The benefits of a Jewish upbringing

 

Subject:The benefits of a Jewish upbringing. 

Reading Philip Roths biography, a writer I greatly admire, it became more clear to me the gulf which extends between Jew and Gentile. To all intents and purposes we are all the same and it takes a brave person to argue the opposite in this supposedly inclusive society but the story of his childhood and his schooling, extending on into college and university was a right of passage. Much like Boris Johnson's life and exclusivity at Oxford, so Roths life was patterned on what a good jewish boy should be, including going to a Hebrew school which enable  him to dig down into the fundamentals of his faith and bury his mind into the text of all it meant to be Jewish.
There were many references in the book to those outside the Jewish fraternity, the Gentiles and the Goy, it was a 'them and us' relationship in Newark NY and the close knit Jewish society seemed not to countenance outsiders in any meaningful way.
Of course in today's p c environment, as the authorities struggle to keep a lid on any ethnic disharmony it's no wonder that a society which sees itself possessed of a special place in the hierarchy of man should from time to time display a sense of special pleading.
The furore which broke out over the anti Israeli comments made by Jeremy Corbyn in his defence of Palestinian rights which led to the Jewish establishment in this country repeatedly condemning him and calling for his head as the leader of he Labour Party was an example of religious and social power being used to get rid of someone seen as a threat.
If the leaders of the Catholic Church or the Church of England had turned out in the media to voice disapproval towards a secular head of a political party it would have been damned as an act of religious interference in secular affairs (and by no less than the same media) but the Jewish cause is special and even though they instinctively exclude us from a biblical point of view, we mustn't do the same to them.
Roth's insight into his upbringing, his parents sensibilities, which fraternity he attended (it had to be Jewish) and the all important background of the girls he dated or at least the ones he brought home was like being vetted for acceptance into some sort of cult, a right of passage where ethnicity and training was the all encompassing  prerequisite. The sense of being Jewish, which drills down to upbringing and the stories told about your race and its exclusivity in the eyes of Jehovah was the preparation for a life which has no Christian equivalent other than perhaps a monastic institution and certainly in ordinary life the Christian is taught that god judges everyone is equal. Time and again reading Roth's life one is struck by the duality of the Jewish experience, the battle for social recognition and an equal footing in the society they live in, whilst all the time denying it to others. 
I'm not talking of the extremes such as the ultra orthodox with their devout lifestyle and a dress code to acknowledge their difference, I'm talking of the clannishness and the close affinity with other Jews in both business and at home. This sense of exclusivity has produced many a backlash through the centuries and the reaction to the mild criticism that Corbyn offered to what he saw as the harsh treatment the Israelis meted out to the Palestinians living in the West Bank was an example from the mindset of a powerful clique which advocates for itself "we have a case and irrespective of your squeamishness, we intend to continue" whilst ignoring much of the rest of the world in its concern for Palestinians.
People views are usually confined to their own experience and the propaganda of an institution which wishes to maintain the status quo has to be questioned. 
The Jewish institution, over 3000 years old, is well placed to see off any dissident who might cause it to have to explain itself and given the fragility of race relations in this country it's not in the interests of the establishment, (many of whom are Jewish), to rock the boat and so Corbyn was destroyed, despatched, to become a mere footnote in history. 
In my opinion we deserve much more if we are to hold "freedom of speech" so highly. We deserve that no sect has the power to impose its will through a media which itself has many Jewish connections, the writers, the editorial and even management have a large Jewish cohort and if the fundamentals of your very philosophical being correspond to your faith, then it's difficult to be objective.

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