Weekly Items of Note (12/4)
David Shasha
The Passing of Irma Robles Lopes Cardozo
Though I only met Mrs. Cardozo twice, as I passed by her apartment house on West 70th Street on my weekly walks to the Riverside Park, I was struck by her regal serenity and her deep pride in our Sephardic heritage.
She passed away on November 27th:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=irma-cardozo&pid=182820884&fhid=2086
Mrs. Cardozo was the widow of Congregation Shearith Israel Cantor Abraham Lopes Cardozo.
Here is a brief description of the collection currently being housed in the Center for Jewish History:
http://findingaids.cjh.org//LopesCardozoFamily.html
And here is The New York Times obituary for the Hazzan from 2006:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/arts/music/abraham-cardozo-sephardic-cantor-dies-at-91.html
As we have sadly learned, the current leadership of Shearith Israel is largely Ashkenazi with little respect or concern for its Sephardic heritage. The loss of Mrs. Cardozo is another sad sign of the erosion of that heritage which will further empower the Sephardi-haters who now run the Synagogue.
The Ashkenazim Love the Jewish “Nakba”
On Thursday I posted yet another article on the continued use of the contested Arab Jewish Refugee issue for HASBARAH purposes:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/9lkGTMX7X4s
On Friday the self-haters at the Point of No Return blog posted this item on a week-long series by Bnai Brith in Canada dedicated to the subject:
We never seem to see similar programs from Ashkenazi Jewish institutions dedicated to our literature and intellectual culture, but when it comes to the complex movement of Jews out of the Arab-Muslim world, which serves Zionist interests far more than it does actual Sephardic interests, the Ashkenazi are all in!
Once again it bears repeating that Sephardim are only being used by Ashkenazi to further the perceived interests of the State of Israel.
Rabbi Marc Angel’s Arrogant Jewish Ethnocentrism
Sephardic Jews continue to see their history and culture erode.
But Rabbi Angel, at the very forefront of the White Jewish Revolution in the Sephardic community, sees the situation in very different ways:
https://www.jewishideas.org/article/blessings-jews-thoughts-parashat-toledot-rabbi-marc-d-angel
In his impassioned words:
In this week's Torah portion, God assures Yitzhak that the nations of the earth will find blessing in his descendants. God had made a similar statement to Yitzhak's father, Abraham; and later makes this statement to Yitzhak's son, Yaacov. The children of Abraham, Yitzhak and Yaacov--the people of Israel--have a special destiny. They live not only for themselves and their immediate families; rather, they live for the benefit of all humankind.
In many ways, this promise of God has been fulfilled throughout history. The people of Israel--the Jews--have made incredible contributions to humanity and have been a genuine blessing to countless human beings over the centuries. The Bible has been a powerful force in shaping Western civilization. Jewish prophets, sages and poets have had a profound positive influence on innumerable people. In the modern period, Jewish individuals have made incredible contributions in the arts and sciences. The State of Israel, in spite of its enemies and detractors, has been a beacon of justice and democracy in a part of the world characterized by tyranny and lack of freedom.
Rabbi Angel, in good Neo-Conservative fashion, then goes on to cite the historian Paul Johnson, a favorite of the Right Wingers when it comes to Jewish History, as proof positive of his thesis on the Jewish centrality in world culture.
We should note well that the word “Sephardic” is never used; Angel and his followers are intent to see all Jews as one community without making note of Ashkenazi supremacy.
His words speak for themselves and show us the positive spin that self-hating Sephardim put on the tragedy that continues to engulf our community. But more than this is the delusional perspective on the strength and vitality of a Jewish community controlled by Ashkenazim that is in the process of completely destroying the classical Jewish heritage and its intellectual and ethical values.
Rabbi Shalom Morris Visits the Cemetery
I have spoken about Rabbi Shalom Morris and his Sephardi tourist ephemera; his latest post is on the Shearith Israel cemeteries:
https://shalommorris.com/2016/11/29/11-street-cemetery-new-york/
The post is noteworthy not for what it says, which is actually very little, but for what it does not include.
This week, as I noted earlier, saw the passing of Irma Robles Lopes Cardozo, one of the last authentic representatives of the Sephardic tradition in SI. But we have not seen any discussion of her life by the Synagogue or from Rabbi Morris.
More than this, Morris never once mentions the seminal book by SI Rabbi David de Sola Pool, Portraits Etched in Stone, which provides a detailed study of the SI cemetery and biographies of its inhabitants.
