editorials
Support the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’
those issues through federal legislation, in an
eff ort to establish a national standard.

Last week, House Democrats, joined by 47
Republicans, passed the Respect for Marriage Act
by a vote of 267-157.

The act’s chief purpose is to repeal the Defense
of Marriage Act, which makes same-sex marriage
illegal. That law was overturned by the court in
its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Under the
new law, same-sex marriage would be permitted
under federal law and would prohibit states from
discrimination against marriage decisions of two
people “on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity or
national origin.”
The Respect for Marriage Act is not about
holy wedlock. It is about civil rights. And since a
resounding 70% of U.S. adults say that same-sex
unions should be recognized by law — a major-
ity that includes 83% of Democrats and 55% of
Republicans — it is time for the Senate to act.

A bill similar to the House bill, sponsored by Sen.

Ukraine’s First Lady
U krainian first lady Olena
Zelenska was in Washington,
D.C., last week, where she worked
to reawaken awareness about
Ukraine’s plight in its ongoing
efforts to defend against an
unprovoked, brutal Russian attack.

She asked Congress for addi-
tional defense systems to block
Russian missiles and spoke with
fi rst lady Jill Biden, Secretary
of State Antony Blinken and
U.S. Agency for International
Development head Samantha
Ukrainian fi rst lady Olena Zelenska addresses
Power, among others.

members of Congress on Capitol Hill in
During her congressional visit,
Washington, D.C.

Zelenska displayed highly emo-
tional evidence of the toll Russian
airstrikes are taking on her nation, and particularly Americans. Coverage has slipped from front-page
its children. Her heart-wrenching photo presen- headlines to less-prominent news stories buried
tation included pictures of a 4-year-old girl killed among many others. Perhaps it’s the summer mal-
in an air strike that badly wounded her mother, a aise, or maybe we have become numb to the vio-
girl in a pink headband shot by Russian soldiers, lence. And maybe it’s just hard to remain focused
a 3-year-old boy learning how to use a prosthetic on a war taking place halfway around the world.

limb and one showing three generations of a fam-
Which begs the question of whether Zelenska
ily — grandmother, mother and baby daughter — is the right person to help recapture the world’s
killed in an air strike.

attention and support for war-weary Ukraine?
The carnage in Ukraine from the punishing
Zelenska was a scriptwriter for her husband,
attacks by Russian forces is undeniable. But, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who
unfortunately, we have reached the point in was an actor and comedian before winning the
the ongoing war where the daily devastation presidency in 2019. They have been married since
has become just another news story for most 2003. During her husband’s rise to political promi-
12 JULY 28, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and co-sponsored by
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rob
Portman of Ohio, needs eight more Republican
senators to pass the fi libuster threshold. But those
Republican votes may be diffi cult to fi nd.

While Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is leaning
toward support, others like Sen. Marco Rubio of
Florida call the House bill a “stupid waste of time,”
and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was joined by oth-
ers in seeking to defl ect consideration when he
said, “I don’t think we need to lose sleep over it
unless there were a development that suggested
the law was going to be changed.”
Romney’s approach is wrong. As we learned
from the Dobbs decision on the right to an abor-
tion, it is always too early until it’s too late. And
the disturbing yet honest warning from Justice
Thomas is precisely the kind of “development”
that should cause the Senate to act, and to
enshrine in law the right to marriage that most of
this country considers self-evident. JE
nence, she has kept mostly out of
the spotlight, describing herself
as “a non-public person.” But the
war forced Zelenska into a more
prominent role, and she seems to
have embraced it.

Zelenska has earned good
reviews for her advocacy. She
received a standing ovation from
Congress for statements such
as, “Our family represents the
whole world for us, and we do
everything to preserve it. We cry
when we cannot save it. And we
remain completely broken when
our world is destroyed by war.”
There is precedent for a fi rst
spouse to play an important role
in history. Eleanor Roosevelt comes to mind, as
she was once called “The First Lady of the World”
by President Harry S Truman in recognition of her
human rights advocacy and achievements. Eva
Peron is another example, as her 1947 “Rainbow
Tour” of Europe helped Argentina improve its
global relations.

Whether history remembers Zelenska in the
same vein remains to be seen. But regardless of
how she is portrayed, we cannot ignore the fact
that her tragic message of continuing death and
devastation in Ukraine needs to remain front and
center in our international consciousness. Her
visit was an urgent summer wake-up call. JE
Saul Loeb - Pool via CNP/CNP / Polaris/Newscom
L ast month, when the Supreme Court overturned
Roe v. Wade and reversed 50 years of abortion
rights jurisprudence, the dissent predicted that the
court’s reasoning could be used to challenge other
cases involving individual freedoms, including the
right to use contraception and the right to marry a
same-sex partner.

The dissent’s warning was clear: “Either the
mass of the majority’s opinion is hypocrisy, or
additional constitutional rights are under threat. It
is one or the other.” And while the majority opinion
promised that was not the case, Justice Clarence
Thomas said otherwise — and suggested the con-
servative majority of the court might not be done
with decisions that are ”demonstrably erroneous”
and which the court has a duty to “correct.”
Considering that large majorities of Americans
support the right to an abortion, contraception,
gay marriage and interracial marriage — all rights
that were considered well settled until this year
— there have been concerted eff orts to address



opinions & letters
Jewish Americans Are
Increasingly Concerned About
Left-Wing Antisemitism
BY IRWIN J. MANDORF
T he events surrounding the taking of
hostages at a synagogue in Colleyville,
Texas, on Jan. 15 by Malik Faisal Akram, a
44-year-old British Pakistani armed with a
pistol, received considerable attention and live
coverage in the United States.

