MondoWeiss

In Esau's Tears, a study of antisemitism, UCal/Santa Barbara prof Albert Lindemann quotes Harvard scholar Ruth Wisse as saying that antisemitism functions "independent of its object." That is, it's a malady that has nothing to do with the reality of Jews. But then Lindemann notes that Wisse herself says that the "dynamism" of Jews in the 19th and 20th century has been "unparalleled." Wisse would know; she is a Harvard scholar whose son lately married Joe Lieberman's daughter, and her in-law is now one of 13 Jewish senators.

Thirteen Jewish senators. 13 percent, exactly ten times the actual JEwish population percentage, of 1.3 percent. Jews are an elite, no one can deny it, and the cool thing about America, if you believe in it, as I do, is that America doesn't mind that they are elite. America respects subcultures; it understands that Jewish achievement is a reflection of Jewish culture of learning. At a time when Ruth Wisse and Gabriel Schoenfeld and a host of others are wringing their hands about the new antisemitism, the number of Jews in the country's most exclusive club, the Senate, leaps by 30 percent.