Protocols
Protocols
A group of Jews endeavors towards total domination of the blogosphere.


Friday, June 11, 2004  

A spontaneous demonstration in honor of Orthodox Judaism and its leaders will be held at Pico and Robertson Blvds at 8PM sharp Monday. Songs will be sung and speeches orated in honor of our way of life. OJ officials report mitzvah production is up seven percent over last year and study of Torah has grown by an astounding ten percent. Our leaders will announce the new five year plan in a spontaneous oration Monday night. The evenings festivities will be culminated with the joyous burning of a Reform temple. All Jews of goodwill are urged to attend.

posted by Anonymous | 5:27 PM |
 

Protocols readers are jolly lucky. A Mafia soldier I know asked me to delete his blog because he was in big trouble. He gave me his name and password but I couldn't do it. Then I was logged out of Protocols and it took me ten panicky minutes to get back in to lend you these words of wisdom: I am happy to worship anywhere there's a lot of hot single woman.
WSJ on Do It Yourself religion: For example, many members of New York's Kehilat Hadar, a Jewish worship group, follow kosher dietary laws and strictly observe the Sabbath. But the group allows men and women to sit together during prayers and permits women to lead services, both of which are forbidden in Orthodox synagogues.

posted by Anonymous | 3:10 PM |
 

Meeting Sephardic Rabbi Reuven Elbaz.

posted by Anonymous | 2:09 PM |
 

Israeli yeshivot Dating Theory Mike likes and dislikes.

posted by Anonymous | 1:47 PM |
 

J.R. Taylor from New York Press writes Your Moral Leader: I just returned from covering the Songwriters Hall of Fame event here in NYC. There were these two older gals working the red carpet who were giving us all the creeps. They didn't really seem interested in covering the event. They were kind of weird and stalkerish. I finally asked one of them which paper they were with, and she replied, "The Forward." I asked if that was a Socialist/Communist paper. I don't know why. They just had that pinched look of bitter old Commies. Anyway, the woman solemnly replied, "It's not a Communist paper. It's the opposite of a Communist paper." Then she walked away, and came back to add, "The Forward is the nation's leading Jewish publication."

"Oh," I replied. "Weren't the Rosenbergs Jewish?"

"What does that have to do with it?"

"Um," I said, "I dunno."

She then scurried off to confer with her comrade. The other lady then came up to me and said, "What you said about The Forward is unforgiveable!"

Since I hadn't said anything about The Forward, I was kind of confused. Mainly, I just wished they had said they worked for The Jewish Forward, and there wouldn't have been any misunderstanding. Then I came home, checked your site, and saw that link to the blog of Forward national editor Ami Eden. Looks like I was right the first time.

posted by Anonymous | 10:56 AM |
 

Wherever I go, I take a book with me, to save myself from wasting time. When I go to shul, I particularly make sure I have a Judaica book to make sure I don't go out of my mind with boredom. I can rattle off most of the prayers by heart while still receiving an intellectual lift from my studies, not to mention the joy of being with community. Am I so wrong?

posted by Anonymous | 10:41 AM |
 

It's amazing that Cathy Seipp and I have maintained any kind of friendship for 15 months considering that for half of that time, she's been furious with me for something or other.

That's our Cathy. She's a dear, but what a ball buster.

We had a chat on the cell phone this afternoon while she was out walking with her 15-year old daughter Cecile du Bois.

"You know I'm mad at you," she says. I know she's been mad at me for about two weeks. How? The icy silence on her end of our intermittent email exchange.

Why is she mad at me this time? Because I read a book through Cecile's confirmation and then I did not go back to Cathy's for the after-party.

A few words about the confirmation. It was one of those pointless Reform appropriations of Protestantism. It has no basis in the Jewish tradition. It makes no demands on Jewish kids other than to attend a weekly two-hour class and do some charity project.

I could not in good conscience take part in the prayer liturgy due to the way it severely hacked apart the tradition. With all the congregational readings and theatricality (the service was largely done for you), it would've been like playing tennis with the net down.

I particularly loved all the flashbulbs going off in the sanctuary, during prayers, on Shuvuot. Truly a sacred occasion with great religious meaning for the pious pork-eating souls in attendance.

So I felt no guilt for reading my book Shiksa and forcing Cathy and her sister Michelle to awkwardly share the Reform prayer pamphlet.

