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The Liberalism of American Jews – Has It Been Explained?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Geoffrey Brahm Levey
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Review Article
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British Journal of Political Science , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , July 1996 , pp. 369 - 401
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 See, for example, Nie, Norman H., Verba, Sidney and Petrocik, John R., The Changing American Voter, enlarged edn (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Abramson, Paul R., Political Attitudes in America (San Francisco: Freeman, 1983)Google Scholar; Kinder, Donald R. and Kiewiet, Roderick, ‘Economic Discontent and Voting Behavior: The Role of Personal Grievances and Collective Economic Judgment in Congressional Voting’, American Journal of Political Science, 23 (1979), 495–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 See, for example, Glock, Charles Y. and Stark, Rodney, Religion and Society in Tension (Chicago: Rand-McNally, 1965)Google Scholar; Kersten, Lawrence K., The Lutheran Ethic: The Impact of Religion on Clergy and Laymen (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970).Google Scholar

3 See, for example, McCready, William C. and Greeley, Andrew M., The Ultimate Values of the American Population (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1976)Google Scholar; Fee, Joan L., Greeley, Andrew M., McCready, William C. and Sullivan, Teresa A., Young Catholics (New York: Sadlier, 1980).Google Scholar

4 See, for example, Greeley, Andrew M., Religion: A Secular Theory (New York: The Free Press, 1982)Google Scholar; Legge, David C. and Welch, Michael R., ‘Religious Roots of Political Orientations: Variations Among American Catholic Parishioners’, Journal of Politics, 51 (1989), 135–62.Google Scholar

5 See, for example, Wald, Kenneth D., Religion and Politics in the United States, 2nd edn (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1992)Google Scholar; Harris, Fredrick C., ‘Something Within: Religion as a Mobilizer of African-American Political Activism’, Journal of Politics, 56 (1994), 42–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 See Allinsmith, Wesley and Allinsmith, Beverly, ‘Religious Affiliation and Politico-Economic Attitude: A Study of Eight Major US Religious Groups’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 12 (1948), 377–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E. and Stokes, Donald E., The American Voter (New York: Wiley, 1960), pp. 159, 301, 306Google Scholar; Cohen, Steven M., American Modernity and Jewish Identity (New York: Tavistock, 1983), pp. 139–43Google Scholar; Fisher, Alan M., ‘Continuity and Erosion of Jewish Liberalism’, American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 66 (1976), 322–48Google Scholar; Fuchs, Lawrence H., The Political Behaviour of American Jews (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1956), pp. 71–111Google Scholar; Wald, , Religion and Politics, chap. 4.Google Scholar

7 See Ladd, Everett Carll Jr, ‘Jewish Life in the United States: Social and Political Values’, in Gittler, Joseph B., ed., Jewish Life in the United States: Perspectives from the Social Sciences (New York: New York University Press, 1981), pp. 123–71Google Scholar; Cohen, Steven M., The Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1989).Google Scholar

8 See Abramson, Paul R., Aldrich, John H. and Rohde, David W., Change and Continuity in the 1988 Elections (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1990), pp. 138–2Google Scholar; Fisher, Alan M., ‘Realigment of the Jewish Vote?’ Political Science Quarterly, 94 (1979), 97–116CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fisher, Alan M., ‘The Jewish Vote in 1982: A Good Look, A Good Predictor’, Jewish Social Studies, 47 (1985), 281–94Google Scholar; Nie, et al. , Changing American Voter, pp. 214, 256–8Google Scholar; Schneider, William, Berman, Michael D. and Schultz, Mark, ‘Bloc Voting Reconsidered: “Is There a Jewish Vote?”’ Ethnicity, 1 (1974), 45–92Google Scholar; Stanley, Harold W. and Niemi, Richard G., Vital Statistics on American Politics, 4th edn (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1994), p. 107.Google Scholar

9 Liebman, Charles S. and Cohen, Steven M., Two Worlds of Judaism: The Israeli and American Experiences (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990), p. 100.Google Scholar American Jews, as a group, are not always comparatively liberal on every issue; nor are they immune from the effects of standard sociodemographic cleavages. See Mailer, Allen S., ‘Class Factors in the Jewish Vote’, Jewish Social Studies, 39 (1977), 159–62Google Scholar; Sigelman, Lee, ‘“If You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed? If You Tickle Us, Do We Not Laugh?” Jews and Pocketbook Voting’, Journal of Politics, 53 (1991), 977–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar I consider the significance of some of these qualifications below.

