New Article: The Relentless Straussian Energy of Tikvah Tablet Alana Newhouse: The Case of Menachem Butler and Maimonides
David Shasha
The Relentless Straussian Energy of Tikvah Tablet Alana Newhouse: The Case of Menachem Butler and Maimonides
It is sometimes hard to keep track of the deep crevices of White Jewish Supremacy in Tikvahland.
While Whore of Trump Newhouse was busy ignoring the Alt-Right Insurrection, a tactic that continues apace, she posted the following piece by Warren Zev Harvey:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/goitein-maimonides-guide-of-the-perplexed
It is in theory a very interesting discussion of a 1963 review of the University of Chicago edition of Maimonides’ Guide written by the great S.D. Goitein for The Philadelphia Exponent.
After reading through Harvey’s introduction, naturally he is Ashkenazi, because only Ashkenazim can speak about Maimonides and Goitein, I was struck by the emphasis on Leo Strauss:
Goitein has accolades for Pines’ translation. He remarks that Pines is “extremely sensitive to the linguistic expression of delicate nuances of thought.” In his opinion, Pines’ translation is not only superior to Friedlander’s, but “will remain the standard work ... as long as the English language will be spoken.” No more, no less! Goitein also lauds Pines “Translator’s Introduction.” It is, he writes, “an extremely learned and valuable survey” of Maimonides’ philosophic sources. Regarding Strauss’ introduction, Goitein is more guarded. It is, he opines, an “admirable essay,” but the esoteric character of the Guide is “perhaps a little overemphasized” in it. Goitein complains that neither Pines nor Strauss has provided “a systematic exposition of Maimonides’ philosophy.” In reply to this complaint, it might be argued that such an exposition is implicit in the Pines and Strauss introductions.
Which is recapitulated later on in the article, for maximum Straussian impact:
I have already mentioned that Goitein thought that Strauss had exaggerated the esoteric nature of the Guide. There is, Goitein allows, some intentional “ambiguity” and “obscurity” in the Guide designed to conceal controversial doctrines from the vulgar, but such misdirection is not as extensive as Strauss had imagined. Like Friedlander, Goitein argues that while the chapters of the Guide often seem to fit together haphazardly, the individual chapters in themselves contain for the most part “clearly formulated and well argumented points of discourse.”
It is clear that Goitein in his review is being overly polite to the deplorable Strauss, enemy of Jewish Humanism and inspiration to Newt Gingrich, whose introduction to the book repeats his canard, first presented in his deplorable essay “Persecution and the Art of Writing,” that Maimonides was a cheat and fraud who hid his true ideas under the cover of Orthodoxy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_and_the_Art_of_Writing
Goitein was a gentleman and knew how horrible and distortive the “Persecution” thesis was, but he understated his criticism.
But what I found most interesting in Harvey’s piece was his mention of Menachem Butler as the person who solicited his participation in the Tablet article:
https://www.tabletmag.com/contributors/menachem-butler
One look at his Newhouse contributions is enough for us to see his commitment to White Jewish Supremacy.
Indeed, his Twitter handle is “My Shtender.”
The articles include paeans to Ashkenazi stalwarts from Elie Wiesel to the Chofetz Chayim to Henry Kissinger to the Schneersohn-Christ, all the way back to RASHI.
That is some illustrious list of Ashkenazim!
He does not write for Newhouse that often, but what he writes is primo White Jewish Supremacy, with that special Neo-Con edge that we have all come to love and appreciate.
Before I begin the rest of the depressing connects-the-dots litany of Butler’s institutional exploits, I would point out that he is involved with a worthy project called The Seforim Blog:
I have been reading the blog for some time now, and it does a pretty good job at presenting the academic side of Yeshivah life.
A few years back, I even ordered a copy of the very rare Azriel Shohat edition of Ibn Verga’s Shevet Yehudah from Seforim leader Eliezer Brodt during the site’s annual book sale.
That said, I decided to go deeper into Butlerland to see what I could find.
He is rated a Top 500 Jewish Authority, whatever the hell that means:
https://agilience.com/en/MyShtender
Apparently, he is doing something at the Harvard Law School, home to Trumpscum Insurrectionist Alan Dershowitz:
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/mbutler/bio
It does not seem to be much of anything:
Menachem Butler is the Program Coordinator for Jewish Law Projects at The Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at the Harvard Law School. He is also a contributing editor at Tablet Magazine and co-editor at the Seforim blog.
But the Julis-Rabinowitz Program is an interesting part of the HASBARAH world:
https://networks.h-net.org/tags/julis-rabinowitz-program-jewish-and-israel-law
It seems to be involved in providing legal cover for Settler Zionism:
Butler is not much on academic scholarship, but he does write a lot of tendentious articles:
https://harvard.academia.edu/MenachemButler
His Academia.edu page is thin on substance, but big on the White Jewish Supremacy; as we can see in his Lehrhaus collaboration with our dear friend Zev Eleff as they attack Moses Mendelssohn, as seems to be de rigueur these days:
https://thelehrhaus.com/scholarship/moses-mendelssohn-and-the-orthodox-mind/
The article appeared in SHU 778:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/vYlRTtdm1j0/m/sjsUtl9PAgAJ
Keeping to the YU theme, I was able to find one published book associated with him:
That’s right, it is the “My Yeshiva College Years Memories” book!
