Are We A Peoplehood?

Introduction

At first sight, it may appear that this article about American Jews isn’t connected to us, but I believe now more than ever we have to act together if for no other reason than that the world sees us as one piece and on this we can all agree. Today in California the Legislature descides whether to change the category of the Jew from a religion to an ethnicity, meaning the inclusion of history culture,politics in terms of Data collection for State use, research and so on. I feel this article accompanies the change.

A few words of introduction: Today in California the Legislature is decding whether or not to change the category of Jew for legal and Data purposes from a Religion to an Ethnicity, this article supplies information on our status; I believe you see the implictions for all of Jewry.

Are We A Peoplehood?

The Jews of America are and always have been a disparate group geographically educationally and certainly economically. The first Jews, I believe around 27 people came in 1632 to New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant allowed them to settle because of pressure from the East India Company of Amsterdam in which it is believed some Jews owned shares; they had come from Brazil to escape the Inquisition which had reached Brazil because the Portugese were now its rulers . I heard about these Sephardim but have never been in their synagogue or met any, etc.,…a separate group went its way independently and unattached to any other organizations Jewish or otherwise which I see as the pattern for the origin of Jewish settlements in America;

In the same way that individual Jewish communities made their distinctive way in the colossus of America so did religious groups, Reform, Orthodox form themselves and provide for their adherents in private operations. Said another way, both the separation of church and state – e.g., as an individual you may petition the state for grievance, as well as American economic individualism provide the framework of our lives. Louis Brandeis though everyone knew he was a Jew was an American jurist, and Stephen Wise the Rabbi of a NYC West Side temple, a private individual representing a private constituency never represented the peoplehood of the Jews.

Avraham Heschel was the first to present himself as a Jew on the public stage declaring himself the Rabbi of the peoplehood: the spirit of the Prophets or more secularly the ideology of the Prophets which acts as the universalizing common morality of man tells us why we were born and how we can fulfil our destiny of growth; Heschel was neither Democrat, Republican nor politician; he regarded the established political and even religious structures of America as having assimilated the selfishness and corruptions of contemporary society; therefore, he preached, we the Jews need a Prophetic structure, a particular peoplehood in which we act as social reformers; e.g., the Jews as a peoplehood are born into the politics of social relations, the Prophets command we bring the Covenant of Mt. Sinai into being.

I’m an American Jew who made Aliyah; at one time I was a very active Democrat, what shall I say now? I was a teacher but also in Babylon. After October 7th how can anyone depend on either of the parties when numbers control political decision; and if anything we are losing people; the exit of the Rothchilds from Frankfurt, on the terms of the Nazis, shows how illusory is wealth not connected to state power; we remain a tiny group consumed with the questions of survival and must hold on to all of our history not only its ruptures; I’m afraid those dependent on the Republican Party or any party will find that manipulating the Israeli government is a far cry from manuvering the zeitgeist of today.

Israel’s wars settle nothing, the hevra collective willing to fight these wars has crumbled, and the West Bank is seceding not only from national control but from the values and commands of Judaic religion.

In 1976 Irving Howe’s book on the history of the Jews from the 1880’s to the 1920’ was published. A Democratic Socialist, renowned literary critic and master of Yiddish culture, he concluded: the hevra, the Yiddish world of literature and responsibility created in the shteyl and brought to America, is gone; he looks back with nostalgia at the Jews who under harshest conditions of deprivation were imbued with the spirit to raise themselves above the boundaries and restrictions of Exile; instead they envisioned a future where the ideas of the Prophets are redeemed. In 1976, he and Shlomo Avineri debated Zionism versus the American model. I am a Leftist Tel Avivi, and since October 7th I am more convinced than ever that only in Israel is personal freedom and Hevra- our peoplehood able to survive.

I want to finish with two examples of reality. We are a people, with divisions yes, but nevertheless a people – and most certainly the world sees us as being all of one piece. My cousin Steve Lerhman survived WWII dug into the ground of the forest of Drohitshen; and he told me that every morning in the shteyl there was a knock on the door- “‘shaharis davenen shaharis davenen’ and you had to go”; and I said, “how could that be, 1939, already Shomer Hazaear, Communists aplenty and all variety of non-worship…How is it they went, among these differences there’s no love lost”; and he answered, “believe me, they’d see that you went”, And I’ve thought about it: only social pressure…..no government no police no boss..…. people who fought one another, argued, didn’t speak to one another owed money never paid their debts and yet every morning were in the shul together. Peoplehood!

The second example is NYC, a plurality of poor Jews mostly in the garment trade, an ILGWU and plenty of Leftism, Communism and businessmen. Before the 1924 immigration quota cutting the entrance of Polish and Eastern Jews, e.g., and those unable to prove financial merit was enacted between 1 and 2 million Jews entered the country. Yet it wasn’t until 1938 under FDR and a Democratic Party government that the 1938 legislation of child labor came about; this legislation also established a minimum wage and overtime, and made it possible for workers to choose whether to work on Saturday.

The ethnic commonality of the Jew, his need to escape poverty, his talents plus good Liberal Left leadership united them in a common fight and reward. It is fact that together we worked our way up. It wasn’t until the very late 1950’s that Shnayerson came to America and so I repeat that the illusion of partition between the synagogue and America, or the non-observant and the Orthordox is an academic issue. We live in the total organization of America; not as a recognized country in diplomatic relations with Washington but as a small minority of its voters.