People are preparing to celebrate 250 years of American independence this July 4th. The Jews and The Left, Batya Ungar-Sargon’s latest book takes readers through the long history of Jews in American political life, from George Washington’s praise for the Jews, to FDR, the Civil Rights movement, and concluding with the shock many Americans felt on October 7th when Hamas committed the 21st Century Holocaust that was not universally condemned.
Batya noted, “I wrote the book because the question that I get asked, maybe the most, especially by Christians, conservatives, Republicans, is ‘why do the Jews vote for the Democrats, when the Democrats hate them, and we love them?’ I wrote this book to answer the question. I didn’t write the book because I want Jews to become Republicans. I wrote it because I wanted Jews to rediscover that our loyalties are to the United States, not to one political party or other. But that said, I find it humiliating for Jews to be part of a party that considers them so expendable, and that literally says to their faces, ‘You’re not welcome here unless you check your Zionism at the door.’ If I say, Zionism is a slur, the left doesn’t come at me and say, no, that’s wrong, Zionists are welcome. They say, yeah, it is, and it should be. They are proud of the fact that they don’t want most Jews in their movement, and I find that horrifying.”
Considering this is America’s 250th year, Batya believes, “From its founding, Americans treated Jews like an inherent and cherished part of the United States of America. We were never seen or treated like an oppressed minority. We were always treated as founding partners in the creation of this great nation, and it’s time for us to remember that history.”
The first chapter talks about George Washington’s views regarding the Jews. The book quote by Washington, “May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants…” Batya explains, “He had a close connection with several Jewish leaders, and wrote this beautiful letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island, committing to America treating the Jews as cherished, equal citizens. all the time.”
The chapter with FDR shows how the Jews loved him as evidenced that he received 90% of the Jewish vote. Batya believes “American Jews saw him as the man who was fighting Hitler and his argument was that the best way to help Jews is to win the war. The Jews saw him as a savior.”
In the civil rights era chapter, the book has a different take on why so many Jews were overrepresented. Batya felt, “I think Jews look back on that, and they misread the why of it. They think the Jews were attached to the civil rights movement because they were an oppressed minority, and so they saw themselves as having common cause with the black community, who’s also an oppressed minority, but the truth is the opposite, and I talk about this at length in the book. Jews basically were very attached to the civil rights movement because we had never been an oppressed minority here. We had been given equal rights and freedom here. And it was horrifying to them that their fellow Americans, Black Americans, had not been given those same things. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a strong bond with the Jewish community. He was very close with many Jewish leaders and they were extremely dear to him.”
There is also a section on the aftermath of October 7th. The book explains how Jewish suffering at the hands of Hamas “meant nothing to their fellow progressives and failed to protect [liberal Jews] from being seen as White supremacists.” She directly explained, “The oppressed, to the Left, is anybody with darker skin, and is inherently virtuous no matter what they do. They have no moral responsibilities. And the oppressor, who’s anybody with lighter skin, which includes Jews, is inherently evil, and there’s nothing they can do to become virtuous, except to side with the oppressed. This is why the left sided with Hamas, because in the sick mind of the Left, Hamas has darker skin, they are the oppressed, and virtuous. They have no responsibility to not murder, not to rape, and not to kidnap or kill babies. The more educated someone is, the longer they are in the factory that manufactures this garbage ideology.”
Although the book ends with the aftermath of October 7, the results of the recent New York and Maine primary elections underscored the book’s relevancy today and is a dramatic postscript. A direct threat to America’s values and ideals is the recently elected Democratic candidates that include Nazis, Communists, and Anti-Semites.
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has a chest tattoo of the Totenkopf, the skull-and-crossbones icon adopted by the infamous Nazi SS unit. He retweeted a post that characterized Judaism as a ‘death cult’ and praised the military tactics that Hamas used in 2014 of the horrific execution of five Israeli soldiers.
Batya addresses the Nazi tattoo directly. “The Left told people who were not Nazis, ‘you are Nazis, you are white supremacists. You are evil, and now they’re lining up behind a guy with an actual Totenkopf tattoo and who knew what it was. And that’s not a deal breaker for them?”
