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By Cliff Rieders
Speculation swirls as to why Pennsylvania’s Governor Josh Shapiro did not get picked as Kamala Harris’ Vice-Presidential running mate. It would be impressive if Josh said to the Democratic nominee for President: “You know Kamala, I cannot throw Israel and the Jewish people under the bus. They are among our most productive citizens and yet they are being preyed upon in universities and in the streets of America. They are unable to get top positions in many educational and corporate structures, and they get beaten up in the streets of Brooklyn. Besides, Kamala, on October 7th Jews were raped, murdered, and tortured, with barely a snarl from the rest of the world. Now Israel is fighting for its very existence, and here in the United States we are telling the people of Israel that they should accept a Palestinian state which we know will be a knife in their gut. There is no democracy in the Middle East, outside of Israel. I am just not going to give up who I am.”
Well, we can guess that Josh Shapiro probably did not say that. Did he, instead, try to change who he is and what he wrote in the past? Has he gone from being a perceptive 20-year-old, realizing that the Arabs surrounding Israel do not want peace, to an enlightened anti-Israel politician who would rather get votes from those who hate him, instead of standing up for what is truthful and honorable?
Probably we will never know what transpired between the two politicians. Either Shapiro spoke his mind with integrity or he tried to kiss up to the Presidential nominee, only to be rejected nevertheless. Either way, it isn’t good for America.
When Al Gore picked Joe Lieberman to be his running mate in 2000, my mother who was a dedicated Republican, mused about whether she could vote for the Democratic ticket. She said, in her typically prescient way: “Well, it will not make any difference because in this country putting a Jew as a nominee for President or Vice President will doom the party.” Unfortunately, she was correct, for reasons that are still being debated. The Democrats say that the Republicans stole the vote in Florida in 2000 by counting votes that were too late. They were ballots from American servicemen overseas.
The Republicans say that the electorate was just sick of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and they were not about to give Al Gore an opportunity. The fact that Gore picked a centrist-conservative running mate did him no good. When Lieberman was first selected, he was asked by news people about his religious view of Christianity, and how he would respond to a national crisis on a Saturday. There was some mumbling when the Democrats chose John Kennedy, a Catholic, but the country managed to overcome that, especially with the ballot box stuffing utilized by Democratic Kennedy stalwart John Daley, Mayor of Chicago. Kennedy was asked by the press if he would take orders from the Pope!
In a recent article, the author, Benjamin Kerstein, wondered aloud whether what is going on in America and the Western world generally represents a re-ghettoization of the Jewish people. The first ghettos for Jews were established in Italy and spread throughout the world. A former Rabbi in Williamsport, Maklouf Portal, told me that he grew up in the Jewish ghetto in Morocco. The Jews who lived in these cities were a subclass, excluded from the benefits of daily life, the ability to earn a proper living, and scorned for their very existence.
It certainly appears that with Jews being forced out of the university environment, facing exclusion from positions of influence, and being denied other emoluments of what it means to be a United States citizens, we may be entering a new era of what it means to be Jewish in a ghetto.
I grew up in a town, Great Neck, New York, that was thoroughly Democratic. The Democratic candidate for Congress could never lose. I am told that things have changed in Great Neck thanks to the influx of Jews who fled Persia (Iran). They largely identify with the Republican Party. An Ethiopian Republican Jewish woman almost won a seat for Congress in the district which includes Great Neck. Neither her skin color nor her religion appeared to hurt her in her quest to be elected. She has a bright future.
In many other places in America, and with the Kamala Harrises of the world, being Jewish and in public office may be a deficit. On the other hand, two so-called “squad” members known for their embrace of Hamas terrorism have been defeated in their respective reelection bids.
Other “squad” members and those who support terrorist, while stomping on the American flag, may face a dim future at the hands of fed-up American voters. We will see.
Not is all bleak on an individual level either. For those of us who are willing to stand up and be counted, there are opportunities. For those who hide, there will be no respect.
This year, after decades of asking, I was able to secure kosher food, both from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, on two of whose committees I serve, and from the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers. Both organizations used to consider me a great pain in the butt for my dietary habits. I always brought three apples and a bottle of water to Trial Lawyers meetings. So noticeable did this become that the secretary at the Trial Lawyers office handed me an apple one day when she saw that I had only brought two apples with me.
I realized after attending the banquet of the Trial Lawyers recently that to some extent I am a benefit of DEI. To me that means anything “equality” as opposed to favoring some groups and denigrating others.
The world is a complex place and while both leftwing and rightwing antisemites are doing what they can to marginalize Jews, and to advocate for annihilation of Israel, the majority of people in this country still have their brains screwed in right. It is my conclusion that the Jewish community needs to be proud and upright not only in its religious observance, but also in its support for family, religion, and loyalty to our beautiful American values, as well as to our national homeland, the State of Israel.
I proudly fly the American flag and right beneath it, the Israeli flag. Unlike one of our Supreme Court Justices, I am not flag-challenged.