I love it when Jews who go to temple three times a year lecture me on what I should do during an emaciated Reform prayer service. I only went to the stupid thing to show support for Cecile and bring her a gift from a friend. I loathed all the smiley happy-face therapeutic claptrap the rabbis spouted. The whole church-like temple gave me the queers, in more ways than one.

I was driven by my moral compass to flee a building of immorality for the refuge of my sturdy Orthodoxy.

Cathy wants me to think about her reproof and when I'm ready, to apologize. "You know I'm right," is her favorite saying to me and the world.

I told her not to hold her breath.

Our chupah must wait.

PS. You can't be as free with words such as schwartze, shiksa, shaygetz, and goyim in the Reform world.

PPS For those who ask why I didn't just pray quietly on my own. Let me remind you again that I was sitting next to those who bleed. How could I possibly be expected to have spiritual thoughts amidst such impurity?

posted by Anonymous | 1:13 AM |


Thursday, June 10, 2004  

I've been reading the Web log of Forward national editor Ami Eden. If he didn't have conservatives to hate, his well would be dry. It feels like he grew up in the McCarthy era and never grew out of it.

posted by Anonymous | 11:34 PM |
 

Reading Miriam is such a contrast to reading myself. She produces thoughtful intelligent posts. Here's one on Maariv's (Israeli tabloid) coverage of religion.
I have a feeling that most subjects and persons get the type of coverage they deserve. Persons of dignity tend to get more dignified coverage (compare coverage of Meryl Streep, serious actress, to freaky Sharon Stone or Demi Moore).

posted by Anonymous | 11:28 PM |
 

The Day the music died - banned Haredi stars Avraham Fried and Mordechai Ben-David.

posted by Anonymous | 11:23 PM |
 

Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, the most religiously liberal of the West Coast's Orthodox rabbis, had his car vandalized last week. Two nails were hammered into his tire. I suspect Orthodox zealots are behind this. R. Kanefsky was kicked off the RCC's kosher supervising committee a few years ago when he allowed women's prayer groups.

posted by Anonymous | 5:00 PM |
 

A fantasized love between Ariel Avrech and Cecile du Bois.
Cecile's lunch with Robert. Complete with pictures.
Cecile, 15, writes me with ten reasons why I should marry her mom Cathy Seipp:

1. She doesn't take bull and nor does he.

2. They both are weird--but in different ways.

3. She wears too many pagan tattoos and needs to keep kosher. He wants children, but really has chutzpah and I could still serve as his protege. Mom is too tired to have children after me, and Luke is not feminine enough to care for them.

4. She is wise and has good looks, and he has a pretty boy charm that always intrigues her. She could be the next Mrs. Robinson--if she gets bored with him, she can have an affair with a 20 something year old 'Andy Garcia/Colin Farrel' look-alike who just happens to study Torah.

5. Her 'cousin' Mari would stop teasing her about her relationship with Luke Ford. Instead of laughingly asking, 'How is your boyfriend Luke?', she would calmly ask after the welfare of Mom's new husband.

6. Also, when I talk about Luke to my school mates, all I would say is 'My Mom's Husband', or if I dare, my stepfather.

7. Mom doesn't have a dowry to offer, but I, as her dutiful daughter, would clean the floors and wash the dishes while Mom could watch many films with Luke that are about Luke.

8. He would not have to worry about where he would go for his next Pesach or Purim service--he would dine with our extended family in the O.C and feel comfortable there since it is lily-white.

9. Luke would not have to worry about his weight or his mental health because under the tight care of Mom and her accurate scale, he would be fit to be a model for the YMCA.

10. They would make a perfect shidduch.

Please vote in comments for whether or not I should marry Cathy. Your cote will determine our future.

posted by Anonymous | 2:40 PM |
 

Mattel Announces New Jewish Barbie Line

From TheKnish.com

In an effort to prop up lagging sales for their Barbie doll and Ken doll line, Mattel has targeted the little Jewish girl market with Barbie dolls that reflect Jewish culture.

Kollel Barbie comes with several jobs as her accessories and a tummy that inflates and deflates in nine month cycles. Kollel Ken comes with a bench to sit on and a table to put his gemara on. Ken's head fits perfectly into the contours of the gemorah accessory and is equipped to drool and snore away the day while Barbie tends to the babies and her 17 jobs.

