Sanders keeps his Judaism in the background, irking U.S. Jews

[barryqwalsh]

Sen. Bernie Sanders prays with Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University


As Bernie Sanders headed toward victory in New Hampshire, pundits noted the barrier he was about to break: Sanders would become the first Jewish candidate to win a major party presidential primary.

But since that Feb. 9 win, instead of the burst of communal pride that often accompanies such milestones, the response from American Jews has been muted. One reason: The Vermont senator, the candidate who has come closer than any other Jew to being a Democratic or Republican presidential nominee, has mostly avoided discussing his Judaism.


Sanders keeps his Judaism in the background, irking U.S. Jews

 

[Moonglow]

There is no religious test for president...

 

[Pogo]

There is no religious test for president...

Quite. And there is no "American Jews" monolith to issue a response, "muted" or otherwise. Another author trying to fill space with his own toilet paper. The idea that "Jews" would coalesce into some kind of "communal pride" is completely contrived.

 

[Pogo]

Sen. Bernie Sanders prays with Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University


As Bernie Sanders headed toward victory in New Hampshire, pundits noted the barrier he was about to break: Sanders would become the first Jewish candidate to win a major party presidential primary.

But since that Feb. 9 win, instead of the burst of communal pride that often accompanies such milestones, the response from American Jews has been muted. One reason: The Vermont senator, the candidate who has come closer than any other Jew to being a Democratic or Republican presidential nominee, has mostly avoided discussing his Judaism.


Sanders keeps his Judaism in the background, irking U.S. Jews

Wassup with the World's Largest Guitar in the foreground? Did God show up to do some pickin'?

 

[irosie91]

There is no religious test for president...

there is no cute tushie test for posters either-------pull up your pants

 

[Moonglow]

There is no religious test for president...

there is no cute tushie test for posters either-------pull up your pants

I can't...!

 

[Lipush]

Many of US Jews don't care about Judaism at all, so what gives.

 

[barryqwalsh]

In the 24 hours after Bernie Sanders launched his presidential bid on May 26, the No. 2 most frequently Googled question about America’s newest potential president was: Is Bernie Sanders Jewish? As always, the particulars are much more interesting than the question of is he or isn’t he. For one NPR host, the idea that Sanders was Jewish and had spent time on a kibbutz meant that he probably held an Israeli passport, an instinctive conflation of Jewishness and foreign loyalties that might have once been more common on the right. Others were simply puzzled by how a socialist Jew wound up as a senator from Vermont.


Bernie Sanders is a typical American Jew of his generation in that his story doesn’t hew to any preconceived narratives or stereotypes, except for the fact that it begins in Brooklyn, where he and his brother Larry grew up in a modest apartment located off Kings Highway. Like many Brooklyn families, the Sanderses aspired to become middle-class Americans while living in the shadow of the Holocaust.

Will Bernie Sanders Become the First Jewish President?

 

[Agit8r]

Once a candidate brings their religion into the public arena, it is fair game for people to pick at. If they don't, it should be nobody's concern.

 

[Blackrook]

Six candidates for President are/were Catholic, and hardly anyone knows, or cares. Stuff like this doesn't matter anymore.

It mattered 50 years ago when Protestants, Catholics and Jews hated each other, and their kids fought each other on the street because of religion.