Is it a coincidence

[clear eye]

that just about all the truth to power tellers in Congress w/ the exception of Kucinich, Kaptur, Waters, and Barbara Lee come from Jewish backgrounds? Whether they observe or not, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer and the late Paul Wellstone; and Reps. Alan Grayson, Robert Wexler and Brad Sherman are/were all Jewish. While there are a good handful of other Reps. w/ fairly progressive voting records, the real "fire-breathing liberals", to use the term Wexler coined, are mostly Jewish.

Of course so are Robert Rubin and Richard Perle to name two at the opposite end of the elite vs. progressive spectrum.

For the Congressional progressives, is it just that culturally we express ourselves more freely? Is it that outsider perspective? Is it the culture of tikkun olam? Or an extension of the need to unite in community in the shtetls and ghettos to survive?

BTW, I once read from a credible source (wish I still had the survey) that Jews in the U.S. give a greater proportion of our income to charitable, political, and social causes than other ethnic groups. Does that relate to being outspokenly progressive?

[question everything]

1. Not a coincidence and this is what bothers Norman Podhoretz

in his recent book "wondering" why Jews are liberal.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=479564

This, though, may change in the next generations as more Jews get assimilated and do not carry the memories or the stories of anti-Semitism in this country and abroad, and for whom the existence of the State of Israel is not a miracle but a fact. (And for too many, a bad fact).