Hasidic Barbie comes with permanent stockings and is bald, but you'll never know because it's covered with a state-of-the-art shpitzel and pillbox hat. Hasidic Ken comes with downward-looking eyes because he's not allowed to look at other dolls.

Yeshivish Barbie comes with 84 snoods, 174 hats, 24 non-Indian hair sheitels and one tichel that allows her hair to show a bit when she's feeling naughty. Yeshivish Ken comes with one suit, one crumpled hat, and one pair of tzitzis that drag on the ground.

Modern Barbie comes with pants, plus a helmet and body armor to protect her from the stones thrown at her by ultra-orthodox Ken dolls that come with the Meah Shearim playset.

Upper West Side Barbie comes with 74 single Ken dolls she considers friends because she doesn't think of them "that way." Little does she know that 37 of the Ken dolls have like this totally huge crush on her. She also comes with Kleenexes to wipe away the tears that she sheds every time Skipper reminds her that "Friends" is over.

These new dolls, with their controversial accessories, did not go uncontested.

Several organizations, including the Anti Defamation Kollel League, the Anti Defamation Hasidic League, the Anti Defamation Yeshivish League, the Anti Defamation Modern League and the Anti Defamation Upper West Side League have voiced concern over the stereotypes these dolls represent.

In a press release, Mattel said, "Tough noogies, just WAIT till we come out with Nidah Barbie, we KNOW that's gonna push some buttons!"

posted by Anonymous | 2:22 PM |
 

A hesder yeshiva idea for girls.

posted by Anonymous | 1:09 PM |


Wednesday, June 09, 2004  

New Modern Orthodox Shul Starting In Culver City.
Due to the escalating real estate costs in the Pico Robertson vicinity of Los Angeles, there will be a community meeting at 6:00 pm on June 13 to discuss various options and solutions to resolve this issue or move forward to starting new cheaper, dynamic and exciting communities elsewhere. People will present options that they have researched as well as professionals will be available to answer practical questions regarding specific areas, and the future of Pico Robertson. If anyone has any questions they can email Your Moral Leader (lukeford at comcast.net).

posted by Anonymous | 9:01 PM |
 

Better than Carlibach? According to Ma’ariv/NRG (here for those of you who can read Hebrew on their computers), a new monthly disco has opened in Ramat Bet Shemesh – for religious women.
Says Na’ama Meir, “We wait for these disco nights each months, it’s an amazing way to unburden, amazing fun. We get women who look as square as can be, with head coverings to their eyebrows, letting loose and going wild. I’ve already found myself a permanent dancing partner.”
Organizer Miri Shalem says that the women-only events are beginning to appeal to “Haredi lite” women as well.
Sounds like a great idea -- but do they dance to the sounds of Eminem? Inquiring minds want to know.

(Cross-posted to Bloghead)

posted by Miriam | 3:43 PM |
 

Yehezkel Dror, founding president of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, takes up the old argument that Israel must start seeing itself as part of a wider context of world Jewry, and consult with Diaspora Jews before making decisions which impact upon them. In particular, he recommends that “constitutional provision be made to codify the status of Israel as the state of the entire Jewish people” and that a “Jewish People Council” should set up to advise Israel on Diaspora Jewry’s positions.
It would certainly be a positive step if Israel and Israelis developed a stronger religious identity, and if they gained a better appreciation of the Diaspora’s history, dynamics and needs – and these are both possible, although past experience would not be encouraging. But Israel cannot and will not ever forge the kind of partnership with the Diaspora that Dror advocates.
There are several reasons:
• Firstly, historically, the Zionist movement began as a rebellion against 19th century Jewish existence. A desire to be different from the Diaspora, and as a result, sometimes even scorning it, is part of what Israel is all about (Shlilat Hagalut etc.). It’s not just that such attitudes are too deeply ingrained in the Israeli mentality ever to be completely overcome; asking Israel to “partner” with the Diaspora would in a sense be asking it to go against its own nature.
• Secondly, at this point, after 56 years of Jewish sovereignty, Israel’s interests and priorities are naturally of a completely different nature and magnitude to those of Diaspora Jewry. The concerns, outlook and responsibilities of an Israeli Jew, used to being part of a majority, are completely different to that of a Diaspora Jew, whose minority status is a defining factor and whose Jewish life revolves around a community structure most Israelis never experience and can’t understand. Despite all the commonalities, the two are on diverging paths, which will only diverge more with time.
• Thirdly, Israel and the Diaspora are in no way equally equipped to be partners in decision-making. Israel is a democratic state, in which its citizens have a vote, whilst in the Diaspora, people participate in the community voluntarily, with no civic status within the Jewish people. Which is why organizations such as the Jewish Agency, and the WZO, which set out to bridge certain Israel-Diaspora gaps just as Dror advocates, never really succeeded; who do they actually represent?

