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Since World War II, most American Jews have believed that the more secular American society is, the more secure their status.
This has been, as I have argued all of my life, a colossal error. Indeed, it may turn out to be a fatal error.
With the outburst of unprecedented levels of antisemitism, American Jews are living the famous warning: “Beware what you wish for; you just may get it.”
The primary reason American Jews have lived in the most Jew-friendly, even Jew-honoring, country in history is that most Americans have been Christian. But we must make a key distinction here. American Christians have been not just Christian, as Europe was, but Judeo-Christian. //
In a famous study published in the American Political Science Review, Donald Lutz, a professor of political science at the University of Houston, surveyed the political literature of the American founding. He found that the Bible was cited more frequently than any other work or any other author. The Bible accounted for approximately one-third of the Founders’ citations. The single most frequently cited work was Deuteronomy, the fifth of the five books of the Torah.
The late great Catholic theologian Michael Novak wrote that the roots of the doctrine that “all men are created equal lie in Judaism, carried around the world by Christians.”
As American society and Americans individually become less religious, i.e., less Christian, the Jews become less significant.
Yet, many, perhaps most, American Jews, have bought—and promulgated—the idea that Jewish security in America lies in secularizing, i.e., de-Christianizing, America. //
Look around, my fellow Jews. Are you happy with the results of the secularization of America? Do you feel more secure? Or less?
I ask you: Is it not obvious that when more Americans attended church every Sunday, America’s Jews were far more secure?