A Detailed Analysis of Tikvah Fund White Jewish Supremacy: Erasing the Sephardic Heritage
David Shasha
A Detailed Analysis of Tikvah Fund White Jewish Supremacy: Erasing the Sephardic Heritage
When it comes to The Tikvah Fund, Sephardim are always good for their food:
But not for serious Jewish thought.
I believe that Zalman Bernstein would agree:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y8UrV67wrZUghBRZimf_5PeQTkQbzXsufntJtD6Y1EM/edit
I want to provide a detailed review of institutional Tikvah White Jewish Supremacy, using examples from the current array of events and programs that present evidence of this Anti-Sephardi racism and the erasure of our culture and history.
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik: The Tikvah Trumpscum Monetized
We begin with the putative rabbinic leader of The Tikvah Fund, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, whose mission is to consolidate Tikvah power from his pulpit at the formerly-Sephardic Congregation Shearith Israel:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1inwIdB46odydf4p-7ahzdzqmiBcJz4KT9wNMiY-TJWw/edit
Again, for those who may still not be aware of it, Soloveichik has fully embraced the man who is arguably the most devout Anti-Maimonidean of our times, the late Michael Wyschogrod:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vkNZusv09KazmHUp3BNcBGIe9TEZEMcKsZXfbBFMm4Q/edit
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ytYVvsu-He-LACFKWcSsYGguR5uX33u9/view?ths=true
He has also fully embraced Trumpism, as we saw in his appearance with Utah Senator Mike Lee:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sUvnfXMeduh00CKAuDD30NiRwbD-5Q147YrMHbGs7Q0/edit
They know him in Utah!
Because he is all in with the First Things Catholic Fascists:
https://www.firstthings.com/author/meir-y-soloveichik
He has just posted in his e-mail newsletter a promotion for his website and its connection to Commentary magazine:
Here is a review of his current concerns:
A one-stop-shop for all of Rabbi Soloveichik's articles, essays, podcasts, and videos from across the web, including discussions with the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Senator Joseph Lieberman, historian Wilfred McClay, political commentator Ben Shapiro, Professor Ruth Wisse, and many more important thinkers and leaders!
It is all about the Straussians and Trumpists in the context of the New Fascism and its radicalism Anti-Democratic values.
And killing off the Sephardic heritage in its historical American home.
JIMENA’s HASBARAH Mission
I have discussed the Ashkenazi-run JIMENA many times, as the group promotes HASBARAH values in a way that obscures the classical Sephardic heritage and our tradition of Convivencia and Religious Humanism:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tXd9HrTpRUm3oOkegJtKAw3MMuD-jt-mume90yyTvMg/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xzRZtYI1amnNyGM47ny41p_A32xToEQJPZyUUimzrbI/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs
JIMENA has taken the lead for HASBARAH attacks on the California Ethnic Studies curriculum, and has been rewarded for its dutiful service to the Ashkenazim:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SBkVBFplCWMowuOs6V_0aJ1ZDh6JQd8vtwz22A_xdvA/edit
Its current e-mail newsletter features a typical article on the use of the term Arab Jews:
https://k-larevue.com/en/arab-jews-another-arab-denial/
The idea is to make sure that Jews are not Arabs, because Arabs are evil Anti-Semites.
I have addressed the issue repeatedly:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hm9BDfYWFJWoSjbfpq-gxcc3eUaQssKJ/edit
It is all tied to the spurious Arab Jewish Refugee construct, which has been articulated in The David Project’s documentary “The Forgotten Refugees”:
https://www.jimena.org/resources/forgotten-refugees/
They call it the “Jewish Nakba”:
The David Project was created as a Cancel Culture organization, aimed to suppress speech critical of Israel and Zionism, as we saw in their other documentary “Columbia Unbecoming”:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GQ1T91xG72SCnuUwl7WQwGYGZk95Dg65zRphnSZxPWg/edit
Which was the learning ground for Bari Weiss and her own version of Cancel Culture:
Central to the institution was David Bernstein, who remains a fixture in this Neo-Con Jewish Tikvahworld:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U5AbVQpUOkMZyhzuNMoLrSUPdO8Q7vTmsfQuLjKqqpY/edit
I have written a number of articles on the radical Bernstein and his very confused personal identity:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gZkhXF2Qrwo24nIGCsPJk0O3vWR--BQ4/edit
He remains at the vector of the larger Right Wing conspiracy, as we have seen in his many articles attacking BLM and the New Racial Consciousness:
https://freeblackthought.substack.com/p/in-search-of-systemic-racism
He has tried to outdo his protégé Bari Weiss in anti-WOKE vitriol:
He represents Tikvah-JIMENA Intersectionality in its most nakedly partisan form.
