Vivian Deutsch responds to Meir Y. Soloveichik on “Jewish Identity vs. Identity Politics”

To the Editor:

In his essay “Jewish Identity vs. Identity Politics,” Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik states that the opening video of the 2012 Democratic National Convention proclaiming that “government is the one thing that we all have in common” reduced the American ideal from something covenantal to something entirely contractual. To me, this way of hearing what was meant in that video seems to be a distortion that is most likely rooted in a biased, politically partisan view.

In our country, the role of the government in our history has not been “contractual.” Rather, the government was established to be the embodiment of our covenantal founding ideals. It was envisioned to be the way those ideals of our humanity and our human rights are practiced and enacted for all our diverse citizens. At the time this video statement was made there was no dichotomy between the aspirations of our founding ideals and our government. As Rabbi Soloveichik points out, it is our founding covenant that is the common ground and connection we have as citizens of our country, by which we work together for the good of all even while we have diversity among us. And in our history, the government was part of this covenant, not something separate from it.

Applying Rabbi Soloveichik’s analysis to the current government, tragically, those in majority political power now clearly view the government they are running as being totally, purely contractual, with no relation at all to the ideals in our shared covenant. They are showing that they have absolutely no respect or value for our founding concepts and ideals. We are watching this current government systematically dismantle our well-being — health and security — and attack our human rights.

Rabbi Soloveichik’s words, and those of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks that he quotes, are painful to read, as we watch the attempted demise of everything our founders put in place, and that Abraham Lincoln dedicated his life to preserve and build upon. We can only pray and work to prevent this terrible government from turning away from the covenantal function it is supposed to have and from becoming the very tyranny without justice that our country has bitterly fought to overcome during our history.