People of the Books

A fierce debate currently rages among some prominent American Jews about how Jews ought to relate to the spectacular political ascendancy of the so-called Christian Right.

In recent months the debate has grown even more intense, thanks in large part to two books, one published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a watchdog organization dedicated to blowing the whistle on anti-Semitism, and the other by Reverend Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson, the former Republican presidential candidate and the founder and leader of the Christian Coalition.

The ADL study, called The Religious Right: The Assault on Tolerance and Pluralism in America makes its general thesis plain from its title. The book contends that the rise of the Christian Right does not bode well for American Jews since it carries with it the potential for a breakdown in the separation of church and state, the emergence of anti-Semitic extremism, and the promotion of the idea that ours is a monolithic `Christian America.'

Robertson's 1991 book, The New World Order argues that the last two centuries have witnessed an anti-Christian conspiracy involving, among others, European Jewish Bankers, Bavarian Freemasons, and Bolsheviks. The book draws heavily on explicitly anti-Semitic tracts from the early twentieth century. In what New York Times columnist Frank Rich has called a 'bait and switch,' Robertson quotes almost verbatim from these works, leaving out of his own work the glaringly obvious anti-Semitic remarks that permeate such rightly forgotten books as Nesta Webster's 1922 World Revolution: Plot Against Civilization.

The debate around these books runs like this. Jewish neo-conservatives who admire Robertson's staunch support for Israel have come to his defense in the wake of the ADL report and similar articles that have appeared recently in the New York Review of Books. They are willing to indulge Robertson (what they perceive to be) his theological idiosyncrasies so long as he gets the important issue, Israel, correct. For example, a prominent Jewish neo-conservative, Midge Decter, has written a scathing critique of the ADL study in a recent issue of Commentary.

On the other side are those Jews such as Rich who are convinced that Robertson's theology cannot simply be brushed aside, and that he and his organization must be viewed as a serious threat to the security of Jews in America.

Both parties to this debate make grave errors in their ideological intransigence. The anti-Robertson left makes a faulty jump from Robertson's pseudo-scholarship, which is genuinely dangerous, to what they falsely take to be the peril of the entire Christian Right. They threaten to compromise the validity of their legitimate critique of Robertson's book by smuggling into that critique a liberal political agenda that smacks of political partisanship, not a general concern for confronting the evil of anti-Semitism.

The neo-conservative apologists, on the other hand, are guilty of whitewashing Robertson's sins in the name of their own Rightist agenda. It is one thing to point out that Robertson is not an anti-Semite plain and simple, and is a generous supporter of the State of Israel. It is another thing altogether to assume that his pro-Israel sentiments somehow excuse his anti-Semitic excesses.

The call for a more balanced dialogue between Jews and the Christian Right may not go unheeded. Only this week Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition, addressed leaders of the ADL in Washington, claiming that Jews and Christians must cooperate in "the fight to achieve moral stability and a sense of community based on shared values." Reed's remarks represent a welcome overture in a climate of growing hostility. Of his hopes for increased good will between Americans Jews and Christians: may they go from Mr. Reed's mouth to God's ears.

Samuel J. Rascoff's column appears on alternate Fridays.