JIMENA recently announced publication of another one of their glossy, but vacuous and hollow, e-books on the Mizrahi Experience:
https://my.yupub.com/?tid=483cfbe7-97c1-46e5-9b1d-150365f90eff
Which connects to their Right Wing HASBARAH conference Journey to the Mizrah:
https://www.jimena.org/journey-to-the-mizrah-2-0/
With names many people that veteran SHU readers will already know.
Rabbi Daniel Bouskila:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/LL_Xt1-i9GU/m/CXSPA4wSBgAJ
Benjamin Netanyahu underling Ashley Perry:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-perry-686bb07/?originalSubdomain=il
Who is also deeply tied to the “Jewish Nakba” HASBARAH:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/making-2016-the-year-of-the-jewish-refugees-from-arab-countries/
And, of course, the ubiquitous Dr. Mijal Bitton:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T5hwSK5C4N8Vd50UYMptCy1jmk5LSyJbIUEh-Lq6_s8/edit
Who supports the Ashkenazi eraser, as we saw in my first NIGGEN article:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Rp2kwRQcny_KeF1X24JQav3-an2edAl7lySF8nwv6w/edit
I was particularly interested in the conference presentation by Galia Avidar “Teaching Israel Progressive Spaces,” which has all the hallmarks of Bari Weiss Rufo propaganda:
https://prizmah.org/hayidion/jewish-inspiration/arabpalestinian-israeli-conflict-source-inspiration
It is all about Israel Advocacy, and very little about the Sephardic heritage, and Maimonidean Jewish Humanism and the Andalusian history; a tradition that stands against the Ashkenazi-centrism of the institutional framework that JIMENA proudly represents.
In this HASBARAH context, they have in this regard created something called the Sephardic Leadership Initiative, which I have already discussed:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/KwVdTteT-1c/m/za7TdNmiAAAJ
Indeed, there is much frenzied movement going on in this faux-Sephardi world, all run by Ashkenazim, in order to serve Zionist interests and rake in big money donations in the process.
The Tikvah ASF Loads Up on the Ashkenazi Racists
The American Sephardi Federation is being run by two Tikvah-affiliated Ashkenazim, Jason Guberman and Aryeh Tepper:
https://diarna.org/news/diarna-curator-chosen-for-fellowship/
https://tikvahfund.org/faculty/aryeh-tepper/
The young Guberman was honored by Islamophobe Daniel Pipes:
https://www.meforum.org/1971/the-middle-east-quarterly-announces-winners
His work as leader of DIARNA is a HASBARAH treasure trove against Palestinians claims against Israel:
Tepper is a Straussian of the first order:
https://sunypress.edu/Books/P/Progressive-Minds-Conservative-Politics
He got all his Straussian Neo-Con Tikvah pals together in a White Jewish Supremacy program I called “Jazz Against Democracy”:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lHRy4s8XIPfPnDPNRLPOI2t1-YTdOc3vtMVgN90lFVY/edit
The two men make a formidable White Jewish Supremacy team!
I have written about the ASF “Dead Arab Jews” strategy in the following articles:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jkws0yY4GqDLXTeGt04TGOjB2GFlpuFlO7kkwpRlmNE/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gH-2meIMnS2bxrM66P5EO3YGtjSI5JfG/edit
Tepper has extended his “Jazz Against Democracy” project in the following University of Arizona program that is being promoted in the current ASF e-mail newsletter:
https://twitter.com/UAZFreedom/status/1587846585299263489/photo/1
The Tikvah ASF is showing its hardcore HASBARAH Islamophobe bona fides in its upcoming conference “From Middle Eastern North African Jewish Refugees to Israel Cultural Renaissance”:
Indeed, the title says it all: Living in the Arab world was disastrous for us, and we were “saved” by Zionism.
As I have repeatedly written, the truth could not be more different:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LQGPldAVbze_Fjb78pZ57LwQ0pC-Pt0eetskBVQ8aq4/edit
But the Tikvah ASF is nothing if not beholden to the Ashkenazi racist agenda.
To prove the point, the December conference will be led by Arab-hater Norman Stillman, a prime disciple of the notorious Bernard “Clash of Civilizations” Lewis:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nSdrjtm-qKwYxEkewoX5ZNQpx28lJZs1no8hOmZrVKY/edit
It will also resurrect Justice for Jews from Arab Countries Stanley Urman, who I have discussed many times:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/m7d9bJKoSTU/m/_yECXhKwY14J
The JJAC is a pretty dormant group, but it is always trotted out whenever the HASBARAH need arises:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_for_Jews_from_Arab_Countries
As one of the group’s founders Irwin Cotler knows well:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/VfZPaElykZY/m/tC52IcWMZegJ
They too are all about Jewish “Nakba Day”:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/9lkGTMX7X4s/m/tgTfmhuJDAAJ
Again, we should always ask why it is that these putative Sephardic organizations are all being run by racist Ashkenazi professionals, many allied to The Tikvah Fund.
