ICYMI: Newsletter Special: The Imperilled Legacy of Rabbi Jose Faur
David Shasha
Friends,
When my teacher Rabbi Jose Faur passed away recently, I chose to remain silent out of deeply personal reasons.
I was forced to break my silence in order to respond to an article by Mijal Bitton which was published by Tikvah Tablet Alana Newhouse.
Shortly before Ms. Bitton’s article was published, I had written a piece attacking the White Jewish Supremacy I found in a Modern Jewish Philosophy workbook published by Leonard Levin. In that article I was able to incorporate a good deal of Sephardic material related to Rabbi Faur; material that would serve to counteract the abject Anti-Sephardi racism that dominates the field.
The idea was to construct an alternative Modern Jewish Philosophy that would expose the Eurocentrism of Levin and his many associates, and assert the idea of Religious Humanism which Faur espoused.
It was in this context that I read the Bitton tribute.
My lengthy response provides even more detail on Faur’s scholarship, as it seeks to refine and correct Bitton’s biographical information.
The discussion once again focuses on how the Jewish institutional world that Bitton has so aggressively joined is contrary to Sephardic values and to Faur’s own teaching.
In the end, her article is filled with duplicity, learned from her father, that does little to move the needle on a White Jewish Supremacy that she does not even acknowledge. Her own CV and personal biography, as she admits, is far from the classical Sephardic tradition. However sincere she thinks she is, her article is ultimately misleading and ineffectual when it comes to promoting Sephardic continuity.
Bitton currently works in the Shalom Hartman Institute (SHI), another White Jewish Supremacist institution, whose North American director is Yehuda Kurtzer. Kurtzer recently inserted himself into the Peter Beinart One State mess, which I have addressed in detail. What is unique about his attack on Beinart is his use of the “New Talmud” scholarship; a pedagogy that stands diametrically opposed to Faur and the Sephardic tradition.
SHI has elevated one of the most prominent of the “New Talmud” scholars, Christine Hayes, who is closely tied to her mentor Daniel Boyarin. Indeed, Kurtzer cites Boyarin’s attack on Yavneh and the Sages as the centerpiece of his anti-Beinart screed.
More than this, Kurtzer has just co-edited an anthology called The New Jewish Canon, which, like the Levin Modern Jewish Philosophy workbook, is a prime example of how to erase Sephardic culture from the contemporary Jewish discourse.
It is thus critical to see that Bitton herself is the only Sephardic contributor to the book, and her role is limited to a discussion of Jewish Demography, and not to any Sephardic intellectual matter; a subject she knows little about anyway.
This collection of articles is meant to present the ideas of Rabbi Faur in the context of White Jewish Supremacy, and to defend his legacy from those at places like SHI and Tikvah Tablet who would seek to silence his unique voice. By going along with this Ashkenazi racism, and profiting handsomely from it, Mijal Bitton serves as a useful idiot for those who would kill off the Sephardic heritage.
David Shasha
Modern Jewish Philosophy as White Jewish Supremacy
By: David Shasha
Appendix: Leonard Levin MODERN JEWISH PHILOSOPHY WORKBOOK Table of Contents
Dr. Mijal Bitton and Rabbi Jose Faur: A Contrast in Rhetorical Styles
By: David Shasha
The Torah of Hakham Jose Faur
By: Mijal Bitton
Tikvah Tablet on the Warpath Against Peter Beinart: Yehuda Kurtzer Says Yavneh is a Myth!
By: David Shasha
Memory Malpractice: Peter Beinart, the Future of Israel, and the Meaning of Yavne
By: Yehuda Kurtzer
Appendix: The New Jewish Canon Table of Contents
By: Yehuda Kurtzer and Claire E. Sufrin