Alito and the Jewish Community

A few Jewish groups, such as the National Council of Jewish Women and the Union for Reform Judaism, have announced their opposition to Alito’s nomination. An article by Jeffrey N. Wasserstein in today’s JTA takes the opposite position. Wasserstein, a self-described observant Jew and a former Alito clerk, argues that Alito will be good for the Jewish community if he is confirmed by the Senate.

I particularly like one general observation that he makes. It does not bear directly on Judaism, but the observation is often echoed by former Alito clerks:

Regardless of Judge Alito’s personal beliefs or positions that he advocated while a litigator with the Justice Department, he takes great pains to set aside his personal opinions when judging. To be frank, he did such a good job of setting aside his personal beliefs that I did not know what they were when I clerked for him.

Another article argues that Alito will be good for the Jewish community. It is an older article, but still worth a read.

To be fair and balanced, I should mention that JTA ran another editorial today by Phyllis Snyder, the President of the National Council of Jewish Women. Snyder argued against the Alito nomination.