This Week in Anti-Sephardi Racism: “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School, Rabbi Ilan Acoca and the Ashkenzified Sephardim, and Rabbi Marc Angel on “Paper Towels”

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David Shasha

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Dec 29, 2016, 8:35:14 AM12/29/16

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This Week in Anti-Sephardi Racism: “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School, Rabbi Ilan Acoca and the Ashkenzified Sephardim, and Rabbi Marc Angel on “Paper Towels”

I have written plenty about the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School and its antagonism towards the Sephardic tradition:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/davidshasha/fqNkqS3zv4w/pyYTGcSo97UJ;context-place=msg/davidshasha/fqNkqS3zv4w/pyYTGcSo97UJ

We must remember that YOFHS, once a majority-Ashkenazi school, is now majority-Sephardi:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/davidshasha/UZ9tN7Z2TAY/8pk5tGyNP4sJ;context-place=msg/davidshasha/UZ9tN7Z2TAY/8pk5tGyNP4sJ

Last week the school proudly sent out the following announcement:

http://r.info.koshermedia.com/13f1rd8ikhesbf.html

Rather than explore the classical Sephardic heritage of its students, the Sephardim in charge of YOFHS are determined to ignore it and promote Ashkenazi culture.

This Sephardic connection to the Ashkenazi world of Modern Orthodoxy and Yeshiva University can be clearly seen in the following article on Rabbi Ilan Acoca’s new book:

http://jewishlinknj.stfi.re/features/16006-rabbi-ilan-acoca-launches-the-sephardic-book-of-why?sf=yjrpoow#aa

Once again, I must thank Aryeh Tepper of the not-Sephardi American Sephardi Federation for making us aware of the article and its importance in the ongoing Ashkenazification of our community.

The article gives away the game early on:

Born in Bat Yam, Israel, to Moroccan parents whose ancestry dates back to Spain before the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, Acoca grew up in a traditional Sephardic home practicing the rites and rituals of Sephardic tradition. He moved with his family to Montreal at the age of 1 and was educated in an Ashkenazi educational system through his rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva Gedola Mercaz Hatorah Teiferet Mordechai Beth Hamidrash L’Horaah Institute in Montreal. His smicha fulfilled the wish of his paternal grandfather, Rabbi Ayad Acoca, to continue the rabbinic line of the family.

So this very loyal scion of the Sephardic tradition was fully educated in the “Ashkenazi educational system” up to and including his rabbinical ordination.

That is a good thing to know.

He is now partnering with Rabbi Elie Abadie and Rabbi Moshe Tessone, both affiliated with that bastion of Sephardic tradition Yeshiva University.

Indeed, this shows just how low the Sephardic heritage has sunk in our day.

Sephardim who are Ashkenazim pretending to be Sephardim.

And, naturally, it is all about “minhag,” custom, rather than the rich intellectual-literary culture of the classical Sephardic tradition and the Jewish Humanism that has set us apart from the Ashkenazim.

But the Ashkenazified Sephardim would not know about such things like poetry and literature.

And it is indeed worth noting that this important new book is 128 pages long!

I am not sure how much Sephardic tradition can be included in such an epic tome, but in the end it is not very important as the Ashkenazified Sephardim are simply playing their part to promote an exotic superficiality under the pretense of inclusion. Rest assured, with such Sephardim in charge the Ashkenazim will continue to control the whole of Jewish discourse.

And as we have learned, the veritable leader of the Ashkenzified Sephardim is Rabbi Marc Angel.

We have consistently seen how Rabbi Angel has chosen to abandon the classical Sephardic tradition by proudly embracing Ashkenazi Modern Orthodoxy.

What is left of the Sephardic tradition for him has been completely subsumed and integrated into the YU system.

The following article must therefore be read in ironic fashion:

https://www.jewishideas.org/article/paper-towel-syndrome-thoughts-parashat-vayeshev-rabbi-marc-d-angel

Angel uses the theme of disposable Paper Towels in an argument about permanence and lasting values.

In order to make this argument he naturally refers to his mentor Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik:

In his essay, “The Community”, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik underscored that halakha demands high respect for the dignity of others. “To recognize a person is not just to identify him physically. It is more than that: it is an act of identifying him existentially…To recognize a person means to affirm that he is irreplaceable. To hurt a person means to tell him that he is expendable, that there is no need for him.” In other words, to recognize a person means to affirm that he/she has human value, that he/she is appreciated, that he/she matters to us. To hurt a person means to treat him/her as a “paper towel,” expendable, to be used and discarded.

Indeed, the citation of the RAV is bitterly ironic given the indignities that Sephardim have been forced to suffer from the Ashkenazi hegemony presented by the Modern Orthodox Da’as Torah adopted by Angel and the Self-Hating Sephardic contingent that rules our community.

Sephardim in the YU world are shown no respect and are largely used for their money and influence.

In fact it is conduits like Angel who have created this one-way street where Sephardic culture is dismissed, but Sephardim are condescended to in a paternalistic manner.

Sephardim are truly the “Paper Towels” of the Modern Orthodox Jewish world, as our historical tradition has been thrown under the bus and we are used and abused by the “superior” White Jews without much thought or consideration.

And we can thank Rabbi Marc Angel for all the help that he has given to the Ashkenazim to achieve this notable goal.

David Shasha

Here is a complete listing of previous “This Week in Anti-Sephardi Racism” posts:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/yhPab_nwIe4

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/CW-w-Hee824

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/kWd_tM0cWWY

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/QnOWWxpu4lo

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/oWOplZldU9k

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/bAPFZn_ssAI

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/IDG9TF4q6vo

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/yzjrAULvLEU

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/HIY087Y-JWs