10 The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey estimated the core Jewish population in the United States (that is, counting only persons who are currently Jewish) to be 5.51 million, representing a 1.8 per cent increase in the core Jewish population since 1970. When individuals of Jewish descent were included, the Jewish population rose from 5.48 million in 1970 to 6.84 million in 1990, an increase of 24.8 per cent. See Goldstein, Sidney, ‘Profile of American Jewry: Insights from the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey’, in Singer, David, ed., American Jewish Year Book 1992, vol. 92 (New York and Philadelphia: American Jewish Committee and Jewish Publication Society of America, 1992), p. 93.Google Scholar It should be noted that the survey research upon which the discussion of Jewish liberalism is based typically relies on a sociological, rather than a religiously Orthodox, definition of Jewish membership. That is, individuals count as Jews if they are born of a Jewish parent or are regarded by other Jews as Jewish or who consider themselves to be Jewish. Such a definition is obviously far more inclusive than that applicable in Orthodox Judaism, which insists upon matriarchal lineage or prescribed conversion.

11 It is important to note that little or no hard evidence is cited in support of claims of a high Jewish turnout rate. See, for example, Lipset, Seymour Martin and Raab, Earl, ‘The American Jews, the 1984 Elections, and Beyond’, in Elazar, Daniel J., ed., The New Jewish Politics (Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 1988), p. 42Google Scholar; Wald, , Religion and Politics, p. 321.Google Scholar

12 Whitfield, Stephen J., ‘The Jewish Vote’, Virginia Quarterly Review, 62 (1986), 1–20, at p. 11Google Scholar; New York Times, 3 11 1976, pp. 1, 19.Google Scholar See also Pollock, David M., ‘How New York Jews Vote: Myths and Realities’Google Scholar, in Elazar, , The New Jewish Politics, p. 70.Google Scholar

13 Lakatos, Imre, The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Philosophical Papers, Vol. 1, ed. Worrall, John and Currie, Gregory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Burnham, Walter Dean, Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics (New York: W. W. Norton, 1970)Google Scholar; Ladd, Everett Carll Jr, with Hadley, Charles D., Transformations of the American Party System: Political Coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970s, 2nd edn (New York: Norton, 1978).Google Scholar

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16 See Burner, David, The Politics of Provincialism: The Democratic Party in Transition, 1918–1932 (New York: Norton, 1968), pp. 234–41Google Scholar; Fowler, Robert Booth, Religion and Politics in America (Metuchen, NJ: American Theological Library Association and Scarecrow Press, 1985), pp. 56–7Google Scholar; Menendez, Albert J., Religion at the Polls (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1977), pp. 49–56, 214–15Google Scholar; Weiss, Nancy J., Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983), pp. 30–2, 206–7, 288–94.Google Scholar

17 Dinnerstein, Leonard, Nichols, Roger L. and Reimers, David M., Natives and Strangers: Ethnic Groups and the Building of America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 179–83Google Scholar; Sowell, Thomas, ed., Essays and Data on American Ethnic Groups (N.p.: The Urban Institute, 1978), pp. 116–17.Google Scholar

18 Whitfield, , ‘The Jewish Vote’, pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

19 See Ladd, with Hadley, , Transformations of the American Party System, pp. 60, 112Google Scholar; Menendez, , Religion at the Polls, p. 214Google Scholar; Weiss, , Farewell to the Party of Lincoln, p. 294.Google Scholar

20 See Guysener, Maurice, ‘The Jewish Vote in Chicago’, Jewish Social Studies, 20 (1958), 195–214Google Scholar; Lipset, Seymour Martin and Ladd, Everett Carll Jr, ‘Jewish Academics in the United States: Their Achievements, Culture and Politics’ in Fine, Morris and Himmelfarb, Milton, eds, American Jewish Year Book, 1971 (New York and Philadelphia: American Jewish Committee and Jewish Publication Society, 1972), pp. 110–20Google Scholar; Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism.Google Scholar

