neither fairness nor detachment. It is thoroughly Despite the so-called Jewish vote, despite traditional misguided and a complete failure to appreciate Jewish identification with the Democratic Party, it what democracy is all about. If, however, a certain appears to me that America's relationship to Israel policy is good for the Jews (or for Israel) but harm- during the last 25 years has been governed exclusively ful to one's nation as a whole or to the world com- by national self-interest and not by political loyalty munity as a whole, then altruism is demanded. But or sentiment. The question of which Presidential it is extremely hard to see how such a contingency candidate is better for Israel, therefore, seems almost could ever arise. irrelevant. Roosevelt's passivity in the face of the tragedy of European Jewry, Truman's vacillation at The election: a view from australia the time of Israel's struggle for independence, Eisen- hower's vain promises about Sinai, and Nixon's John S. Levi strong support for Israel, each help to underscore this lesson. The centre of the Western world, financially, mil- itarily and materially, is America. Half the Jews of the world live in North America. Therefore, the first question Jews outside America ask themselves is: The election: after two years in israel Can American Jewry survive? If it can't, what hope is there for the rest of us? Michael A. Meyer Jewish history commands an Australian rabbi to care It is difficult for most of the Israelis I have spoken about the health of America. Professor Ellis Rivkin to in the last few months to understand why Amer- has taught my rabbinical generation to perceive that ican Jewry should not unanimously support Richard Jewish growth and achievement are only possible in Nixon. Certainly it seems to them that every Zionist a healthy, outward-looking host society. A deteri- should vote for the Republican president. orating economic and social fabric, laboring under stress, is not a tolerant one. An America that turns Bases for israel's position its back upon the rest of the world and uses its mas- They point out that in concrete terms the Nixon ad- sive material power to shield an inward-looking eco- ministration has done more for Israel than Johnson's nomic and military fortress, therefore, spells disaster ever did. It supplies the most sophisticated weaponry, in Jewish and in human terms. provides diplomatic support, and has not forced Is- rael to withdraw from an inch of conquered ter- An increasingly irrelevant choice ritory. Financially, it has extended both long-term As I write these words, memories, good and bad, of credits and outright aid, while never questioning the student years in American crowd in upon me. Mem- legitimacy of UJA tax deductions. If Governor ories of a lunatic medical service, the enormous gap Rockefeller's statement is to be given credence, Pres- between rich and poor, the violence, the guns, the ident Nixon has also been instrumental in insuring fear of socialism, the rudeness of the young toward a continuing immigration from the Soviet Union. their elders and the corresponding fear of getting The Israelis are convinced that this policy is not old. And beyond all this, the bewilderment of merely tactical, but part of a global strategy of main- finding that history has deprived America of two taining American strength vis-a-vis the Russians. clearly different political parties. The ideological They do not regard it merely as an effort to win the overlap between the Democrats and the Republicans, Jewish vote in the election, though they may, in added to the power of the Presidential executive, has fact, fear the outcome of a likely Nixon victory produced an electoral battle between two person- which will owe nothing to Jewish voters. alities rather than between two parties. McGovern, by contrast is at best an uncertainty. Time and time again, Israel must therefore find itself While it is true that his recent campaign statements preferring the known and proven friend to the un- have scarcely been less pro-Israel than those of his known candidate. This seems to be inevitable, under- rival, his past record on the subject has not always standable, and of little consequence to the organized been what the Israelis would have wished. Moreover, Jewish community of America. The choice belongs his plans to cut American defense spending and to America and the same economic and political avoid a strongly international stance arouse painful forces are going to work no matter who sits in the anxieties. Israelis are particularly concerned that the White House. Sixth Fleet might be reduced so that it would no 139 longer be able to counterbalance the Russian pres- becomes possible to evaluate the candidates on the ence in the Mediterranean. Recent support of other issues. And here, from a moral perspective, McGovern by Arabs in the United States seems to there can be little question of the result. It would, I justify their apprehensions. think, be sad indeed if American Jewry were to ex- clude from consideration the most basic moral issues It is little less difficult for the Israelis to comprehend of our society on account of an at best questionable why even a non-Zionist Jew should oppose Nixon. estimation of the specific Israeli and Jewish interest. Because the Israeli press has made much of black anti-semitism, they expect that Jews would naturally have nothing to do with a candidate like McGovern, Campus revival: some worries at duke whose campaign has emphasized the legitimacy of black demands. For a Jew to support McGovern Eric M. Meyers seems to them directly contradictory to his own Experimentation with new Jewish life styles on cam- Jewish self-interest. pus has been going on for some time now, the Questioning the israeli appraisal chavurah and other seminary offshoots perhaps This almost unanimous Israeli estimate raises two having inspired some of the present trends. At questions for the American Jewish voter. Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina) a Jewish communal group called the Bayit recently explained First, the question arises whether the Israeli ap- their community to the public in an editorial to The praisal might not be wrong. Most of us are familiar Daily Tar Heel: "What these individuals are saying is with Mr. Nixon for a somewhat longer period of that Judaism needs to be experienced at all levels. It time than the average Israeli. And some, who like involves the search for identity . man discovers myself remember him from the California days of meaning in life by finding himself as one with a his- the smear campaign against Helen Gahagan Douglas tory that continues." The efforts of the Bayit also and recall the "Checkers" speech of 1952, cannot extended to a campus effort to introduce Jewish avoid the most serious apprehensions about placing Studies into the university curriculum and a pe- one's faith in a man of so little principle. It is tition won the endorsement of the UNC newspaper furthermore not inconceivable that Nixon's Middle editorial board. (How unfortunate that such a re- Eastern policy would change after the election and nascence of Jewish learning and scholarship coincides come to approximate more closely the Eisenhower with a period of unprecedented economic stringency policy of the 50's than the policy he has followed in in the university's history.) recent months. Certainly Mr. Nixon's alleged reli- ability as a "friend" of Israel is a frail reed upon In the absence of any real possibilities for serious which to lean. expansion of Jewish Studies on campus there was another major attempt to fill the vacuum. The phe- The second question which can be raised is nomenon of the Free Jewish University at Duke and whether, even if the President were the candidate Chapel Hill at least, must be seen in the larger con- more conducive to Israeli interests, this should be text of a search for Jewish identity. The initial en- the paramount consideration in determining the rollment figures are staggering: 357 places in non- political allegiance of American Jews. Judging by credit classes, representing some 200 individual recent statements of community .leaders, there is students, mostly from Duke. Some of the most strong feeling that it should indeed. Yet even if one popular courses reveal the nature of the curriculum: grants that Republican policy—as it presently exists— Hebrew I, 39 students; Beginning Yiddish, 29 serves Israel's interest more than McGovern's would, students; Jewish cooking, 37 students; Basic it does not follow that a Democratic victory would Judaism, 31 students; Israeli Embroidery, 27 place Israel in any grave jeopardy. On the contrary, students, etc. Whatever the ultimate success of such it is difficult for me to believe that a man of an enterprise might be, the very fact that so many McGovern's apparent moral stature would allow any students and non-students were willing to take the catastrophe to befall Israel. It is far easier to believe effort to enroll and begin such study is highly sig- that Mr. Nixon would abandon the Jewish state were nificant and indicative of the kind of void so many he given good pragmatic reasons for a change of present policy. students bring with them to their academic en- deavors. (To this may I also add the equally aston- If, therefore, one may contend that the Israeli ishing statistic that a Duke-sponsored dig to Israel issue is at least neutralized for the Jewish voter, it drew over 400 responses from across the country.) 140 .