Cruz vs. Trump, Jews can be offended or honoured

ANT KATZ

Cruz’s accusers detected the whiff of anti-Semitism in his broadsides against neoconservatives. It started last year with his mocking of real estate magnate Donald Trump’s “New York values.” Cruz is chasing the far-right evangelical Christian vote – no small group in the US, and has been accused of hinting at anti-Jewish values as he is not expected to poll high among this demographic.

Now, Cruz is getting scored for his use of the word “chutzpah” – again aimed at Trump.

At an event in New Hampshire, Cruz, the winner of the Republican Iowa caucuses, was asked about campaign money he and his wife borrowed from Goldman Sachs. Cruz, asserting that Trump had “upward of $480 million of loans from giant Wall Street banks,” said: “For him to make this attack, to use a New York term, it’s the height of chutzpah.”

Cruz, pausing for laughter after the phrase “New York term,” exaggerated the guttural “ch” to more laughter and applause.

But “chutzpah,” of course, is not a “New York” term. It’s a Yiddish one used by, and associated with, Jews. And his use of “New York” as a euphemism for “Jewish” for a second time is being flagged as an anti-Semitic dog whistle.

Jeet Heer at the New Republic agreed: “Chutzpah is a Yiddish word, so a ‘New York term’ means one inflected by a dialect associated with Jewish immigrants and their descendants. And that can also only mean that Jewish values — sorry, New York values — are inimical to the good conservatives of the American heartland.”

“Over here, at JTA (the Jewish Telegraphic Agency), I’m not so sure,” says Ron Kampeas. “True, Cruz was talking about Wall Street — a place that often features in conspiracy theories about Jews. And true, he played up the foreign-sounding pronunciation of ‘chutzpah’ for laughs.

“But what he called out Trump for isn’t connected to any discernible anti-Semitic stereotype. He simply accused his rival of audacity — and used a popular Jewish term for boastfulness to do it,” wrote Kampeas.

He could be seen to have been honouring Jewish ubiquity in the US, especially New York, by invoking our linguistic tradition to make his point, said Kampeas.

And Cruz is far from alone among politicians in using the word.

Another JTA journalist, Daniel Treiman, recently pointed out – citing President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Mitt Romney  – that “chutzpah” is becoming as familiar in election years as paeans to Iowa ethanol and the hardy independence of Granite Staters. In fact, the last time Cruz used the term, Treiman noted, was to lambaste Obama for presuming to speak to Jews on Jewish values.