Home
In this issue
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Sept. 27, 2004 / 12 Tishrei, 5765

Could Philip Roth's forthcoming novel tip the scales in favor of Bush?

By Abe Novick


Printer Friendly Version

Email this article


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | In Philip Roth's upcoming novel, The Plot Against America, Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR in 1940. In real life, Lindbergh was part of the America First Committee and along with some of its members blamed the Jews for dragging the U.S. into a war with Nazi Germany.


In this work of historical fiction, and as President of The United States, Lindbergh cozies up to Hitler putting Jews in this country in fear of their lives.


Out next week, and right before what seems now to be a close presidential election, the book is sure to draw all sorts of contemporary comparisons and analogies.


In fact, just earlier this summer the line between fiction and reality already started to blur with remarks by Senator Ernest Hollings.


The South Carolina Democrat asserted in a column, that the U.S. war against Iraq was due to three Jews, led by Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Charles Krauthammer.


With such foot-in-mouth disease reminiscent of Lindbergh's Des Moines Speech, is it any wonder that many Jews fear a rekindling of ancient stereo-types, take offense and even distance themselves from a Democratic Party who has one of its leading Senators making such a statement?


Perhaps it should be no surprise that Jews have moved rightward in the last few years, because so many on the far Left have blackballed Jews due to their support of Israel.

Donate to JWR

Anyone who was at an anti-war rally last year witnessed it. Rallies sponsored by ANSWER, such as the one in Washington and elsewhere, demonstrated a barrage of slogans, banners and speeches that were one-sidedly hostile to Israel.


Part of the current leaning by Jews away from the Left is due to such events. Likewise, much of the support for President Bush by Jews is due to his War on Terror.


But the current re-evaluation by Jews towards the Left has deeper roots.


Since the days of The Enlightenment, many of the liberal voices (whether Voltaire or Diderot to name two), were also many of the loudest anti-Semites and some of the worst enemies to the Jews.


Reflecting on the history of anti-Semitism at the time of The Enlightenment, Hannah Arendt points out in her book, The Origins Of Totalitarianism, "They saw in them (Jews) as the backward remnants of the Dark Ages, and they hated them as financial agents of the aristocracy."


Because of their close relationship to state sources of power, the Jews were invariably identified with power. Therefore, those on who were rebelling against those in power would associate Jews with their oppressors.


Look, many of the old Bolsheviks were disproportionately Jewish. But after Lenin's death, the regime took a decidedly anti-Semitic turn and Stalin pretty much killed off the old Bolsheviks — meaning he killed off Jews.


Sadly it's an old familiar story. Now and because of their support for Israel, Jews have again been threatened.

BUY THE BOOK
Need a good read? Purchasing "The Plot Against America" by clicking HERE helps fund JWR.


It's not just Fritz Hollings who's spreading canards and twisting facts.


In a cruel use of iconic manipulation, Palestinians and the many radical groups who support them post the swastika next to The Star of David equating them. In a column earlier this year in The Los Angeles Times, Walter Reich, the former Director of the U.S. Holocaust Museum pointed out, " ... if the public could be convinced that Israel is no better than Nazi Germany, then the anti-Semites could again be back in business."


For many Jews going to the polls in November, they must wonder if the same long-standing enemies of Israel, are also the enemies of The United States due to its support of The Jewish State.


It will be interesting to see the debate swirl over Roth's corrosive satire.


But what will be even more fascinating, is the novel will be appearing during a nastily contested presidential election. One with many Jewish voters torn between President Bush's War on Terror and his support for Israel, and their longstanding, traditional loyalty to leftwing ideals personofied by The Democratic Party.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Abe Novick is a Senior Vice President at Eisner Communications in Baltimore. You can visit his website at AbeNovick.com To comment, please click here.

© 2004, Abe Novick