves recounts “‘Foxman cited examples from the site's Action Forum, including 'media owning Jewish pigs,' 'Zionazis,' a reference to the senator as 'Jew Lieberman' and the question, 'Why are the Jews so Jew-y?'’” Such comments clearly show the public’s concern with the fact that Sen. Lieberman is so public with his Jewish identity. Though Sen. Lieberman does not often directly bring up his Jewish identity, he is also not shying away from it. As a result, Sen. Lieberman has been, to some extent, pigeon-holed as the “Jewish Senator.” Even with all of this though, Senator Lieberman defeated challenger Ned Lamont in the Senate race this past November in Connecticut showing that although the public does tend to look at Sen. Lieberman’s Jewish identity a bit more because he is so forthcoming about it, it has not largely effected his political aspirations for Senate. It is worth noting that his “Jewishness” was an issue during his bid for Vice President in 2000, but again the race was so close that clearly, the effects of his Jewish identity, if there were any, were not very large.
The final case study to look at in the role that Jewish identity plays in getting elected to public offices is the recent situation involving Republican Senator George Allen of Virginia, who with only a few weeks left in his already tumultuous campaign for reelection, released to the press that his mother concealed her Jewish identity for him until a month prior in order to protect her children from anti-Semitism. Looking at this perspective on Jewish identity, Sen. Allen’s Jewish identity took the media by storm for the following week, but this is not necessarily attributed to the fact that he now had a Jewish identity, but rather to his already problematic campaign. Sen. Allen had been in the news only a month earlier for his use of the French slur “macaca.” Thus, the Senator’s new found “Judaism” most likely created a media frenzy, not necessarily because he was Jewish, but because it was sure to make headlines as people had already been watching the Sen. Allen’s every move ever since. The story’s popularity clearly stemmed from the sheer fact that it was captivating to the general public because of its dramatic nature, not because anyone actually cared whether Sen. Allen had Jewish heritage. Senator Allen lost his November election, but this was not, for the most part, based on his newly found Jewish identity, but because of the voters’ discontent with his party politics and because of his prejudiced comments along the campaign trail.
The often mild roles of Jewish identity in the United States’ elections are played up in the popular media worldwide, and to those in the U.S. who view this media, it must have some effect. The Anti-Defamation League in 2004 expressed concern over as what it describes as “the Arab world’s” portrayal of the United States as a “government and political process (…) being controlled and manipulated by all-powerful Jews and Israel.” This type of media attention is viewed by the ADL as anti-Semitic; again Abraham Foxman, National Director of the ADL writes:
“The elections have already prompted a number of highly incendiary and anti-Semitic images from the Arab media. Newspaper cartoonists in {Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia] have given renewed life to conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the American political process.”
While this sort of coverage does not directly effect, the United States’ public policy and political sector, many people from the U.S. read such media outlets on a daily basis and these people must come to some sort of a conclusion based on what they have read. Though not directly saying that one should not vote for Jewish person because Jewish people are taking over the government, the question is evoked in the voters mind, and that itself can cause an effect, no matter how minimal it maybe.
One group that cannot be left out of this debate is the Jewish voters who could potentially be voting for fellow Jews. In his book, Religion & American Politics, Mark B. Noll writes, “Jews present a picture of a group with weak associational ties (i.e. synagogue attendance), but very strong communal behavior.” Jewish people, by and large, according to Noll, have a communal Jewish identity that helps Jews to relate to one another. Noll goes on to say, “It may safely be assumed that these communal ties play a crucial role in political behavior.” Thus, one can deduce that with these communal ties and those ties to political behavior Jewish people are more apt to vote or at least strongly consider other members of their community, that is, other Jews. State Representative Orentlicher describes this relationship: “A Jewish candidate can attract the support of Jewish constituents who might otherwise vote for someone of the opposite party. On the other hand, it can make it more difficult to attract the support of constituents of different religions.” He goes onto describe that his Jewish constituency definitely played a relatively major role in his first election. Rep. Orentlicher is from a state and a district where Jewish people are a minority, but a minority that has a lot of power from outside organizations and how with their smaller numbers still truly make a difference in elections. Rep. Orentlicher continues:
“Jews are a small minority [in his district], but they make up a significant minority in my district, which [he thinks] was important in [his] winning [his] first race when the margin was only 37 votes. (…) [He] can attract the financial support of Jews outside the district for whom it is important to have a Jewish legislator.”
This relationship in the Jewish community between Jewish candidates and Jewish constituents does vary from area to area, but State Representative Orentlicher’s experience is not rare and should be taken into account, for it highlights the sense of communalism that comes as a part of Jewish identity and where embracing it, to some extent, can really help a candidate overall.
The debate over the effects of Jewish identity on elections will rage on for many years to come, particularly when the possibility of Jewish president comes up as at some point it will. Rabbi Jonathan Gerard, a Reform rabbi from Temple Covenant of Peace in Easton, Pennsylvania offers his opinion though on the effect of being Jewish in politics:
“I think that there will always be anti-Semites, and thus Americans who would never vote for a Jew. But in general, I think that there is only a minimum stigma. You know what convinced me of this? The O.J. Simpson Trial. A Jewish attorney defended Simpson (Shapiro) and a Jewish attorney prosecuted him (Marcia Clark) and no one ever once mentioned their religion. It was a non-factor.”
Rabbi Gerard, though, then goes onto say later that he believes that Jewish elected officials tend to exemplify “political values, American values, assimilated values in their personal lives –not visibly Jewish values.” So, the debate over whether Jewish elected officials’ Jewish identity plays a role in their election continues on with little decision on either side. Some argue that a “Jewish stigma” when running for office is something of the past, while other point to the rate of anti-Semitism in the United States and it as a cause for concern. The scientific evidence and the practical evidence seem to show both similar and different perspectives of the debate, but until there is an election where any candidate’s religion is not brought up at all, there will be no answer. Maybe, though, that is a good thing; the diversity that the United States prides itself on is brought to the forefront every election cycle and shows that although everyone is different, they can all come together for the common good of the people.
Works Cited
Anti-Defamation League Press Release. “U.S. Presidential Race Another Excuse for
Anti-Semitism in the Arab Press”. 24 August 2004. Anti-Defamation League. Accessed: 01 December 2006. http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASaw_14/4552_14.htm.
Associated Press. “Minnesota Democrat becomes First Muslim to win seat in Congress.”
7 November 2006. International Herald Tribune. Accessed: 01 December 2006.
Beachy, Vern. “MoveOn is a Hate Group.” [06 Wednesday 2006] Vern Beachy Raves:
The Blog that makes you think. Accessed: 06 December 2006.
http://vernbeachy.blogspot.com/2006/09/moveon-is-hate-group.html.
“Biography.” Joe Lieberman, Senator For Connecticut. United States Senate. Accessed:
Gerard, Rabbi Jonathan. Personal Email Interview. 06 December 2006.
“Largest Religious Groups in the United States of America.” Adherents.com.
Adherents.com. Accessed: 07 December 2006.
Noll, Mark A. Religion & American Politics: From the Colonial Period to the 1980s.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Orentlicher, State Representative David. Personal Email Interview. 04 December 2006.
Pew Research Center for People and the Press. “ Religion, Voting, and the Campaign.”
Religion and Politics: Contention and Consensus. 24 July 2003. Accessed: 07
Shear, Michael D. “Allen's Mother Revealed Jewish Heritage to Him Last Month.” 21
September 2006. Washington Post. Accessed: 01 December 2006.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-yn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001965.html
