Walking around Avenue J in Midwood it’s sometimes hard to understand the connection between Anthony Weiner and his voters.
The 9th congressional district is a very difficult constituency to pigeonhole. Half of it is Brooklyn by the ocean; the other half is land-locked Queens. It has been held by Democrats since 1923, but in 2008 John McCain took 44% of the Vote. It’s 71% white, but, it’s difficult to discover whether there are more Italians, Jews, Irish or Anglos among them.
But if there is a core of Wiener’s constituency it is probably the orthodox Jews of Midwood Brooklyn. It is a stable, politically active community. Weiner is himself Jewish, his mother taught math at Midwood High School.
Somehow the Jewish men in long dark coats and impressive hats pensively waiting in line at the Chaimowitz Food Store or leaning on the counters at Hechts Hebrew Books and Religious Supplies up the street don’t seem like natural supporters of Anthony.
Yesterday, for example Weiner took a stand with the Food and Drug Administration by sending an open letter demanding that men who have sex with men be allowed to donate blood again.
The letter stated that an FDA ban, which was instituted in 1983 to protect the blood supply at the height of the AIDS crisis, had become “medically and scientifically” obsolete, and was impairing the ability to replenish blood supplies.
The co-signers of the letter make a roll call of the most liberal membership of the Senate: Daniel Akaka, Mark Begich, Michael Bennet, Sherrod Brown, Rolland Burris, Maria Cantwell, Bob Casey, Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold, Al Franken, Tom Harkin, Carl Levin, Bernie Sanders, Mark Udall and Sheldon Whitehouse.
An additional aggravating circumstance is that Weiner is the only person to sign the letter who is not a member of the Senate. He has clearly gone out of his way to be a part of the effort.
Why is the elected representative of men and women for whom homosexuality is “to’eva” (usually translated as “abomination”) arguing along side the most liberal members of the Senate about a matter of homosexuality that hardly rises to the level of fundamental civil rights?
The answer may lie in the diversity of the district. When there is no real ethnic or socio-economic coherence voters know they can’t get too picky and compromise to get some of what they want. Weiner is after all explicitly pro Israel.
But then again the answer may also lie in the values of the orthodox community itself.
After several attempts to solicit opinions in the neighborhood, I found a man who was willing to tell me what he thought of Weiner’s letter to the FDA.
“Just politics” he said. That was unfortunately the extent of the conversations I was able to have about Weiner before it was time to head home.
On line I discovered a vigorous debate was occurring within the orthodox community about the role of homosexuals in Orthodox Judaism.
One article was by an orthodox Rabbi from Riverdale New York, who was preparing to chair a forum on the future of orthodoxy of in America at Yeshiva University this month. His article was plea that orthodox communities not allow themselves to be split asunder by their differences… one of those differences being the acceptance or rejection of homosexuality. I have to admit it surprised me that he finished his article with a poem by William Butler Yeats:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.