Not So Secular: Jews Occupy Wall Street

by Steven Philp The Occupy Wall Street movement is populated by the disaffected and anti-religious left--that is, if you ignore the Jews. A recent article by Mitchell Landsberg of the Los Angeles Times argues that counter to much of American history--where faith communities often stood at the vanguard of progressive causes--this particular movement shows the widening gap “between the religious right and the not-so-religious left.” Landsberg finds evidence of this in his cursory examination of the Occupy L.A. protest, where the only signs of faith communities are a meditation tent and a sukkah. Yet Landsberg gives those short shrift, pointing instead to the lack of organized Christian involvement. He interviews John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron in Ohio. Green bemoans the dearth of Christian representation. “Where...

Continue reading