Dennis Prager

August 24, 2010

Why has America treated Jews so well?

By Dennis Prager

Tweet

Share

If there is anything that religious and secular Jews, liberal and conservative Jews, can agree on, it is that we live in a country that has treated Jews better than any other in which Jews have lived.

This is not only true for American Jews, but for embattled Jews abroad and for the Jewish state.

I am well aware of history: college quotas on Jews, the lynching of Leo Frank, Father Coughlin’s anti-Jewish hate broadcasts and other expressions of popular anti-Semitism. But our grandparents and great-grandparents and the many Jews who have moved to America more recently were not fools. They knew that, on the whole, the United States of America really was a “goldene medina,” Yiddish for “golden country.” Compared to other countries — not to a perfect ideal — America was the best place a Jew could live in peace, freedom and security.

Why is this?

It is on this question that Jews will likely differ. But at least we can further agree on this: It is imperative that we try to figure out the reason, or reasons. Whatever they are, we had better work to preserve and defend them.

Many Jews instinctively respond that the major reason is America’s long history of separation of church and state. They argue this because Jews’ experiences in medieval Europe, where religion permeated the state, were often terrible. Jews imbibe this history with their mother’s milk. Consequently, most Jews equate secularism with liberty and religion with oppression.

The problem with this explanation of the Jews’ blessed situation in America is that it has little to do with America. It is overwhelmingly about Christianity in Europe, and usually about the middle ages. Mention Christianity and anti-Semitism (for more than a few Jews, just mention Christianity) and you immediately hear about the Crusades and the Inquisition.

But those events occurred a thousand years ago and 500 years ago, respectively. And they occurred in Europe. Saddling America’s Christians with the sins of Europe’s Christians is not only unfair; it is immoral — and, from a Jewish standpoint, it is also profoundly self-destructive.

America’s Christians are now and have always been different from Europe’s Christians — not only in the exemplary way we Jews have been treated, but in the underlying reasons why.

By and large, Europe’s Christians saw Christians as supplanting Jews as God’s chosen people. The church was the New Israel. Jews and Judaism were essentially an anachronism.

But America’s Christians — from the beginning — saw themselves, indeed they saw America, as the Second Israel. The First Israel — i.e., Jews and Judaism — were therefore honored as forming the root of this new society called America.

Jews in America have not merely been tolerated, they have been honored. Unlike those parts of secularized Europe that tolerated Jews and expected that toleration to lead to the end of a Jewish identity, America’s Christians honored Jews as Jews.

America was founded by people we can legitimately call Judeo-Christians (the very term “Judeo-Christian” is essentially an American term), Christians who saw themselves as branches on a Jewish tree. This was as true for so-called deists such as Franklin and Jefferson as it was for religious Christians. Franklin and Jefferson designed a seal for the United States on which was depicted the Jews leaving Egypt. Just as the Jews left Egypt, America’s Christians left Europe.

The only words on the Liberty Bell are from the Torah. Yale University’s insignia is in Hebrew from the Torah.

The upshot of all this: The more rooted America is in its Christianity, the better it was and the better it will be for the Jews of America — and of Israel. Conversely, the more secular America gets, the less special the Jews are and the more precarious their situation is likely to be. Right now, the center of secularism, the university, almost precisely reflects the French Revolution’s attitude toward French Jews: “To the Jews as individuals all rights, to the Jews as a people [i.e., Israel and Zionism] no rights.” And Jews are doing rather poorly in secular Western Europe. Meanwhile our greatest allies in America and elsewhere are Christian Zionists, specifically evangelical Christians.

I recognize that for most Jews the hostility of secular (and liberal) Europe and the hostility of the secular (and liberal) university are distressing — almost as much as the uniquely strong support of evangelical Christians and other conservatives (the Wall Street Journal editorial page and George Will, for example). But the ability to acknowledge distressing truths is known as wisdom.  And right now, regarding what is good for Jews (and, I believe, what is good for America and the world), this trait is not to be found in abundance in Jewish life.

Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host, columnist, author and public speaker. He can be heard in Los Angeles on KRLA (AM 870) weekdays 9 a.m. to noon. His Web site is dennisprager.com.

A version of this article appeared in print.

---

Post your comment below!

Click here to return to the homepage.

COMMENTS

We welcome your feedback. Comments may not exceed 700 characters.

Privacy Policy

Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.

Terms of Service

JewishJournal.com has rules for its commenting community.Get all the details.

Because it understood/understands the productivity and contributions of the Jews—and how to prosper by them!

Comment by Devasahayam on 8/25/10 at 10:24 am

While there may be things that Dennis says, that I sometimes disagree with, but as one of those conservative evangelical, even fundamentalist, Baptist Christians, I appreciate this article.  A core belief in our type of Christianity is the discovery that the Agape love given to the Christian, being an unconditional love, allows us to love the Jewish people, unconditionally apart from the fact that even Jesus says, “salvation is of the Jews.”  Jesus and the Bible points to the Jews…and we gentile type Christians will try to figure out some way to appreciate the Jew…even when our culture denigrates them and accentuates the negative results of supporting Jews (not Soros types) and Israel.

Comment by Stephen Ray Hale on 8/25/10 at 11:23 am

The great thing about America is that your religion doesn’t have to be regarded as “special” by the major religion here in order to have peace, security, prosperity, and religious freedom. And that is because we are a secular nation who has guaranteed religious freedom in it’s constitution and a separation of church and state thanks to the courts interpretations of the 1st amendment.

Comment by Rev. Aaron O'Donahue on 8/25/10 at 11:45 am

Cnsidering jewish groups helped to finance part of the American revolution. not to mention the Bible says they who bless my people I will bless sayeth the Lord. As christians, it is our duty to care for gods people, who he sent to us to protect. And what did they ever do to anyone that has merrited so much hatred anyway. I haven’t ever seen any of these people do any more or less at creating problems for the world than the rest of us. Why are we blaming them for everything that comes down the road ,when we all do the same dumb human things? There are no perfect people, no not one. Only Jesus was a perfect human, but he had the distinction of being the Son of God.

Comment by RONA COMER on 9/08/11 at 4:46 pm

I would say that Jews need to be more supportive of Christians in Israel as well as in other countries. Christian persecution is rampant in Israel and has become a huge problem in the U.S. due to secular and Christian-intolerant Jews. Jews also have an obligation to support and show gratitude towards those that harbor us and stop trying to monopolize and show supremacy. Morality dictates that graciousness and gratitude and the golden rule are key to getting along anywhere and we Jews need to remember where we came from and who gave us a better life.

Comment by Len on 9/16/11 at 6:47 am

Post a Comment

Name:
Email:

Type the word you see below:

Comment:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?