21 Erikson, Robert S., Lancaster, Thomas D. and Romero, David W., ‘Group Components of the Presidential Vote, 1952–1984’, Journal of Politics, 51 (1989), 337–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Flanigan, William H. and Zingale, Nancy H., Political Behavior of the American Electorate (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1991), pp. 75–6, 107–8Google Scholar; Lerner, Robert, Nagai, Althea K. and Rothman, Stanley, ‘Marginality and Liberalism Among Jewish Elites’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 53 (1989), 330–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wald, , Religion and Politics, pp. 94–7.Google Scholar The exception may be certain racial integration issues, on which differential Jewish support appears to be a function of socio-demographic characteristics. See Smith, Tom W., Jewish Attitudes Toward Blacks and Race Relations (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1990), pp. 10–12, 24Google Scholar; Sullivan, John L., Marcus, George E., Feldman, Stanley and Piereson, James E., ‘The Sources of Political Tolerance: A Multivariate Analysis’, American Political Science Review, 75 (1981), 92–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 See Liebman, and Cohen, , Two Worlds of Judaism, p. 179.Google Scholar

23 See Ladd, , ‘Jewish Life in the United States’, p. 134Google Scholar; and Schneider, et al. , ‘Bloc Voting Reconsidered’, p. 359.Google Scholar Ladd found Jewish voting behaviour to be more resistant to the alleged changing social cleavages than Jewish policy preferences. This difference is also found for mass publics, and is attributed to the effects of partisanship and to the lag-time before parties align themselves to changing social cleavages. For an overview, see Inglehart, Ronald, ‘Changing Paradigms in Comparative Political Behavior’, in Finifter, Ada W., ed., Political Science: The State of the Discipline (Washington, DC: American Political Science Association, 1983), pp. 429–69, esp. at p. 438.Google Scholar The emergent differences between higher and lower status Jews in the 1960s might also be attributable to differential perceptions of political threat. A political interest model is discussed below.

24 See also Burnham, , Critical ElectionGoogle Scholar; Abramson, et al. , Change and Continuity, pp. 129–30, 144–6.Google Scholar

25 Fuchs, , Political Behavior of American Jews, p. 178.Google Scholar

26 Liebman, Charles S., The Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion and Family in American Jewish Life (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973), p. 140.Google Scholar

27 Cohen, , American Modernity and Jewish Identity, pp. 143–7Google Scholar; Heilman, Samuel C. and Cohen, Steven M., Cosmopolitans and Parochials: Modern Orthodox Jews in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), pp. 160–73.Google Scholar

28 More recently, Judaic value approaches have been dismissed as ‘a bit fanciful’, since ‘in some political settings Jews have managed to overcome their humanistic scruples enough to organize and operate rather ruthless agencies of coercion and terror’: see Ginsberg, Benjamin, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1993), p. 140.Google Scholar However, the attribution of patterns to a group is hardly invalidated by the exceptional actions of a relatively few group members. All the more is this so when, as here, the members concerned typically are estranged from their group and apply to a different social and historical context from that under study. Ginsberg is on stronger ground when he notes that the ‘politics of Jews varies with objective conditions’ (p. 140).Google Scholar Yet, as we will see, it is important not to conflate facilitating conditions with motivating factors. I evaluate Ginsberg's alternative, institutional account later in the discussion.

29 For the comparative data, see Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism, pp. 58–9Google Scholar; Liebman, and Cohen, , Two Worlds of Judaism, fn. 3, p. 181.Google Scholar

30 Another cultural theory attributes American Jewish liberalism not to Jewish religious values, but to the socialist or ‘communalistic’ subculture of the Eastern European Jewish immigrants. See Howe, Irving, World of Our Fathers (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976), p. 623Google Scholar; Feingold, Henry J., ‘American Liberalism and Jewish Response’, Contemporary Jewry, 9 (1987/1988), 19–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Spinrad, William, ‘Explaining American-Jewish Liberalism: Another Attempt’, Contemporary Jewry, 11 (1990), 107–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar This approach can, at best, be an ancillary explanation of the ‘welfare’ dimension of American Jewish liberalism, since the majority of Eastern European immigrant Jews, let alone of the overall American Jewish community, were not such socialists that they could ‘fade’ (Howe's term) into liberals; and socialism's sanction of centralized state control and communalism's emphasis on shared values arguably conflict with the civil liberties' dimension of American Jewish liberalism.

