Outrage and anomaly

This vicious anti-semite is less than enthusiastic about a record number of Jews in American government:

Statistics about the election have been cascading down upon us like a heavy Pacific Northwest rainstorm. However, one astounding fact about the 110th Congress has been studiously avoided. Never before in American history have so many congressmen and senators been Jewish. At least 13 United States senators are Jewish as are more than 30 House members. In addition, many powerful committee chairmanships are to be held by Jews.

Nearly 10 percent of the seats in the United States Congress are to be held by Jews, whose numbers in the population at large are barely over 2 percent – yet few consider this worthy of mention. That is strange. What could account for such reticence?

Oh, wait, he’s a rabbi…. My take on this is that if a small minority wishes to get along with a much larger majority, history suggests it is counterproductive to pursue a disproportionate amount of political power. I mean, it doesn’t matter how politely and professionally you go about your business, at a certain point people are going to notice something is wildly askew; to give a tangential example, if you only watch television, you’d think that there were more Jews than Hispanics, Asians and evangelical Christians combined living in America. This is not exactly the case.

(Of course, to be fair, you’d also think that the only occupations in America are policeman, lawyer, FBI agent, fireman, doctor, nurse and stripper.)

The problem is that beyond a certain point, the innocuous explanations for the situation begin to become increasingly problematic. If Congress feels it has no choice but to act when there are two percent more male athletes than female athletes participating in varsity sports at a university, then how can it possibly sit by complacently when there are 500 percent more Jewish congressmen and senators than there “should” be?

America is not anti-semitic. But as Rabbi Lapin demonstrates, one does not have to be to wonder about these statistical anomalies either.