Mr. Speaker
And The Jews
PH OTOS BY CHARLES RAFSHOON
"If you go to
see `Schindler's
List,' don't just
feel good
emotionally
because you
feel terrible.
Ask yourself...
what would
you have done
and why?"
The Newt Gingrich File
Position:
Speaker, U.S. House
of Representatives
Republican, Georgia Sixth District
Born:
June 17, 1943, Harrisburg, PA
Education:
BA, Emory University, 1965
MA, Tulane University, 1968
Ph.D., European history,
Tulane University, 1971
Meal status:
Divorced: Jackie Battley, 1980
Remarried: Marianne Ginther, 1981
Religion:
Raised Lutheran, now Baptist
Description:
"A transplanted Yankee, a college
professor, a Republican, a man of in-
tellectual originality. He is tempera-
mentally a gadfly in a state that has
valued in its representatives a kind of
dull faithfulness to duty."
-The Almanac
of American Politics, 1984
"He is something like an American
Gaullist• a nationalist who believes in
American exceptionalism and a
strong military, a cultural conserva-
tive who believes that liberal values
are destroying the lives of the poor, a
market capitalist who celebrates
technological innovation."
-The Almanac
of American. Politics, 1994
newspaper, reported that 78 percent of
those identifying as Jews voted for Demo-
cratic candidates.
"Everyone knows, including Gingrich,
that almost 80 percent of the Jews didn't
vote Republican in the '92 and '94 elec-
tions," said Seymour Martin Lipset, pro-
fessor of public policy at George Mason
University and co-author of the recently
released book Jews and the New Ameri-
can Scene. "I don't think that anything that
he's done with the Contract With Ameri-
ca will make [Jews] happy."
He noted that African Americans are
the only other sizeable ethnic group that
showed such allegiance to the party that
created the New Deal and Great Society
programs, which Republicans say they are
eager to dismantle.
Such political realities could have a
backlash, said Benjamin Ginsberg, a
political scientist at Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity. "A new coalition is coming
into power, and it's one the Jewish com-
munity does not have a major part in," he
said.
It is also a coalition of-which Mr. Gin-
grich is the guru.
"Jewish communities through history
have often been able to assess economic
trends and adapt to them," said Mr.
Abramoff, who supported Oliver North's
1994 Senate campaign. "For some reason,
the Jewish community in the 20th centu-
ry in America seems to be out of
step...We're being made irrelevant by our
clinging onto liberalism."
When asked about his inability to at-
tract the bulk of Jewish voters, Mr. Gin-
grich, in an interview with the Atlanta
Jewish. Times, spoke about the "the com-
munitarian tradition...brought over from
Europe." That, he said, led to a substan-
tial part of the Jewish population believ-
ing in the government's ability to improve
the lot of any citizen.
He noted a Jewish resistance to the idea
that the welfare state has failed and that
there needs to be "a new mechanism" to
"transform the poor." He said that "it jars
people who see an ingrained compassion
at the heart of their belief."
In addition, he acknowledged that many
Jews are uncomfortable with his party's
Top:
Newt Gingrich speaks to reporters.
Below:
Meeting with religious leaders.
— Newt Gingrich
warm relations with fundamentalist Chris-
tian groups.
As for his own religion, Mr. Gingrich was
raised a Lutheran and is now a Baptist.
Although one close colleague said that he
could not be characterized as religiously
observant, others, like Mr. Abramoff, call
him "a deep man of faith."
That apparent interest in religion has
brought him in contact with a number of
rabbis. A few years ago, he visited the of-
fice of Shalom Lewis, the rabbi at Con-
gregation Etz Chaim, where the
congressman recently spoke. Rabbi Lewis,
who generally favors a progressive social
agenda, discussed abortion with the con-
gressman, pointing out phrases to him in
the Torah.
"It was very candid, very friendly," Rab-
bi Lewis said. "I was impressed with his