Weekly Items of Note (5/12)
David Shasha
1. I am not at all sure if there was a “Shabbat Tent” at Woodstock, but there was one at this year’s Coachella festival:
It is interesting to see how the Jewish Hippies function these days. Time continues to march on, and Jews are faced with new and challenging situations in expressing and defining their religious identity. Cultural content and Jewish religious values come together here in a manner that might seem alien to those who ascribe to the Sephardic tradition of Religious Humanism. But it is clear that this “Shabbat Tent” is a continuation of the Jewish attempt to be part of the “Deadhead” culture in spite of all the complications.
2. Here is a neat compendium of facts and charts that map out the stunning victory of the 1% in our economic system:
3. I recently made note of an excellent article in New York magazine exposing the Hasidic takeover of the Ramapo school board:
http://nymag.com/news/features/east-ramapo-hasidim-2013-4/index1.html
We have now learned that the community has won a legal victory against the school board:
It is to be hoped that the bullying of the benighted Hasidim and their parochial interests that work against the larger community will be checked by such legal actions. We have all had enough of such intimidation tactics from the Ultra-Orthodox Jews.
3. Good intentions do not always translate into meaningful results:
Once again we see the usual sort of futile peacemaking overtures that have no connection to the harsh realities on the ground in the Middle East. It seems almost laughable that we now have “Chefs for Peace” in addition to all those summer camps for Israeli and Palestinian kids that have been up and running in the backwoods of America for decades now.
Nothing succeeds like doubling-down on failed strategies.
I would remind our readers that food unites all inhabitants of the Middle East and no one needs to make a special production of the matter. We all eat Kibbe, Fassoulia, Mahshi, Hummous, and the like. It was not until the Ashkenazim brought their culture to the region that there was even a question related to Jewish cuisine in the context of the Arab world.
I have hashed out the issue in acrimonious fashion in a series of exchanges with Rabbi Brant Rosen:
Rabbi Rosen has the brilliant idea that Arab food belongs only to Palestinians and not to Jews native to the region. Once it was made clear to him that his position was not only historically untenable but racist to boot, he elected – as we can clearly see in his embittered response to my accusation against him – to double down on his position and continue to assert Ashkenazi privilege.
Of course it is the Arab Jews – the ones who have been forcibly excluded from the discourse by both Left and Right – who are to blame for having the temerity to assert their cultural integrity.
So too in this “Chefs for Peace” nonsense there is a lack of firm grounding in the native culture of the region. Jews, Muslims, and Christians are all different animals and need to be reconciled. The cultural traditions of the region that S.D. Goitein called “A Mediterranean Society” have been eviscerated and ultimately transformed into compartmentalized Bantustans which divide the three faiths rather than use culture to unite them.
The idea is always that the three faiths are perennial enemies and that we must find ways to bring them together.
When my grandmother made her famous Ka’ak she did not need to be told that she was advancing the cause of peace. Her cooking was something that was second nature to her. She came from Italy to be married to my Syrian-born grandfather and adapted to the Arabized ways of the Jewish community. Arabic became her native tongue and she spoke it fluently.
It is only today that the Arab Jews – the ones with no name – have to accept that what they once thought of as their culture does not anymore exist. And with this loss is the removal of the Arab Jewish voice in favor of that of the superior Ashkenazi:
https://groups.google.com/group/Davidshasha/msg/f46461984171775a
Only the Ashkenazim are intelligent. It is because they are so intelligent that Israel is now at peace with its neighbors and secure from outside threat. The Ashkenazim can indeed take great pride in the wonderful job they have done. The “Chefs for Peace” will likely add to this distinguished tradition.
4. Conservative bully Dennis Prager has written an impassioned attack on free breakfast programs for poor children:
For those unfamiliar with him, Prager breathlessly presents himself as a deeply religious man:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/dennis_prager/article/my_jewish_credo_20110607/
You will notice that in Prager’s pompous set of credo points there is nary a mention of the dignity of human beings. He blathers on about God and politics but never seems to get around to social justice; that value that the radical nihilist conspiracy-monger Glenn Beck calls “redistribution of wealth”:
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/38320/
Beck distinguished himself – yet again! – by comparing New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg to Hitler:
Even Commentary magazine has gone after him:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/05/07/beck-crosses-the-line-again-bloomberg-nazis/
Prager has traditionally been a strong defender of Beck:
http://acu.libsyn.com/show-glenn-beck-talks-to-dennis-prager
The extremists on the Right believe that there are no moral constraints on the rapacious wealthy class. Those who have been victimized by our economic and political system should starve and get sick and die. Just get them out of the way so that there is no need to provide a social safety net.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/12/tea-party-debate-health-care_n_959354.html
It is a despicable way to think, but the Right Wingers have made it their religion.
