US Jews must learn to advocate for themselves - opinion

• Published date: 25 March 2024
• Author: JULIE MARZOUK
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Jews were instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, demanding equal rights for African Americans. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and decades of litigators who followed insisted on equality for women. More recently, Jews have been essential in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, marriage equality, immigrant rights, and even fights against Islamophobia

American Jews are not bad at advocacy. We are bad at Jewish advocacy.

For millennium, Jews have been taught to be self-reliant. Our families instruct us from infancy not to rely too heavily on the society around us because our "host countries" may turn their backs on us at any time.

In every country where Jews have lived throughout the Diaspora, we have been taught to keep our heads down, stay out of trouble, and take care of our own families. Even in America, where Jews have gained enough security to empower other peoples, we have been unwilling to demand "too much" for ourselves.

The current legislative agenda of the Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR) in California includes bills to recognize "Middle Eastern and North African" as an ethnic group. This distinction would be used for election re-districting, funding, and distribution of social services and to alter the K-12 school curriculum under the banner of "ethnic studies."

CAIR is seeking accommodations for religious or cultural observance in workplaces, schools, and public spaces. CAIR is effectively selecting and supporting political candidates for local elected office, from school boards and city councils to state representatives.

In contrast, what do the Jews do? We mark ourselves as "white" on any governmental form, even though any DNA test will show that we compose our own ethnic/racial group regardless of our varying origins and religious practices. We build our own schools so that our kids can observe holidays and religious customs, bypassing any need for accommodation. When our kids go to public school, we just mark them down as "sick" on Yom Kippur to avoid a fight with our school districts.

Jews span the political spectrum. Have we perhaps not fully understood the critical power of local politics and policies in our lives? Do we fear alienating a fellow Jew with different political opinions? It is possible we just haven't done the work to see that there are local politicians – Jews and non-Jews, Republicans and Democrats – who can effectively represent our values at the local level. Regardless of the...