31 Cohn, Werner, ‘The Politics of American Jews’ in Sklare, Marshall, ed., The Jews: Social Patterns of an American Group (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1958), pp. 614–26Google Scholar. See also Dawidowicz, Lucy S. and Goldstein, Leon J., ‘The American Jewish Liberal Tradition’, in Sklare, Marshall, ed., The Jewish Community in America (New York: Behrman House, 1974), pp. 285–300Google Scholar; and Halpem, Ben, ‘The Roots of American Jewish Liberalism’, American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 66 (1976), 190–214.Google Scholar

32 Cohn, , ‘Politics of American Jews’, p. 615.Google Scholar

33 Cohn, , ‘Politics of American Jews’, p. 623.Google Scholar

34 See Glazer, Nathan, ‘Is Liberalism (Still) Good for the Jews?’ Moment (03 1986), 16–19Google Scholar; Rubinstein, W. D., The Left, the Right and the Jews (London: Croom Helm, 1982)Google Scholar; Schneider, et al. , ‘Bloc Voting Reconsidered’Google Scholar; Wisse, Ruth, If I Am Not For Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews (New York: The Free Press, 1992).Google Scholar

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36 Campbell, et al. , The American Voter, pp. 295–332Google Scholar; Converse, Philip E. and Dupeux, Georges, ‘Politicization of the Electorate in France and the United States’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 26 (1962), 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism, pp. 26–7, 50–1Google Scholar; Rothman, Stanley and Lichter, S. Robert, Roots of Radicalism: Jews, Christians and the New Left (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 220–2, 333–5, 408.Google Scholar

38 Lipset, Seymour Martin and Rokkan, Stein, eds, ‘Introduction’ to Party Systems and Voter Alignments (New York: Macmillan, 1967).Google Scholar

39 See, for example, Alderman, Geoffrey, The Jewish Community in British Politics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983)Google Scholar; Laponce, J. A., ‘Left or Centre? The Canadian Jewish Electorate, 1953–1983’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 21 (1988), 691–714CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Medding, Peter Y., ‘Factors Influencing the Voting Behaviour of Melbourne Jews’, in Medding, Peter Y., ed., Jews in Australian Society (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1973), pp. 141–59Google Scholar; Suval, Stanley, Electoral Politics in Wilhelmine Germany (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985), pp. 106–10.Google Scholar

40 See, for example, Jennings, M. Kent and Niemi, Richard G., Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 According to Pulzer, up to the Revolution of 1848, even most Jewish politicians, as against publicists and agitators, were conservative in their allegiances: see Pulzer, Peter, Jews and the German State: The Political History of a Minority, 1848–1933 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), pp. 81–2Google Scholar; and Toury, Jacob, Die politischen Orientierungen der Juden in Deutschland: Von Jena bis Weimar (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1966), pp. 27, 67, 101, 115Google Scholar. For France, see Cohen, William B. and Wall, Irwin M., ‘French Communism and the Jews’, in Malino, Frances and Wasserstein, Bernard, eds, The Jews in Modern France (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1985), pp. 84–5Google Scholar. In the opening decades of the nineteenth century ‘over 60 percent of the Jews supported conservatism and loyalism, under one third were moderate Liberals, and 10 percent favoured radical parties (Democrats and similar)’. In the revolutionary period of 1848, Jewish support for the Radicals increased from 8 to 14 per cent, but the Liberals retained about one-third of the Jewish vote and the Conservatives and Loyalists retained the Jewish majority, albeit reduced to 54 per cent. See Holeczek, Heinz, ‘The Jews and the German Liberals’, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 28 (1983), 77–91, at pp. 86–7, 88, 90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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44 See, respectively, Mosse, W. E., Jews in the German Economy: The German-Jewish Economic Elite 1820–1935 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987)Google Scholar; Richarz, Monika, ‘Jewish Social Mobility in Germany During the Time of Emancipation 1790–1871’, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 20 (1975), 69–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Alderman, and, Jewish Community in British Politics, pp. 14–21Google Scholar; Hertzberg, Arthur, French Enlightenment and the Jews (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), p. 8Google Scholar; Meyer, Michael A., German Political Pressure and Jewish Religious Response in the Nineteenth Century, Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture 25 (New York: Leo Baeck Institute, 1981), p. 9Google Scholar; Pulzer, , Jews and the German State, p. 82.Google Scholar

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46 Liebman, , ‘Ambivalent American Jew’, p. 147.Google Scholar

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48 Medding, , ‘Towards a General Theory’, p. 123.Google Scholar

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52 Ladd, , ‘Jewish Life in the United States’, p. 346.Google Scholar

