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What It Means To Be A (Politically) Conservative Jew

Rebecca Taibleson stated it plainly: "If you were Jewish and conservative, you had to really mean it, and we did."

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Today, Rebecca Taibleson had her confirmation hearing. Despite some opposition from conservative groups, I did not see any indication that a single Republican Senator would oppose her nomination. She should be confirmed easily. Though, following up on my post yesterday about Rebecca's faith, I did want to flag one exchange with Senator Cruz that the WSJ picked up:

"I have had people reach out to me on this nomination more than any other judicial nomination in the second Trump term," Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday at a hearing for Ms. Taibleson, a 42-year-old Wisconsin federal prosecutor. The anxieties on the right, Mr. Cruz added, "boil down to a concern that you're secretly a closet liberal, and that you'd be an activist on the bench."

Ms. Taibleson replied ably. "I was raised by a very conservative law professor," she said. "It has stuck." (Her father is George Mason University's Michael Krauss.) Growing up, "it felt like we were the only conservatives at our Jewish day school in the 1990s," she added. "Especially back then, if you were Jewish and conservative, you had to really mean it, and we did."

To start, I give Senator Cruz some credit. He walked a tightrope here. It was obvious he was responding to concerns raised by various conservative groups that he respects. At the same time, he recognized that Rebecca should be able to address concerns about her own political views. I've seen Senator Cruz destroy nominees from the dais. This was not Cruz's mission today. She was given space. Mike Fragoso aptly observed, "I've been at this for a while and I don't think I've ever seen an answer quite like it." Cruz was respectful, but probing.

Rebecca's answer was perfect in ways that most people will not understand. And I can relate as a Jew, and a conservative. At least since the New Deal, the experience of the American Jew was to be a Democrat. Period. Growing up, there was not a single member of my extended Jewish family who was a registered Republican. I heard stories that my late grandmother voted for Nixon in 1972--a 49 state landslide--and she was still mocked for it. My family managed to vote against Reagan, twice. In 1998, then Representative Chuck Schumer spoke to my Hebrew school class while campaigning for the Senate. In 2000, I advocated for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman! This was the default rule for Jewish people.

After 9/11, I started my journey to the political right. And I felt the backlash. Conversations at the Passover table were unpleasant. My grandfather wanted to ban all guns and could not understand why I owned one. My family could not understand how I could back President George W. Bush. They could not fathom why I would oppose President Obama. And once President Trump came on the scene, I was ostracized. My family was at the Woman's March! It got to the point where I simply would not talk about politics with my family. If they ever asked me about something political, I would smile and try to change the topic. It drove my late mother crazy, but I used the pivot as a defense mechanism. This approach was essential to preserve shalom bayit (peace in the house). My silence infuriated them even more since I would express my views publicly on TV and radio. One of my last conversations with my mom was about the Dobbs case. I ducked it. I would have just made her upset, which I didn't want to do.

To quote Rebecca, to be a politically conservative Jew, you really had to mean it. You have to be willing to express your views, even in a community where you will be shunned. I have to imagine that being a conservative Jew might be something like being a conservative black person: liberals looks at you like a traitor for abandoning the cause. And it takes some fortitude to push back against those liberal orthodoxies. (I attended a fascinating conference at Heritage today, titled "Black Family Blueprint," which I would recommend to everyone.) This is the point that Rebecca was conveying, and it is a message that should resonate with anyone who read Justice Thomas's biography.

In my initial post on Rebecca, I focused a lot on her father, Professor Michael Krauss. And I did so quite deliberately. If a person was raised in a politically conservative Jewish family, it will be very hard to avoid absorbing those values. And if a person's father was Michael Krauss, the most influential professor I've ever had, it would be damn near impossible. To be sure, conservatives can arise from a liberal Jewish family (see me). But the opposite is much more unlikely.

Thankfully, the number of conservative Jews is on the rise. Look to President Trump's judicial nominees: David Stras, Neomi Rao, Steve Menashi, Dan Bress, Robert Luck, Roy Altman, Lee Rudofsky, Matt Solomson, Steve Schwartz, and others. Now, there is Rebecca Taibleson. If you consider the percentage of Trump's Jewish judicial nominees against the percentage of Jews in America, we are punching way above our weight class. Plus, the Trump Administration is stacked with Jewish people. A friend remarked that he recently had dinner with about ten Orthodox Jews who work in the administration.

In popular culture, I can look to Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro, who are leading conservative talk radio hosts. I recently spoke at NatCon 25, which is led by Yoram Hazony, an Orthodox Jew from Israel. I've never been at a conference with so many Jewish people. I was nudged to join a Whatapp group to organize minyans for daily prayers. In the legal sphere, friends like Josh Hammer and Ilya Shapiro demonstrate that there is a place for Jews on the right. The Federalist Society and the Israel Legal Fellowship are taking bold steps to forge relations to Jewish lawyers in Israel.

I hope that our public advocacy, as proud Jews, gives space to other right-curious Jews to speak up. I also hope that more conservatives come to understand Jews as natural and capable allies.