Dual Loyalty
Title
Dual Loyalty
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"Years ago, many Jews were challenged with the question: If Israel and the US were caught up in a war, which side would you support?" (Fragment)
Date
2016-08-26
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Identifier
DUAL_LOYALTY
Text
DUAL LOYALTY
Years ago, many Jews were challenged with the question: If Israel and the US were caught up in a war, which side would you support? Most of us side-stepped this question by saying it would never happen. It is a silly hypothetical. But if the questioner persisted, what would be our answer? One answer: Whichever country is morally right. It is possible that something crazy happens, and the two counties find themselves at war. Where would our loyalty lie? As a Jew, with Israel? As an American, with the US? We are American citizens, but we have seen that our leadership has done a number of stupid things, and in fact, has gotten us involved in wars, that in retrospect, we should not have fought. It is also true, that Israeli leadership has done a number of stupid things as well. But the US versus Israel? Couldn’t happen. However… Bottom line: if both were morally right, or both were morally wrong? America.
There was something of a US-Jewish conflict prior to, and during, World War II. It was not a conflict of equals. There was no Israel. Just millions of Jews facing annihilation. And the US, with lots of anti-Semitic State Department officials, refusing to do anything to save them. All kinds of rationalizations. There were American Jews in prominent leadership positions in the government, unable to persuade the President to rescue people who were marked for death by the Nazis. Millions of Jewish Americans frustrated by their government. However, unwilling to denounce their government, to charge their government with abandoning these millions of European Jews. Where was our loyalty?
Did we buy the explanation that rescuing Jews would divert from defeating Hitler?
Moving away from the dual loyalty question of where does a Jewish American’s primary loyalty lie, I have been consumed for most of my adult life with another dual loyalty question: does my loyalty to my Jewish identity trump my loyalty to the struggle for equality? In other words, the black-Jewish conflict.
When I was a teen-ager reading James Baldwin, I was aware of the charges of Jewish exploitation of blacks. The Jews were the bosses, the landlords, even the promoters of jazz musicians taking their disproportionate cut from the money made by creative blacks.
When I came to work for the ILGWU, there were charges that the Jewish union officials did not fight for the black workers, conspired with the Jewish factory owners, denied black members the opportunity for leadership positions, gave the union dues of black members to Jewish organizations. As a
Years ago, many Jews were challenged with the question: If Israel and the US were caught up in a war, which side would you support? Most of us side-stepped this question by saying it would never happen. It is a silly hypothetical. But if the questioner persisted, what would be our answer? One answer: Whichever country is morally right. It is possible that something crazy happens, and the two counties find themselves at war. Where would our loyalty lie? As a Jew, with Israel? As an American, with the US? We are American citizens, but we have seen that our leadership has done a number of stupid things, and in fact, has gotten us involved in wars, that in retrospect, we should not have fought. It is also true, that Israeli leadership has done a number of stupid things as well. But the US versus Israel? Couldn’t happen. However… Bottom line: if both were morally right, or both were morally wrong? America.
There was something of a US-Jewish conflict prior to, and during, World War II. It was not a conflict of equals. There was no Israel. Just millions of Jews facing annihilation. And the US, with lots of anti-Semitic State Department officials, refusing to do anything to save them. All kinds of rationalizations. There were American Jews in prominent leadership positions in the government, unable to persuade the President to rescue people who were marked for death by the Nazis. Millions of Jewish Americans frustrated by their government. However, unwilling to denounce their government, to charge their government with abandoning these millions of European Jews. Where was our loyalty?
Did we buy the explanation that rescuing Jews would divert from defeating Hitler?
Moving away from the dual loyalty question of where does a Jewish American’s primary loyalty lie, I have been consumed for most of my adult life with another dual loyalty question: does my loyalty to my Jewish identity trump my loyalty to the struggle for equality? In other words, the black-Jewish conflict.
When I was a teen-ager reading James Baldwin, I was aware of the charges of Jewish exploitation of blacks. The Jews were the bosses, the landlords, even the promoters of jazz musicians taking their disproportionate cut from the money made by creative blacks.
When I came to work for the ILGWU, there were charges that the Jewish union officials did not fight for the black workers, conspired with the Jewish factory owners, denied black members the opportunity for leadership positions, gave the union dues of black members to Jewish organizations. As a
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “Dual Loyalty,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed September 11, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/384.