Word: bachrach
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...short George Bachrach considers himself Jewish. And he is Jewish...
Peretz's most bizarre accusation is that Bachrach engaged in some "Machiavellian calculus" by pretending to be Jewish for years. During that time, Bachrach has run for the State Senate in a district with a tiny Jewish population. I recall him telling me once how he responded when an Armenian constituent asked him whether he was an Armenian. Bachrach told him that as a Jew whose family had experienced genocide, he thought he understood the Armenian experience a bit more compassionately...
...personal plaything, to settle scores and attack enemies--has appointed himself Defender of the Faith. He has taken it upon himself to issue an edict as to who is a real Jew and who is a pretender. What criteria he uses are obscure. (Even Israel would consider Bachrach to be a Jew.) Peretz never tells us why he believes that Bachrach is a) not Jewish and b) has pretended to be Jewish. And why he thinks his theological views should be relevant in a Congressional election is equally unclear...
IHAVE NO IDEA, nor do I care, what Bachrach's theology is (if he has one), any more than I care what Peretz's is. What is disgraceful--and dangerous--about Peretz's raising the issue of whether Bachrach's "really" a Jew is its implication for the direction of American political campaigns...
...United States Constitution provides that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for any office..." Neither the New Republic nor Pat Robertson are bound by the Constitution. But Martin Peretz's attempt to "excommunicate" George Bachrach--from the Eighth District and from his Jewish heritage--will make it just a bit easier for the religious right to achieve its goal of undercutting that important charter of religious and non-religious liberty...