Following the escape of the hostages and
the subsequent storming of the synagogue by
law enforcement—which resulted in the death
of Akram — dialogue and discussion ensued
regarding issues of antisemitism in the United
States, synagogue security and the Jewish
community’s general sense of safety.

We undertook two simultaneously admin-
istered surveys of Jewish and non-Jewish
Americans between Feb. 1-6, close enough
to the Colleyville events for them to remain
“fresh” in people’s memory and far enough
away to allow for reflection and internalization
of the ramifications of the experience.

Our data, on the whole, suggest the following:
1. While Jewish Americans, as well as
Americans in general, still see right-wing ide-
ology as primarily responsible for the hate-re-
lated activity of white supremacist groups,
there appears to be increased concern over
Islamic extremist activity as well as a trend of
increased attribution of anti-Jewish and other
hate-based activity to what can be identified
as progressive or “woke” sources.

2. Jewish Americans differ from “general”
Americans in attributing greater responsibil-
ity for hate-based incidents against Jews to
left-wing ideology and in perceiving a greater
threat from white supremacists and Islamic
extremists. They also showed higher levels
of feeling that the Democratic Party tolerates
Islamic extremist activity.

3. Antisemitism is seen as primarily based
on verbal or offensive language or threats and
very little on physical violence against Jews.

Moreover, the subjective intensity of antisemi-
tism in the daily lives of Jewish Americans may
be less than it appears to be based on media
reports and not very different from the hate-
based activity against other groups.

4. Both Americans in general and Jewish
Americans in our survey essentially offer sup-
port for Israel, but feel that Jewish Americans
should maintain political and ideological
independence and distance themselves from
policies and behavior they disagree with.

5. Both our “general” American and Jewish
American samples are overwhelmingly
unaware of any specific efforts to “combat”
antisemitism by any Jewish organization.

6. The threat to Jews from hate-based or
extremist activity is perceived to be similar,
but generally midway between the per-
ceived threat to Christian (less threatened)
and Muslim (more threatened) communities.

7. Both the Jewish American and “gen-
eral” American samples hold Donald Trump’s
administration and supporters as respon-
sible for increased antisemitism, but both,
especially our Jewish American sample, attri-
bute substantial responsibility to progressive
“woke” ideology.

8. Some consideration should be given to the
data — especially among a significant minority
in the Jewish American sample — showing a
cognitive differentiation between “anti-Jewish”
and “anti-Israel” behavior, as well as the notion
that such differentiation and the rejection of
a distinct Jewish national identity may enable
antisemitic activity masked as “anti-Zionism.”
The underlying trend in our data appears to
show, in contrast to conventional wisdom and
our previous research, an increased recogni-
tion that the ideology of left-leaning sources
— specifically “woke” ideology, and especially
in the Jewish American sample — bears some
responsibility for antisemitism in the United
States. What makes these data more convinc-
ing is that this behavior is not a “shift” away
from blaming right-wing ideology and espe-
cially Trump-associated sources, but rather an
expression of additional responsibility.

This would be consistent with a recent
study we conducted on U.S. campuses:
Israeli campus professionals assessed that
liberal and progressive groups represent the
most significant source of antisemitic and
anti-Israel sentiment on campuses, rather
than more conservative groups, who are
viewed as generally supportive.

The relationship between Israel and the
Jewish American community remains some-
what vague. While expressing general “support
for Israel,” Jewish Americans still wish to exer-
cise choice in distancing themselves when they
disagree with Israeli policy or behavior. That
See Mandorf, Page 16
letters Abortion Not a Right in the Constitution
Eleanor Levie’s op-ed (“The Fight Isn’t Over,” June 30), while
expressing anger about what she calls the end of the con-
stitutional right to abortion, goes on to bemoan the damage
she sees in forcing women to exercise their “reproductive
choices.” The fact is the Constitution does not provide for a right to
abortion, something the activist Warren court simply ignored
in 1973 by finding such a right in the Constitution’s shadows.

The founders believed moral issues, like abortion, should be
settled by each state’s legislature, which will face the voter’s
judgment through elections.

Now each state will decide how it will handle the aborting
of a developing child. Some will permit it right up to birth and
possibly beyond, others will place time limits on it and oth-
ers will ban it based on the moral wishes of its citizens. The
democratic process, not the whims of nine unelected judges,
will be the arbiter.

Steve Heitner, Middle Island, New York
Explore Your Heritage
We enjoyed the article “Philadelphia Family Connects with
Long-Lost Cousins Who Survived the Holocaust,” (July 21).

My wife has a very similar story that has led us on a geneal-
ogy search of family members.

We started with a photo in a museum of a young boy age
12 who was deported to Auschwitz. Using the internet, we
were able to discover family in Paris that were originally from
Warsaw. This has led us to discover and meet new members
of the Felenbok family now in Paris, Israel, Argentina and
Florida via Cuba.

Because of this, we even put two families together in Paris
who did not know of the other.

We would encourage others to look at exploring their roots
and heritage. JE
Sheldon and Penny Bernick, Philadelphia
Letters should be related to articles that have run in the print or online
editions of the JE, and may be edited for space and clarity prior to publication.

Please include your first and last name, as well your town/neighborhood of
residence. Send letters to letters@jewishexponent.com.

Clarification The recipe for soy-glazed ginger fish in the July 21 Jewish
Exponent inadvertently omitted the amount of soy sauce
needed. The recipe calls for ¼ cup of soy sauce.

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