Saturday, November 2, 2013

American Opinions About Jews - I am a little shocked

It appears that old theories die hard , in a recent survey ordered by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) it appears that 26% of Americans believe that the Jewish people were responsible for the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Despite that fact religious scholars, historians, theologians and Popes have all said and proven the opposite.

Some other results of the survey may explain why more than a quarter of Americans believe this.

14% believe that Jews have to much power in the United States.  Maybe it's all those Jewish Presidents and Vice Presidents we've had.

19% believe Jews have too much power in the business world and 17% to much influence on Wall Street, 18% to much control over the media (except on Fox of course) and in a surprisingly small number only 24% believe that Jews run the movie and TV industry.  I am a little shocked by how small that number is.

But, this number does not surprise me at all; 30% of Americans believe that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country. Franklin Roosevelt in response to his Jewish advisers to react more swiftly to reports of the German concentration camps believed that the American people would not support using their boys to rescue the Jews.  When pressed further and harder the very patrician Roosevelt responded that this is a Protestant country and that Jews and in fact Catholics are more less just allowed to live here.  A pretty appalling sentiment. But, FDR was a man of his times and can't fairly be judged by our modern standards but that view is still very much held by many people. Keep in mind that we have had one Catholic President and we now have our first Catholic Vice President.

And, to build on that sentiment an appalling one-quarter of those polled believe that "Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust."  I have heard people say this and it never ceases to stop me in my tracks and at times has left me speechless, something that almost never happens.  I guess people would rather we forget about that icky business of 6,000,000 people slaughtered because of their faith.  Perhaps it is not so shocking after all there are Southern Republicans who are still fighting the Civil War and refer to it as the War of Northern Aggression & the wholesale massacre and dislocation of this continents native peoples is not even taught.

American Jews who support Israel are not anti-American or disloyal to their nation they, like me, believe that Israel is an ally that needs to be supported and supported in the strongest possible terms.  It is the only democracy in the region, they took a neglected region of rock & sand and transformed it into a nation with a thriving economy.  And, it is an historic homeland to people who have long lived in diaspora status.

Other interesting results of this poll 78% of think American Jews value their families but of course that means 22% of us think that they don't.

I just don't get it.

I have never understood the negative attitudes, the bigotry and the hatred that Jewish people have been forced to endure.  Of course when someone who does hold these feelings of hate tries to explain it to me I don't really give them much of chance to finish one of their idiotic utterances. I wave them off and walk away and shake my head in sadness and disgust.

Here is the full report / survey
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14 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Believe me when I tell you that I KNOW how your feel,

    Alfonso Todd

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    1. Thanks Alfonso - I am the waspyish of the wasps - but I am trying to understand this stuff and I can't fully wrap my head around it.

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  3. to put those numbers in perspective, there are now about 6.7 million jews in united states, less than 2% of the population.

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    1. Thank you for reading and commenting....Are you saying that because Jews make up only 2% of the population that these opinions are justified or explained? Is that the perspective?

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  4. today there are only 20 million jews in the world, so the holocaust killed well over half at the time. all this prejudice is directed at a very small group. most of the people in the world who hate jews, never even met one. much of the hate is institutional, first by the church, and now by the mosque.

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  5. I believe it is the opposite. The churches and the religious officials have tried to be a voice of moderation, but the lay masses prefer to hold on to their venal hatreds.

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  6. Thanks Michael (Both) I grew up in the UCC so my religious training and background is pretty Liberal and ecumenical and most of the mainstream mainline American churches and mosques are in step on various levels with the UCC.

    The official position of the Catholic church has been one of faithful outreach to Jews in fact Pope Benedict (the most conservative of recent Popes) affirmed the love between the "Mother Church" it's brothers and sisters of the Jewish faith.

    American Protestant Conservative religious claim to support Israel but only in terms of the end times and they do still try to actively convert Jews to Christianity. I think Pope Francis recent statements are helpful.

    There may be a bit of truth to the whole having never met one theory but like gay people - many folks have met Jews and perhaps they never knew it. I don't know it is all still very disturbing and disappointing to me that in

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  7. donald, i notice the absence of molovinsky on allentown on your blogroll. perhaps you find me too blunt, on that note, all american ecumenicalism does is allow american christians to cast a blind eye toward the carnage in the world. ask the few surviving christians in hiding in the kurdish section of northern iraq, or the copts in egypt, or the christians being slaughtered in indonesia and africa. in the middle east they say "first they came for the saturday people, (jews) now they come for the sunday people (christians) the american inter faith dialogue is an easy way to close american eyes and ears to the pain of christians in the middle east and asia.

