Guns and Moses
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June 20, 2012
At a synagogue talk a few weeks ago, a member of the audience asked me why Jews seem to be disproportionately in favor of gun control. I gave a quick and I thought not-bad answer: Jews have no real cultural history of hunting and an ambivalent relationship with military service.
Kosher-keeping Jews can’t eat an animal that isn’t slaughtered according to kashrut. As for hunting for sport, Rabbi Ezekiel Landau of Prague (18th century) wrote that killing an animal in order to satisfy “the enjoyable use of [a person’s] time” is “sheer cruelty.” As Rabbi Joseph Telushkin explains, Landau’s response has long been considered the “normative Jewish position on hunting.”
As for military service, Jews have a long and proud history as soldiers. Don’t get a Jewish war vet or an Israeli soldier started on the idea that Jews don’t fight.
But the Jewish relationship with the military has always been rocky. Immigrants fled Russia to escape forced conscription for terms of two decades and more. The military could also be a hotbed of anti-Semitism, as Dreyfus learned so memorably. Through much of the last century, Jews in the U.S. military academies spoke of their struggles for acceptance.
I find these sorts of “cultural DNA” arguments very satisfying. Of course, I don’t “get” guns or why anyone who isn’t a hunter or a jeweler would want to own one. For folks on the other side, this isn’t culture — it’s intransigence. Last month I was sent a copy of “Why Jews Hate Guns,” written by Rabbi Dovid Bendory of Livingston and Alan Korwin on behalf of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. The paper is dripping with disdain for the Jews, who, “with such a stunning history of oppression and murder by humanity’s villains,” nevertheless “hate guns and fear gun ownership.”
The authors list the mindsets they believe contribute to Jewish “hoplophobia” (which, I learned, is an irrational fear of guns). These include a “desire for utopian moral purity,” an embrace of victimhood, and that old standby: self-hatred.
The authors also find justification for gun ownership in the Torah. Unable to face reality, misguided Jews embrace Isaiah: “They shall beat their spears into pruning hooks.” The authors much prefer Talmud, Berachot 58b: “If a man comes to kill you, rise early and kill him first.”
In fact, there is a gun culture among segments wof Modern Orthodox Jews. The One Israel Fund and the Teaneck-based Golani Rifle and Pistol Club hold an annual “Guns and Beef Night” (which I like to call “Glock and Glatt”). Bendory gives shooting lessons to fellow Orthodox Jews.
Bendory and Korwin also hold with a belief, prominent in conservative circles, that many members of the non-Orthodox Jewish majority are “Jews In Name Only.” These “JINOs,” they write, “have replaced their previous religion with a popular new one: so-called ‘social justice.’” It’s the same point made by Norman Podhoretz in his 2009 book Why Are Jews Liberals? The “Orthodox oppose the politically correct liberal positions taken by most other American Jews precisely because these positions conflict with Jewish law,” wrote Podhoretz.
These debates over guns and politics raise a more fundamental question: Who is a Jew? One side dismisses polls showing Jewish support for Democrats by saying many of those Jews have, for all intents and purposes, stopped being Jews, at least as measured by the positive Jewish choices they make in their lives. The other side looks at the conservative minority and wonders how they can engage in behaviors so “un-Jewish”: voting Republican, toting guns, allying with Evangelical Christians. I am always surprised by the degree to which highly assimilated Jews still hold onto the idea of “goyische naches” — that is, the things only gentiles do.
The culture that gave rise to Jewish liberalism is not Judaism “in name only,” unless you are willing to write off the last 150 years or so of Jewish culture, politics, and social activism as a historical blip. Yes, many Jews defined themselves over those decades in terms of the causes they took on, from the labor movement to civil rights to secular Zionism. But they did so with a deep indebtedness to their Jewish identities. Even in a period of decline — and surveys show non-Orthodox movements in retreat — the conflation of Judaism and liberalism persists, certainly enough to frustrate Podhoretz and the Jewish pro-gun lobby.
Thus, some conservatives did a victory lap after last week’s release of the New York Jewish population survey, which showed huge gains by the fervently Orthodox community and declines among the non-Orthodox movements. “There’s little doubt this means the Jewish community of the future will be far less liberal,” wrote Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin.
