[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 105 (Wednesday, August 3, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 3, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      JEWS AND THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT

                                 ______


                             HON. TOM DeLAY

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 2, 1994

  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I commend the following advertisement from 
the New York Times to my colleague's attention.

                [From the New York Times, Aug. 2, 1994]

               Should Jews Fear the ``Christian Right''?

       On June 9, 1994, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a 
     report entitled ``The Religious Right: The Assault on 
     Tolerance & Pluralism in America.'' We are a group of Jews 
     who wish to make it known that we reject the implications of 
     this report and deplore its publication.
       We do not question that it is the proper role of the Anti-
     Defamation League to identify the enemies of the Jewish 
     community. Jewish tradition, and indeed Jewish law, demand 
     that the first concern of our communal organizations be the 
     protection and survival of the community.
       But the so-called ``evidence'' of a conservative Christian 
     threat to Jewish security is derived from such discreditable 
     techniques as insinuation and guilt by association. Thus the 
     report uses the words and actions of a few marginal 
     extremists to impeach individuals and groups whose only crime 
     seems to be the seriousness with which they act on their 
     Christian convictions.
       It ill behooves an organization dedicated to fighting 
     against defamation to engage in defamation of its own.
       Insofar as the objections to the religious Right are 
     honestly presented in the ADL report, they are mainly 
     political ones: Christian conservation advocate positions 
     that run counter to many people's beliefs about such issues 
     as abortion, school prayer, homosexual rights, and the 
     meaning of the First Amendment.
       And not only do Christian conservatives advocate these 
     positions, but in recent years they have begun to organize, 
     publicize, and attempt to elect candidates sympathetic to 
     their views. This is no different from what many other 
     groups, including Christian liberals, have always done. By 
     what proper definition of the term, then, does the 
     political activity of Christian conservatives constitute 
     an assault on pluralism?
       The separation of church and state is not the same thing as 
     the elimination of religious values and concepts from 
     political discourse.
       Moreover, Judaism is not, as the ADL seems to suggest, 
     coextensive with liberalism. Nor, we wish to emphasize, does 
     the Jewish community speak with one voice on the religious 
     and moral--and political--issues of our time.
       Above all, on the issue with which this community does 
     speak in one voice namely, the survival of Israel, the Jews 
     have no more stalwart friends than evangelical Christians. 
     Judaism teaches the principle of Hakarat Hatov, that we have 
     the duty to acknowledge the good done to us. In issuing The 
     Religious Right the ADL has among other things seriously 
     violated that principle.
       For all these reasons, we call on our fellow Jews to reject 
     this study. As a people whose history so vividly illustrates 
     the bitter results of bigotry, we have a special obligation 
     to guard against it, and all the more so when, as in the case 
     of the ADL attack on our Christian fellow citizens, it 
     emanates from within our own community.
       Elliott Abrams, Hadley Arkes, Philip Aronoff, Robert Asher, 
     Murray Baron, Matthew Berke, Herbert Berkowitz, Marshall 
     Breger, Brian Camenker, Mona Charen, Daniel Cohen, Rabbi 
     David Dalin, Midge Decter, Henry Delfiner, and Rabbi Samuel 
     Dresner.
       Shimon Erem, John Erthein, Rabbi Leonid Feldman, Suzanne 
     Fields, Chester Finn, Harvey Friedman, Felice Friedson, 
     Michael Friedson, Si Frumkin, Joseph Gelman, Richard Gilder, 
     Douglas Glant, Al Grossberg, Roger Hertog, and Bruce 
     Herschensohn.
       Gertrude Himmelfarb, Milton Himmelfarb, David Horowitz, 
     David Ifshin, Rael Jean Isaac, Erich Isaac, Binyamin 
     Jolkovsky, Leo Kahn, Ruth King, Howard Klein, David 
     Klinghoffer, Irving Kristol, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Michael 
     Ledeen, and Barbara Ledeen.
       Esther Levens, Edward C. Levy, Jr., Rabbi Yamin Levy, Erich 
     Licht, Hadassah Linfield, Elizabeth B. Lurie, Robert R. 
     Mazer, Michael Medved, Adam Meyerson, Rabbi David Neiman, 
     Rabbi Jacob Neusner, Rabbi David Novak, Gary Polland, Suzanne 
     Peyser, and Dennis Prager.
       Joyce Press, Morton Press, Lewis G. Regenstein, Henry 
     Rosin, Jonathan D. Sarna, Ricky Silberman, Max Singer, Arnold 
     Soloway, John Uhlmann, Rubert Unger, Joel M. Weingarten, Ruth 
     Wisse, Fred Zeidman, Herbert Zweibon, and Fred Zeidman.

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