GILLIAN KLAWANSKY
Gordon has served as speechwriter to both Israeli Ambassador Daniel Taub and British parliamentarian Douglas Carswell, and as assistant editor of Mosaic Magazine in New York. In his talk, the young but erudite speaker discussed why Jews have always naturally leaned left and why the tides are changing.
Providing a broad overview of left- and right-wing politics, Gordon explained that left-wing parties are generally associated with ideas surrounding equality, redistribution of wealth, whereas right-wing parties are associated with an element of traditionalism and the belief that certain levels of inequality are inevitable.
Tackling Jewish voting trends in Western countries with significant Jewish populations – namely the UK, US, France, Canada and Australia, Gordon argued that the left, once the natural playing field of the Jews, is now becoming an increasingly hostile space.
“In the West, Jews have traditionally voted for left-wing parties,” he said. The reasons for Jews’ left leaning tendencies are numerous.
“When compared to the right, the left has been traditionally more hospitable to Jews, who identified as an immigrant group and often faced anti-Semitism on the right,” said Gordon.
“Left wing parties also tended to be more pro-Israel. There’s also the question of conviction – the idea of tikkun olam that the left echoes – the Jews’ sense of social justice.
“As a group who faced persecution at the hands of the majority, they would naturally side with similar groups. Jews were also suspicious of the right-wing who were historically seen as more related to the interests of the ruling class than to widening prosperity for everyone.”
Yet, he argued, from the last decades of the 20th century up to present day, there’s been a shift to the right in Jewish voting patterns in many Western countries, as the right has gradually become friendlier to the Jews.
The main exception here is the US where the Democratic Party retains an overwhelming percentage of the Jewish vote. “Yet Jews, seen as more right-wing on the religious spectrum, were certainly more likely to vote for the Republican Party under Trump,” said Gordon.
Generally speaking, the reason for the shift to the right is because post-modern left-wing ideology is filtering upwards into left-wing politics, which is becoming increasingly inhospitable to Jews.
While some may think this is a phase, like in the case of the undeniably anti-Jewish UK Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, they’re wrong, says Gordon, as there’s a mass movement that underlies Corbyn’s ideologies.
Political ideologies and climates in the West are often bred on university campuses where the idea of privilege is hotly debated.
“They fight against the system of dominance that keeps certain people in charge. The core ideology of the left has become very black and white; it’s the oppressed versus the oppressors,” argues Gordon.
“Intersectionality has become a buzzword, the idea that all oppressions worldwide are linked, as are all oppressors.”
In such a climate, the left increasingly sees the Jews as the oppressors, mainly because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The left popularly views Muslims as the victims because the general ideology holds that the West is always in the wrong,” says Gordon.
Jews are now seen as bourgeois – and are associated with all the negative traits that the West represents – so they no longer qualify for special treatment in the eyes of the left.
“They’ve adapted to their surroundings better than other minority groups, despite their history of oppression,” he explains.
As Jews, we should be conscious of these considerations – the West is becoming a less comfortable place for us. Jews may need to become more politically active to defend their place in the West, he concluded.
