PAINTING WITH A BROAD AND UGLY BRUSH

My parents were the proudest of Jews, proud Jewish Americans, proud and liberal Jews. I have inherited my own liberalism from them and from my many aunts and uncles. No one would ever have questioned my parents', my aunts' or uncles', or my own embrace and support of Israel -- from pre-state through today. But, today, the general characterization by way too many, among them close friends, equating "liberal Jews" with anti-Israel attitudes and positions has become an intolerable and thoughtless canard. Being a "liberal" or "progressive" Jew today is to be cast aside by normally thoughtful people as being on the "same side" as J-Street, the NIF or whatever other organization is being castigated on the right and by the right as "anti-Israel."

Seemingly, it has become so simple for too many commentators to point a constant finger at "liberal Jews" for all of the ills that impact our Peoplehood. Thus, an otherwise incisive columnist, Jonathan Tobin, writing in Commentary concluded in a column on the idiocy of a Jewish Federation opposing students erecting a Sukkah at their public school:

"The problem here is that liberal Jews fear conservative Christians far more than they do ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Taliban (as Tablet points out, it is unlikely that the federation would have opposed accommodations of Muslim practices). And they are so paranoid about it that they are ready to restrict examples of Jewish faith in the public square in order to forestall any manifestation of Christian faith there."

Yep, it's those damn "liberal Jews" -- to Tobin and his ilk, it's my and your parents and aunts and uncles...and, me. To others it's anyone who voted for Obama -- "liberal Jews" all. Norman Podhoretz, writing in the Wall Street Journal asked "Why Are Jews Liberal?" And, on and on. The deconstruction of Jewish unity -- "Jewish liberals." The support of J-Street -- "Jewish liberals." All of the Jewish People's woes the fault of "Jewish liberals." As one of my mentors, a relatively newly-minted conservative, admitted to me: "we need every liberal pro-Israel voice we can find" to offset the wave of left-wing anti-Israel ones. 

We have a tendency today to sloganeer, to paint all with an ugly brush -- facts don't get in the way. I and many of you continue to thrive in an environment that embraces all Jews -- liberal, conservative, even neoconservative. But let those who believe that they can condemn all those whose views they oppose -- the Tobins and Podhoretzes and too many others -- remember, in doing so you are attacking my parents and yours. Shame on them.

Rwexler