Sephardic Heritage Update 838
David Shasha
Friends,
We begin this week with a tribute to Moe Tawil, a prominent leader in the Brooklyn Syrian Jewish community who worked diligently to preserve our traditional culture. Moe prominently participated in the academic project of Harvard ethnomusicology Professor Kay Kaufman Shelemay that resulted in the excellent book Let Jasmine Rain Down and in the 1985 recording called Pizmon that was issued by Shanachie Records. As we continue to see our cultural heritage be demeaned and silenced by the Ashkenazim, the legacy of Moe Tawil becomes that much more important and serves as an important example of how we must value the past.
I have been following the superficial Bourekas and Hamindos Sephardischkeit of Devin Naar and his Sephardic Studies program at the University of Washington. In my latest article on the program I look at grad student Sarah Mills who has added her voice to the long list of those who are attacking the concept of Convivencia as it applies to the Sephardic Jewish tradition.
The great Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman has just published a book on Israel’s targeted assassination program. He recently appeared in a C-Span Book TV program to discuss the book and the political-military history of Israel. In my article I look at the ramifications of this history for Zionism and Jewish values.
Jacob Miller presents us with more Zionist whining about the current situation on American college campuses. He reminds us of Jewish hypocrisy when it comes to Free Speech and the ongoing suppression of open discussion of Israel and Zionism in the institutional Jewish community.
Rabbi David Eliezrie descries the results of research by two Jewish Federations as it relates to the CHABAD movement. His article shows us how certain Jewish groups are allowed to formally respond to perceived slights, while Sephardim are forced to remain silent. Rabbi Eliezrie is a very aggressive CHABAD apologist who reminds us just how much power that group now has in the institutional Jewish world.
Rachel Gross continues the Ashkenazi obsession with the violation of Kosher laws in an article that recalls the infamous 1883 banquet led by Isaac Mayer Wise of the Reform Movement. Professor Gross was keynote speaker for the recent Trefa Banquet 2.0 and promotes the checkered history of Jewish subversion in this country.
In the midst of the protests inspired by the Parkland High School shooting, David Brooks insists that we hold off on demanding strong Gun Control measures until we show proper respect for the NRA and its supporters. It is yet another piece of offensive PILPUL from Brooks who seems to have no shame.
Charles Blow looks the Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election and its deleterious impact on the African-American vote.
We close with two articles that lionize the blockbuster corporate “Black Panther” movie. Carvell Wallace claims that the movie is a “defining moment” for Black America, while Jelani Cobb explicitly embraces Garveyite separatism and the Hate America agenda. Sadly, the science-fiction fantasy cartoon has brought back a reactionary Afrocentric Nationalism that attacks the Civil Rights Movement and its many achievements.
David Shasha
Tribute to Moe Tawil
By: David Shasha
Moe Tawil: In Memoriam
By: Kay Kaufman Shelemay
Moe Tawil Biography
By: Pizmonim.org
Book Review: Peering into the Mirror of Memory
By: David Shasha
The Continuing Attack on Convivencia: Checking in with the Sephardic Studies Program at the University of Washington
By: David Shasha
“Rise and Kill First”: Journalist Ronen Bergman on Israel’s Targeted Assassinations
By: David Shasha
The Case Against Conformity of Thought on Campus
By: Jacob Miller
An Inconvenient Truth: Improperly Measuring Chabad-Lubavitch
By: Rabbi David Eliezrie
Jewish Food Does Not Begin and End with Kosher
By: Rachel B. Gross
Respect First, Then Gun Control
By: David Brooks
Attacking the ‘Woke’ Black Vote
By: Charles M. Blow
Why ‘Black Panther’ is a Defining Moment for Black America
By: Carvell Wallace
“Black Panther” and the Invention of “Africa”
By: Jelani Cobb