Moving Across the Atlantic: Rabbi Joseph Dweck and the Habura
I recently received an e-mail newsletter from the London School of Jewish Studies that got me to thinking again about Rabbi Joseph Dweck and his world-famous Habura:
https://www.lsjs.ac.uk/courses-and-events.php?category=32
Careful readers will see that the LSJS course listing does not contain any Sephardi presenters or Sephardic content.
And that is yet another negative reflection on how Sephardim allow Ashkenazim to control discourse at the Adult Jewish Table.
Some understanding of Dweck helps in figuring out how this works.
I have discussed the problems with the Habura and its blithe acceptance of White Jewish Supremacy in the following article:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pFWVQTzB3GLzpYLhl8YCF2Q5d9c8yrlYu-yHxWyf38E/edit
Our friend Yoel Pimentel has discussed Dweck’s Arab Jewish problem in the following article:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LUsZA48zpKtgkOB2YWRtjC4R0Y2Nt6tw4KHlbe2rRpE/edit
Dweck is fully ensconced in the Washington Heights world, as we saw in his promotion of Rav Kook and Religious Zionism:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hUyDltsH4cb5OJ1lcKgWjZkZfpwWl14B9qUcAV8injY/edit
I looked more closely at this subservience to the Ashkenazim in Dweck’s analysis of Haym Soloveitchik’s racist article “Rupture and Reconstruction”:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/123skOImJSmEdze7OzWZtd2KeyBn77zvcOPkDmqJUNR8/edit
It is important to point out Dweck’s alliance with Samuel Lebens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7FI6Mka0wc
Lebens is a very important scholar in the Anti-Maimonidean movement in academic Judaic Studies, related to Analytic Philosophy and the New Jewish Theology, and a critical member of the Habura staff:
https://www.samlebens.com/books
He has also contributed the Tikvah-oriented book Strauss, Spinoza & Sinai, edited by Zalman Bernstein macher Jeffrey Bloom, in an attempt to bring Straussianism to the Orthodox community:
https://mosaicmagazine.com/author/jeffrey-bloom/
It is all about HASBARAH Ashkenazi Neo-Con Intersectionality, and the lowly place of Sephardim and our way of thinking in the Jewish world.
A representative example of the Sephardic erasure from British Judaism can be found in a fascinating thesis by Celeste Marcus on 19th British Jews:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zba_Jz7zYMoVHz985-v-nos00Rv8evgt/view?ths=true
I came across the thesis when looking up Ms. Marcus, who is working for Leon Wieseltier’s Liberties journal:
Marcus did her White Jewish Supremacy Sephardi-rein thesis under David Ruderman at Penn.
I have discussed the Ruderman Sephardi problem in the following article, with reference to David Nieto:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zg7TwCy0jZKnZZOB2oIjdOSqNFxBuyZX2YTLYQgGLbo/edit
I presented the Anglo-Jewish context of our Sephardic heritage in a special newsletter on the Meldola family:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G5DUuux6kzaxQoUyMoSHw3aiAgTSx07hFM0QgNbW684/edit
The Marcus thesis on 19th century British Jewish History shows us how Sephardim can be completely ignored, as Ashkenazim are presented exclusively as the only Jews worth knowing.
It is an appropriate sign of the White Jewish Supremacy and the way in which Sephardim are being ignored; invisible and erased in a world of Ashkenazim where we do not rate.
And in this detailed review of Ashkenazi-centrism and the erasure of Sephardim we can see how Jewish Institutional Intersectionality works in the Tikvah Fund context, and how Sephardim have served to aid that racist process, genuflecting to Ashkenazi Jewish power, and ignoring the most basic elements of their illustrious history and intellectual culture.
Here is a reading list to assist you in learning more about the Sephardic heritage:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bKBTQSn0dytn4AefatM1wTgG22DTMaz3sVCuYIxiJEY/edit
And Shmuel Feiner’s article paying tribute to that heritage in the Ashkenazi context:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qRf2_x_zSK8RRQQyvp9SEmCAHQzw07Oa/view?ths=true
Indeed, we have moved from a Jewish space where the cosmopolitan Sephardic heritage was central to an enlightened Ashkenazi Judaism, to a point where the hermetic, anti-worldly Shtetl Judaism has returned with a vengeance.
It is a new form of Judaism which is rooted in a radical anti-rationalism, permeated with a militant form of magical thinking and the concomitant relationship to the New Fascism that has consumed Zionism and its allied Alt-Right movements all over the world.
David Shasha