Sephardic Heritage Update 1069
David Shasha
Friends,
We begin this week, appropriately enough, with an article by Bezalel Naor, the title is my creation, on YU and Hasidism. We have all been experiencing the onslaught of Jewish apologia for the corrupt and ignorant Hasidim who were exposed by The New York Times last Sunday. Professor Naor, an expert on Settler Zionist hero Abraham Isaac Kook, reviews a new YU collection on the Intersectionality of Modern Orthodoxy and Hasidism in a new amalgamation that rejects Jewish Humanism and its foundational rationalism and respect for science, while it promotes the magical and irrational “Spirit,” RUCHNIYUS, that has informed contemporary Orthodoxy. It is a frightening development that is confirmed in the article. I wanted to make note of one of the many disgusting Modern Orthodox apologia for the Hasidim, this one from OU executive Rabbi Moshe Hauer, whose pathetic defense of the indefensible does the usual Trump-style attack on the media:
It all comes together in one reprehensible package.
And as Washington Heights moves further into Monsey and Williamsburg, other Orthodox Jews like Rabbi Jay Kelman seek to co-opt and appropriate Sephardic culture in a Shtetl kind of way. Rabbi Kelman speaks of his trip to Lisbon, in the context of the whole Citizenship question that we have been examining for so long. It is a fascinating Ashkenazi take that confirms the White Jewish Supremacy, and the ongoing erasure of the classical Sephardic heritage.
Henry Giroux looks at the links between the DEATH SENTENCE-inspired destruction of American education and the nihilism of the Nazis and Fascists. As we move closer to the Jewish High Holidays, it is certain that many of you will be encountering the Trumpscum Jews and having heated conversations about their support for the New Fascism. The article might prove beneficial in this regard.
An important component of the DEATH SENTENCE Gaslight is the fake idea of Liberal teachers “grooming” children in a nefarious sexual way. A report from The Washington Post clarifies how this debilitating process works by examining what is going on in Nebraska and how the propaganda is infiltrating the ranks of Middle America and our political system.
We next move to the natural Right Wing Catholic Fascist correlation to the DEATH SENTENCE ethos, the Overturn Roe decision. There has recently been a new development to the Trumpscum SCOTUS decision, as Trumpscum Seditionist Senator Lindsay Graham has introduced legislation for a Federal Ban on Abortion that has caused some consternation in Republican circles. The controversy reminds us that many of those same Republicans, who have pushed for Overturning Roe, have remained silent as the SCOTUS anarchy has taken hold in many American states.
And before we leave DEATH SENTENCE, we should note his likely illegal Alt-Right stunt, using public funds to send Hispanic migrants seeking asylum to Martha’s Vineyard, moving them from Texas and Florida using public funds to do so:
$12 million in public funds, to be exact:
He is trying to out-racist his Trumpscum ally Greg Abbott, friend of Eric Clapton:
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/24/greg-abbott-eric-adams-migrant-busing-new-york/
Though Trumpscum Abbott did his best to go one Lysol step further, sending buses of immigrants to VP Kamala Harris’ house:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/15/us/migrants-kamala-harris-house-dc/index.html
As if these people are animals.
It is the new “Christian” hatred of the Stranger:
Just in time for Hispanic Heritage Month!
The cruelty is indeed the point.
And speaking of the new Christian hate, First Things Trumpscum Catholic Fascist R.R. Reno takes his victory lap, while complete whackjob Rita Joseph traces the Anti-Abortion requirement to the Garden of Eden! We close with a Tikvah Fund article from their resident Haredi Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, whose tortured defense of the Overturn Roe decision is a fascinating example of how the Right Wing Jewish extremists have been forced to tiptoe through the Talmudic sources, which do not ultimately affirm their position.
We will have much more on the Abortion issue in the coming weeks.
When I first saw Rabbi Seth Limmer’s Tikvah Tablet article attacking translation of the Hebrew Bible and the idea of Jewish religion from the perspective of Leora Batnitzky, I was curious to learn about his background, and what I found was to be expected:
That’s right, another Bari Weiss Cancel Culture “victim” being embraced by Tikvah!
The article itself is a bizarre argument against translation that opposes the profoundly integrative view of Rabbi Jose Faur in his book Golden Doves with Silver Dots, which contrasts the Monolingualism of Greek culture with the cultural multiplicity of the classical Jewish tradition, which I discussed in the following article:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10PB65T0j5KCtYVuRDffdThuTUWdKksCt/view?ths=true
We anticipate that the Trumpscum SCOTUS will be striking down Affirmative Action at some point in the near future. Stephanie Saul’s article on Rich White People Affirmative Action, Legacy Admissions, is worth considering, as the costs of a university education becomes more and more prohibitive for working Americans.
Sara Aridi visits what appears to be a very active Middle Eastern party scene in Brooklyn. Indeed, after reading the article I thought of my immigrant grandparents and the rich cultural world of Atlantic Avenue and Friday night Arabic movies on 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst, where the Syrian Jewish community lived before the Ocean Parkway migration. Times have certainly changed!
We close with an article from BOOKATEE Bari Weiss favorite John McWhorter, which I think we can all agree on: the posthumous rectification by the Pulitzer Prize committee to award Duke Ellington the honor. In 1965 the committee made a truly egregious error by not awarding it to one of the most important American composers and musicians of the 20th century, and at least we can all put down our differences and get behind Sir Duke and recall his magnificent legacy as a human being and artist.
David Shasha
Review Essay: Hasidism and Anti-Maimonideanism at Yeshiva University
By: Bezalel Naor
Musings from Portugal: Landing in Lisbon
By: Rabbi Jay Kelman
The Nazification of American Education
By: Henry Giroux
Claim that Sex Ed ‘Grooms’ Kids Jolted Nebraska Politics a Year Before it Swept the Nation
By: Beth Reinhard and Emma Brown
Life Wins
By: R.R. Reno
As Pro-Abortion Fanatics Scream About ‘Choice,’ Remember the Decision That Was Made in Eden
By: Rita Joseph
Our Position on Abortion: Pro-Holiness
By: Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer
Trapped in Translation
By: Seth M. Limmer
The Quiet Fight to Keep Legacy Admissions
By: Stephanie Saul
The Middle Eastern Party Scene is Thriving in Brooklyn
By: Sara Aridi
Give Duke Ellington the 1965 Pulitzer Prize
By: John McWhorter