Jewish Power in America: Myth and Reality

Jewish political power certainly exists as a separate agency in the American polity, but before it can be determined whether it is inordinate, historian Henry L. Feingold declares that it first needs to be identified and defined. It is not the kind of power that is preoccupied with military armaments as associated with a sovereign state like Israel. Nor is it personal power. There are many influential Jews today who have raised huge sums for office seekers but there are none like Jacob Schiff who at the turn of the twentieth century controlled the Kuhn Loeb banking interests and was totally committed to using his vast wealth to alleviate the persecution of Russian Jewry. With the exception of an abiding concern with the security of Israel there are no overriding public policy concerns that differentiate the Jewish voter from the informed, formally educated segment of the American electorate.

Feingold acknowledges the fact that American Jews do have political power. But what kind is it, and is it inordinate compared to the power exercised by other ethnic and interest groups that thrive in the American polity? The basic charge of those who have raised the alarm about Jewish power--that it is used conspiratorially against the national interest--needs to be addressed and repudiated. This book seeks to answer these queries, not through discussions about the alchemy of power, but by examining five recent major instances beginning with the New Deal when the play of Jewish power, or power exercised by Jews, was evident.

The engagement of American Jewry in the political process is amply documented by survey research and evidenced by the disproportionate number of Jewish office holders on all levels of government. It can be traced in some measure to its relationship to European Jewish migration and to the inherent activism of the political left. The work presents the reader with a broadly comprehensive and highly informative picture of American Jewish participation in the American polity.