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The Jews of NY District 9 — 29 Comments

  1. the big deal is none of that BS…

    he put on a yarmulke and then kept mentioning he was jewish… and referencing childhood attendance

    but the deal breaker was his speech on the senate where he said he was FOR abortion, and that the faith of orthodox jews was also for it… as was the bible…

    the way an author put it:

    it would be like putting a Teffelim on a pig and saying the rabbi said it was kosher

  2. I believe the dem supported the Cordoba mosque.

    If so, it’s pretty close, in terms of being in the same city, anyway, to some of those who understand pogrom in their bones instead of in school.

  3. I hate ethnic politics. It feeds into the conspiracy of the anti-semites. No doubt if Obama loses, the Jew haters from MSNBC, BBC, to Al-Jazeera will blame it on the Jews rather than on the stellar incompetence and ignorance of our executive.

    It was probably the economy. Weprin didn’t help himself by being an obnoxiously liberal candidate who made the mistake of calling same sex marriage observant of his jewish faith. He displayed remarkable ignorance about the true size of our national debt claiming it to be only $4 trillion. It torpedoes any chance he had of being taken seriously defending Obama’s economic policies.

    I don’t think most Jews, Orthodox or otherwise care that much about Israel. The Orthos don’t serve in the Israeli armed forces so what do they care and the secular Jews glean their news from the same Democrat sources as their gentile friends. Both are truly ignorant of the strategic picture in the Middle East.

    My fellow Koreans don’t give a damn about Communist North Korea and don’t understand the situation there either. They, as I’m sure the Jews do, cherish a mirage of hopeful lies of rapprochement with their insane neighbor(s). We take too much from this election to think it’s a fundamental turnaround. It’s the economy stupid. Any group would’ve turned on Obama for that.

  4. Hong: I disagree; most Orthodox Jews care deeply about Israel. And I don’t need a poll to tell me that.

  5. This. is. good. Feels good. Like it should.

    I’m almost happy enough to break out in cadence. What the hell:

    C-130 rollin down the strip.

    Airborne daddy gonna take a little trip.

    Hook up, buckle up, shuffle to the door.

    Kick Obama out the door.

    Hello.

  6. I still find it baffling that most Jewish votes go to the D side in the first place. I know, inertia and all that, but seriously… people gotta pay attention.

  7. I hope this surprising margin for the republican in such a democrat infested district is a harbinger of things to come in 2012.

    Curtis, thanks for the laugh!

    “I hate ethnic politics. It feeds into the conspiracy of the anti-semites. No doubt if Obama loses, the Jew haters from MSNBC, BBC, to Al-Jazeera will blame it on the Jews rather than on the stellar incompetence and ignorance of our executive.”

    I agree that ethnic politics are damaging to a society. But if Obama loses it will be blamed on the racist, gun totting, bible thumping, redneck tea partiers.

  8. Curtis.
    Airborne mama, don’t you cry.
    You’ll get his jump pay, by and by.
    Trying to teach my granddaughter, when her parents aren’t around.
    You remember anything about Louis Hershey?
    If they’re gonna get me, then I’m gonna get you,
    And we’ll all be dead by the winter of sixty-nine.
    Where was I?
    Oh, yeah. In this case, maybe we have reciprocal depression. When he feels bad, we feel good, etc. Better than all of us down at once.

  9. Sure, this election was good news, but after all, these are the same Orthodox voters who elected Schumer and Weiner. I’ll need to see some more evidence that they have woken up and/or changed.

    I read somewhere that it was Weprin’s support for gay marriage that was the deal-breaker. If that’s the case, then this may be a one-off event and the voters will return to their normal habits next time.

  10. Neo,

    Based on what? Admittedly I have no personal connection with Orthodox Jews but they don’t serve in the military. That’s usually a sign of a weak allegiance and so many live off the state so how much interest can such a class truly have? Just how concerned are any dependent class on the survival of their neighbors during wartime? I find it difficult to believe orthodox Jews are any different when they seem to invest so little in Israel’s survival.

  11. Hong,

    Not being snarky, but Israel, the promised land, belongs to the Jews according to their religion and the more Orthodox you are, the more you take that literally than figuratively. Orthodox Jews care very much about Israel because it is their home, their birthright, and their relationship to Israel is an expression of their communal relationship with God.

    Consider these two sayings: “Next year in Jerusalem” and “May my right arm be cut off if I forget thee, O Jerusalem.” Jerusalem, here, is the same as Israel. Zion, Jerusalem, Israel: means home, protection, shalom.

  12. Wikipedia says that Jews are 2.2% of the US population. Where did the 1.7% come from? And what happened to the Russian Jews, did they all move to the US and Israel?

  13. Yeah Curtis,

    I know the religious implications but they won’t fight for it is my point. They won’t serve and the Orthos live off the state in many cases. That makes me skeptical about their commitment to protect the homeland. If a Korean said he wouldn’t serve in the Army then I’d assume he really didn’t care about his country. Maybe that’s old fashioned but it worked well in the past.

