Sephardic Heritage Update 778
David Shasha
Friends,
We begin this week’s newsletter with another of my discussions on Jews and Donald Trump. There is much to be ashamed of and worried about as we consider that Trump’s daughter and her husband are part of the Orthodox Jewish community. And then there is the Ashkenazi hegemony that is consistently being presented in Jewish publications like The Forward, where discussion of Trumpworld is completely limited to Ashkenazim.
The deleterious situation of the Sephardim is due to Self-Haters like Rabbi Marc Angel. In a recent article Angel presents his view of Jewish “Excellence” which recounts the usual Ashkenazi prejudices and ethnocentrism.
In yet another article I discuss the problems of contemporary Zionism and the role of those same Self-Hating Sephardim in the promotion of reactionary views and policies.
One of the key reasons why Sephardim are in a benighted state is because of intellectuals like Eva Illouz who show absolutely no awareness of the classical Sephardic heritage and its possible place in contemporary Jewish culture. In a recent article on Jewish education Professor Illouz once again presents us with a very Ashkenazi-oriented approach to Jewish matters.
Rabbi Shalom Morris provides us with yet another example of Sephardi-Ashkenazi “Convivencia” as a primary factor in our community. Rather than present the many problems of Ashkenazi hegemony he advises us to just get along.
Vered Lee discusses a conference on the work of Iraqi-Israeli writer Sami Michael that took place last year at Northwestern University. The conference was organized by Ashkenazi Jews, and interestingly is being marked by the publication of its proceedings in a Hebrew-language volume that was just published in Israel. Many American Jews have no idea who Michael is and what he represents, and this publication will not allow them to learn about him given the language barrier.
Dani Ishai Behan has written a truly flabbergasting article advising us that Orientalist racism is really about Anti-Jewish hatred and that European Zionism, not Arab nationalism, is the real Oriental movement.
Rabbi Zev Eleff and Menachem Butler present us with a timely attack on Moses Mendelssohn that shows us how the great German-Jewish thinker has been vilified by the Orthodox Jewish world. At the very moment that Mendelssohn’s Jewish Humanism is most needed, he is once again being attacked by the Orthodox fanatics.
On the other side of the Ashkenazi coin we have the scholar Joshua Berman lecturing us on how modern readers of the Hebrew Bible are far removed from that work’s historical context and need to defer to the Documentary Hypothesis and German scholarship. It shows us once again the authoritarian nature of Ashkenazi Judaism which is either completely subsumed in Orthodox fundamentalism, or tied to the German historical method which rejects that Orthodoxy. Some choice!
We close with an article by Jason Horowitz which alerts us to the connection between Steve Bannon, Breitbart News, and Thomas Williams – the outlet’s Rome correspondent. The report shows us how Bannon is very closely connected to Right Wing Catholic elements and how those ties figure into the larger Trumpworld vision of hate and division.
David Shasha
Jews in Fascist Trumpworld: Jared Kushner in the White House and Ashkenazi Historians in The Forward
By: David Shasha
Rabbi Marc Angel and Jewish “Excellence”
By: David Shasha
Zionism and its Current Discontents: Watch Out, Self-Hating Sephardim on the Rampage!
By: David Shasha
An Earthquake in the Jewish World
By: Eva Illouz
S&P and Ashkenazim
By: Rabbi Shalom Morris
Sami Michael: The Pioneering Writer Giving Voice to Israel’s Oppressed
By: Vered Lee
Anti-Semitism: The World’s Oldest Orientalism
By: Dani Ishai Behan
Moses Mendelssohn and the Orthodox Mind
By: Zev Eleff and Menachem Butler
The Chasm that Separates Modern Readers from the Biblical Text
By: Joshua Berman
Breitbart’s Man in Rome: A Gentle Voice in a Strident Chorus
By: Jason Horowitz