We should be aware that these anti-religious views are not limited to the United States, but can also be found in the current policies of the Israeli government being pushed by the “moderate” Yair Lapid:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4377099,00.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4377202,00.html
As we see in Prager’s noxious article the responsibility to feed and clothe the poor – a primary religious value in all our faith traditions – is emphatically rejected as the poor and needy are chastised for being “bad parents” who should have child services call on them and take their children away.
The reality that the poor now face is overwork, being underpaid, and living a hardscrabble existence which can be partially ameliorated by government programs like free breakfasts for their school-age children.
Many American families are living in food deprivation:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-affleck/map-the-meal-gap-its-time_b_842873.html
While the Limousine Liberals like Ben Affleck try to do good in their own way, the radical extremists on the Right – hypocritically wrapping themselves in God and the Flag – seek to shred what is left of the social safety net.
A new report on infant mortality puts the situation in an even clearer light:
Prager’s view is not simply anti-Torah and anti-God; it carries a cruelty and disdain for those who are less fortunate than he is. He does not at all care about the suffering of others as he sits in judgment of the poor and looks to starve their children as he rakes in more and more money from his tired and offensive bloviating. Always the master of PILPUL, Prager will always turn the tables on anyone who attacks him or on those who threaten his selfish interests.
But the bottom line is that he does not care for the less fortunate and his hollow rhetoric about personal responsibility should be turned back on him. Here is a listing of Biblical verses on the matter of feeding the poor that Prager seems not to be acquainted with:
http://www.openbible.info/topics/feeding_the_hungry
5. This past week saw the release of two important new recordings from Pistol Annies and Natalie Maines:
The Washington Post review makes mention of the encouraging trend of outspoken female Country music artists. I have written about this in a couple of articles:
https://groups.google.com/group/Davidshasha/browse_thread/thread/da73f080efaabb1d#
In what has become a bleak cultural landscape litter with debased Poptrash and vile Hip-Hop, these young artists offer us an engaged and passionate expressiveness in the tradition of the great Country artists of the past.
In what could be the subject of a Country song, “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis was convicted this week on charges of assault and false imprisonment:
Perhaps in some small way the tide is beginning to turn.
6. In the midst of the historic collapse of Sephardic Jewish culture, it is great to see that we are finally being recognized for our great accomplishments:
Giving chocolate to the French; that is something that we can all be proud of!
As we ponder this great accomplishment it would behoove us to enter the real world where being an Arab Jew is not a simple thing:
That great Arab Jew Shimon Fogel is presented as an “expert” who is testifying to the Canadian parliament – a very appropriate place to adjudicate the matter of Jewish property claims in the Arab world.
The whole matter of Arab Jewish claims has been ginned up in order to support Israeli HASBARAH as a counterweight to Palestinian Arab claims in peace negotiations. We have dealt with the matter countless times:
We continue to see resources expended on this issue because in the end it is Israeli and not Sephardic interests that are being addressed here. Israel has used and abused the Sephardim for decades now and the ongoing initiatives to speak on behalf of Middle Eastern Jews are yet another insult to our community and our heritage. Those involved in this project – Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike – know well that they are acting as agents of the Israeli government and have little or no concern for the needs of the Sephardic community.
7. The anti-Israel Boycott movement has a prominent new addition:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/08/stephen-hawking-israel-academic-boycott
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/107304/stephen-hawking%E2%80%99s-boycott-call-sparks-galactic-row
It is assumed that Israeli HASBARAH will continue to demonize and vilify those who join the movement by calling them Anti-Semites, but it has also started to become quite clear that Israel slowly continues to distance itself from the rest of the world. The rhetoric pro and con will likely continue, but in these stories we see that Israel is trending towards isolation from the larger family of nations.
I must hand it to the HASBARAH mavens: the following article from the radical Jewish Press attacks Hawking in a novel manner:
And there is this from the Settler-run Arutz Sheva:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167837#.UYpDYaLQrvU
8. The following article from The Forward shows us the continued Jewish obsession with genetics:
Yet again we see the desire to uncouple the Jewish people from the Torah in favor of a crude biologism. This genetic argument dovetails well with the Zionist drive to create a “new” Jew that is rooted not in the Torah and in Jewish history as embodied in the Diaspora, but in a mythical past whose contours remain foggy to scientists.