GIVING Diaspora Jews power to elect a council which would provide advice to the Israeli government is not an option (and here the Israel-based perspective of Yehezkel Dror neatly illustrates the problematics). How would the countries in which Diaspora Jews reside react to the fact that Jews were some sort of voting citizens of another state? Wouldn't this even endanger Jews in some regimes? Equally, by no means every Jew around the world would welcome the assumption by Israel that they have rights (and therefore responsibilities...) in the State of Israel.
So far, regarding Israel, Diaspora Jewry has accepted its role as friend and supporter, but not decision-maker. I strongly commend Prof. Dror for wanting more for the Diaspora; if only more Israelis showed the same concern. However, more is simply not realistic.

(Cross-posted to Bloghead)

posted by Miriam | 3:40 PM |
 

Is YU this bad?

posted by Anonymous | 11:19 AM |
 

The demonstration was led by Dennis Prager, a conservative talk show host on KRLA-AM (870), who has been talking about the supervisors' decision for days. As he approached the podium to address the supervisors, audience members leapt to their feet and cheered.
"I don't think you understand the severity of what you've done," Prager told the board, accusing supervisors of obliterating the county's history. "Totalitarianism is not possible unless you erase the past."

posted by Anonymous | 10:30 AM |
 

Robert J. Avrech responds to the comments on Protocols: "My daughters are bright and funny and their materialism is no worse than it should be. It is fine to attack me with empty feminist slogans, I really don't mind. Ad hominem attacks are a sure sign of an undisciplined mind and a weak argument. But my girls do not deserve nasty comments. They are accomplished beyond anything you sad people could imagine. You entirely missed the point of writing about the shoe rack. In this grief-stricken household putting together a stupid shoe rack is our way of being together, it's our way of letting life go on. It is another expression of the deepest love we feel for one another. As for blaming the victim, God forbid. I believe that ideology blinds some people to ordinary common sense. I never suggested that rape does not happen to good and modest and fine women. Just as I would never suggest that my son died because he committed a sin. Bad things happen to the best people. Every day and every hour."

posted by Anonymous | 12:07 AM |


Tuesday, June 08, 2004  

What's next for Britney?

posted by Anonymous | 8:17 PM |
 

A partial transcript of the Hadash West seminar moderated by David Woznica (Jewish Federation of Los Angeles) between panelists Dr. Beryl Geber (UJ) and Dr. Steven M. Cohen (Hebrew University).

posted by Anonymous | 6:37 PM |
 

Oh God no.
I don't like Republican economics. And I like the $10 bill as is.

posted by Anonymous | 1:57 PM |
 

Dennis Prager, a Jewish conservative, leads fight to keep the cross on the Los Angeles County seal.
Whatever your question, remember Islam is the answer. Jesus saves!
Rabbi Gadol writes: "The only power amongst the goyim capable of checking the advance of Islam (the current locus of virtually all organized violence against Jews in the world today) is Christianity, which unfortunately has become so weak that it is in danger of being over-run by the Saracen. That's why we Jews need to use our mastery over Hollywood and news media to build it back up to where it can provide us with the Charles Martels we need to resist the Saracen with his scimitar."

posted by Anonymous | 1:32 PM |
 

Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg appears set to resign as senior rabbi at Temple of Aaron, shortly after reaching an out-of-court settlement with a former congregation member who accused him of sexual misconduct. A criminal investigation into the case also is being closed, with no charges forthcoming.

