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Upon seeing a louse in the hat of the person sitting in front of him, Robert Burns penned a famous poem that ends: "O would some Power the gift to give us / To see ourselves as others see us!"

The point of the poem is the value in knowing how we are perceived by others.

Recently, Stephen Steinlight got a look at how the mainstream Jewish "establishment" saw him. Steinlight, now a senior policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies and an opponent of unrestricted and illegal immigration, has a distinguished career working for Jewish and civil rights organizations, including as vice president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, national affairs director at the American Jewish Committee, and executive director of the American Anti-Slavery Group.

With that resume, you would think that mainstream Jewish organizations would see Steinlight as a leader in the pursuit of tikkun olam, or at the very worst as a well intentioned man with a louse in his hat. Unfortunately, to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), national executives at Hadassah, and even the Anti-Defamation League, Steinlight is the louse itself.

HIAS organized a campaign to have Steinlight and CIS blacklisted, calling him "racist" and of the "nativist fringe"; Hadassah's Monroe chapter canceled his speaking engagement, claiming their legal department forced the decision; and the Anti-Defamation League sided with HIAS.

Steinlight -- along with many of the Jews in our coverage area -- found himself on another "list" recently when a Department of Homeland Security memo prepared for President Barack Obama, in order to "facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States," classified "opposition to abortion or immigration" as "Rightwing extremism in the United States."

The DHS memo also considered rightwing extremists as "those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority" -- in other words, each and every single one of the founders of our country and the heroes of our independence.

There is also a passage about "disgruntled military veterans" and how susceptible they are to being brainwashed by pro-lifers, constitutional scholars, immigration researchers, and the other crazy Americans who believe in God and country.

And here is where the Jews of New Jersey get to "see ourselves as others see us". The current administration in Washington, it turns out, sees the Jews of New Jersey -- many of whom are hawkish on immigration, adhere to pro-life halakha, or respect the Constitution -- as a community of louse upon louse.

In the aforementioned poem, the author sees the lady in front of him as she truly is -- she actually has a louse in her hat. But in our predicament, those mainstream Jewish groups and the current residents of the White House don't see us as we are. Were we to look in a mirror, we wouldn't see what they see, and so we must wonder what lens they are looking through.

As Steinlight told me recently, he used to be part of that establishment, "But I don't recognize it any longer, just as it no longer recognizes me."

He went on: "I shudder to think how easy it was for Jewish establishment agencies and newspapers to believe and report the very worst of me -- to accept and spread hideous lies, libelous villainies -- about a person who has sought to lead an examined life and live his moral values, who has fought against bias, bigotry, and racism all his adult life."

With the unwavering allegiance of groups like HIAS, the current administration in Washington received about 78 percent of the Jewish vote -- and then proceeded to near-criminalize opposition to abortion and the desire for restricted immigration. Steinlight is a Jew who has been defamed -- and not even the Anti-Defamation League will defend him. Who will stand up for this man? Who will speak for him, if not the very organizations we have constructed to defend Jews in exactly Steinlight's situation?

It's time to examine what has become of the mainstream Jewish establishment, who they support, and what they facilitate in our name.

As the late congressman Henry Hyde declared on the eve of the impeachment hearing of Bill Clinton in December 1998, in explaining the case against Clinton and the defense of American principles: "What we're telling you today are not the ravings of some vindictive political crusade, but a reaffirmation of a set of values that are tarnished and dim these days, but it is given to us to restore them so our founding fathers would be proud."

"Listen," he said, concluding his remarks, "it's your country. The president is our flag bearer. He stands out in front of our people when the flag is flowing. Catch the falling flag as we keep our appointment with history."

Seth Mandel is the managing editor of The Jewish State.