New Article: Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun: The Home of Jarvanka Speaks Out on San Diego
David Shasha
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun: The Home of Jarvanka Speaks Out on San Diego
As I noted at the time, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York’s very fashionable Upper East Side was very quick to respond to the Pittsburgh Trumpdeath Synagogue shooting:
The response was less than adequate.
For those who might not be aware, the Orthodox KJ is the home to Jarvanka, longtime members in good standing:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Congregation-Kehilath-Jeshurun/103259596396580
KJ is a great place.
Charlie Kushner, Trump MACHATEINISTER and Family Sex Blackmailer, COME ON DOWN:
Aliyot to the Torah for everyone!
This time it took KJ a few days to respond to the Trumpdeath that visited San Diego.
And the response, again, was less than adequate.
Here is the article entitled “How to Say Never Again, Again” written by Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz:
It is agonizing to have say never again, again and again. Whenever an anti-Semitic attack occurs around the world, Jewish communal institutions scramble to put out statements. Unfortunately, with no shortage of attacks, statements have become a ritual, each with their own vocabulary and style. The organization starts out by declaring that it is “devastated,” “horrified,” and “shocked” by the attack. Next, past events are recalled, future action is called for, and a list of suggestions is issued for politicians and media. These statements are then fed to the media, which helps fill the quota of pull quotes for articles. Make no mistake, the work of these organizations is virtuous; but it is a struggle to rewrite the same statement a dozen times while maintaining authenticity. It is impossible for a mere statement to convey the horror of this brutal attack.
It is into this vacuum that the temptation to editorialize arises. What can you say when words fail you? So short homilies and analyses are added to the condemnation. In reality, these added words diminish and distract from the final goal of clearly denouncing anti-Semitism.
Worse yet, these editorial remarks politicize anti-Semitism. Too often pundits link such an event to their own political viewpoint, and use the tragedy in the service of their own agenda. I am embarrassed by those who spend their time debating whether anti-Semitism is worse on the Left or the Right. This debate is absurd for two reasons. First, someone who is sick with two diseases doesn't debate which life-threatening illness is worse. Instead, he responds with all his might against both diseases; and a community confronted by two types of dangerous hatred doesn’t have the luxury to downplay either one. Second, it makes the mistake of thinking that there is more than one type of anti-Semitism. In fact, anti-Semitism is a singular myth, which has passed from the pagan world on to religious and secular societies, and has moved from continent to continent spanning from right to left. There is no better or worse form of anti-Semitism, because at its core, anti-Semitism is one thing and one thing only: the irrational hatred of Jews.
Some organizations feel compelled to universalize the message, and while condemning attacks like that on the Chabad of Poway, mention other xenophobic attacks in the process. This too is a noble impulse that misses the mark. Every act of hatred and racism must be roundly condemned, but now is the time to focus on Poway. When a family is mourning their own loss, we don't tell them about another family’s sorrows; and the Jewish community must not reduce the battle against the world’s oldest hatred into a struggle with ordinary bigotry. I find it particularly disconcerting that Jewish organizations feel compelled to universalize anti-Semitism before condemning it, looking for permission from others before they can speak about their own pain.
So what can be said then? What needs to be said is that anti-Semitism – in all its ugly forms – is unacceptable, and that we will shout in rage when the media, spin doctors and politicians minimize anti-Semitism. Clear messages must be used to counter an era filled with evasive language and non-apology apologies. Just this past week, the New York Times published an anti-Semitic cartoon. Instead of apologizing directly, the outlet initially said the cartoon contained “anti-Semitic tropes,” turning public anti-Semitism into a mere mis-trope. This outrageous non-apology is even more damaging than the cartoon, because it treats anti-Semitic propaganda as if it were an abstract discussion of literary theory. But Jews know better, and they know Der Stuermer type cartoons can be a matter of life and death.
We need to say to the world that anti-Semitism is more than another news story; for Jews, it is a communal tragedy. It resulted in a congregation being attacked while praying; an attack that is part of a 2,000 year history of anti-Semitism which has claimed the lives of millions of Jews, and threatens Jews everywhere, even in the United States.
Above all, we must not bury the human side of this tragedy under a mountain of platitudes. A beloved wife and mother, Lori Gilbert Kaye, was murdered in cold blood. The Rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein, had his fingers shot off in front of his four-year-old granddaughter. An eight-year-old girl, Noya Dahan, had a piece of shrapnel pierce through her leg, and her uncle, Almog Peretz, who shielded children, has multiple shrapnel wounds. It is for them that we cry, and for them that we shout out in grief and outrage the attacks must stop. Even if it seems quixotic to do so, we will demand nothing less than an end to anti-Semitism.
Yes, we will continue to declare never again, even if we have to say it again and again.
The word “Trump” never appears in the article, neither does the word “Israel.”
But the words “New York Times” do indeed appear.