posted by Anonymous | 1:31 PM |
 

Alan Abbey (ALAN-AB@y-i.co.il), author of the book on Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, writes: My secret is out - I have left the Jerusalem Post and have moved to Yedioth Internet, the online arm of Israel's largest newspaper, to build an English-language web site for Ynet.co.il, the leading Hebrew-language web site in Israel. I hope to bring - along with Ynet's top of the line news - a little of the blogosphere to the mainstream. (I followed your stint on Protocols - good stuff - and you provoked a lot of reaction!) With that in mind, I will be looking for commentators, etc... who can bring us a younger audience that isn't spending all of its time on the existing Jewish/Israeli web sites.I am beginning to get a staff together, design a site and spread the word. So, if you know of people who might be interested, interesting or curious, send 'em my way."
Proofs are out on my new book, The Producers: Profiles in Frustration. About half of my subjects are Jewish. The book will be available through Amazon.com in two months.

posted by Anonymous | 11:54 AM |


Monday, June 07, 2004  

My friend Chaim Amalek, a talmud professor at YU, writes this open letter to the readers of Protocols:
I want to make a series of ethnic videos pitched to specific ethnic groups with positive social messages. My first working title is "Chava Himmelman - She-Wolf of West End Avenue."
The treatment: establishing shot: It is Friday night, in a conservative temple on 86th Street, Upper West Side. The rabbi gives a speech condemning intermarriage to goyim, and bemoans the fact that so many jews do not view one another in erotic terms. This upsets Chava, a 30-ish social worker who lives in a rent controlled apartment on West End Avenue (Hillary Clinton Country). She resolves to do something about this, namely, to make a series of educational videos in her apartment that will change jewish attitudes towards mating with their own kind.
Some of these videos will have an S&M aspect to them, but with a jewish slant. Just imagine what could be done with a Platinum Amex credit card, the edge of which has been honed razor-sharp. Or cross-dressing, in which an Orthodox Jew is made to wear women's clothes that include mixtures of linen and wool! (OK, maybe that is too extreme.) Well, you get the idea.
The point is to present these videos as socially responsible because they attempt to get people to mate with their own kind. Similar videos could be made for other ethnic groups. (Imagine a video series in which black NBA stars are depicted preferring black women to white - NO ONE would oppose such a wholesome product.)
I have the idea, and the capital, but have neither the actresses nor actors to do this right. Everyone I know is too shameful to act in a video for others, even if for a good cause. (And the one woman I know who would gladly do this is a goy, looks it, and is nuts, which means I cannot use her.) Also, I know little about distribution of such product. How should one go about it - by distributing flyers at kiddush? Word of mouth? I need your help in this. Thanks!

posted by Anonymous | 6:35 PM |
 

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Annika.

Annika Sorenstam, fresh off her stint as a sideshow on the men’s PGA Tour – which she merited, of course, on the basis of a sponsor exemption after failing to make the cut at the Colonial – had this to say about the prospect of Michelle Wie receiving an exemption in order to compete at the LPGA United States Women’s Open:

I think as a 14-year-old, you've got to learn the ropes. You've got to learn and go through the qualifying, that's what it's all about. If everything is given to you on a silver plate, what's the thrill?


Hmm. Sorenstam makes a good point. Of course, she would have a lot more credibility if she had actually followed the advice she is now dispensing to Wie and had waited to compete in a men’s tournament until she actually earned her way in.

posted by Deranged GOT Fan | 5:40 PM |
 

Josh Marshall suggests taking note of this: Tony Blankley's rather interesting comments about George Soros. A Jew who figured out a way to survive the Holocaust - what's that supposed to mean, when he listed it with all of Soros' supposed negative qualities? Yikes.
More: Pejman discusses blogger response, and conservative rhetoric, or lack thereof.

posted by Anonymous | 11:25 AM |
 

From the WSJ.com: Mr. Blanchflower calculates that going from having sex once a month to having it at least weekly is roughly equivalent to the amount of happiness that an extra $50,000 of income would bring to the average American. "The effect of sex on happiness is statistically well-determined ... and large," the authors conclude. "This is true for males and females, and for those under and over the age of 40."

The paper is titled, "Money, Sex and Happiness: An Empirical Study."

One recent paper by several economists, including 2002 Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman, found in a survey of 909 women in Texas that sex rated as the activity in day-to-day life that produced the single largest amount of happiness.

