Koshering Lindbergh
The Plot Against America“Koshering Lindbergh” is Alvin’s sarcastic expression for what he sees as Lionel Bengelsdorf’s political function: using his standing as a rabbi to make Charles A. Lindbergh acceptable to voters beyond the Jewish community. The phrase turns a religious idea of making something kosher into an accusation of political legitimation.
Meaning and Context
Alvin introduces the expression while the family is trying to make sense of Bengelsdorf’s public appearance. When Herman Roth asks what he means, Alvin insists that Bengelsdorf was not brought there to address Jews. In Alvin’s reading, the audience that matters is the non-Jewish electorate, to whom the rabbi’s approval could serve as permission to support Lindbergh.
Political Charge
The expression condenses Alvin’s larger accusation: Bengelsdorf’s religious authority is being used to confer respectability on Lindbergh’s campaign. Alvin claims that the speech has effectively guaranteed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s defeat. That outcome is Alvin’s heated prediction, not an independently established result in this exchange; the phrase matters because it reveals his suspicion that religious endorsement can be converted into electoral influence.
