Republicans, according to Democrats, are: (1.) Malicious fat-cat capitalists who want to grind poor people under their boots, (2.) Stupid yes-men like GWB, (3.) Straw-chewing, unsophisticated Evangelical Christians who believe the earth was created a thousand years ago. How wonderfully contradictory all these images are, rather like the anti-Semitic bile that casts all Jews as Communists or capitalists (or both), as cosmopolitan or insular (or both), depending on the agenda of the speaker.

I come from a Christian family, but I married into a Jewish family sixteen years ago. Not once, as a “practicing”—but not yet converted Jew—have I ever, ever been approached by a Christian who tried to convert me. I have seen more unqualified support for Israel among devout American Christians than I have seen among secular Jews. I see more anti-Semitism coming from the American left than the right. So when I see folks on this board go off on how Jews distrust Republican Christians because of fear of pressure to convert, it dismays me to no end because I don’t believe it is generally true of American Christians.

As for abortion and evolution issues in the Republican party, so what? I’m not hearing from young-earth creationists that Israel is a terrorist entity and needs to roll over and let its enemies obliterate it. I’m not hearing from pro-lifers that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. It’s not Evangelicals who are stealing more of my hard-earned money so they can turn my beloved country into a socialist ruin. American has been so good to Jews and all people from oppressed nations. Jews have had more freedom here than they have had in any other country on earth. If Jews cannot see past the distasteful issues of abortion and evolution and realize who their real friends are (i.e., the Republicans), then they are unwittingly accepting the yoke of oppression around their necks again. Because if Jews keep making friends with today’s liberal Democrats, oppression is exactly what is going to happen—what is happening— not just to the Jews, but to us all.