The American Spectator

NO KICKING THE HABIT br> Re: Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder’s A Study in Ingratitude : /p>

I sadly agree with Mr. Mason and Mr. Felder that most American Jews follow in lockstep behind the Democratic Party and its long list of candidates who care little about those who follow them so blindly.

An exception to the rule is the observant Jewish community (admittedly, a small percentage of American Jews). Observant Jews are usually much more conservative, and more often than not, support like-minded Republican candidates. The reason for this is that observant Jews, unlike our more liberal-leaning, secular-oriented co-religionists, share many of the same values as conservatives. On issues such as affirmative action, abortion on demand, and school vouchers, to name a few, we identify strongly with the conservative viewpoint. Don’t take my word for it. Ask Mr. D’Amato or Mr. Giuliani whether the observant Jewish communities stood behind them during their political careers.

Those who disagree with us like to equate us with Islamic fundamentalists by labeling us “ultra-orthodox.” They do this in order to marginalize us by implying that anyone who is observant is, by definition, an “extremist.” Their moral equivalency argument compares us with those who teach their children to strap bombs to themselves and commit murder by suicide. What an insulting outrage. I wish they would just answer us on the issues, so we could at least have an honest dialogue.

p>So, Mr. Mason & Mr. Felder, you are not alone; there are other members of the tribe who see things clearly. br> — Jay A. Shuman br> Elizabeth, NJ /p>

I’ve puzzled for many years over the mystery of American Jews’ slavish devotion to the Democrat Party.

I recently had an interesting insight into this mystery when I came across a Hebrew translation of a Yiddish memoir written in Warsaw, in 1912, by a man with the same family name as mine: Kotik. The memoir, the Hebrew title of which translates to “What I Saw,” turns out to have been the archetype for the Yiddish shtetl memoir genre made famous by the like of Shalom Aleichem. I don’t read Yiddish, but I blazed through the Hebrew edition, utterly fascinated.