Question:
Rabbi, my wife and I have been enjoying your Blaze podcasts, and have bought some of your products. Thank you and Susan both for the high quality of the content.My question is about Jews and liberalism. You are obviously an independent thinker, and appear to hold conservative values. How is it that most Jews seem to be staunch liberals? How can they support liberal agendas if they have been exposed to Ancient Jewish Wisdom?∼ Robert P.
Answer:
You have answered your own question. The answer is that most Jews who have been exposed to ancient Jewish wisdom do NOT support today’s liberal agenda since it is essentially fueled by a Godless secular worldview. We appreciate your listening to the Blaze podcast and are really, really glad that you and your wife find value in our products. Our guess is that if you have listened/watched/read a few our our audio CDs, DVDs or books, you already know a lot more ancient Jewish wisdom than most who identify as Jews do.
Our very first book, America’s Real War: An Orthodox Rabbi Insists that Judeo-Christian Values Are Vital for Our Nation’s Survival, was written as a response to the most frequently asked question we heard, “How come so many Jews are liberal?” The book was a best-seller and while it is out of print now, we are hoping to expand, update and re-issue it. (We want to thank everyone who responded to our AAJC fund-raising appeal as well as all those who acquire our resources for helping to make possible our new books and projects.)
Suffice it to say for now that most Americans who self-identify as Jewish, possess very little religious Jewish education and almost no exposure to the oral transmission that makes up ancient Jewish wisdom. This tragic fact is one that we, as Jewish educators, take deeply to heart and we spent many years teaching in the Jewish community before expanding to the larger community for reasons we explain in the book. It is not a coincidence that, in general, the more immersed in Torah Jews are, the more likely it is today that their neighborhoods and communities are politically conservative.
Keep learning,
Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin
