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Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Breaking stereotypes

Many of my conservative readers and colleagues are a bit dismayed about why the Jews overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. The recent firestorm created by two South Carolina Republican chairmen should give you some insight. Edwin Merwin and James Ulmer wrote a letter to their local newspaper defending Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., in response to criticism of the senator for avoiding earmarks.

They commented, “There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves. By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation’s pennies and trying to preserve our country’s wealth and our economy’s viability to give all an opportunity to succeed.”

Since Sen. DeMint is not Jewish (he is Presbyterian) it is hard to see the relevance of invoking Jewish penny pinching stereotypes to make their point.

I doubt the Republican chairmen meant the stereotype critically. Frugality was a virtue of the Puritans and Benjamin Franklin. But whenever you resort to stereotypes, malicious or not, you risk offense.

Years ago, I was waiting in line to pay a traffic ticket and struck up a conversation with a young man in line. He noticed my Macon Iron (our family owned scrap yard) hat and asked if I worked there. I acknowledged I did, but did not acknowledge I was an owner. He commented that he had just sold some scrap to Hirsh Metals, a competitor. “He didn’t pay me much,” he said, “but that is probably the Jew in him.”

He played the penny pinching stereotype, but he certainly did not mean it as a compliment.

A local Jewish friend was approached years ago after a local program by a prominent school board member (a Democrat, by the way) who innocently asked, “Where do the Jews get their diamonds?” She was stunned that he seemed to insinuate we had some secret to wealth.

The same stereotype that was meant by one as a compliment is used by another as a derogation and by yet another to invoke a sinister conspiracy.

Stereotypes are dangerous because they isolate groups. The two from South Carolina were only guilty of ignorance, which can be corrected. Bill Nigut, director with the Southeast Regional Anti Defamation League (I serve on his board), said a mere apology was not enough; there needed to be a dialogue for the two to understand why the comments were offensive.

If there is one piece of advice I would give to Merwin and Ulmer, it would be to consider people as individuals.

Yet the Democrats have had their own voices that crossed the line. Jimmy Carter, denials notwithstanding, has clearly crossed the line from legitimate criticism to anti-Semitism. Obama’s Rev. Wright’s anti-Semitic comments were ignored by the president’s substantial Jewish supporters and when recently asked if he has spoken with the president since his inauguration Wright said, “them Jews ain’t going to let him talk to me.”

The anti-Semitism coming from the left is not nearly as innocent as the comment from Merwin and Ulmer; it is often hateful and malicious.

But while the perpetrators of anti-Semitism on the left are dismissed as fringe groups (even if it is the president’s ex-spiritual mentor or an ex-president himself), every insensitive comment from the right is seen as a warning that “we do not belong here.”

If this seems unfair to be held to a much higher standard of tolerance, it is. Get used to it. The Jews, of all people, should understand.

Henry Oliner blogs at www.rebelyid.com and Twitters at www.twitter.com/rebelyid.