Sephardic Heritage Update 482

[David Shasha]

Friends,

 

            Before we get underway I would like to direct our readers to a portrait in this week’s Tablet magazine of Rabbi Marc Schneier. 

 

http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/69537/beachhead/?print=1

 

The article is a lengthy profile of the rabbi and presents a deeply disturbing picture of the materialism and arrogance that has permeated the Jewish world.  Given the intense difficulties Sephardic Jews face in what is in effect an Ashkenazi-dominated Jewish world, witnessing the profligate behavior of Rabbi Schneier and the way his supporters have defended him is truly hard to stomach.  While Sephardim remain outside the Jewish institutional world, the prominence of Schneier and his celebrity-chic lifestyle is an affront to the Torah values of Jewish tradition and an affirmation of a community that has spun out of moral control.  That he remains a central figure in Interfaith Dialogue with Muslims is yet one more insult that we can add to the list.

 

            We begin this week’s newsletter with a disturbing trend in fundamentalist Christian circles.  The practice of conducting a “messianic” Passover Seder is starting to become popular in such circles.  This “Seder” is meant to affirm the messianic truth of Christianity by re-interpreting the rituals of the Seder to reflect a Christian meaning. 

 

            Diane Cole takes a look at the wider trend in the context of the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page.  It is yet another example of the very odd symbiosis between Christian fundamentalism in a Right Wing political context and Judaism.

 

            Sammy Levine praises the Right Wing demagogue Glenn Beck and his own promotion of the Christian Passover “Seder.”

 

            Our friend Rabbi Jeremy Rosen provides an important discussion about the eating of legumes on Passover – one of the famous ritual items that separate Ashkenazim from Sephardim.

 

            Edward Rothstein gives us a very interesting analysis of the Haggadah which emphasizes the strangeness of its rhetoric and discursive practices in a Western context.  By looking at its Midrashic foundations, the article provides an important set of insights to what is often regarded as a simplistic text.

 

            Our friend Sasson Somekh, co-editor of the important new anthology of the writings of the Egyptian-Jewish writer Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff, has written an excellent article on Naguib Mahfouz which shows us the deep connection that Middle Eastern Jews have with Arabic culture and civilization.

 

            From the other side of the cultural divide, Aluf Benn discusses the work of the Israeli icon S.Y. Agnon.  The work of Agnon is marked as definitively Israeli at the same time that the literary culture of the Sephardim remains absent and largely off-limits in Zionist culture.

 

            Our friend Claudia De Martino gives us an excellent interview with Sephardic filmmaker Nissim Mossek and the work he is doing to raise awareness of our culture and history.

 

            Gil Troy uses the figures of the “Four Sons” of the Passover Haggadah to demonize what he considers to be “Anti-Zionist” rabbis.  There has lately been an outbreak of hysteria in the Jewish community regarding young Jews who are openly critical of Israel.  In this article we see the Zionist hammer being brought down on the heads of such “deviants” by making a false equivalence between the “Four Sons” and those who dare to exercise self-reflection and critical acumen when it comes to the Holy-of-Holies that is Israel.

 

            Conservative thinker Michael Gerson discusses the odious Ayn Rand.  In a surprising move for a Right Winger, Gerson is very critical of what he sees as an infantile way of thinking.  Would that other Conservatives follow his lead!

 

            Linh Dinh takes a look at another odious character – this time it is the infamous Snooki of the degenerate MTV program “Jersey Shore.”

 

 

 

David Shasha

 

           

 

The Christian “Seder”

By: David Shasha

 

Is Passover the New Christmas?

By: Diane Cole

 

Glenn Beck Continues His Unwavering Support for Israel with Passover Seder

By: Sammy Levine

 

Kitniyot

By: Rabbi Jeremy Rosen

 

Put Yourself in the Story of Passover

By: Edward Rothstein

 

Memories of Mahfouz

By: Sasson Somekh

 

Lessons of S.Y. Agnon’s ‘Only Yesterday’

By: Aluf Benn

 

Interview with Filmmaker Nissim Mossek

By: Claudia De Martino

 

Treat Anti-Zionist Rabbis Like the Four Sons

By: Gil Troy

 

Ayn Rand’s Adult-Onset Adolescence

By: Michael Gerson

 

What Price the Wisdom of Snooki?

By: Linh Dinh