Among their other findings, Messrs. Blanchflower and Oswald found that higher-income individuals do not have sex any more often, or have any more partners, than lower-income individuals; that people who have paid for sex are considerably less happy than others; and that the happiness-optimizing number of sexual partners per year is one.

posted by Anonymous | 9:56 AM |
 

Natan Sharansky on former President Ronald Reagan.

posted by Anonymous | 9:16 AM |
 

An out-of-town frum-from-birth (FFB) friend found Beth Jacob (O) in Beverly Hills a disturbing experience Shabbat morning. The place is filled with stained glass iconography that many Orthodox Jews will find borders on the idolatrous. Much of the imagery, which runs on the mechitza, represents the Holocaust. My friend was davening next to pictures of Nazis. He felt like they were commanding him to pray.
Then Rabbi Steven Weil rose to speak. It was difficult to concentrate on his words because his head bobbed so much. Out of nowhere, Rabbi Weil launched into the most hate-filled denunciation of Reform and Conservative Judaism my friend has ever heard. The rant had nothing to do with the rest of sermon. It just poured out. Something about Reform and Conservative will never understand the prophecies of Moses.
Rabbi Weil is not afraid to express his feelings. I've heard him call The Los Angeles Times a "filthy rag." The paper certainly has its problems but it is not a "filthy rag."
While R. Weil won't serve on the Board of Rabbis, he does participate in panel discussions with non-Orthodox rabbis.
Orthodox and non-Orthodox relations are worse in Los Angeles than any major American city. Only two Orthodox rabbis (R. Yosef Kanefsky and R.
Levi Meir) sit on the board of rabbis.
XXX writes: I was in LA on January 17th and had the opportunity to hear R. Weil speak. In his remarks that morning, R. Weil addressed (somewhat in passing) how divisive the split between the orthodox and conservative/reform communities (in LA) had become. Calling his congregation to task, R. Weil compared Beth Jacob (and included himself in the analogy) to the “ghettos in Brooklyn” and demanded that it was his and his congregation’s responsibility to reach out to the other parts of the Jewish community. Rabbi Weil has a history of inter-communal work (stemming to his previous position in Detroit) and is very much interested in bridging gaps between and fostering relationships with the conservative/reform community. Indeed, I suspect that was a primary reason why he was brought to LA in the first place. Though I did not hear his remarks this past weekend, I am aware of his views and suggest that his criticism of the reform/conservative community’s failure to understand certain traditional Jewish concepts is not mutually exclusive from a sincere interest in bridging gaps with said community.

posted by Anonymous | 7:38 AM |


Sunday, June 06, 2004  

Robert Avrech writes "Crouching Jew, Hidden Tears": This Friday at the library, I was prowling the shelves when I got hit by a wave of grief so strong that I could not move. I don't know what brought it on, it happens so frequently that I'm no longer surprised. Through my tears, I glimpsed a man checking books out, he was a bit goofy looking, wearing ill-fitting shorts and clod-hopper shoes and I thought, "Oh no, another schizophrenic haunting the library," but then I realized that it was the infamous blogger Luke Ford. I wanted to go over and say: Hello, Good Shabbos, and thank him again for linking me to his website. But my face was bright with tears and mucous was running down my nose so I just crouched between the high metal shelves and waited for the grief to pass.

posted by Anonymous | 11:46 PM |
 

Cathy Seipp was so impressed with Steven I. Weiss Sunday afternoon (he was dressed in a tux on the way to a friend's wedding) that she wants him to marry her 15 year old daughter Cecile du Bois and have babies together.

posted by Anonymous | 10:55 PM |
 

Rabbi Louis Jacobs, one of the giants of our age. I read all his books early on in my Jewish journey. It is interesting that his Orthodox critics never meet his arguments. They can't on the basis of evidence, only on the theoretical purity of theological faith.
Now I believe traditionally. I believe the Torah is divine. I do not believe that Orthodoxy can sway from this or it will cease to be Orthodox. But I won't pretend that the evidence points in this direction. To be Orthodox means to march in step with the Jewish tradition's methods of interpreting text and to religiously reject modernity's ways of studying text that clash with Orthodoxy. Just as scholarship must reject the influence of religion in its pursuit of truth.
Orthodoxy and modernity are incompatible in numerous ways and few divides are more important than this one.