  14. Chuck: the 1.7% figure came from the Wiki page I linked to on “1.7%” in the post. Look at the chart.

  15. Neo,

    I stand corrected on the Orthodox label. Still it doesn’t sound smart to draft recruits who clearly do not want to serve. Keep them far from the infantry please.

    I’ll narrow my point to the secular Jews then. I question their allegiance to Israel so any shift to me must be economic. They’ve shown little loyalty to Israel in the past so the difference isn’t social but economic. I’ll be curious to know what the other ‘ethnic blocs’ feel regarding the O. Would their disaffection being higher or lower than the seculars?

  16. Hong, you must understand that to most non-Orthodox Jews (Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and secular) Franklin Roosevelt is still in the White House, Father Coughlin is a conservative talk-show host, Joe McCarthy is still harassing Jewish dentists, and the Cossaks are getting ready to ride down Broadway. Why they believe this is a mystery to me, but they do. Barry O lied to their faces about Jeremiah Wright and it was in one ear and out the other. As a friend said to me in synagogue a few weeks ago, “If Adolph Hitler ran on the Democratic tickets, the Jews would vote for him.” And they would.

  17. bon homme richard
    Interesting take on the non ultra-orthos. Hmm. Sounds like the guy who worked on my rotator cuffs.
    But, anyway, presuming the exaggeration is not significant, it would seem it’s up to the Christians to save the Jews from themselves, will they or nill they.
    Fortunately, good Christians are not interested, officially anyway, in gratitude.

  18. I think I saw an article or two that mentioned that the Democrat did not live in the district that he was trying to get elected to represent.

    If that was correct, it could have also been a very big mark against him. People do like to think that their representative comes from where they live.

  19. I can comment from personal knowledge on the Orthodox/ultra-Orthodox question. I myself am Orthodox (but not ultra), and I have been living in Israel for the last 14 years, prior to which I lived in NY-9 (in the Brooklyn part, my parents have lived in the Queens part of NY-9 for over 20 years).

    On the military question, hardly any American Jews of any persuasion serve in the Israeli military; they are not required to nor is there any expectation of them to do so as they are not Israeli citizens.

    Those who have stated otherwise would be correct if they were referring to military service among Israeli Jews (i.e. those who live in Israel and possess Israeli citizenship). By and large, (plain, non-ultra) Orthodox Jews living in Israel are vastly overrepresented in the military, including in the officers corps, and they are consistently the highest-morale, most-motivated people in the IDF. The ultra-Orthodox (living in Israel), on the other hand, generally have refused to serve, though even that is slowly starting to change as more and more ultra-Orthodox are realizing the many and varied implications of their refusal, which is a whole topic in itself.

    The same goes for the ultra-Orthodox population that is seen, justifiably or not, as “sponging off the state.” This is true in Israel, much less so in America. American ultra-Orthodox all work for a living and are mostly self-sustaining, even to the point that they send lots of money to Israel and Israeli institutions (mostly ultra-Orthodox ones).

    This brings me to my final point. American Orthodox Jews, ultra or non, may not serve in the Israeli military, but consider that a Jewish military is a brand new phenomenon in the grand scheme of time, and military values are barely entrenched at all in Jewish culture. Jews, of course, are the People of the Book, and nothing illustrates Orthodox Jewish support of and identification with Israel like the fact that nearly every family sends their children there for a year (or increasingly, many years) of intensive Jewish studies (this after K-12 education in private Jewish schools), and American Jewish emigration to Israel is overwhelmingly (though not exclusively) Orthodox (I think mostly non-ultra but that’s just a gut feeling).

    Hope I’ve made this a bit clearer.

  20. “On the military question, hardly any American Jews of any persuasion serve in the Israeli military; they are not required to nor is there any expectation of them to do so as they are not Israeli citizens.”

    I don’t think anybody here suggested that. The point being made was whether orthodox Jews, in Israel, serve in the armed forces, not those living here. The main focus of the debate was whether Orthodox and secular Jews in both Weiner’s old district and within Israel itself have any attachment to the homeland. I argued nay while others supported your view. It appears that, for now, the yeahs have it.

  21. curtis

    Louis Hershey where are you, hurrah, hurrah,
    Louis Hershey where are you, hurrah, hurrah.
    If they’re gonna get me, then I’m gonna get you,
    Chorus And we’ll all be dead by the winter of Sixty-nine.
    Gets worse.
    You pick your own date for the chorus, presuming you have any idea who Louis Hershey was.

  22. bon homme richard that was nice..

    your comment as to their zeitgeist (world view) is spot on in a comedic way…

  23. This vote is encouraging in many ways. It shows that the Jewish community is not voting based upon identity politics.

    They did not vote for the Jew, just because he was Jewish. Instead, they voted for the best candidate, based on that candidate’s views. It did not matter what his ethnic background was, but is that candidate what is best for America? Clearly, a Conservative, who wants less intrusive government (in all matters) is that candidate.

    Israel is EXTREMELY important to the entire Jewish community — if it disappears, then do we start wandering again for another 2000 years?? Never again!! Diaspora Jews see Israel as a source of pride, a political/cultural haven, and a spiritual/religious home, whether we live there or not.

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