Committee, R. Peter Straus, was outspokennin his praise for Jackson duringnthe New York primary. Dukakis wasnthe big winner among New York’snJewish voters, but Jackson amassednalmost as many Jewish votes as didnAlbert Gore, the only Democratic candidatenwho backed Israel’s oppositionnto the creation of a PLO state.nThe most important Jewish apologistnfor Jackson, though, is Rabbi DavidnSaperstein, director of the ReligiousnAction Center of the Union of AmericannHebrew Congregations, whichnpurports to represent more than half ofnAmerica’s Jewish population. In a recentnarticle for the leftist Jewish journalnTikkun, Rabbi Saperstein admits thatnJackson “still manifests a disturbingndiscomfort with Jews.” Nevertheless,nhe ascribes Jackson’s anti-Semitismnonly to “an unnuanced analysis” andnplaces the blame on an unsympatheticnJewish community for “failing to respond”nto Jackson with “tangible andnmeaningful expressions of appreciationnand encouragement.” This, saidnSaperstein, “increasingly disappointednand frustrated” Jackson.nMuch of the liberal drumbeat for anninternational conference on the creationnof a PLO state comes fromnJewish leaders. Last winter Rabbi AlexandernSchindler, president of the Unionnof American Hebrew Congregations,nRabbi Arthur Hertzberg, vicepresidentnof the World Jewish Congress,nand Rabbi Wolf Kelman, vicepresidentnof the Conservative RabbinicalnAssembly, founded a group callingnitself the Interreligious Committee fornPeace in the Middle East. Among thenluminaries associated with this outfit isnLouis Farrakhan. The group’s executivendirector is the Middle East representativenof the American FriendsnService Committee, an organizationnwhich has loudly and consistently supportednleftist movements around thenworld and has equally consistently opposednIsrael’s actions in self-defense.nNot to be outdone, Albert Vorspan,ndirector of the Union of AmericannHebrew Congregations’ social actionnprogram, wrote a “courageous” let-itall-hang-outnpiece in the New YorknTimes Magazine in which he violatednconfidences and censured Israeli PrimenMinister Yitzhak Shamir and thosenAmerican Jews who support his policies.nAlso getting into the act werenhundreds of Jewish liberal activists, lednby Hertzberg and the editors ofnTikkun, who have purchased full pagenadvertisements in leading newspapersnproclaiming their demands for then”immediate” establishment of a PLOnstate, regardless of the consequencesnfor Israel.nThe eagerness of the establishednJewish leadership to embrace acceptednliberal wisdom often reaches dualnheights of hilarity and self-destructiveness.nJewish women’s groupsnand united funding organizationsnaround the country (which pressurenmiddle-class Jews to contribute for thenstated purpose of helping communitynmembers in need) recently sponsorednand financed a series of speeches by annobscure Israeli feminist activist, AlicenShalvi. Shalvi calls Israel’s miraculousnvictory in the 1967 Six-Day War an”terrible turning point of the bluntingnof a Jewish moral sensibility.” Then”aggressive tendencies” it engendered,naccording to her, have led to an increasednabuse of Israeli women. Shalvi,nand presumably the liberal leaders whonpromote her, believe that Israel’s defeatnof those who threatened a secondnHolocaust not long after the first onen”runs counter to our deep sense ofnjustice.”nThe disdain of the established Jewishnorganizations for their obligations tonAmerican Jewry extends beyond thensecurity interests of Israel to whatnshould be the issue that troubles themnthe most—the continuing plague ofnanti-Semitism. While the liberal Jewishnleadership is now engaging in a freneticncampaign to stamp out JAP (JewishnAmerican princess) jokes (which largelynoriginated with Jewish males), it hasnbeen impotent or worse in dealing withncontemporary society’s most frighteningnmanifestation of anti-Semitism —nthe veritable epidemic of it among thenblack nomenklatura and intelligentsia.nBlack politicians in Chicago havenlaunched an extremely vicious andnconcerted anti-Semitic assault. In anrecent ruckus over a satiric painting ofnthe late mayor, Harold Washington,nblack aldermen and appointees vehementlynmaligned Jews in general —nthough the painting was done by an artnstudent who was not Jewish. A disciplenof Louis Farrakhan named StevenCokely, formerly a close aide of currentnMayor Eugene Sawyer, has callednnnChristopher Columbus “a HispanicnJewboy” and charged that a conspiracynof Jewish doctors “who inject AIDSninto blacks” has produced and spreadnthe disease. Far from repudiatingnCokely, black politicians have ralliednbehind him. The chairman of the city’snCommission on Human Relations, ofnall people, declared that the idea of annefarious worldwide Jewish conspiracynagainst blacks has “a ring of truth.”nThe silence of Michael Dukakis andnthe “new” Jesse Jackson (a Chicagonresident) on this explosion of anti-nSemitism among black Chicago Democratsnhas been deafening. But thenreaction of the liberal Jewish leadershipnhas been no better.nIn contrast to their vigorous actionnon the JAP joke front, the Jewishnorganizations have tried only to appeasenthese blacks, calling for a “dialogue”nbetween the defamers and thendefamed. The regional director of thenB’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Leagueneven publicly chastised Rev. AndrewnGreeley, the Roman Catholic priestnand author, for saying that Jews shouldnbe “terrified” at the intensity of blacknanti-Semitism in Chicago.nAs a matter of fact, the liberal Jewishnleadership itself bears more than somenof the blame for the descent of Chicagonpolitics into its present savagery.nThe machine of anti-Semitic loonsnnow running Chicago would nevernhave come to power but for Jewishnsupport. In 1983 Harold Washingtonnwon his first mayoralty election only bynthe smallest of margins over Republicannattorney and ex-legislator BernardnEpton. Epton had overwhelming supportnfrom all white groups except fromnthe city’s Jewish voters. Despite thenfact that Epton himself is Jewish, liberalnJewish leaders abandoned him innfavor of the putatively more “liberal”nWashington, who was able to edge outnEpton only because of his votes fromnupper-middle-class Jewish residents livingnon the shores of Lake Michigannand in the University of Chicago area.nDukakis passes another liberal litmusntest in supporting affirmative actionnquotas, by which qualified personsnare denied jobs and admission tonschools in favor of less capable membersnof preferred racial and genderngroups. Jews are not included in thesengroups. The Jewish community hasnsuffered particular harm from quotas:nNOVEMBER 1988/53n