Jews from Brooklyn who support Romney

I enjoyed this video in which an Orthodox Jew walks around Crown Heights, Brooklyn asking people (both Jews and blacks) if they are going to vote for Romney or Obama. Interestingly, the very last person interviewed appears to be a black Jew who supports Romney (yes, there really are black Orthodox Jews).

Comments

[Joe Schmoe]

This video is really instructive. First, it shows working- and middle-class Jews, something that most people outside of NYC and portions of Los Angeles seldom see. (And in LA, the working-class Jews are usually foreign born, these Jews are obliviously native-born New Yorkers.) These folks aren't wealthy or polished, they are regular people. I have always thought that there would be a lot less anti-Semitism, if people interacted more with working and middle-class Jews. Although these people have long beards, strange hats, and black overcoats, they still seem a lot more normal and approachable than the Ivy League educated Jews that most people see on TV.

Second, sadly, all of these folks are WAY too vociferous in their support for Israel. These people are Americans but it is clear that their first allegiance is to a foreign county, Israel. Jews may think this criticism is anti-Semetic, but it's not. It drives me just as crazy when the Cubans in Miami act this way. The Irish used to do so, too, back in the 80's; the IRA would raise money in Boston and Chicago, and Irish politicians like Ted Kennedy would lobby the US government to intervene on behalf of the IRA in diplomatic negotiations. It if it's wrong for the Cubans and the Irish to do it, it's wrong for the Jews to do it. I say this as a staunch supporter of Israel. But my support for Israel is based on universalist notions of ideology and reason, not on religious or ethnic kinship.

Finally, the people who were interviewed actually seem more parochial that most evangelical Christians. I'm not saying that to be provocative, it's true. The interviewees actually come right out and say that their religious duty is to vote for Romney. There are evangelical Christians who would say that, but not many. If you were to stand outside an evangelical megachurch with a camera crew and interview people leaving a church service, they'd express their support for Romney in much more secular and issue-oriented terms ("I think he's the better candidate," "he's pro-life, etc.") Really old people are basically the only one's who'd say "because I'm a Christian," and things like that.

[The Undiscovered Jew]

"Interestingly, the very last person interviewed appears to be a black Jew who supports Romney (yes, there really are black Orthodox Jews)."

If Jewish liberals are liberal because they are ethnocentric then why are the most ethnocentric Jews, the Orthodox, Israeli immigrant, and secular Former Soviet Jews, the most conservative?

Where is liberal Jewish ethnocentrism and what is the difference between them and gentile elites?

[Arnold Gold]

First of all, Half Sigma thanks for this thread.

I would observe that different religions compete with each other for adherents.

Certain religions are in effect suicidal and certain religions are the opposite of suicidal.

The most suicidal religious group I have been acquainted with are the Shakers. The shaker religion called upon its adherents to never have children. As a result, the Shaker religion is almost dead, with the number of Shakers alive today down 99% from the peak.

The religion I would suggest is the opposite of suicidal is Mormonism. The Mormons I know have told me that the religion commands males to make as much money as possible and to use their money to have the largest possible number of children. See Mitt Romney as an example.

I would sort of put "secular Ashkenazi Judaism" as a religion some where in between the Shakers and the Mormons. On the one hand, secular Ashkenazi Judaism usually tells young men to make as much money as possible, but there are also powerful strains that push some talented high IQ young men in to fields in which they make almost no money like Journalism. So the religion is sub optimal in that there are plenty of talented Ashkenazi men who never maximize their earnings and wealth.

At the same time, Secular Ashkenazi Judaism doesn't tell young people to have no children, and it doesn't tell young people to have the maximum number of children. Instead Secular Ashkenazi Judaism tells young people to have one or two children.

As such, you can characterize Secular Ashkenazi Judaism as a middle ground between suicide (the Shakers) and the opposite of suicide (the Mormons)

[Contrarian]

So Ultra-Urthodox welfare queens root for the quy who would cut their benefits, while rich secular Jews support the guy who would raise their taxes. I wonder how a Marxist would explain that.

@HS:
This is OT, but it just occured to me that the difference between your position and that of mainstraim conservatives and libertarians is not your belief in the labor theory of value. LTOV is in fact commonly accepted. Even mainstream economists who claim to reject the LTOV, nevertheless reintroduce it implicitly through their efficient markets theory. Thomas Sowell continues to claim that CEO compensation is objective and commensurate to the value CEOs create. The "owners" after all agreed to their compensation packages and would not do so, if somebody else would do the same job for less, says Sowell.

Critics of your value transference theory attack you an LTOV, yet these critics are suspiciously absent on libertarian and conservative outlets that assume LTOV.

The relevant dispute is not between LTOV or not, but between "value transference" and "value retention".

[nebbish]

"I have always thought that there would be a lot less anti-Semitism, if people interacted more with working and middle-class Jews."

@ Joe Schmoe,

The ancestors of most of today's upper middle class polished American Jews were small-time merchants, poor artisans or even poorer laborers in Eastern Europe. That didn't seem to prevent anti-Semitism among the Polish and Russian peasants. Similarly, anti-Semitism was most severe in the U.S. during the period when most American Jews were working class immigrants.

[SFG]

Contrarian: they thought of that already, it's 'false consciousness'. They had to say something after WWI.

Funny how large square buildings, even virtual ones, make me homesick.

Anyway, HS, we know you want all the Jews to vote Republican, but most of them are secular Ashkenazi liberals, in the USA anyway. The other group of Republican Jews are the former Russians, who have the same contempt for socialism their forebears had for the Czar.

Actually, my impression is that it's only the hard-core Nazis who go after Jews for the dual loyalty thing--most moderate traditionalist conservatives don't find ethnic loyalty *that* dismaying. You've got yours, we've got ours, OK.

[Anthony]

Black orthodox jews? Sounds like a fringe, but they might be important some day. Just remember: Black Gay Republicans in Florida won the 2000 election for Bush.

[Anthony]

Oops - forgot linking isn't allowed here - Black Gay Republicans in Florida: http://polipundit.com/?p=16017

[Nicolai Yezhov]

So is there an IQ boost from converting? Or do only the smartest brothers convert?

Is it actually possible to convert. I thought Orthodox Jews were all self aware and unapologetic racists.