Jewish Punk Rock? Believe it. Video below.
1. We’re gonna have another Jew on the Supreme Court! Hells yeah! I mean, “Elena Kagan Will Be Obama’s Supreme Court Pick: Mike Allen” (Huff Post).
2. Black comic can joke about Jewish in-laws, N.J. judge rules. Philly.com. Thank goodness. I mean, that would be nuts if a court interfered in whether a comic could crack a “Your Jewish momma is so naggy….” joke.
3. Breaking News: Talmud Torah of Saint Paul to stay open. If you didn’t know that from our article this week, you need to read TC Jewfolk more. This is hot stuff, folks! Join the conversation!
4. Oren: Obama did not ‘snub’ Netanyahu. Capital J. Thanks for clearing (wait – no, unclearing) this up. Now we’re even more confused. But happier?
5. Weirdest Jewish campaign ever? Or brilliant social media rave? Federations launch the “what’s your #ish?” campaign. Click the link. Check it out. Let me know what you think.
6. Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, Israel Opponent, Dies at 86. NY Times. (I’m spitting left, right). What’s the correct Jewish way to react to the death of a man who was a longtime adviser to Yasser Arafat, and whose organization violently and nastily protests pro-Israel events and posed for pictures with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? There’s got to be a Hebrew word for “good riddance.”
7. And just for kicks, and because I love that there is such thing as Jewish punk rock, check out The Groggers singing “The Get.” (for those who don’t know, a “Get” is a Jewish divorce document. That helps with context for the song).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DAr3zdojL4
If I might say so, many among the Obama’s Chosen J’s are not too far off from Rabbi Hirsh’s position. Already, some are beginning to distance themselves from the Jewish State, and bringing into doubt its existence (http://www.slate.com/id/2248416/).
Sadly, this pathological adherence to the “O party line” is beginning to permeate through the “frozen chosen” community. Recent discussions in one of the largest conservative shuls on the west side of Minneapolis to drop the support for Israel is one of the examples. Another is Rabbi Eilberg, whose series of posts on her latest trip to Israel is a godsend to Israel bashers.
But, as Rabbi Eilberg has found out both at the recent town hall sponsored by Rep. Ellison and Obama’s Chosen J’s in South Minneapolis, and the talk given by Hanan Ashrawi last week, vehement hatred of Israel morphs immediately into vehement hatred of Jews (and vice versa), no matter how hard the uber-liberal American Jewish pundits try to pry the two apart. And this invariably causes the to choose sides, as can be illustrated by her most recent articles in the strib.
I very much hope that she is capable of realizing the amount of damage her brazen anti-Israel pronouncements have done, especially to those of us, immigrants, who have family and friends in Israel living under constant threat of destruction and murder.
…vehement hatred of Israel morphs immediately into vehement hatred of Jews (and vice versa)
Keep saying this over and over and over, lest you fail to convince yourself of it’s truth. Or take the easier path and return to reality and confront the facts.
You obviously know not Rabbi Eilberg nor the great work she’s done in the Jewish community for decades.
And if you tire of hearing the negativity about Israel, work for change. It’s a lot more productive than complaining about it.
Dear M.L. (whoever you are),
I obviously stepped on your w@@#!@ rather firmly since I solicited such an interesting response.
Let’s look at the first part, the quote. I was actually summarizing Rabbi Eilberg’s own comments about the response (and the shock) she received both at the town hall meeting and at Ashrawi’s speech. Now, there is nothing wrong with criticizing Israeli leadership (by G-d, after the recent f*ck up with V.P. Biden they can use a few choice words). Criticizing everything and everyone Israeli is what I’m talking about. It usually starts with “Israel this, or Israel that”, and ends up with “those damn Jews this, that, etc.”. And the other way around. There is a rather fine, 10-mile-wide line that separates criticism of the country and criticism of the leadership (government), and that is what I’m talking about. Somehow you fail to grasp this distinction.
As far as the “reality”, if you read Rabbi Eilberg’s posts in the strib, is is rather apparent that the reality that she has been involved with has been seriously shaken up as of late, along with her “truths”. Whether factual or not, it remains to be seen.
As to your point about Rabbi Eilberg, here are my truth and facts. I indeed do not know Rabbi Eilberg personally. I am also not at all familiar with the work she does or did for the community, since I am a complete outsider to the frozen chosen community, and, since I am an immigrant, not a far-left liberal, do not follow the “O” party line endorsed by the local judenrat, and openly support the State of Israel, I will likely remain an outsider.
My criticism (yes, criticism) of her is based entirely on her opinions about the Country of Israel that she publishes in the strib. I believe that they cause tangible damage to my blood and kin who reside in Israel. If you indeed read her articles about her latest trip to Israel, for example, you might wonder, just as I did, as to why did she paint the whole country black, as the only place on Earth where the sun just refuses to shine. I understand that she is blindly obsessed with her left-wing agenda (suffrage, kissing every palestinian arab in sight, J Street, womens rights, women of the wall, suffrage of women at the wall, kissing every palestinian arab in sight, J Street, etc.), I can hardly believe that there was absolutely nothing positive to write about the whole country.
If anything, her writings only alienate sensible people, those who believe that a two-state solution, with Israel as secure, contiguous, self-sustaining and Jewish state with Jerusalem as its capital is the only way to preserve the only Jewish country in the world; and who despise Orthodox dominance in the country.
As for the change, well, there is this post to start with.
Might be Jewish-but that aint punk rock.