So it is little wonder that from time to time we are treated to the so-called “Khazar” hypothesis that links Ashkenazi Jews to a tribe of warriors from the Caucasus who migrated to Eastern Europe.
The truth of the matter is that whatever might have taken place in ancient Israel, a process of dispersion took place after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Romans. In traditional Judaism this process is dominated by the Rabbinic movement which united Jews under the rubric of Torah and Halakha. While there are variations in the application of Rabbinic Judaism – particularly the detritus of the noxious Anti-Maimonidean movement that became a central feature of Ashkenazi Judaism in its rejection of science and philosophy – there is still a formal bond between the Talmud and the Jewish community uniting all Jews.
According to Talmudic law Judaism is a product, not of genetics, but of attachment to the Covenant. Any person can be Jewish – and some of the most important of the early rabbis were in fact converts to Judaism such as Rabbi Akiba:
http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=141
For traditional Judaism it is the Torah Covenant that makes one a Jew. While it is true that one born a Jew remains a Jew whether or not they adhere to the Law, it is more important to understand that Jewish identity is a product of the Covenant and not genetics. Someone who is born Jewish can marry out of the faith and within a generation the religious line will end and their family will cease to be Jewish. Conversely, one of their descendants can convert back to Judaism if they so choose. Genetics thus has nothing to do with it. A biological descendant of a Jew who married out of the faith and produced Gentile children will have “Jewish” genes but will not be recognized as Jewish by the traditional community.
Zionism has tried to create an alternative definition of being Jewish based on its idea of ancient Israel, but has consistently been stymied by historical facts as well as the intractable nature of Torah Judaism. The creation of a non-Torah Judaism has met with resistance from scientists, historians, and religious Jews. The genetic argument reeks of the ideas of the racists who sought to isolate a “pure” strain of culture based on biology. The Jewish tradition is inclusive as it unites all those who accept the Sinai Covenant as determinative. Anyone who wishes can become Jewish by converting.
9. There has been much discussion this week regarding the high number of sexual assaults in the US military:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/opinion/dowd-americas-military-injustice.html?ref=opinion
As our society becomes ever more dependant on the armed forces it is little wonder that violence of this sort is expanding.
It is something that we have seen happen in Israel with its militarized society as well:
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/dec/01/news/mn-39352
http://powerupmama.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/stopping-sexual-assault-in-the-israel-defense-forces/
http://972mag.com/israeli-liberals-make-light-of-sexual-assault-and-assassinations-in-the-idf/
10. I have been writing a good deal about the debased nature of contemporary culture, specifically about corporate Hip-Hop and its degenerate state.
An interesting flare up has taken place over the wedding of Black Entertainment Television (BET) founder Bob Johnson’s daughter:
http://www.beyondblackwhite.com/bet-heiress-marries-rainbeau-show-rich-folks-ratchet-eveyone-own/
These two posts give us some sense of the outrage that exists in some parts of the African-American community over the perceived hypocrisy of elites like Johnson who peddle this trash and use their wealth to remain as far away from the African-American reality as they can. According to these angry posts Johnson and his ilk have lit the fuse of degenerate violence and sexuality and kept themselves at a comfortable remove from it.
Most intriguing is the comment on Jay-Z and Beyonce asserting that they too have become part of the landed gentry and would not have their daughter become a part of the Hip-Hop world that has made them their financial empire.
In contrast, it is interesting to see the elitist hack Jon Caramanica spin his wheels to try and balance his irrational support for this Hip-Hop trash with the obviously degenerate nature of many artists:
In a deeply conflicted assessment of the recent corporate punishment meted out to prominent rappers like Lil’ Wayne and Rick Ross, Caramanica becomes confused and a bit unhinged when it comes to his usual panegyrics for the genre he so loves. He must admit that the situation is difficult to handle: “A cursory glance at any rapper’s catalog, from Jay-Z on down, will be likely to turn up a lyric that’s offensive, in poor taste or eyebrow-raising. By that metric, almost every rapper of note would be ineligible for corporate partnerships.”
Caramanica’s article agonizes over how race plays a role in corporate sponsorships. Yet – in contrast to the Bob Johnson story – it never really addresses the internal conflicts being played out in an elite African-American world where money is gotten by playing the Minstrel and real life is lived as far away from the degenerate and debased image. All the while we see the consumers of this culture acting out its vile scenarios in a way that has destroyed our cultural integrity and suppressed personal expression in favor of vulgar stereotypes promoting thuggish violence and irresponsible – and sometimes transgressive – sexuality.
