>You mentioned about the tradition of the Catholics with hospitals, etc. Actually, I'd like to suggest another point of view on that. Historically it has been Christians (of whatever denomination) that have created Hospitals, Universities, schools, orphanages and countless other humanitarian efforts.

I think you'll find that proportional to population, Jews have done rather a lot of this stuff. I suspect that it's more proportionally than Christians.

>
>All major universities in the United States with the exception of the one Jefferson started were started as an extension of a group of believers. Princeton, Yale, Harvard, etc.. Every one of them..

Wrong. The University of Pennsylvania, the oldest university in the US, was started by Benjamin Franklin and has always been unaffiliated with any religion.

>Yes, folks must help themselves, but this has never historically been viewd as continaing the notion "at the expense of others", which is the insinuation made these days.

I think the big difference between what you believe and what I believe is in that phrase "at the expense of others." For me, when the government spends money on health care and education and similar things, I see it as benefiting society as a whole and therefore, benefiting me personally. My life is better when the lives of my countrymen (and, in fact, everyone in the world) are better. The money I invest (through taxes) in bettering other people's lives is money well-spent.

>I have just observed that in very general terms the Republican Party seems to be more willing to accomodate those of religious faith.

Not to those of my faith. Over the years, the Republican Party (or many of its members, at least) haven't been very good to Jews at all. In a paragraph I cut, you divided Republicans into "country club Republicans" and "fundamentalists." Each of those groups has a history of persecuting Jews in one way or another.

Tamar