It is so White Jewish Supremacist that even Marc Angel is not a contributor!
But it does have an afterword from Jonathan Sarna, enemy of the Sephardim:
Indeed, that Washington Heights world is pretty darn incestuous.
One of the most interesting pieces I found on Butler was this article from the Haredim at Mishpacha magazine, “Woe is Harvard”:
https://mishpacha.com/woe-is-harvard/
Here is the key takeaway on Butler, as related by Israeli consul in New York Dani Dayan:
“I was invited to come speak by the Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard Law School. The story behind the invitation is also interesting. At the chasunah of Rabbi Aaron Kotler’s son in Lakewood, I was approached by Menachem Butler, an Orthodox Jew who’s a fellow at the program, and he invited me to come and give a lecture about the Israeli settlements. On the one hand, I’m not a legal expert, but on the other, the subject is close to my heart. I hesitated, but decided it was important that Israel’s position be heard in the world’s most prestigious university.”
That is the true meaning of HASBARAH!
Butler was in the right place at the right time; attending the “chasunah of Rabbi Aaron Kotler’s son in Lakewood.”
We will of course recall that the Harvard Jewish Studies department was once helmed by Isadore Twersky, whose Haredi bona fides were also quite solid:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isadore_Twersky
A truly anti-Maimonidean Hasid:
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/16/arts/isadore-twersky-of-harvard-and-the-hasidim-dies-at-67.html
Who wrote an Introduction to Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah for the Yale Judaica Series:
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300028461/code-maimonides-mishneh-torah
Who needs Jose Faur when you’ve got Twersky?
Butler’s deep Orthodox ties and his loyalty to the HASBARAH world make perfect sense when seen in this White Jewish Supremacy Tikvah light.
That he would approach Warren Zev Harvey is also not surprising:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/ISMFOcY-UGs/m/vB3oStDgBAAJ
In the 11/15 edition of This Week in The Tikvah Fund I referred to his White Jewish Supremacy:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/four-scholars-jewish-philosophy
Here is what I said there:
On Friday we received the following Tikvah Tablet piece on the recent passing of important Jewish scholars:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/four-scholars-jewish-philosophy
Let it be said that Rabbi Jose Faur is mentioned, though his work is not discussed. I suppose that is because his work was not at all respected or cited by scholars like Harvey.
The four figures discussed are intriguing examples of the White Jewish Supremacy.
There is the Kookist Rabbi Michael Nehorai:
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/25547
The Jewish Occultist Michael Schneider:
https://jphilosophy.biu.ac.il/en/node/1017
It was very difficult to find anything on David Brezis, apparently a Levinas scholar:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Levinas-tournant-sacrificiel-David-Brezis/dp/2705682619
I had never before heard of any of them.
They are all very Ashkenazi!
But the best one for me was Gabriella Elgrably-Berzin who was a real piece of work:
The Mizrahi Israeli seems to be the most racist reactionary White Jewish Supremacist of the four:
Elgrably-Berzin has written opinion articles in Hebrew for various publications, mostly taking the Likud’s stances on political and ideological matters, and writing about the philosophy of Likud ideological forebear Ze’ev Jabotinsky. She has also written about Moroccan Jewry.
Several of Elgrably-Berzin’s articles are about Diaspora Jewry, though not ones written in recent years.
An Israel Hayom article she wrote in 2015 said Israel was no longer important to many American Jews, and “parts of the Jewish-American Left do not hesitate to cooperate and be funded by anti-Zionists. It’s not an Iranian bomb, but it is a ticking time bomb that hurts Israel, including the Zionist Left.” She called for left-wing Israelis to insist on their Zionism when talking to leftist American Jews.
An Israel Hayom article Elgrably-Berzin wrote in 2016 said American Jews who put universal values above “mutual responsibility in the ethnic dimension... sometimes turn their backs on” their Jewish identity, and that their efforts to be ‘good Christians’ or ‘good Germans’ fail when antisemitism rises.”
A lack of a connection to Jewish identity or to Israel encourages radical anti-Israel elements, she argued. In that article, she put J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace and BDS in the same category as being “on the axis between extreme Left and anti-Zionist” and “having developed an obsessive empathy for the Palestinian stance and claiming their activities come from a desire to save Israel from itself.”
The Messianic Settlers loved her!
https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/811893
Indeed, Zev Harvey represents the White Jewish Supremacy in academic Jewish Studies that has ignored the work of Jose Faur, and promoted the Mizrahi Self-Haters who reinforce HASBARAH racism, as they follow the Ashkenazi ideas of their mentors.
The marriage of Newhouse, Butler, and Harvey under the toxic banner of Strauss is complete.
The process provides a fascinating glimpse into the current Jewish Intersectionality and how priorities are set in the institutional world of White Jewish Supremacy.
It thus makes perfect sense why Butler and Harvey would be handling the matter, as the two token Sephardim hired by Newhouse, Esther Levy-Chehebar and Rabbi Richard Hidary, both have no understanding or concern for the Sephardic heritage.
It is yet another excellent example of the continuing erosion of the Sephardic heritage and the death of Sephardim as a living force inside the institutional Jewish world.
David Shasha