A day following the Mountain Dew article, Caramanica’s confusion got even more confused:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/arts/music/danny-brown-and-kitty-at-irving-plaza.html?ref=arts
Caramanica is not at all sure whether to continue his obsequious praise of these degenerates or to report on how sick and demented they are. His re-telling of an episode involving oral sex being given to one of these rappers while they were performing on-stage is a masterpiece of schizophrenia: after all these are Caramanica’s heroes acting as vile pigs. He must uphold the Liberal code of being against misogyny and homophobia and all that – and he makes these bona fides quite clear – but it is not enough to sever him from his childish love of the genre. His struggle is a fascinating one to watch as it is filled with moral compromises and a lack of consistency when it comes to art and knowledge. Maybe there is just too much money and power at stake.
11. The New York Times remains firmly committed to the Wall Street Criminals:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/opinion/the-jamie-dimon-witch-hunt.html?ref=opinion
This Op-Ed by a professor at Yale University is a masterpiece of obfuscation and moral turpitude.
For a more accurate assessment of the criminal Dimon we need to go to Matt Taibbi:
Although Taibbi is probably the most important analyst of the Wall Street fiasco, The New York Times has never invited him to write for their Op-Ed page. A search of the NYT site shows that with the exception of a single book review in October 2012, Taibbi has never written for the paper.
Here is the latest on JPMorgan’s crooked shenanigans:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-harris-jpmorgan-20130510,0,624352.story
That a prominent professor at one of our top academic institutions is capable of such apologia for a criminal like Dimon – a man whose power has made him immune from prosecution – shows us just how deep the corruption of our economic system has become. Using terms like “unparalleled transparency” and “candid self-criticism” is chillingly Orwellian. Dimon is made out to be a victim rather than a victimizer.
Professor Sonnenfeld’s PILPUL begins where the fraud of Wall Street ends. There is never a search for the actual origins of the problem; only an analysis of the process accepting the very crooked terms of the game as it is currently played.
It is not enough that a financial system which has a tenuous connection to the actual production of goods and services is presented as a primary driver of our economic system. That is bad enough. But even within these distorted parameters, the crimes of Wall Street are breathtaking.
But not for Sonnenfeld, who pompously proclaims his academic bona fides in what is to be taken as an authoritative defense of Dimon from his critics. The article is nothing less than the academic equivalent of those Mob lawyers who spin mountains of legal casuistry to exonerate their clients from criminal convictions.
Elite academics should be committed to the truth. Our newspapers should also be committed to this same truth. But what we see in this article is a shameful example of a status quo committed to undermining the truth and to see that justice is emphatically not served. By calling what is happening to the vile Dimon a “witch hunt” is a complete travesty of justice. Dimon is not the victim, but an aggressor whose aim is to victimize others while padding his already-obscene bank account.
12. As further evidence of the destruction of the Sephardic tradition in the Sephardic community we have this gem:
http://www.imageusa.com/archives/18231
Bais Yakov – not Bet Yaakov as the article’s Sephardic spelling implies – is a well known brand of Yeshivahs for Ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi girls. The opening of a Bais Yakov in the Sephardic community of Deal, New Jersey is evidence of the failure of Ashkenazi Modern Orthodoxy in our community.
After many years of Modern Orthodox domination of our religious and social institutions, we are now seeing
13. For those who continue to believe that Rabbi Chaim Amsellem represents the authentic Sephardic tradition there is this:
Bayit Yehudi is an ultra-radical Zionist party that is basically an arm of the messianist Settlers:
Despite Naftali Bennett’s attempt to put a benign stamp on the group, it is clear that it represents some of the most radical and reactionary views in the Israeli political spectrum, way to the Right of the mainstream.
The following article from One State Israel provides a strong indication of what Bennett and his party stand for:
The idea that someone like Rabbi Amsellem would be acceptable to such people says a great deal about Rabbi Amsellem and his radical Right-Wing political orientation in contradistinction to the traditional Sephardic values of conciliation and tolerance embodied in Religious Humanism.
14. For those who may not be following the daily outrages at Israel’s Western Wall:
An interesting part of the pathetic story of women being harassed while at prayer is the alliance between Religious Zionists and Haredim:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4378184,00.html
There is little I can say that would add to this – it is more evidence of the dysfunction that is endemic to the Ashkenazi Jewish condition. It is yet another cautionary tale for those Sephardim who think it better to become Ashkenazi rather than remain true to our heritage.
David Shasha