American Jewish Political Conservatism In Historical Perspective

"Jews are by nature conservative,"the American-trained British chief rabbi, Joseph H. Hertz, writes in his prayer book, completed during World War II. Hertz explains that "loyalty to the State is ingrained in the Jewish character," and that "in all those countries in which persecution has not embittered their life," Jews "are no more radical than the non-Jewish members of the social class to which they belong." ¹

Hertz's claim surprises us for at least two reasons. First, he attributes Jewish political behavior to "nature" and "ingrained" characteristics, whereas we would surely attribute such behavior to nurture and acquired characteristics. Second, and even more surprising, he considers Jews to be "naturally conservative," whereas the bulk of those who describe Jewish political behavior in the United States assume, if anything, that Jews are "naturally liberal," and, as heirs of the biblical prophets, always have been. ²

Hertz's characterization of Jewish politics might be easily explained away on the basis of his having been a well-known apologist ³ , or as a generalization drawn from his experiences in England. There, the Conservative Party enjoyed at various times substantial Jewish support, especially from the Jewish establishment, although the majority of Jews in Hertz's own day actually backed the Labour Party. ⁴ Just to dismiss Hertz on these grounds, however, would be a mistake. For, as we shall see, political conservatism does draw from a deep wellspring of Jewish political philosophy, law, and historical experience. Even in the United States, where traditional Jewish politics was transformed by the Revolution, political conservatism, while by no means "natural" or even widespread, was certainly more prevalent than generally imagined.

The prophet Jeremiah provides us with the first sustained statement of Jewish political philosophy in the diaspora. Notwithstanding the supposed radicalism of the biblical prophets, his message is a staunchly conservative one. Writing from Jerusalem to the Jewish community exiled in Babylonia, the prophet exhorts Jews to "Seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray to the Lord in its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper (Jer. 29:7)." This prudent, support-the-status-quo counsel was reiterated by the rabbis in the Ethics of the Fathers (3:2), where they explained, in the name of the first century deputy High Priest, Rabbi Hanina, that one should "Pray for the welfare of the government, since but for the fear thereof men would swallow each other alive." Samuel, the Amoraic leader of the Babylonian Jewish community at the time of the Sassanid conquest, went further, declaring it a religious principle that Jews should observe the law of the land as binding ("Dina De-Malkhuta Dina"), superseding, in some cases, even established Jewish law. ⁵ A gentile government of laws, even if it was an oppressive government, the rabbis believed, was superior to social chaos and anarchy. In this, incidentally, the rabbis anticipated an important tenet of modern conservative thought. Where liberals have traditionally been suspicious of governmental and institutional restraints, conservatives, Jerry Muller shows, "are disposed to protect the authority and legitimacy of existing institutions because they believe human society cannot flourish without them, [and that] the restraints imposed by institutions... are necessary to constrain and guide human passions." ⁶ Traditional Judaism agreed. One of the "longest and most consistently held ideas in the history of [Jewish] political thought," Martin Sicker has demonstrated, is the idea that government is required to protect order, lest society disintegrate. ⁷

A remarkable letter, dated September 1864, from Sir Moses Montefiore in London to the Jewish community of Morocco, epitomizes Jewish political philosophy as generations of conservative-minded Jewish leaders understood it. The letter is worth quoting at length:

Throughout the world, a chief characteristic of the Jews is that of being loyal, obedient and peaceful subjects of their Sovereign. The precepts inculcating this conduct are enforced on us by the Sacred Scriptures, and by the wise...