For the Orthodox Jewish community “New York Times” has long been a pejorative term:
https://www.quora.com/Does-the-New-York-Times-have-an-agenda-against-Orthodox-Jews
The Zionists are even less happy with the paper:
Here is one more that the racist Algemeiner published after the San Diego terror attack:
Rather than protesting the Trump administration for its racism and support for Alt-Right groups in the wake of Charlottesville, the radical Jews protested outside the offices of the NYT:
https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Over-100-people-protest-New-York-Times-antisemitism-588258
This was what it looked like:
Attendees arrived at the protest waving both Israeli and American flags, and brandishing signs with slogans that included: "Anit-Israel, Anti-Semitic, NYT Guilty", "NYT guilty of 120 years of hatred," and a sign with a yellow Star of David captioned: "NYT, should I be wearing this too?"
The group was led by the notorious Dov Hikind; the same Jew who proudly wore Blackface to a Purim party, as reported by the NYT!
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/nyregion/hikind-defends-wearing-blackface-to-purim-party.html
The New York Jewish Week, a media outlet dominated by Orthodox voices, provided us with an “insightful” article on Jews and Blackface which quoted Orthodox academic historian Jonathan Sarna:
https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/jews-and-blackface-its-complicated/
Blackface is “complicated”!
Black Lives Don’t Matter!
In Sarna’s immortal words:
“Blackface, once upon a time, was commonplace and not viewed as negative or an effort to stigmatize; indeed, many of those who put on blackface felt that through it they came to understand something of the black experience (much as in “Gentleman’s Agreement,” the character who pretended to be a Jew came to understand the stigma of being Jewish),” Sarna continued. “Over time, of course, blackface became unacceptable, seen either as demeaning or as a form of cultural appropriation.”
It appears that Jews are very sensitive about racist images that apply to them, but not so much when it comes to their use of racist images when it applies to others.
Dov Hikind protesting the NYT for racism is pretty CHUTZPAH-dik.
And of course, rabid Trumpsupporter Alan Dershowitz was standing right there with “Blackface” Hikind attacking the NYT, as reported by the Settler website Arutz Sheva:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262460
Dershowitz has become a primary go-to Trump advocate, forcefully defending the Orange Pig at every turn, including writing a book against his possible Impeachment:
The brief against Trump is rather thin, if non-existent, in this part of the Jewish world – and KJ is very much a part of this tightly-knit community.
We must keep all this in mind when we read Steinmetz demanding that we leave politics aside when it comes to Trumpdeath terrorism.
Politics is indeed very much in the eyes of the beholder.
So, while Steinmetz orders us not to politicize Anti-Semitism in the Trump era, he makes use of the standard Orthodox Jewish memes and references to politicize the issue through the use of moral equivalence.
A deeply-offensive political cartoon is not the same as MAGA terrorism.
And criticism of Zionism, however egregious, is not the same as murder in the name of Jesus Christ and his Whiteness.
In Steinmetz’s view, Anti-Semitism is an eternal phenomenon; an essentialized understanding that never discriminates between its different manifestations or the different religious approaches to Judaism throughout history.
It is all one and the same thing.
Forever and always.
No matter who does it.
Critically, Steinmetz wants us to forcefully repudiate political interpretations of Anti-Semitism, just in time to exonerate Trump and his Christian Alt-Right hordes for the current spike in Anti-Semitic acts.
Let us not undermine the New Convivencia and the close ties between those Christian Supremacists and the Messianic Zionists.
Apocalypse Pow!
There is no cause-and-effect for Steinmetz; it is just the current manifestation of an eternal hatred that will not cease no matter what we do or say.
By refusing to look at the specific instances of Anti-Semitism and the manifestation of lethal violence generated by Trumpworld MAGA Fascism, Steinmetz, similar to Traitor Mueller, does not want to upset the Trump Apple Cart; a Cart that is still very much welcome in his Synagogue.
Once again, we must note the ADL’s report on Anti-Semitism in the Trump era:
We are seeing a historic rise in Anti-Jewish activity that is directly related to Trump’s ascendance.
It is interesting to note that Haskel Lookstein, KJ emeritus rabbi, was actually forced by his community to pull out of speaking to Trump’s RNC:
https://www.change.org/p/ramaz-school-rabbi-lookstein-you-may-speak-for-trump-but-not-in-our-name
Good for them.
Would that formerly-Sephardic Congregation Shearith Israel were so fortunate with its Trumploving rabbi!
https://apnews.com/66e8bde62ecb4a9086a34264655e7282
The internal politics of KJ are clearly a very serious matter, as can be seen in the support that Steinmetz gave, along with other members of the Orthodox Union leadership, for Trump’s obsequious Jerusalem Embassy vote-getting stunt:
Indeed, KJ is knee-deep in Trump politics and yet there is no discussion in the Steinmetz article of the Orange Pig’s role in the resurgence of American Christian racism and Anti-Semitism that has led to these Synagogue shootings. And nothing on the deplorably corrupt Kushners and their ill-gotten emoluments.
In fact, he is forcefully arguing that we leave Trump out of it completely.
In the end, it is yet another cowardly deflection from the home of Jarvanka where being a traitor to America is not all that different from being a traitor to Torah Judaism.
David Shasha