Readers React: Why Bernie Sanders doesn’t play up his Jewish identity

To the editor: Making a big deal about the fact that for the first time a Jewish candidate has won a presidential primary election is like, well, being excited about possibly electing the first madam president. (“A Jewish candidate won a U.S. presidential primary for the first time. And America yawned,” Opinion, Feb. 11)

Op-Ed article writer Jonathan Zimmerman author seems not to completely get what Bernie Sanders’ message is about. He speaks about the issues and the issues only. One of his greatest skills has been his ability to consistently and masterfully avoid distractions and to continue talking about the issues.

Bringing gender or religion into the conversation is a distraction from the issues, and in my opinion, it is not Sanders’ style.

Mohsen Kargahi, Los Angeles

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To the editor: One reason why America appears oblivious to Sanders’ Jewish identity is because Americans are increasingly excluding Jews from the list of “otherness,” a term used by sociologists to refer to a hierarchy in which certain groups are considered inferior based on power differentials.

But now that Zimmerman has brought out Sanders’ Jewishness to the electoral discourse, and given the results of the first primary we can labeled the potential presidential candidates as “the Chick, the Jew and the Arrogant.”

Let’s hope that voters can look beyond these superficial attributes.

Berta Graciano-Buchman, Beverly Hills

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