“In my book, I have this quote that applies, ‘Many in the Democratic Party insist that it is the radical left that has turned on the Jews, not the mainstream of the party. But, few of the Democratic politicians are willing to take on the extremists on their side.’ Just look at House Minority Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, (D-N.Y.), both supporting Platner. We defeated the Nazis, because that was very important to us as Americans. It’s not just Jews who should be upset about his candidacy.”
Brad Lander, who is Jewish, and won his primary race for New York’s 10th Congressional District by accusing Israel of genocide, apartheid, and attacking the pro-Israel lobbying, while acknowledging that the attack line made him “queasy” because it played into antisemitic tropes. Then there was Zohran Mamdani who was elected New York City Mayor with 30% of the Jewish vote. Have the Jews forgotten what happened to the German Jews of the 1930s and are they falling off the same cliff by failing to recognize the dangers?
Batya explains, “They call themselves socialists. But there’s very little by way of economic policy. It’s all abolish ice and free Palestine. In my view, these virtue signals from the left are a way to distract from the fact that they have nothing to offer working class people. So instead, they like these identity politics, because it makes them feel like they are the good guys, while supporting a policy that’s actually very bad for working class people, like abolish ice, open borders, defund the police, let’s have no prisons, and their other deplorable views. But the truth of the matter is, it goes even deeper than that. The left has turned on the Jews and turned on Israel. Lander is representative of a stream among Jews that are bending the knee to the people that hate us, because political power is more important to them. And I think it’s shameful, and I think it’s embarrassing.”
The leftist Democrats believe in freedom of speech for me but not for thee. Many such as Lander attack the Jewish lobbying group AIPAC and those who support it. Batya cannot understand their opposition to AIPAC. “I mean, what is AIPAC? It’s just an organization that helps Jewish Americans fund candidates who are supportive of Israel. Why are Jewish Americans less worthy of donating to campaigns than non-Jewish Americans? Down with AIPAC, has become the price of entry on the left, and they say it, even though they know it’s anti-Semitic. So, it’s really, really, dreadful, but it’s certainly a sign of the times, and exactly what the book is about.”
And a side note, the Leftists never attack CAIR or Qatar which has invested over $65 million in various educational programs across the United States, that vilify supporters of Israel and spread antisemitism. A released report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) uncovers extensive foreign influence and anti-Israel bias infiltrating U.S. K-12 classrooms. They influence how American students are taught about the Middle East and Israel by making changes that include the removal of key historical documents and the omission of others, the misrepresentation of Israel’s capital in maps, and the exclusion of balanced perspectives on Israeli history and diplomacy.
Darializa Chevalier won New York’s 13th congressional district. She is known for creating a climate of fear among Jewish students and faculty at Columbia University. She was part of the 2024 campus takeover and has said she believes in the total eradication of Western civilization, as well as participating in an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas rally on October 8, 2023, celebrating the high number of Israeli fatalities in the worst terror attack in the Jewish state’s history. She and those like her are a direct threat to Jewish freedom of religion by creating an atmosphere of fear. According to an American Jewish Committee poll (34%) of all Jewish college and university students say they have avoided displaying their Jewish identity due to fear of antisemitism. Additionally, students who report experiencing antisemitism: (60%) say they have avoided wearing, carrying, or displaying things that would identify them as Jewish.
Batya also had to face the Palestinian mobs, “as someone who has been protested by one of these pro Palestine mobs, it is very intimidating, because you try to talk to them like a human, and they stare right through you. You feel like you’re in a zombie movie. It’s like they’ve been zombified. They don’t have any opinions of their own. They march in lock step. You feel like you’re in a zombie movie, which is scary. It’s intimidating, spiritually and emotionally but not physically.”
In conclusion, Batya refers to the American ideals of freedom of speech, religion and the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. She commented, “A big theme in the book, is how cherished American Jews have always been. Wherever there was anti Semitism, it came from the elites, and that’s what we’re seeing today. Another big theme in the book is that being anti-Semitic and being anti American go hand in hand, because Jews were always such a precious part of the United States. The things that people hate about America are the same things that people hate about Jews, and vice versa, which is why I keep saying, ‘You can’t say, I love America, but I hate the Jews.’”
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