Bernie Sanders Is Jewish, But He Doesn’t Like to Talk About It

The New York Times‘ Joseph Berger reports that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is influenced by his Jewish heritage, but avoids overtly promoting his faith. “Mr. Sanders, those who know him say, exemplifies a distinct strain of Judaism, a secular offshoot at least 150 years old whose adherents in the shtetls of Eastern Europe and the jostling streets of the Lower East Side were socialists, anarchists, radicals and union organizers focused less on observance than on economic justice and repairing a broken world,” Berger writes. “Indeed, he seems more comfortable speaking about Pope Francis, whose views on income inequality he admires, than about his own religious beliefs.”

Read at The New York Times

© 2011 Religion & Politics