I am a minor-league philanthropist. I give modest sums to animal shelters, the preservation of wildlife, children’s hospitals, my local public library, the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation and several other organizations and institutions. I don’t give to universities, lest they think I encourage their wanderings from their true mission—although I have considered giving $5,000 to Northwestern University, where I taught for 30 years, and earmarking the money to be spent exclusively on a Jewish tight end for the football team.

I have never given money to politicians or political parties. Yet I am about to send a $200 check to Liz Cheney for her Wyoming congressional campaign. Ms. Cheney, who is trailing more than 20 points in the polls against Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman, appears all but guaranteed to lose her congressional seat in the Aug. 16 primary. She says she has been unable to campaign openly because of credible death threats posed, one assumes, by ardent Trump supporters. The Republican Party in her home state has abandoned her. It not only endorsed Ms. Hageman but flatly refuses to recognize Ms. Cheney as a Republican.