posted by Anonymous | 3:29 PM |
 

We have several black and asian members of my Orthodox shul. These members have black and asian children. In my ten years there, on and off, I do not recall one comment about their race. I side with Gary Tobin. I look forward to thousands of black, Latino and Asian converts in the next couple of decades. I know about a dozen already (of the Orthodox variety).
It's a shame that for most Jews, Jewishness is primarily a thing you are stuck with rather than a joyous affirmation.
Those who are passionate about their choice will perpetuate Judaism while those who feel stuck (and their descendants) will get flushed down the toilet of history.
I've noticed only ridicule on the Jewish blogosphere for Tobin's prediction of thousands of colored converts. People should read Tobin's powerful book, Opening the Gates: How Proactive Conversion Can Revitalize the Jewish Community.
Yidden, you can either throw open your gates or you can become increasingly irrelevant to the world.
It's well known that the Black man (or the legal Mexican immigrant) in Los Angeles has no better friend than Luke Ford.
If your shul does not have Black and Latino and Asian members, than you should ask yourself what are you doing to create a hostile prayer environment so persons of color do not feel comfortable joining with you?
I believe the rabbis should decree that all shuls have a minimum 10% membership rate of persons of color.
If necessary, jiggle the yearly shul dues along a Bell Curve:
* Asians and Ashkenazim - $1200
* Sephardim - $1000
* Latinos - $800
* Blacks - $600.
If that does not do it, you should be required to recruit members in Black, Latino and Asian neighborhood. We need rabbis making special missions to gang members, writing books such as The Magen David and the Switchblade.
If that fails, shuls should have to rent persons of color from such fine services as this one.
I have a dream that one day our shul members will resemble a rainbow. And let us say amen.

posted by Anonymous | 3:19 PM |
 

Rivka writes: "I was talking to this guy recently (a rabbi, incidentally) - he said he heard I was blogging - "not that I read that stuff," he said, chuckling."
A person may not read Protocols, but if the story is powerful enough to affect his life, it is going to affect his life whether he reads it or not. The pen is mightier than the sword. If the story is powerful enough, it can reach anyone, even if they proclaim they never read the particular publication. People kill or commit suicide over things that are written. Words have the power to ruin lives or to elevate them. It's a basic Jewish teaching, one that sneering rabbis should understand.
The Rav Shacters of the world may claim they never read blogs, but blogs like this one reach them, whether they like it or not.

posted by Anonymous | 3:02 PM |
 

I have just finished reading two books about intermarriage, Double or Nothing? by Sylvia Barack Fishman and Interfaith Families by Jane Kaplan. Both try to get across the personal stories of intermarried couples, rather than focus on dry statistics. Among the (minor) points which alternately fascinated and horrified me:
• The couple who brought up their sons as Jews, their daughter as a Catholic
• The woman who converted to Judaism 20 years ago – and still hasn’t found a way to tell her Catholic parents
Recurring themes:
• Jewish men who actively dissuaded their wives from converting
• Catholic women saying Judaism was hard for them to understand, because for them religion meant being serious about going to church and participating in other rituals – whereas to be Jewish “you don’t really have to do anything” (attitudes presumably picked up from their husbands)
• Catholic parents who secretly baptize their Jewish grandchildren
• Wives whose first and often only step in trying to make their homes more “Jewish” is to drag out Kosher cookbooks
• Kids in Jewish day schools who go to church on Sundays

I’ll be writing up a review of the books later this week, for The Jerusalem Post.

(Cross-posted to Bloghead)

posted by Miriam | 2:21 PM |
 

In Israel news, Israeli cabinet approves withdrawal from Gaza...but does not vote on dismantling settlements. Haaretz says the Prime Minister's office called this a compromise deal. I don't get it: the government approves pulling out of Gaza in principle, right? What are they going to do, leave the settlers there?
Oh, and Marwan Barghouti gets five life sentences.

posted by Anonymous | 1:15 PM |
 

D-Day, in Ronald Reagan's words:
"For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history."
This clear-cut dichotomy between good and evil was before my time. So was Ronald Reagan, for that matter; I don't know much about him but this (old) article refers to him as the forerunner to George W: a president who knew how to appeal to his Jewish constituency, burying the notion that Jews always vote Democratic.
The Forward has a review of this new "Zionist hip-hop" record called "Reagan Baby". The cover, it says, features "a crude black-and-white image of Ronald Reagan offering a blithe smile that seems both vapid and venomous." Good timing!

posted by Anonymous | 1:04 PM |
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