Why Are Jews Liberals?

Praise

“A fine and bracing examination of a question that has vexed Podhoretz for decades. He displays, along the way, the skill for supple reasoning and pugnacious argument that was the hallmark of his long editorship of Commentary magazine.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Thought-provoking. . . . Sheds new light on an intriguing enigma.”
—The Boston Globe
 
“[Podhoretz writes] ably, learnedly, charmingly, with his characteristic lucidity and incisiveness. . . . You’ll find revelations in every chapter.”
—David Klinghoffer, National Review
 
“Podhoretz takes on a provocative subject, rejects conventional wisdom, and delivers a book that is important, original, and thought-provoking.”
—Henry A. Kissinger

“Why are Jews liberals? God only knows. But Norman Podhoretz offers as lively and convincing an explanation as we’re likely to get from a merely human source. I particularly liked his comparison of today’s Jewish liberals to the Church Father Tertullian—one likely to offend both liberals and Tertullianites!”
—William Kristol, editor of Weekly Standard
 
“Norman Podhoretz has written a characteristically vigorous and well-informed book about one of the most interesting and persistent questions in American politics. He gets right to the heart of the matter, and provides a convincing explanation of why American Jews tend to vote against their own interests, and those of Israel.”
—Paul Johnson, author of A History of the Jews and Modern Times
 
“This is another uncompromising, hard-hitting, brilliant, and richly provocative Norman Podhoretz book. Nearly every chapter offers a compelling answer to questions you always wanted to ask . . . and then hesitated. Podhoretz’s fresh angle for looking at history, especially modernity, brings intellectual excitement of a very high order.”
—Michael Novak, winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion
 
“Norman Podhoretz tackles one of the most intractable questions of modern politics: Why do Jews act against their enlightened self-interest in conditions of political freedom? Part of the answer comes in his survey of the historical connection between the Jews and liberalism, the rest in his up-to-date analysis of how liberalism became a proxy for Judaism. Want to know why Jews in overwhelming numbers voted for Barack Obama? Read this wise and insightful book.”
—Ruth Wisse, Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University