53 Cohen, , American Modernity and Jewish Identity, pp. 140–3.Google Scholar

54 Jewish support for Democratic presidential candidates has fluctuated over the past eight campaigns as follows: 90 per cent (1964); 84 per cent (1968); 67 per cent (1972); 64 per cent (1976); 60 per cent (1980 – combining liberal Independent Anderson's support of 15 percent); 67 percent (1984); 64 per cent (1988); 78 per cent (1992). Figures are from Schneider, et al. , ‘Bloc Voting Reconsidered’, p. 348Google Scholar; Stanley, and Niemi, , Vital Statistics on American Politics, p. 107.Google Scholar

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57 Reported in Cohen, , ‘Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism’, p. 41.Google Scholar

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60 Ladd, , ‘Jewish Life in the United States’, p. 134Google Scholar; Schneider, et al. , ‘Bloc Voting Reconsidered’, p. 359Google Scholar. Philadelphia politics of the period provide an exception: among virtually all ethnic groups, including Jews, the higher the socio-economic status, the higher the Democratic vote (see Shover, John L., ‘Ethnicity and Religion in Philadelphia Politics, 1924–40’, American Quarterly, 25 (1973), 508–9)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This may have been due to the particular history of the Republican Party in Philadelphia (see Featherman, Sandra, ‘Jewish Politics in Philadelphia 1920–1940’, in Friedman, Murray, ed., Jewish Life in Philadelphia 1830–1940 (Philadelphia: Ishi Publications, 1983), pp. 276–89).Google Scholar

61 Ginsberg, , Jews and the State, p. 140.Google Scholar

62 See Fuchs, , Political Behavior of American Jews, pp. 64–76.Google Scholar

63 Ginsberg, , Jews and the State, chap. 3.Google Scholar As a factor explaining the Jewish-liberal nexus, Roosevelt's opposition to Nazism can be overdrawn (for example, Campbell, et al. , The American Voter, pp. 159–60Google Scholar). Evidence suggests that Nazism and immigration policy were not, in the 1930s, prime concerns among important segments of American Jewry - even when, as happened in 1935, Jewish clergy were invited by Roosevelt to communicate their views directly. See Billington, Monroe and Clark, Cal, ‘Rabbis and the New Deal: Clues to Jewish Political behavior’, American Jewish History, 80 (1990–1991), 193–212, at p. 198.Google Scholar

64 Ginsberg, , Jews and the State, pp. 142–3. Emphases in the original.Google Scholar

65 Fuchs, Lawrence H., ‘American Jews and the Presidential Vote’, American Political Science Review, 49 (1955), 385–401, at p. 392CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lenski, Gerhard, The Religious Factor, rev. edn (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1963), pp. 145–6Google Scholar; Singer, David, American Jews as Voters: The 1986 Elections (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1987)Google Scholar; Fein, Leonard, Where Are We? The Inner Life of America's Jews (New York: Harper and Row, 1988), pp. 230, 275.Google Scholar

66 Ginsberg, , Jews and the State, p. 142.Google Scholar Emphases in the original.

67 See Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish LiberalismGoogle Scholar; Ladd, , ‘Jewish Life in the United States’, pp. 160–1.Google Scholar

68 Ginsberg, , Jews and the State, pp. 143, 140.Google Scholar

69 Lerner, et al. , ‘Marginality and Liberalism Among Jewish Elites’Google Scholar; Lipset, and Ladd, , ‘Jewish Academics in the United States’.Google Scholar

70 Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism, pp. 25, 43–6Google Scholar; Ladd, , ‘Jewish Life in the United States’, pp. 158–9Google Scholar; Wald, , Religion and Politics, chap. 4.Google Scholar

71 Stanley, and Niemi, , Vital Statistics on American Politics, pp. 104, 107.Google Scholar

72 Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism, p. 39Google Scholar; Fisher, , ‘Continuity and Erosion of Jewish Liberalism’, pp. 346–7Google Scholar; Ladd, , ‘Jewish Life in the United States’, p. 154.Google Scholar

73 Sklare, Marshall and Greenblum, Joseph, Jewish Identity on the Suburban Frontier (New York: Basic Books, 1967), p. 322.Google Scholar

74 Cited in Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism, pp. 32–3.Google Scholar See also Liebman, and Cohen, , Two Worlds of Judaism, p. 97.Google Scholar

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76 Even at the ‘micro’ level, Medding's theory suffers from being too vague. All Jewish political behaviour is assumed to be governed by the exercise of Jewish political interests, and virtually everything is a Jewish political interest, from economic concerns to Jewish culture. Assumed, too, is a compatibility among and between these sorts of interests that does not always, if ever, obtain. Thus, with the partial exception of the concern for Israel, there is no specification how Jews will respond when the political options available mean that their political interests are in conflict.

