Sephardic Heritage Update 582

[David Shasha]

Friends,

 

            We begin this week’s newsletter with a very important article on Israeli anti-Sephardi racism by Ron Cahlili.  Zionism is seen in Israeli society as a strictly European phenomenon and Arab culture as primitive and barbaric.  Although this racism has been carefully hidden and encoded by clever Ashkenazim and their Sephardi lackeys, things in Israel remain today as they were: classical Sephardic culture is not considered a legitimate part of elite Israeli society.

 

            In a startling piece by the dependable Right Wing ideologue Seth Frantzman we see the anti-Sephardi racism in action.  The humiliation of Sephardim in Israel has been a prominent feature of Zionism for quite some time now.

 

            Alana Ferber looks at Israeli and Palestinian co-existence in a Jaffa bookshop.

 

            Don Futterman discusses advances by Ethiopian Jewish Israelis that show the confidence of that community.

 

            In an extensive interview Patt Morrison praises Holocaust hypocrite Elie Wiesel.  In my comments to the piece I show how Mr. Wiesel has parlayed his experience as a survivor of the Death Camps into a very profitable celebrity existence.  His shameful silence on the Palestine Question shows just how hypocritical he is.

 

            Tom Friedman laments the resignation of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

 

            Maayana Miskin looks at recent remarks by IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Ronsky accusing the Israeli newspaper Haaretz of being anti-Jewish.  The matter points once again to the ongoing conflict in Israel between Zionism and Rabbinic Judaism as understood by the Ashkenazim.

 

            The Ultra-Orthodox Syrian Rabbi Eli Mansour lays out the laws involving what time Shabbat begins.  In his review he dutifully presents the Sephardic position which permits an early Shabbat – against Ashkenazi rulings – but he then strongly defends the Ashkenazi position which is implied as preferable.

 

            The great Ralph Nader proposes that Wall Street transactions should be taxed just like all other sales transactions in this country.

 

            Maureen Dowd looks at the media and the new technology in the context of the recent terrorist action at the Boston Marathon.

 

            In a moving piece, the brilliant novelist Philip Roth looks at one of his educational mentors.

 

            We close with a rare critical article on the Hip-Hop juggernaut.  Toni Nagy goes after the degenerate values of Hip-Hop and how those values play into our socio-economic system.  It is a refreshing change from the obsequious praise that we usually hear in the media.

 

 

 

David Shasha

 

 

‘How Can This Monkey be Talking about an Ideology Developed in Europe?’

By: Ron Cahlili

 

Zionism: Of the Jews, or For the Jews?

By: Seth J. Frantzman

 

At a Jaffa Bookstore-Café, Writing the Book of Co-existence

By: Alana Ferber

 

Ethiopian Israelis Take Their Education – and Fate – into Their Own Hands

By: Don Futterman

 

Elie Wiesel, History’s Witness

By: Patt Morrison

 

Goodbye to All That

By: Thomas L. Friedman

 

Rabbi Ronsky: ‘Ha’aretz’ Wants Israelis to Dislike Judaism

By: Maayana Miskin

 

When Should One Recite Kiddush and Eat the Shabbat Meal when Accepting Shabbat Early?

By: Rabbi Eli Mansour

 

Time for a Sales Tax on Wall Street Financial Transactions

By: Ralph Nader

 

Lost in Space

By: Maureen Dowd

 

In Memory of a Friend, Teacher, and Mentor

By: Philip Roth

 

Rick Ross as a Mirror of the Music Industry and the Culture as a Whole

By: Toni Nagy