I agree that we are going to lose a lot more non-Orthodox Jews and secular Jewish culture before the assimilationist trend bottoms out. But I also think the cultural patterns that gave rise to Jewish liberalism are a powerful force and will continue to be transmitted despite the generational drift. Whether that force survives or fades depends on the will and ability of non-Orthodox Jews to assert their Jewishness and make the choices that assure there will be young Jews like them. To those who care deeply about Judaism in all its varieties, I say: Stick to your guns!
Andrew Silow-Carroll is Editor-in-Chief of the New Jersey Jewish News. Between columns you can read his writing at the JustASC blog.
Comments
Mordechai
June 20, 2012
Mr. Sillow-Carrol I’m impressed with you and your paper. You admit that you don’t “get guns” or why non-hunters (or jewlers?) would want to own one. (The answer is simple: gun ownership has nothing to do with hunting or owning a business. Gun owners respect the police and are not vigilantes, but want to have the ability to defend ourselves and our families if the need arises since the police simply cannot be and are in fact not our bodyguards). Nevertheless, you write a thoughtful piece on the topic (and the related liberal/Orthodox Jewish divide) that avoids name calling and harsh judgment of those with different views. That’s refreshing. I am Modern Orthodox and a gun owner. We can agree to disagree, but rest assured that we all want the same thing—safety for our families and communities and a continued decrease in violent crime.
I would suggest that, for those Jews who are fearful of guns or confused as to why fellow Jews would own one, at least take a basic firearms safety course and take a trip to the range. You may find that you don’t enjoy it and it isn’t for you, but if you open your mind just a bit I believe you will find that your fears and pre-conceived notions regarding gun owners and the risks of gun ownership are misplaced.
Harvey S. Cohen
June 20, 2012
“Gun control” is rarely, if ever, about hunting rifles or hunting shotguns. It is almost always about handguns and military weapons. The NRA works hard to blur this distinction, because most U.S. hunters are not NRA members.
An authentic Jew can (and, IMHO, should) be in favor of a reasonable balance between gun ownership and the safety of the community. Restricting access to firearms by criminals, children, and the mentally disabled should not be a threat to the rights of responsible adults.
Dan BLoom
June 20, 2012
Andrew, i am surprised you wrote this: ‘‘Jews have no real cultural history of hunting and an ambivalent relationship with military service.’’ WTF? What do you think Jews did all those years pre-1500 in Europe and Asia and Middle East? THey were hunting for food too. Are you insane? Your remark sounds like an antisemities notes about Jews: they don’t like to hunt, those sensitive blood-fearing, guts-fearing sensitive people who cry at the sight of blood, and fishing, too, they hate to fish, too much blood and gore, the poor little fishies, no no, Jews never hunt or fish and they hate to serve their country, the damn unpatriotic bastids. Andrew do you realize the ammunition you give to antisemtiies and Jew haters when you write crap like taht? My brother, as Jewsih as you and me, also grew up in Conservative temple with rabbi samuel dresner as our teacher 1950s, he loves to hunt in alaska and i got lots of great photos of him standing over the carcasses fo the moose and deer he has killed, and he fishes for a living in Kodiak. Andrew, you city boys are insane. Please revise your antisemtiic thinking sir? Unbelievable.!—danny, 1949-2032
asc
June 21, 2012
Well, Danny, if anti-Semites didn’t get that idea from my piece, you certainly helped them along.
And no, there was no hunting culture among the Jews of Europe or anywhere else. Fishing, yes. Agriculture and livestock, sure. Kosher slaughterers and butchers were plenty comfortable witht he sight of blood and viscera. Only if you can show me evidence of asignificant Jewish hunting culture—as opposed to the examples of a few individuals—will I amend what I wrote.
Below is taken from the two-paragraph entry on hunting in the The Jewish Encyclopedia
(1901-1906). (They key word in it is “instances”—the authors seem to have found the few times when a Jew hunted, the classic case of the exception proving the rule.)