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    1. Thanks MM - I never noticed you were not on I update that section so rarely and I will add you asap - If I have LVR and it's host despises me I can certainly include your bluntness.

      I understand your point - My ecumenical upbringing causes me to understand other religions and perhaps it has softened me. I have not turned a blind eye to the plight of Christians in the Middle East - More people involved in our foreign policy need to speak out more.

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  8. "American Jews who support Israel are not anti-American or disloyal to their nation they, like me, believe that Israel is an ally that needs to be supported and supported in the strongest possible terms. It is the only democracy in the region, they took a neglected region of rock & sand and transformed it into a nation with a thriving economy. And, it is an historic homeland to people who have long lived in diaspora status."


    You need to reread the history there. The Arabs were rioting in as far back as the 20s .If there wasn't opposition from the start why did the future Israelis form the Haganah (what became the IDF) back in 1920 ? Of course Jerusalem , one of the holiest places to the Muslims, must have be a ghost city right? The Arabs we not , until this time, seen as a particularly radical group.Neglected? Try war torn. As far as the only democracy (I use that word loosely here) in the area, that is our fault . Ask Mohammad Mosaddegh what he thinks of that....I also think one should take Washington words into account

    " a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. "

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    1. Nate - Thank you for reading and commenting - I am trying to discern your point - I am also trying to see how it relates to my blog post - it seems as if you are just offering up an anti Israel rant - but I do appreciate your passions

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  9. Well, it related to a few specific paragraphs of it. I couldn't tell you why they face the bigotry they do .Numerically they will always be a minority, and any minority draws this kind of attention.Gypsies have always gotten much of the same treatment.Historically Jews have not been that dissimilar from the Gypsies, rootless movement and a very insular society. The major difference is/was that Jews have worked with whatever system is at hand and seem to "do well" .The doing well is why I think they have always gotten more of the hate.Looking at it like that, a homeland for the Jews was a good idea. My beef is where, and the attitude one has to ultimately follow to accept that where .Theodor Herzl, father of modern Zionism, mentioned other places that might be suitable , but I read the original book, The Jewish State, and skimmed later works, there was never any doubt where he really meant to go. Modern or not, buried in the jargon of this type of Zionism or that type ,it is still "God gave us this land". That to me, is just like alot of Muslim declarations (or American for that matter.Manifest Destiny!) Now I am npt one of those people who think Jews are behind the negative issues of the day. Unfortunately it is those type of people who think this, the easy targets ,who have in the past made it tougher to even begin to discuss this topic without the antisemitism card being slapped across your face.

    I wonder how the ADL voiced these questions? Looking at these numbers I'm not even sure what the outcry is about? Most of these numbers seem pretty low.Maybe a good lead off to this story would have been in its summary , "Anti-Semitic propensities have declined to twelve percent,matching the lowest scores recorded in ADL research on the matter"

    26% believe the Jewish people were responsible for the death of Jesus? One could easily have said yes to that question and not be trying to condemn all the Jewish people , but the few who were culpable at least as far as the New Testament tells us. I might not be a Christian , but I got to say King James did enough revising ,thank you. You could also say yes to that question and still hold Pilate and the Roman legal system mostly accountable .Or you could still say yes to and know that the real responsibility lay in each one of us sinners .

    On one hand I see your point about the question of Jews being seen as having too much power .Though if I was asked the same question I might answer yes as well , and that would have to do with our foreign policy .And seriously, the ADL has axes to grind.What I really liked was that "Remarkably, since 1964,approximately 30 percent of Americans have consistently believed that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America" but then I'm suppose to believe that "THE “PRO ISRAEL LOBBY” IS SEEN AS MUCH LESS INFLUENTIAL THAN OTHER WELL KNOWN
    POLITICAL POWERS" is a meaningful statement.That last one was buried at the bottom , but I'm glad they felt the need to bring it up .

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    1. To be historically accurate - The Romans killed Jesus - To be faithfully accurate - The entire reason Jesus was born was so he could teach, die, resurrect and thus save those who believe.

      That 26% is that high because people ignore the truth and to stupid to understand the previous sentence.

      The people who think Jews have too much power are also often too lazy to work hard get and education and strive to improve themselves so why not just blame 'the other"- I'm sure the blame immigrants for their lack of success in life as well

      Thanks again for the conversation - it is giving me things to think about

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