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American Jewish liberalism revisited: two perspectives: exceptionalism and Jewish liberalism. (Point/Counterpoint).

Article Excerpt
Milton Himmelfarb's famous quip that Jews earn like Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans continues to reflect popular understandings of American Jewish political culture. Despite a meteoric rise up the economic ladder, Jews have cast their votes for liberal candidates more often than any other white ethnic group. Franklin D. Roosevelt, revered for his willingness to open government to Jews, received 90 percent of the Jewish vote during the 1944 election. Generations later, far less popular liberal presidential candidates George McGovern and Walter Mondale still enjoyed an American Jewish majority in their respective runs for the White House. In a story well known to most American Jews, northern rabbis, communal leaders, and college students journeyed to the South during the 1960s in support of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, vision of a colorblind society.

In many ways, American Jews proved exceptional in their political beliefs and social activism. No other American ethnic group connected the fate of African Americans to its own national identity. American Jews comprised the majority of white activists in the struggle for racial equality, while national civil rights organizations counted Jews among their most important leaders and funders. Even as political programs such as affirmative action alienated other white northern urban ethnic groups, most American Jews remained in the liberal fold, resisting the appeal of Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority" and the rise of neoconservatism.

Yet, despite...

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