When I lived in Detroit in the 1990s, I met with Sen. Carl Levin a few times. He’s the Detroit version of Ben Cardin – highly intelligent home grown Jewish boy who’s omnipresent in the ‘hood and hasn’t forgotten his friends or his roots.  Both Levin and Cardin have made the big time and are still mentches.

On Sunday, watching Levin, who’s the new Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” TV show, couldn’t help being a proud Jew.
One of the topics he discussed with the tough moderator, Tim Russert, was the issue of alienating Joseph Lieberman, the Jewish Senator from Connecticut and former vice presidential candidate who recently became an Independent after losing in the Democratic primary.  Lieberman caucuses with the Democrats giving them a slim one seat majority, and control, of the U.S. Senate.

The discussion centered on the differences between Lieberman and Levin over Iraq policy and the possibility it would force Lieberman over to the Republicans, giving Senate control back to the Republicans.

That’s when it hit me. Sure, there’s anti-Semitism in the world, but when two Jewish Senators respectfully disagree about how the country should be run, that’s a very good thing indeed, speaking of both the maturity of our community and the nation. We have achieved a level of acceptability where Jews hold the most powerful positions and are making ethical decisions based on their best moral compasses. We have more than arrived; we are integral to our nation’s system of government.

I know that my family is not only safe in this country, but a meaningful part of it.  I don’t worry about the safety of my unborn grandchildren. My biggest worry is that this country is so accepting of Jews that someday my grandchildren will fully assimilate and not be Jewish at all.

Until that day, I’ll sit back and enjoy the healthy debates between Lieberman and Levin.

I think that Jews can never be complacent about their safety whether its France, Russia, Argentina, Israel or the US.  There are a myriad of factors including economic, political, and social that governments have used to persecute/expel/kill the Jews.  Combine that with unfavorable demographics, and I do not believe that Jews can ever feel completely secure anywhere.  It does not mean that we have to act in a paranoid and overly sensitive manner.  Instead we should be aware of past and recent history as we assess our place in the world.

I find that once people stop refering to themselves as hyphenated Americans and just refer to themselves as Americans, they will be taken as such. Those that want to make a big deal about special interests because of a certain heritage hurt that cause, just by constantly bringing it up. No one should be treated differently, it says so in the United States Constitution, we were ALL created equal.

Andrew,

This is veering of the topic of your post, but…

Carl Levin is in a league far below Lieberman, in my opinion.

I really believe that right or wrong, Joe Lieberman is the only Jewish Democratic member of Congress with a spine. All of the other Jewish Dems—with the exception of possibly Russ Feingold—voted to allow the invasion Iraq. Now the are doing a 180 because the American voters are expressing extreme displeaure over the war. 

With regards to Iran, Levin is a complete hypocrite. He says that it would be unacceptable for Iran to posess nukes, which everyone except for whacko anti-Semites admits is going to happen, yet he does not want to give the president the authority to go to war with Iran if need be.

If Levin thinks Iran really is open to talking out a solution, maybe he should get on a plane and try to work it our over some tea and basmati rice with the Iranian Mullahs. I am sure they just love American limousine liberal Jews like Levin. 

For the record, the most principled politicion in the world today with regards to the Mid East is Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Check out his track record.

It’s interesting that both of these guys—so heavily involved in the Jewish community—have not let their Jewishness slip into the conversation. That’s especially surprising for Lieberman, who was criticism by Abe Foxman of the ADL both in the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns for making a big deal out of being religious.