Re: [SCJ-PARENTING] Anyone want to help with this particular battle?
Cyndi Norwitz
has done a real hatchet job on anyone who doesn't celebrate that other
holiday on Dec 25th. If you look in their december archives, you'll see
post after post after post about Xmas, but absolutely NOTHING about any
other holiday.
Christmas is the biggest holiday in December. The last thing I want is to
see Chanukah played up (especially artificially) to make it seem like a big
holiday to counter Christmas. I'd much rather continue to ignore Christmas and
focus my attention on Passover and the High Holy Days.
"I think it's very sad and pathetic that most of the authors percieve
yourselves to be the hippest, most diverse, most politically correct of
bloggers, and yet you have consistantly ignored the fact that plenty of
people do not celebrate Christmas and do not need to read about every
gift your were planning to buy, then about how you bought it, and how
you wrapped it, and how you decorated your house, and what you cooked,
and who you celebrated with, and what your children thought of,
etc. etc. etc. Why not go back and count the number of Christmas posts
over the month of December. I think if you did, you might see how
insensitive it is to focus solely on this one day holiday like it's the
center of the universe..."
When I'm on certain mailing lists or when I send updates to friends and
family, I can certainly get stuck on particular things that bore the cr*p
out of most of my readers. Though some like to see it. Some people like
to share every detail of Christmas with others. Why is that bad? You can
avoid it. Just like if you don't want to read every last detail of my
baby's toilet training, there are a couple of mailing lists I urge you to
skip.
And lastly, I find it demeaning that you would even think to call me
'multicultural'. I am 100% Jewish. I have no multi anything in my
background.
I agree that the use of the term "multicultural" was odd and misplaced. I
didn't find it insulting, but it was used incorrectly.
" I know that they care about the environment because they used recycled
aluminum foil. I know they are Jewish because they have little thingies with
Hebrew writing affixed to the door frames of their bedrooms. It looks like
some kind of protective object. Maybe it contains blessings to protect you
while you sleep."
This is fairly ignorant of someone who lives where there are a lot of Jews
but, again, I don't find it belittling or insulting.
What irks me most is that these people are PAID bloggers. They actually
make money diminishing Judaism and acting superior about who they are
and what they know and don't know. They're all highly educated, but
blindingly stupid about anything outside of their comfort zone, which
happenes to be the west coast from San Francicso up to Seattle.
I have never even heard of this site. What makes it important to you?
So, I would apprieciate it very much if you would all answer the lastest
post, shown in it's entirely below:
[...] If your family is interfaith, or if you're a secular Jew, how do
you handle it? And do you laugh at family members and friends like me
who tiptoe around you during the holidays, always worried they'll say
the wrong thing or accidentally serve nothing but pork for a family
holiday dinner (yes, I actually did this one year)?"
Where's the insult? She seems genuinely concerned about any faux pas she
might be making and how to correct it.
After you're done gagging, please mosey on over to www.bloggingbaby.com
and let them know your feelings on how they portray themselves vis a vis
Judaism. They need to hear it from someone other than me.
What exactly am I supposed to be gagging about?
I honestly don't see the problem.
Cyndi
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Avi Jacobson
Cyndi Norwitz wrote:
[snip]
> And lastly, I find it demeaning that you would even think to call
me
> 'multicultural'. I am 100% Jewish. I have no multi anything in my
> background.
>
> I agree that the use of the term "multicultural" was odd and
> misplaced. I didn't find it insulting, but it was used incorrectly.
My assumption is that this term is being used in sloppy PC fashion to
mean "outside mainstream culture," the same way PC Americans now use
"international" (e.g., "International Students") to replace "foreign."
There is nothing multicultural about a Jew with a single cultural
background, just as there is nothing "international" about a French
national who comes to study at NYU after never setting foot outside
France. And of course, there is nothing derogatory about calling someone
a *foreign* national.
That said, most of us American Jews are indeed multicultural (and this
may be the sense in which the term was used). Each of us has her or his
own slice of Jewish culture, which itself is influenced by a rich
variety of cultures and differs from those of other Jews: Look at the
names of foods that are typically identified as Jewish; look at the
Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic languages themselves -- all filled
with references to and borrowings from other cultures. Then we have our
American culture. And those of us who are Wandering Jews have the
cultural elements we have assimilated by living in other countries.
I don't think "not having any multi anything" in one's background is
something to be proud of. But I also think the writer who used the term
"multicultural" is guilty of sloppy writing.
> " I know that they care about the environment because they used
recycled
> aluminum foil. I know they are Jewish because they have little
thingies with
> Hebrew writing affixed to the door frames of their bedrooms. It
looks like
> some kind of protective object. Maybe it contains blessings to
protect you
> while you sleep."
>
> This is fairly ignorant of someone who lives where there are a lot of
> Jews but, again, I don't find it belittling or insulting.
There aren't all that many mezuzahs on display in the Bay Area. But even
if there were, I don't think it's ignorant for someone not to know what
they are called. After all, how many of us know the names of ritual
objects from other cultural communities -- even ones we see every day?
What's the pope's tallit called? What's it for? What is the crescent on
the top of a mosque called? Why is it there? What are reredos? What are
sarira? Most of us, to be honest, don't know. (And by the way, the guess
about "blessings to protect you while you sleep" is not a bad one, nor
is it entirely inaccurate. Have a look at this tale from Midrash
Bereshit Rabbah: http://www.mezuzah.net/sofer.html )