KRAUTHAMMER: Bernie Sanders, The Holocaust and identity

 "Jews must not make victimhood [their] chief legacy"

Charles Krauthammer 

"Bernie Sanders is the most successful Jewish candidate for the presidency ever. It’s a rare sign of the health of our republic that no one seems to care or even notice much. Least of all, Sanders himself. Which prompted Anderson Cooper in a recent Democratic debate to ask Sanders whether he was intentionally keeping his Judaism under wraps.

“ 'No,” answered Sanders: “I am very proud to be Jewish.” He then explained that the Holocaust had wiped out his father’s family. And that he remembered as a child seeing neighbors with concentration camp numbers tattooed on their arms.

"Being Jewish, he declared, “is an essential part of who I am as a human being.”

"A fascinating answer, irrelevant to presidential politics but quite revealing about the state of Jewish identity in contemporary America.

"Think about it. There are several alternate ways American Jews commonly explain the role Judaism plays in their lives." . . .

Also here: Krauthammer: Politics, the Holocaust and Jewish identity

"Charles Krauthammer says the role of Judaism should be balanced between the memory of martyrdom and the revival of Hebrew in a new age."  Sorry, but this source requires a subscription.