Phil has an excellent summary on his blog about the implications of the current happenings in New York politics – that is, the runoff election Tuesday in which two old school Jewish Democrats were resoundingly defeated for Comptroller and Public Advocate respectively.  Also notable in this respect is the likely election of an avowedly anti-Zionist Jew, Brad Lander, to the City Council from uber-liberal Park Slope, perhaps the city’s only remaining non-Orthodox “Jewish” neighborhood.  (Full disclosure: Lander is a member of my synagogue).

No, these are not the Norman Mailer Democrats who might one day bring Vermont-style left-conservatism to the Big Apple, but nevertheless this feels a lot like the fall of parochial urban-ethnic Democrats, which would be no less significant or historic in its ramifications than the fall of the Southern Democrats.  I once felt that the survival of David Paterson against Andrew Cuomo would be the ultimate meta-representation of this phenomenon, but now that that’s less and less likely, the changing landscape in city politics still represents profound change.

Lander will be one of only three Jewish members of the next City Council – along with the Orthodox Simcha Felder and a machine candidate who won an especially crowded race in Williamsburg.  A Chinese candidate defeated a Jew in Lower Manhattan, and we will also be seeing our first Indian-American councilman.  As far as expressions of Jewish political potency on the ground go, the annual Israel Day Parade has become all but a strictly Orthodox affair, and therefore woefully unrepresentative.

If old school Jewish pols are done in New York, how long can they last elsewhere?  Only in Florida can they also claim any kind of voting strength, but of course that population is disproportiantely elderly and could therefore be cut in half in just the next ten years.  The average age of Jewish members of congress has got to be well over 65.

In short, if Brad Lander should be the Reubin Askew of New York Jewish politics, one may not be far behind on the national level, and America be spared the threat of new foreign wars.

Filed under: Uncategorized