77 A less formal interest-based explanation of American Jewish liberalism contends that most Jews ‘remained liberals, at very least, because they feared social disorder’, specifically from blacks. See Hertzberg, Arthur, The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter: A History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), pp. 378–9.Google Scholar The greatest perceived threat is from below, in Medding's terms, but Jews respond politically not inversely to the direction of the threat; they align with the threat, seeking to defuse it. As a partial account of a complex of motivations, this argument may have some force. Nevertheless, this version of the Jewish political-interest model fails as a general explanation of American Jewish liberalism for at least the following three reasons: it says little about why Jews were such strong liberals prior to the politicization of the black community; it ignores countervailing threats from other social and political quarters, as stressed by Medding; and it fails to address why most Jews are also liberal on social issues, as distinct from economic and political dimensions.

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79 Lenski, , ‘Status Inconsistency and the Vote’, p. 298.Google Scholar

80 See, for example, Segal, David R., ‘Status Inconsistency, Cross Pressures, and American Political behavior’, American Sociological Review, 34 (1969), 352–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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86 Schneider, et al. , ‘Bloc Voting Reconsidered’, p. 179.Google Scholar

87 See, for example, Wistrich, Robert S., Revolutionary Jews From Marx to Trotsky (London and New York: Harrap, Barnes and Noble, 1976).Google Scholar

88 Cohen, , American Modernity and Jewish IdentityGoogle Scholar; Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish LiberalismGoogle Scholar; Lerner, et al. , ‘Marginality and Liberalism Among Jewish Elites’Google Scholar; Liebman, , Ambivalent American Jew.Google Scholar

89 Liebman, , Ambivalent American Jew, pp. 157–8.Google Scholar

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97 On radicalism, see, for example, Rothman, and Lichter, , Roots of RadicalismGoogle Scholar; and Weisberger, Adam M., ‘Marginality and Messianism: German Jews and Socialism, 1871–1918’, Politics and Society, 20 (1992), 225–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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99 Bhargava, Simran, ‘Joy Cherian on the Job: A Voice for Indian-Americans’, India Today, 31 (08 1990), p. 81Google Scholar; Helweg, Arthur W. and Helweg, Usha M., An Immigrant Success Story: East Indians in America (London: Hurst, 1990), pp. 70–5, 109–11, 146–7.Google Scholar

100 Liebman, and Cohen, , Two Worlds of Judaism, pp. 113–14.Google Scholar

101 Parenti, Michael, ‘Political Values and Religious Cultures: Jews, Catholics, and Protestants’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 6 (1967), 259–69, at pp. 261–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For another perceptive discussion of the similarities and differences between the American Catholic and Jewish experiences, see Litt, Edgar, Beyond Pluralism: Ethnic Politics in America (Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1970), chaps 7 and 8.Google Scholar

102 See Chorbajian, Leon S., ‘Armenians and Middle-Eastern Americans’, in Roucek, Joseph S. and Eisenberg, Bernard, eds, America's Ethnic Politics (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982), pp. 67–88.Google Scholar

103 Mirak, Robert, ‘Armenians’, in Thernstrom, Stephan, ed., Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 136–49.Google Scholar

104 Mirak, , ‘Armenians’, p. 146.Google Scholar

105 For a ‘scattershot’ approach to explaining why American Jews are ‘still on the left’ – invoking Jewish (‘tribal’) values, historical alignments, legacy of immigrant socialism, current political interests, defensive needs, and habit – see Lipset, Seymour Martin and Raab, Earl, Jews and the New American Scene (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), chap. 6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

106 Cohen, , American Modernity and Jewish Identity, pp. 147–9Google Scholar; Liebman, and Cohen, , Two Worlds of Judaism, p. 179.Google Scholar

