NATIONAL REVIEW
by Mona Charen
July 31, 2015

Seven Jewish Lawmakers Could Tilt the Scales on Iran Deal,” headlines the Times of Israel. The members — Senator Charles Schumer, Representative Steve Israel, Representative Eliot Engel, Representative Adam Schiff, Representative Nita Lowey, Senator Ben Cardin, and Representative Ted Deutch — are all Democrats. They must choose between loyalty to their party’s president, and concern about what the deal portends for Israeli and American security….Jewish liberals often explain that their views spring from Jewish tradition, which admonishes the Jewish people to engage in “tikkun olam” or “healing the world.” I’m skeptical. Tikkun olam is traditionally understood as adhering faithfully to the commandments (keeping kosher, visiting the sick, and observing the Sabbath, for example), the better to prepare the world for the messianic age. Many of those who brandish the Hebrew phrase today have commandeered it to bolster support for same-sex marriage, government-run health care, and the rest of the progressive agenda — an interpretation that would, to quote the immortal words of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, “cross a rabbi’s eyes.” READ MORE