Yossi Gestetner

Yes, you’ll tell me that there are such organizations as the Jewish Defense League that sometimes make noise when acts are inappropriately done against Jews. Fine, I hear you, but no specific Jewish leader has the name recognition that gets called onto media programs following anti-Semitic related events. Nor does any Jewish leader have the clout that forces politicians to stand with them at press conferences the way NYC boss Mike Bloomberg stood with Al Sharpton following the shooting death of Sean Bell, which was not even a racial incident. So, why is that? Why don’t Jews have such a representative like the Reverend Alfred Charles Sharpton?

The answers are many…
1) Jews and their leaders are peaceful in nature and have the tendency to look forward rather than back. Instead of kvetching all day about anti-Semitism and all the wrong that was done to Jews decades or centuries ago, Jews in general focus mostly on family and business. No, they don’t forget that a Holocaust happened and that anti-Semitism is still alive, but they expend most of their energy on helping their family and business thrive. I mean, really, when was the last time you saw Jews rioting in the streets following the death of a Jew, or looting stores in blackouts or floods under the excuse of being oppressed in Egypt 3,500 years ago, or tortured by the Inquisition 550 years ago? In the African American community, however, some vocal people (mainly in leadership positions) focus on the whites that are out to bite the Black man. Can someone send these leaders the following memo: Blacks have been able to vote decades, and slavery ended more than a century ago. Heck, we have a Black President, yet some people in the Black community still see race and racism on every street corner, while Jews on the other hand, see money and the chance of earning a buck at every street corner. The Jewish approach, while disdained by some, is productive and society-friendly.

2) Overplaying the race card for personal publicity or financial gain like Sharpton does, only incites racial feelings where it would otherwise not be. To avoid such tensions, responsible Jewish leaders do not use the anti-Semitism card, sometimes even in cases where it may warrant strong use. Jewish leaders, certainly from the Ultra Orthodox sect, would rather have a tepid response to an anti-Semitic slur than overplay their hands and run the risk of flaming up anti-Semitic sentiments.

3) Sharpton, while “protecting” blacks from racist acts, is actually a mobster. He gives protection to those who are on his side, while crushing those who are on the other side. Here are just a few examples: when Joe Biden called Obama a “clean” man, and a LA Times reporter describe Obama as a “Magic Negro,” neither of the two got any heat for it. Yet Rush Limbaugh was not able to buy a sports team because he said a while ago that the Media supports a certain sportsman just for his skin color. So, in order to be on Sharpton’s “good side,” journalists and politicians prop him up. In the Jewish community, however, there is no major figure going around deciding who is an anti-Semite or not. Therefore, there is no need to “buy protection” from Jews who stand up against anti-Semitism. Thus, no Jewish representative has the universal recognition of being a “civil right” leader.

4) Some anti-Semitism is manufactured directly from our very own Liberal Jews, such as some mebers of the Media. The Media, which has A LOT of Jewish reporters, overplayed that “Jews and Rabbis” were among the 44 people arrested a while ago in NY and NJ. As a result, how can Jewish leaders condemn anti-Semitism when some of this problem stems from our very own backyard? Sharpton, on the other hand has some sort of Chutzpa that permits him to protest White Vs Black acts, yet completely ignore all the Black Vs Black problems in his community.

5) Liberal Jews look down at the more observant Jews. The Leftist Jews use such “gang of 44” instances to tell themselves that ‘We are not as dirty as Hasidism. We are better than them’ (of course if you don’t count Madoff). In order to distance themselves from other Jews, these very media people will not come to the defense of Orthodox Jews when they get put down by non-Jews, forgetting that Hitler didn’t care if a Jews’ name was Blitzer, Friedman or Lefkowitz. Once the media is not there, no politician is there either, thus Jews have no Al Sharpton even in cases when such a figure has a substantive and productive use.

All in all I am sure Jews can continue to live without an Al Sharpton, yet it would be good if African Americans let go of him too. It will lift up the black community even more and move the US further away from racial divides.