Once again we get nothing beyond a scratching of the Sephardic surface, leaving readers with a facile understanding of our heritage.
Society for Crypto-Jewish Studies: Run by an Ashkenazi!
Earlier this week I received the following Call for Papers from the Society for Crypto-Jewish Studies:
As we have seen repeatedly, the Conversos, unlike the Sephardim, are a hot commodity. There is a great deal of interest in them from Ashkenazim, and particularly from Ultra-Zionists like Michael Freund and his Shavei Israel group which promotes Aliya.
The Society for Crypto-Jewish Studies continues the pattern of Ashkenazi domination of Conversos as its leader is someone named Leonard Stein; surely another Ashkenazi who will tell us who we are and what we should be.
The Forward is Under Attack!
Forward publisher Samuel Norich wants our support because his paper is under attack:
Here is how his plea to Forward readers reads:
Breitbart, the media outlet of the so-called “Alt-Right,” has recently singled out the Forward for special condemnation. In an effort to undermine our legitimacy, we were accused of running a “smear campaign” against the president-elect to further our “socialist agenda.”
We’ve done no such thing, as our fearless editor-in-chief, Jane Eisner, known for her sharp pen and her backbone, wrote in her point-by-point rebuttal. We are journalists. We publish well-sourced stories, supported by facts. We do not “smear.” We never endorse candidates. And our “agenda” is to report the news and seek out truth.
The letter is yet another example of just how oblivious “Liberal” Ashkenazi Jews to their own racism and how they cry wolf when attacked.
The Breibart attack is, as we are now seeing on the Left, another excuse for raising more money and garner more power and influence in the media world.
My favorite part of the letter is the way Norich characterizes the Anti-Sephardi racist Jane Eisner as “fearless,” praising her “sharp pen” and “backbone.”
Indeed, Eisner is fearless when it comes to locking out Sephardim from The Forward and ensuring, as is ironically the case with Breitbart, the Non-Whites from their discussions.
Ashkenazi Jews see themselves as the only Jews, Sephardim are forcibly kept off the adult Jewish table by means of Eisner’s “backbone.”
The “Idiot Sephardim” in Israel Focus on Their Priorities
With the ongoing erasure of the classical Sephardic heritage and the increasing Right Wing political radicalism of Israeli Mizrahim, it is good to know that our rabbis are dealing with the real issues facing our community:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-chief-rabbi-calls-homosexuality-an-abomination/
SHAS is presenting legislation to outlaw mixed prayer groups at the Western Wall, while Rabbi Shlomo Amar is screaming threats at homosexuals.
It is comforting and reassuring to know that our great Sephardic rabbis are addressing the truly pressing issues that plague our community!
Anti-Semitic Jews for Jesus to Fight Anti-Semitism!
As proof positive of the Christianization of contemporary Judaism, there is this gem:
Christian Zionism is not limited to the usual Evangelical suspects, but also appears to be an important part of the Jews for Jesus movement which apparently has expanded its institutional base to encompass many different religious leaders and organizations of apostate Jews.
Traditional Jews have always considered Jews for Jesus to be anathema; a repudiation of our religious values and our understanding of the Torah and rabbinical tradition.
But Zionism has changed everything, and Jews for Jesus, once considered an Anti-Semitic upstart insurgency, is now presenting itself as engaged in the battle against the very thing that we have always thought that it has represented for so long.
Manuel of “Fawlty Towers” Dies
One of the great Sephardic ironies is the actor Andrew Sachs, a German Jew and Holocaust survivor, playing the Spanish character Manuel on the iconic sitcom “Fawlty Towers.”
His side-splitting linguistic malapropisms were one of the highlights of this epochal show.
The actor passed on this past week:
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/fawlty-towers-star-andrew-sachs-dies-aged-86/
“Fawlty Towers” was the creative brainchild of Monty Python’s John Cleese and his then-girlfriend Connie Booth, and is one of the greatest TV sitcoms ever made.
The character of Basil Fawlty, a pompous hotel owner in the English countryside, satirizes the pretenses of the British class system in a cutting manner.
Though the show only lasted two all-too-brief seasons totaling 12 episodes, it remains one of the funniest sitcoms in TV history.
Here are some of the highlights from the show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcEws7il4EY
If you have never seen the show, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
For more on the “Fawlty Towers”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawlty_Towers
David Shasha