Melanie Roth Gorelick seems to understand a key point by virtue of the title and opening paragraphs of her recent op-ed, that Jews have largely disengaged from the civil rights movement (“Why We Must Recommit To The Civil Rights Movement,” June 28). However, she apparently chooses not to discuss the reasons why.
The reality is that, by all objective measures, we were never truly interested in civil rights. Despite the platitudes mouthed for interfaith photo ops by some of our religious leaders, we were, and continue to be, really in favor of whatever benefits us. Once upon a time, the government denied equality to anyone who was not a white Christian born in the U.S. Back then, our interests happened to align with other minority groups.
Today, we increasingly realize that equal treatment under the law does not really work for us after all. To the extent we benefit from, and even advocate for, our own brand of religious government favoritism, often to the detriment of our former best friends, such alliances will no longer be the case.
New City, N.Y.
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