Hunting is not often mentioned after Bible times, and Herod’s proficiency in this direction (Josephus, “B. J.” i. 20, § 13) may have been a result of his Hellenistic tendencies. Horses were used regularly for the chase (idem, “Ant.” xv. 7, § 7; xvi. 10, § 3). Few references to hunting occur in the Talmud (B. B. 75a; Ḥul. 60b; Ab. Zarah 18b). Objection to hunting seems to have arisen on the ground that it was cruel, and therefore un-Jewish. “He who hunts game with dogs as Gentiles do will not enjoy the life to come,” said Meïr of Rothenberg (Responsa, No. 27). Instances occur of Jews enjoying the chase in medieval times (comp. Zunz, “Z. G.” p. 173). In Provence they were even skilled in falconry, and followed the game on horseback (Berliner, “Aus dem Innern Leben,” p. 17). An instance is on record in which the Jews of Colchester, in 1267, joined some Gentile neighbors in the pursuit of a doe (Jacobs, “Jewish Ideals,” p. 226). One objection to hunting on the part of Jews was due to the fact that, owing to the requirements of the dietary laws, they could rarely enjoy the results of the hunt (S. Morpurgo, Responsa, 66b).
Mordechai
June 21, 2012
There is no question that hunting is frowned upon in Jewish thought, and many or perhaps most poskim (Jewish religious authorities) would consider it asur (prohibited) unless necessary to remove animals that are dangerous or pests.
Gun control advocates regularly assert us that they have no objections to hunting (which I have my doubts about) in as part of their efforts to portray themselves as the voices of reason and moderation (I’ve never seen an essay written by a control advocate that doesn’t link the words “common sense” with “gun control”, as if that mantra innoculates their views from critical, logical analysis). However, the Second Amendment really has little to nothing to do with hunting, as the Supreme Court has recognized. The essence of the individual Second Amendment right is self-defense, which is what makes some people, including or perhaps especially Jews, uncomfortable. Many seem unable to distinguish between vigilantism and legitimate self-defense, which is I believe at the core of the gun control debate.
LarryArnold
June 21, 2012
[Of course, I don’t “get” guns or why anyone who isn’t a hunter or a jeweler would want to own one.]
Your inclusion of “jeweler” echoes one of the more prevalent gun control themes: authorization to carry a gun should be limited to those having “sufficient reason” to need protection. In a number of laws, carrying large sums of cash, or other valuables like jewels, provided that reason.
Of course as a husband, father, and grandfather, protecting money is of negligible importance, compared to protecting my family. I doubt even the most stereotypically avaricious Jew would disagree. You even have an annual celebration, Purim, to remind you of a time when Jews took up their swords (the ancient Persian equivalent of the handgun) to defend themselves and their families, while refusing to plunder the enemies bent on murdering them.
So as an outsider, I really don’t understand why modern Jews are so eager to throw away the means to protect their families. They could, of course, be planning on depending on government protection, but given history (and not just Jewish history) that seems somewhat risky.
asc
June 21, 2012
“So as an outsider, I really don’t understand why modern Jews are so eager to throw away the means to protect their families.”
Could it be that a vast number of Americans—Jews and otherwise—have never experienced the kind of threat or been in the sort of situation that called for an armed response? Chalk it up to economic segregation or plunging crime rates, but by and large middle class Jews (and Larry, we Jews prefer “middle class” to “stereotypcially avaricious”) don’t find themselves in the kinds of violent situations your question is predicated on. You might as well wonder why Jews don’t wear crash helmets when they’re walking down the street. After all, a piano could fall on them. And isn’t it better to be safe than sorry?
Doug
June 22, 2012
Andrew- gutsy and great piece. I have no problem with gun ownership. I do have a problem with those who decide that they and they alone determine who is authentically Jewish. The argument could be made that it is the “single issue” pro-gun advocates in the jewish community who are highly assimilated-they put gun ownership and political advocacy above and beyond the many halakhic issues raised by guns. (see J david bleich on the halakhic problems raised by selling guns, for example)
David
June 25, 2012
Sport hunting is a lawful, traditional activity and anyone conflating it with animal cruelty (something illegal in all 50 states) is simply invidious. If one doesn’t want to eat the meat he/she can donate it to i.e Hunters Feeding the Hungry.