107 See Feder, Don, ‘Liberalism Threatens Jewish Identity’, Human Events, No. 22, 50 (06 1994), p. 17Google Scholar; Heilman, and Cohen, , Cosmopolitans and Parochials, pp. 153–79Google Scholar; Kristol, Irving, ‘The Political Dilemma of American Jews’, Commentary, 78 (07 1984), 23–9Google Scholar; and Legge, Jerome S. Jr., ‘Explaining Jewish Liberalism in the United States: An Exploration of Socioeconomic, Religious, and Communal Living Variables’, Social Science Quarterly, 76 (1995), 124–41.Google Scholar

108 A recent study employing linear structural relations analysis finds, for example, that denomination, religious practice and communal living variables outperform socio-economic variables in explaining variance in Jewish liberalism. See Legge, , ‘Explaining Jewish Liberalism in the United States’Google Scholar. This study is based, however, on only one indicator of Jewish liberalism, namely, ideological self-identification, and its linear analysis precludes detection of patterns of differentiation associated with any given variable.

109 Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism, pp. 58–9Google Scholar; Heilman, and Cohen, , Cosmopolitans and Parochials, pp. 160–73Google Scholar; Peterson, Steven A., ‘Church Participation and Political Participation: The Spillover Effect’, American Politics Quarterly, 20 (1992), 123–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Stouffer, Samuel, Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties (New York: John Wiley, 1966).Google Scholar

110 See, for example, Cohen, , American Modernity and Jewish Identity, pp. 145–7.Google Scholar

111 See Allport, Gordon W., ‘The Religious Context of Prejudice’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 5 (1966), 447–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wald, , Religion and Politics, pp. 347–50Google Scholar. Cf. Hanna, Mary T., Catholics and American Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979), pp. 121, 137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

112 See, for example, Cohen, , American Modernity and Jewish Identity, p. 138Google Scholar; Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism, p. 33Google Scholar. Many Jews identify as Jews without being either religiously observant or involved in the Jewish community.

113 It is worth noting, here, that American Jews are found to have a strong and accurate sense of their position along the Orthodox-secular continuum. See, for example, Cohen, , American Modernity and Jewish Identity, p. 144Google Scholar; and Heilman, and Cohen, , Cosmopolitans and Parochials, pp. 56–7.Google Scholar

114 See Cohen, , American Modernity and Jewish Identity, p. 144Google Scholar; and Goldstein, , ‘Profile of American Jewry’, pp. 172–3Google Scholar. Goldstein reports (p. 143) that, of the core Jewish population (based on the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey), 76.3 per cent are Jews by religion (‘born Jewish and identified as being Jewish by religion’), 20.3 per cent are secular Jews (‘born Jewish reporting no current religious identity’), and 3.4 per cent are Jews by choice (‘born non-Jews but identified as Jewish by religion’). Even modest proportions of secular Jews always or usually observe some Jewish ritual practices.

115 See, for example, Lipset, , Political Man, p. 223Google Scholar; Medding, , ‘Towards a General Theory’.Google Scholar

116 See Brym, Robert J., The Jewish Intelligentsia and Russian Marxism: A Sociological Study of Intellectual Radicalism and Ideological Divergence (London: Macmillan, 1978), p. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schapiro, Leonard, Russian Studies (New York: Viking, 1987), pp. 45–52Google Scholar; Tobias, Henry J., The Jewish Bund in Russia: From Its Origins to 1905 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1972), pp. 25, 37, 47, 98, 140, 238–41.Google Scholar

117 Liebman, Arthur, Jews and the Left (New York: John Wiley, 1979), p. 1.Google Scholar

118 Liebman's marginality argument is something of an exception, since he wants to argue that Jewish support of state welfare and civil liberties essentially derives from their commitment to church-state separation (Liebman, , Ambivalent American Jew, pp. 150–2Google Scholar). Such reductionism seems to raise its own problems, however. Ginsberg's institutional account might also be considered an exception, but only in virtue of its concession that the social liberalism of Jews may have more to do with such non-institutional factors as marginality and minority status.

119 For the data, see Cohen, , Dimensions of American Jewish Liberalism, p. 58Google Scholar; Ladd, , ‘Jewish Life in the United States’, pp. 155–62Google Scholar; Lerner, et al. , ‘Marginality and Liberalism Among Jewish Elites’, p. 342.Google Scholar

120 I attempt to develop an account of disproportionate Jewish liberalism along the lines suggested here in Levey, Geoffrey Brahm, ‘Toward a Theory of Disproportionate American Jewish Liberalism’, in Medding, Peter Y., ed., Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 11: Jews and Politics at the End of the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).Google Scholar