> I think certain elements of Jewish diaspora in the US belongs to the
> second
> category, but interestingly, this is mostly the second or third generation
> of Jewish immigrants. The first generation was more of the expat kind
> (cf.
> Finkelstein's comments in _The Holocaust Industry_). I do not quite
> understand the mechanics of that radicalization - Finkelstein attributes
> it
> to machinations of the unholy alliance of the "Holocaust Industry" and the
> US foreign policy establishment, but I do not find that very convincing.
[...]
> Any comments?
---------------------------
I think the shift in the political culture of Western Jewry corresponds
pretty directly to the shift in its class position and the formation of the
state of Israel.
The Jewish immigrant first generation was working class, lived in tenements, slaved in the garment factories, and experienced the effects of virulent right-wing nationalism and anti-semitism in Europe. In these circumstances, it was natural Jewish workers and petty traders would gravitate to the socialist movement, whose traditions they carried with them into the new world. Israel had not yet been created in the wake of the Holocaust to vie for their political allegiance, although Zionists, mostly so-called "labour Zionists", were not without influence.
The children and grandchildren of the immigrants, on the other hand, became middle class. They had access to education. opened businesses and became professionals, acquired property, and became an accepted, even admired, part of Western capitalist society. They were disproportionately represented in the liberal bourgeoisie and intelligensia, as was the case a century earlier in Western Europe. The second and third generation grew up with Israel, and supported it largely as an insurance policy "in case it (the Holocaust) happens again" and vicariously identified with its military success.
As antisemitism waned on the right, it became easier for Jews to be attracted to conservative causes, an evolution accelerated by a corresponding rightward trend in Israel after the 1967 war and the strong condemnation of the occupation and human rights policies of the Jewish state by the international left.
MG