Source: Liberal Currents
by Noah Berlatsky
“It’s certainly true that Jewish people have been persecuted in hideous ways for a very long time. But so have Roma. So, closer to home, have Native Americans. But Biden hasn’t called for the establishment of a Roma homeland, and he certainly doesn’t talk about tribal sovereignty the way he discusses Israel. Why are Jewish suffering and Jewish identity, in particular, presented as central to America’s ethical vision of itself? I think the answer is that Jewish rights and Jewish equality have long been central to European liberalism’s sense of its own virtue and identity. In much of the European liberal tradition which Biden and the US have inherited, Jews are the iconic oppressed other, whose rights guarantee the egalitarianism and justice of the liberal democratic project.” (01/14/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/how-liberalism-uses-jews-and-why-it-shouldnt-do-that/