Weekly Items of Note (8/4)
David Shasha
Sephardi-hater Rabbi Meir Soloveichik Does it Again!
Last Monday the following item appeared in the Congregation Shearith Israel e-mail newsletter:
Join us for an unmissable event, marking 365 Years of Judaism in America, featuring a historical ceremony and lecture by Rabbi Meir Soloveichik: "The Travel of the Torah: From Spain to Portugal, From Amsterdam to America." The ceremony will include:
a reunion between descendants of Don Isaac Abarbanel, one of the greatest Sephardic rabbinic figures of all times, and certainly the greatest Jewish Portuguese figure of all times, and His Royal Highness, the Duke of Braganza;
the welcoming and rededication of a newly kashered centuries-old American Torah;
the historic return of three sets of precious Myer Myers rimonim, which we are bringing together, will display together, and will use together for the first time ever.
We are incredibly excited for this momentous event and hope all of you attend and bring your family and friends to witness and take part in it.
I have written extensively about Soloveichik’s deep contempt for the Sephardic tradition of Jewish Humanism, and this announcement is both ironic and depressing.
He has learned his lesson in Sephardic ephemera from his Ashkenazi friends at the American Sephardi Federation, who excel in such pomp and no circumstance.
And we have the RIMONIM!
I am sure that Trump will have more access to them than the Sephardic community.
Rabbi Marc Angel and the New Convivencia
Soloveichik’s esteemed SI predecessor Marc Angel, the man who set the table for the White Jewish takeover of the Synagogue, announced that his New Convivencia “bencher” has been re-issued by KTAV books:
https://www.jewishideas.org/birkat-hamazon-booklet-sephardic-and-ashkenazic-texts
Carefully note that it is not only inclusive of Ashkenazi and Sephardi liturgical traditions, but it even breaks off the Middle Eastern Sephardic tradition from the so-called “Western” Sephardic tradition.
For those unacquainted with the work of Angel’s SI predecessor David de Sola Pool, he made his own contributions to the liturgical tradition:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_de_Sola_Pool#Publications
Unlike Angel, De Sola Pool did two separate translations of the Siddur, one for Sephardim and one for Ashkenazim. He did not break down the Sephardic tradition into two.
Angel is, as I have repeatedly insisted, obsessed with bringing Ashkenazim and Sephardim together as one community. He has resolutely denied the reality of White Jewish Supremacy and the persecution of Sephardim by the Ashkenazim – something that goes all the way back to the anathemas hurled by the Franco-German rabbis at Maimonides.
It is good to see that Angel is so very comfortable with White Jewish Supremacy.
Messianic Jew vs. Messianic Jew Grudge Match!
I was curious to see this item lurking at the very bottom of The Jerusalem Post webpage:
America’s Rabbi, rabid Trump supporter, and CHABAD messianist is going to debate a Jews for Jesus!
For those who may have missed it, here is the special newsletter I put together in honor of the Schneersohn-Christ and his many adherents:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/Davidshasha/gC4ZIOhKaiQ
What we have here apparently is a problem of nomenclature.
The CHABAD cult calls their messiah Menachem Schneersohn, the Christians call theirs Jesus.
In the end both groups of religious radicals love the Alt-Right Trump as they love them some Settler Zionism.
So, I am not really sure what the fight is actually about.
A Mizrahi Jewish Sighting at Tablet Magazine!
The Tikvah Fund is paying attention to Israeli Mizrahi Jews as the do-over election comes near:
The report is boilerplate Israeli politics with a strong whiff of anti-Left sentiment as the Labor Party there is struggling to remain relevant.
What we have is the return of loser Amir Peretz in a dizzyingly confused new alliance that is not really all that Left in the first place.
The whole Byzantine structure of Israeli politics, outside the ruling Netanyahu-Likud tyranny, is hard to follow, but what the article does confirm is that the Ashkenazim are “secular,” meaning modern and enlightened, while the Mizrahim are “traditional,” meaning reactionary and stupid.
The bottom line is not very optimistic when it comes to the Israeli Left which has been progressively wiped out by the New Fascism that rules the country.
The Mizrahi Israelis, as I have repeatedly said, are seen as a reliable ally of that New Fascism as their primitive nature is quite compatible with the current Right Wing political alignment.
David Shasha