New Article: Rabbi Marc Angel Toots His Own Ashkenazi Horn!
David Shasha
Rabbi Marc Angel Toots His Own Ashkenazi Horn!
It is not common in the Sephardic community for rabbis to ostentatiously celebrate themselves.
But we just received the following fundraising appeal from Rabbi Marc Angel:
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY IN THE RABBINATE:
Please join us in celebrating Rabbi Marc D. Angel’s 50th anniversary of rabbinic service, dating back to September 1969. In honor of this milestone, the September 2019 issue of Conversations will feature a selection of Rabbi Angel’s articles, essays and divrei Torah edited by his son, Rabbi Hayyim Angel. This issue will include a Scroll of Honor with the names of those who join in congratulating Rabbi Marc Angel on his half century of rabbinic leadership. We invite you to participate in this tribute by supporting the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.
To contribute, you may send your checks to Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, 2 West 70th Street, New York, New York, 10023; or you may contribute on this link: https://www.jewishideas.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=34 If you wish to contribute securities, please contact us at in...@jewishideas.org
Contributions must be received by June 5, 2019 to be listed in the special issue of Conversations.
ARTICLE ON TORAH AND LITERATURE: Dr. Gillian Steinberg has written an important article on the importance of general literature as part of developing a Torah perspective on life. The article, which appears in the current issue of our journal Conversations, is now available on our website. Here is the direct link: https://www.jewishideas.org/article/another-face-torah-secular-literature-and-torah-values
RESOURCES FOR JEWISH STUDIES EDUCATORS: Our Institute, in partnership with the Sephardic Educational Center, has launched a "Sephardic Initiative," to foster inclusivity of Sephardic/pan-Sephardic themes in Jewish education. We have an Educators' Resource center that provides educators with publications, links to important articles and a forum for sharing materials. This is a free service for Jewish Studies Educators. We currently have about 100 teachers registered, from throughout North America, Israel, Great Britain, Spain and more. Educators may register on this link: https://www.jewishideas.org/resources-educators
ANGEL FOR SHABBAT: If you have not yet read this week's Angel for Shabbat, here is the link: https://www.jewishideas.org/truth-or-consequences-thoughts-parashat-ki-tissa
Shabbat Shalom, and thank you for your continued friendship and support.
Together, we are making a difference!
Rabbi Angel is not only good at shameless self-promotion, but is expert at falsely presenting his YU Ashkenazi “The Rav” Soloveitchik views as authentically Sephardic.
On closer inspection we have learned otherwise:
He very curiously took the Ashkenazi side in a debate with Malcolm Stern on the history of Congregation Shearith Israel:
More than this, he has denied Golden Age Andalusian Convivencia and the principles of Sephardic Jewish Humanism:
He has preferred instead to promote what I have called the “New Convivencia”; an alliance between Zionist Jews and Zionist Christians, which I discuss in the following article:
Angel’s attack on the old Andalusian cosmopolitan model is perfectly in keeping
with his love of Yeshiva University and its Jewish ideology.
His journal Conversations, as I have shown, is a YU-style Modern Orthodox affair that excludes traditional Sephardic ideas in favor of Ashkenazi dogma:
I have also discussed his Sephardic educational initiative:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/Davidshasha/oU24_f2Zlfo/zcv1TT2pCQAJ
It is all a veritable cornucopia of Ashkenazification!
Sephardim are currently in a very bad place, seeing our culture and history eliminated by the Ashkenazi eraser.
Rabbi Angel long ago abandoned the struggle for our dignity, preferring instead to hitch his star to the very Ashkenazim who are persecuting us. Even more than this, he has worked diligently to suppress the desperate voices of those who are indeed trying to reclaim that elusive Sephardic dignity.
The occasion of his 50th anniversary in the rabbinate provides us with a moment to reflect on how he has served to undermine the Sephardic heritage.
David Shasha