Sephardic Heritage Update 870

[David Shasha]

Friends,

 

            We begin this week’s newsletter with my article on Daniel Ross Goodman’s book review of Zev Eleff’s JPS anthology on Modern Orthodox Judaism.  I discuss how The Tikvah Fund plays an important role in the promulgation of Right Wing Jewish Radicalism, and how such a reactionary ideology is closely connected to White Jewish Supremacy and Anti-Sephardi racism.

 

            Allison Kaplan Sommer reports on Right Wing Zionist extremists Canary Mission; a McCarthyite group that seeks to suppress a plurality of views on Israel.  In her article she looks at the San Francisco Jewish Federation and its role in this extremism.

 

            Reform Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch shows us how Zionism is more important than Rabbinic Judaism as he attacks Jews critical of Israel in spite of the fact that his own denomination has historically been responsible for the undermining of the Jewish tradition.  Indeed, Israel has replaced the Talmud.

 

            “America’s Rabbi” Shmuley Boteach addresses the issue of Trump lies and malfeasance by saying that facts are complicated!  Boteach is an absolutist when it comes to his CHABAD beliefs and his Right Wing Zionism, but when it comes to Trump and the “Truth” he all of a sudden becomes a relativist.

 

            We next present two articles on the repugnant union of Kanye West and Trump.  In my article I discuss the YEEZUS visit to the White House, while Tariro Mzezewa contrasts Taylor Swift’s surprising anti-Trump activism with YEEZUS MAGA.

 

            Eileen Watts provides us with a fascinating Lehrhaus article that amazingly tries to connect Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Modern Orthodox Judaism.  It is a tour-de-force of delusional argumentation that in the end shows us just how irrational The Lehrhaus approach is and how its understanding of culture and civilization is truly deranged.

 

            We close with yet another Lehrhaus article, this one by Professor Malka Simkovich on Women and Modern Orthodox Jewish leadership.  Modern Orthodox Jews remain implacably hostile to Sephardim and Sephardic participation in the current Jewish institutional discourse, but have prioritized the Feminist issue and the role of women in those racist institutions.  The article is yet another sobering reminder of how White Jewish Supremacy works and how we have been removed from the discussion.

 

 

David Shasha

 

 

The Tikvah Fund, Daniel Ross Goodman, and Zev Eleff: A Marriage Made in Ashkenazi Racist Heaven

By: David Shasha

 

Review Essay: Torah U-Madda

By: Daniel Ross Goodman

 

San Francisco Jewish Federation Funding More Than Just Canary Mission

By: Allison Kaplan Sommer

 

This is the Gravest Threat to the Future of Liberal Judaism

By: Ammiel Hirsch

 

Who Owns the Truth?

By: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

 

“I Love It”: The Trump YEEZUS Circus Moves America Deeper into the Sewer

By: David Shasha

 

I Loved Kanye West and Hated Taylor Swift.  Then 2018 Happened.

By: Tariro Mzezewa

 

The “Genesis” of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

By: Eileen Watts

 

Orthodox Women’s Leadership: A Proactive Approach

By: Malka Simkovich