Sephardic Heritage Update 540
David Shasha
Friends,
Before we get underway, here are a few items of note:
1. For those who may have missed the very important screening of CNBC’s program “American Greed” on the New Jersey scandal involving a number of prominent rabbis from the Sephardic community, the show will be rebroadcast tonight at 10 PM and 1 AM:
https://groups.google.com/group/Davidshasha/browse_thread/thread/818da940b12f3545
In addition to providing the often gruesome details on the financial scandal and its revelations of a pervasive culture of moral corruption among religious figures in the Sephardic community, the program also gives us a pretty intimate picture of Solomon Dwek, the son of a prominent Syrian rabbi. One of the most intriguing details presented is the alias Dwek was given by the FBI while doing his undercover work. He was given the name “David Essenbach,” a clearly Ashkenazi name, which indicates to us how so many Sephardic Orthodox Jews have relinquished their Sephardic identity taken on the manner and lifestyle of the Ashkenazim.
2. A special issue of the quarterly magazine Contact published by The Michael Steinhardt Foundation is devoted to the important subject of Jewish identity in Israel. Aside from the expected whitewash of the matter at the service of Israeli HASBARAH and its relentlessly rosy picture of that country, a pervasive detail that appears throughout the articles is the matter of Sephardic-Mizrahi identity in contemporary Israel.
Again, not surprisingly, there is no serious discussion of the brutal ways in which the Israeli political system with its pervasive Ashkenazi cultural bias has served to ultimately undermine Sephardic Jewish culture and sever the Sephardim themselves from their own heritage.
In particular, the very first article in the magazine by Rabbi Donniel Hartman insults Sephardim by making the bizarre and offensive argument that Sephardic Jewish culture has prominently entered the Israeli mainstream. I have already prepared my comments on the article and will be sending it out shortly. For those who would like to read the entire series of articles, the magazine is available on-line:
http://www.jewishlife.org/pdf/summmer2012/summer_2012.pdf
3. A number of readers have forwarded this article to me:
http://blogs.jpost.com/content/save-date-even-if-you%E2%80%99re-ashkenazi
It is yet another in a seemingly endless series of HASBARAH articles that promote the Israeli desire to respond to Palestinian Arab claims by countering with the matter of Arab Jews and the way they left their homes in Arab-Muslim world. I have dealt with the matter many times, but it seems that the issue has only continued to perplex Sephardim. So here is the article written for the SHU by Yehouda Shenhav that clarifies the issue and its implications for our history and politics:
4. On a completely different note, I would like to recommend a very interesting article by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg about the bully New Jersey governor Chris Christie and his obsession with Bruce Springsteen.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/jersey-boys/9019/
Having been a longtime Springsteen fan who has often been turned off by the weird dynamic between his fans – many of whom are 1%-ers – and the artist’s Leftist politics, the article is a fascinating discussion of the hypocrisies of rich Liberal entertainers and the paradoxes they live with. The irony that the article points out is – and this is clear to any rational person who attends a Springsteen concert – that the majority of the audience members are people who would vote for Chris Christie. The meaning of this irony is brought to the fore by Springsteen’s personal animosity towards the current New Jersey governor who continues to have an excruciating man-crush on the musician. The article does an excellent job penetrating this odd dynamic and goes a long way in explaining how many of the ultra-rich Liberals simply ignore their own existential and political contradictions.
5. Finally, I would like to recommend an animated video that has been making the rounds on the Internet:
http://pulsemedia.org/2012/07/20/yo-mama-so-zionist/
This very clever video uses the African-American “Doing the Dozens” to illustrate some of the most salient elements of the Zionist argument. It does it with humor and style, but is saying some extremely serious things at the same time.
We begin this week’s newsletter with a very interesting 2003 article by Oona Eisenstadt dealing with Emmanuel Levinas’ Zionism. Making use of the critique of Jacques Derrida, the article takes a close look at Levinas understanding of the Jewish State in the context of his overall ethical philosophy.
Vered Lee discusses the new book on the Yemenite Jewish immigration to Israel by our friend Esther Meir-Glitzenstein. Once again we learn that there is a huge disparity between the official Zionist version of events and the actual reality.
A report from AFP looks at the current difficulties of Jews in Yemen.
We next present three articles on the issues relating to Israeli expatriates and Judaism:
Shalom Hammer discusses the current goings-on in Religious Zionism. Along the way he provides us with some important information about the relationship between Israeli Jews and Judaism. Rabbi Yonah Bookstein looks at the cultural Zionist Ahad Ha’am and his ideas as a possible tool to assist Israelis in better understanding their Jewish heritage. Finally, Gavriel Horan looks at Israeli expatriates and the Hebrew language.
Steven Salaita has written a very important article on Sacha Baron Cohen and his racially-charged Zionist proclivities.
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, who is in consideration for the position of British Chief Rabbi and has recently appeared with fundamentalist Christian ministers at a session of the US Congress dealing with Birth Control, provides us with praise of Mitt Romney’s speech at the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University.
David Roth has written an excellent critique of David Brooks which shows that the emperor has no clothes. We also present one of Brooks’ gems – this one is on the Limousine Liberal and their vain attempts at public service.
We close with a brilliant piece from Boyce Watkins that takes on the dangerous vulgarity of commercial Hip-Hop and its negative affects on our culture.
David Shasha
The Problem of the Promise: Derrida on Levinas on the Cities of Refuge
By: Oona Eisenstadt
The Frayed Truth of Operation Magic Carpet
By: Vered Lee
Yemeni Jew Stabbed in Sanaa Dies of Wounds
By: Agence France Presse
Religious Zionist Rabbis: The Awakening
By: Shalom Hammer
Ahad Ha’am 2.0: Hebrew Literacy for Israelis in America
By: Rabbi Yonah Bookstein
Reaching Israelis in America: Using Hebrew to Stem the Tide of Assimilation among Israelis Living in America
By: Gavriel Horan
Sacha Baron Cohen: A Buffoonish Ideologue at Israel’s Service
By: Steven Salaita
Morality, not Theology: The Importance of Mitt Romney’s Liberty University Speech
By: Meir Y. Soloveichik
Spiking the Football with David Brooks
By: David Roth
The Service Patch
By: David Brooks
How Commercialized Hip-Hop Murders the Future of Our Children
By: Boyce Watkins