PJ Media – Rabbi Michael Barclay:
There is a tradition within Judaism that all actions in the world can be viewed through the lens of the Torah reading of the week. Based upon that premise, these columns can help us understand the politics of the world through a biblical lens.
Bernie Sanders is causing a stir in the Jewish world. As the first Jew who has a real shot at getting a major party’s presidential nomination, many of us are watching him closely. And it is beyond disturbing that this man, through his words and actions, seems not only to be betraying traditional Jewish values, but is de facto embracing anti-Semitism.
Although brought up in the home of Jewish immigrants from Poland, according to all reports, Sanders is no longer involved in any congregation or temple, and hasn’t been for decades. He seems to have entirely disconnected himself from Judaism, self-identifying as a secular humanist.
He does not even mention Israel in his autobiography, a rare thing for any leader from a Jewish background. Instead, he discusses at length his time at the University of Chicago, and how he became devoted not to the texts of Torah, Talmud, or any of the great Jewish theologians and philosophers, but rather to the socialist writings of Marx, Trotsky, and Debs. It is this early rejection of the Jewish community that has led him into the abyss of socialism.
