Sephardic Heritage Update 970
David Shasha
Friends,
Once upon a time it was understood that the Ashkenazi Jewish Enlightenment drew its inspiration from the classical Sephardic tradition and its Jewish Humanism. In my article “Sepharad in Ashkenaz” I look at a collection of papers from a 2002 Amsterdam conference that with one crucial exception affirms the point. Indeed, David Ruderman was the only contributor who stood against the thesis, making his view quite prescient; as the current antagonism to Sephardim and Sephardic culture can be seen in the debased Jewish Primitivism of Michael Wyschogrod and his Ashkenazi Anti-Maimonideanism. Just this week I finished reading Michael Fishbane’s even more depraved book Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking, which acts as a vicious and extended attack on Rationalism and Science, elevating the 13th century obscurantist and Maimonides-hater Moses Taku over the Andalusian Jewish tradition. It is a sad state of affairs that has links to the current wave of “Originalism” represented by the late Antonin Scalia and the Federalist Society stooges. What we are seeing is a Judaism bereft of ethics and common sense.
It is in this context that we can better understand the subversive support of White Jewish Supremacy by Rabbi Marc Angel. Angel’s initiatives and projects are all geared to the Washington Heights crowd, who continue to extol his usefulness to their Anti-Sephardic views.
One of the Synagogues connected to Angel’s network has been Atlanta’s Or VeShalom. It is interesting to learn that after many years of failing to inculcate the Sephardic tradition in that community, they have now gone out and hired an Ashkenazi Conservative rabbi! The Sephardic tradition has fallen on some very hard times.
We next look at the recent controversy in Turkey over the deplorable conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Donald Trump’s good friend Dictator Erdogan is taking a page from the Alt-Right playbook and stoking the flames of religious prejudice in his authoritarian nationalism. In my article I discuss the Sephardi-hater Daniel Pipes who in his presentation of the matter in Raymond Ibrahim’s article seems to have forgotten Christian racism and the Spanish Inquisition. A much better analysis of the problem comes from Mustafa Akyol who looks to the tradition of Islamic Humanism for answers to the vexatious issue of religious prejudice.
It has been a while since we checked in with our dear friend Jonathan Sarna. Here he pays loving tribute to the American Jewish historian Moses Rischin and the Ashkenazi-centric modalities of his scholarship. If we want to understand how Sephardim have been erased from the discourse, this would be a good place to begin.
Speaking of White Jewish Supremacist history, Sarna’s racist pal Rabbi Meir Soloveichik goes all Tikvah clever on us in an article on his “1620 Project.” Naturally, the article is a reference to the “1619 Project” and the controversy it has generated in White Nationalist circles in Trumpworld. Soloveichik makes sure to throw in his lot with the Lysolers and against those who seek to read American History in a way that accounts for the sins of Slavery.
Soloveichik’s fellow White Jewish Supremacist Rabbi Jeremy Rosen gives us his expert analysis of the Schneersohn-Christ in the context of Social Science. As we have seen in the context of Trumpworld, it is important not only to identify the main culprits of ignorance and malevolence, but to mark those who enable it. Rosen sees CHABAD Fascism and magical obscurantism as an important factor in contemporary Jewish life. Indeed, it is all about the New Convivencia and the way that so many religious Jews are emulating Christians.
Speaking of Judaism and Christianity, Yale University Rabbi Alex Ozar’s Lehrhaus article seeks to turn back the Talmudic prohibition on Prophecy after 70 CE. It is an important point that speaks to Zionist messianism and its idea of Jewish Redemption. Prophecy is a key element in the messianic process, and the Religious Zionists remain antsy when it comes to accepting the rabbinic rejection of it.
It feels like centuries since the transgressive lawlessness of the Republican Convention and its use of the White House for a campaign ad, but Frank Bruni reminds of just how low this government has sunk in debasing our rules and norms.
We close with Alyssa Rosenberg’s praise of the degenerate Poptrash Idiocracy hit song “WAP.” For those who are not familiar with the song, you should have a look at it when you get a chance. One of the performers on the track is Megan Thee Stallion who has just been given the plum job of writing a New York Times Op-Ed, where she justifies her Strip-Club antics. And those Strip-Club antics were on ample display when she appeared on Saturday Night Live. What was most interesting about the SNL performance was the way Ms. Stallion used an audio clip of Malcolm X in order to emphasize his protective concern for Black women. For those who have any familiarity with the puritan Muslim attitude of Malcolm X, the deployment of his words was truly shameful. One wonders what he would have done if he was still alive.
David Shasha
Sepharad in Ashkenaz, That Is the Question!
By: David Shasha
The Comfortable White Jewish Supremacy World of Rabbi Marc Angel
By: David Shasha
Atlanta Sephardic Congregation Or VeShalom Hires an Ashkenazi Conservative Rabbi
By: David Shasha
Hagia Sophia and “Jihad”: Daniel Pipes Forgets the Spanish Inquisition
By: David Shasha
Hagia Sophia and Cathedral of Cordoba: The Jihad Factor
By: Raymond Ibrahim
Would the Prophet Muhammad Convert Hagia Sophia?
By: Mustafa Akyol
The Passing of Pioneering Historian Moses Rischin Marks the End of an Era
By: Jonathan D. Sarna
The 1620 Project
By: Meir Y. Soloveichik
The Rebbe and Sociology
By: Rabbi Jeremy Rosen
Prophecy is a Mitzvah
By: Alex Ozar
The Epic Shamelessness of the Republican Convention
By: Frank Bruni
‘WAP’ is Completely Filthy. We Could Use a Lot More Pop Culture Like It.
By: Alyssa Rosenberg