It strikes me as more than laughable that secular and non-Orthodox Jews, who are more likely to be anti-gun than their Orthodox co-ethnicists, and who are the l e a s t likely to obey kashrut, would worry that the meat of a shot deer isn’t kosher.
I’m not sure why Jews are so anti-gun—but I am also not sure why we would have a death-wish attitude about reproduction, something even more incomprehensible.
You may be onto something about the 150 year blip…
danny bloom
June 26, 2012
Well, Andrew, two weeks later, re your reponse to my comment above, I stand corrected re the Jewish Encyclopdia references and citations. However, Jews did not begin to “exist” (scare quotes mine) in Europe, we “existed” long before we made the long schlep to Europe from Israel, and what do you think we did all those years in the Holy Land, from 5000 BCE to 800 AD? We were hunting, for food, to eat. Jews just did not miraculoously appear in Europe as Hollywood movie set Tevvye set pieces working as butchers and bakers and mohels and Torah mavens, no. We were hunters in the past, and we go way back, 5000 years, and that must be taken into account, no?
Paul Bonneau
July 06, 2012
I suspect “not getting” gun ownership, among Jews, tends to be more about unfamiliarity, and worrying about what the relatives and neighbors will think, than anything else. And then rationalizations are crafted to buttress these feelings. Humans are nothing if not expert rationalizers.
People who believe they have an open mind really should give it a try.
Roberta X
July 08, 2012
....Surely none of the commenters would argue Abraham pre-dated the domestication of animals? Herds and flocks make hunting for the pot largely unnecessary.
While “guns” and “hunting” are linked at least as often and “guns” and “soldiers” or “self-defense,” there’s a rather large group of target-shooting hobbyists making holes in paper with everything from air rifles to handguns to, yes, military-looking semi-automatic rifles (the soldier’s “assault rifle” will shoot full-auto, something the civilian versions can’t do and never did). It is not unreasonable to assume this group, from formal competitors to tin-can “plinkers,” would tend to mirror overall population demographics—or that target shooters from communities/ethnic groups generally disapproving of firearms would be a little “in the closet” about it.
Eugene V
July 31, 2012
I’m late to the party, but here are my thoughts on this issue:
The vast majority of American Jews come from Europe, particularly Eastern Europe where there’s practically no gun culture. When did the majority of Jew immigrate to the States? Within the last 100 years, give or take. Makes them behind the curve in my opinion. Add to that the fact that most are living in urban areas where exposure to “gun culture” is very low, except for the crime aspect, and this makes perfect sense why American Jews are not famous for being big proponents of gun ownership.
My parents are from the USSR, most of my friends as well. Same story all around.
Even though I always found firearms interesting (mostly from the engineering perspective,) I haven’t seriously considered gun ownership because it wasn’t part of my family’s tradition. To make things worse, the laws in New Jersey are designed to discourage gun ownership, so for many people who are interested in firearms, the task of purchasing a firearm seems too daunting to be worth the trouble.
One time when vacationing in Florida, I saw a shooting range next to the hotel where I was staying and decided to look inside. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I could rent a large variety of firearms without any special licenses, so I rented several firearms and loved shooting them.
Once I got back to NJ, I researched the steps necessary and got my permits to purchase (after 6 months of waiting). Within one year, I converted my father, his friend, and six of my friends into becoming gun owners.
In 15 years of being a gun owner, I’m yet to find a single truly anti-gun person (Jew or not.) The vast majority just never experienced it, one academic kept asking why I like guns (because freedom, that’s why) and only one ever said that it wasn’t for him after going to the range with me.
Personally I believe that the preconception of Jews (or a significant portion of the US population) being anti-gun is the result of a vocal minority with access to mass media.
Plus the fact that many vocal pro gun control legislators happen to have Jewish names doesn’t help in advancing the stereotype.
So that’s my opinion (and I’m sticking to it).
(I apologize if my grammar is sub par - I work in IT :)