The Spirit of Jewish Particularism

Eric Cohen is right to assert in “The Spirit of Jewish Conservatism” that Judaism and the Jews have a unique role to play in the world. The history of humanity attests to that role. Were it not for the contribution of Judaism—as a religion, nationality, and culture—and for the contributions of Jews as moral leaders, intellectual pioneers, cultural trailblazers, scientists, and producers of wealth and well-being, our world would be totally different, for the worse.

But what is the unique ideology of Jewish civilization? What worldview can be said to drive the Jewish contribution to humanity? Cohen’s ambitious and fascinating essay grapples with these enormous questions. In brief, Cohen points to basic characteristics of Jewish civilization—traits he sums up as “the spirit of Jewish conservatism”—in three areas: family, nationalism, and economics. An appreciation of these characteristics, according to Cohen, may offer a remedy to the internal weaknesses that characterize the Jewish people in our generation.

In what follows I would like to echo Cohen’s concerns for the future of the Jewish people from an Israeli perspective. Whereas Cohen sees the choice for Jews as falling between conservative and liberal preferences and values, I wish to focus on a somewhat different related set of choices: between the values of Jewish particularism and the values of Western liberalism. Our two axes are related but not identical, and for a simple reason: not every Jewish-particularistic preference is necessarily a conservative one.