Sephardic Heritage Update 530

[David Shasha]

Friends,

 

            We begin this week’s newsletter with a fascinating article by Rabbi Marc Angel that presents an accurate assessment of the problems facing American Jewry, but which provides a deeply unsatisfying response to the dilemma.

 

            Revital Blumenfeld reports on the recent statements from Israeli novelist and political activist A.B. Yehoshua regarding the lack of Jewishness of Diaspora Jews.

 

            Moshe Ronen provides what has become a common Zionist response to the recent tragedy in Toulouse, France.

 

            Yehudah Mirsky gives us a very interesting portrayal of a new Jewish category, Datlashim, who are former Ultra-Orthodox Jews who continue to live in a world neither completely religious nor completely secular.  The article discusses Israeli Sephardim in this context and provides some interesting information regarding their responses to marginalization.

 

            Rabbi Gil Student is a prominent voice in the Modern Orthodox community in its perpetual battle with the forces of Ultra-Orthodoxy.  In this article he looks at the nature of Modern Orthodoxy and its complicated relationship to its Right Wing counterpart.

 

            Jack Khoury looks at the connection between social protest in Israel and the incidence of anti-Arab activities.

 

            Food and music remain the only areas in which Arab influence on Jewish culture can be articulated.  Irin Carmon writes about Iraqi Jewish food in this light.

 

            William Glaberson and Bruce Thronton look at the recent case of anti-Gay bullying at Rutgers University.

 

                                                                      We close with the widely-discussed article by former Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith that caused such a big stir in punditry circles.  Smith’s assertions claim that what happened at Goldman Sachs is a relatively new phenomenon.  The “old” Goldman Sachs, in his view, did not approve of such reckless and irresponsible behavior.  Wallace Trubeville gives us a more nuanced historical view of the matter while the ethicist Eyal Press sees Smith as a courageous truth-teller.  An article from the British satirical website The Daily Mash – an equivalent of America’s The Onion – satirizes the matter in pretty devastating fashion.

 

 

 

David Shasha

 

           

 

Alienated American Jews

By: Rabbi Marc D. Angel

 

A.B. Yehoshua: America Jews, Unlike Israelis, Only ‘Partial Jews’

By: Revital Blumenfeld

 

Israel, the Jewish Haven

By: Moshe Ronen

 

Varieties of Religious Experience: The Datlashim

By: Yehudah Mirsky

 

Book Review: The Point We’re Missing

By: Gil Student

 

Israel’s Social Protests Caused Drop in Racist Incidents Against Arabs

By: Jack Khoury

 

The Hybrid Wonder of Iraqi Kubbeh

By: Irin Carmon

 

Rutgers Verdict Repudiates Notion of Youth as a Defense

By: William Glaberson

 

A Dangerous Verdict in New Jersey

By: Bruce Thornton

 

Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs

By: Greg Smith

 

The Truth about Goldman Sachs

By: Wallace Turbeville

 

Greg Smith and the Case for Moral Courage

By: Eyal Press

 

Why I am Leaving the Empire

By: Darth Vader