Moishgil http://www.jta.org/user/profile/38198 en-us zsilberman@washingtonjewishweek.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 No Mr. Heilman, I don't think we Diaspora Jews missed the point at all. Did You Know That Israeli Government Doesn't Think Much of Jews in the Diaspora? http://wp.me/p1Jt6N-kd 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Worrying that the News Corp - Murdoch scandal could cost Israel a friend is like supporting the Klan because they kept your lily white redneck town white. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 For me, as a committed, observant Jew who subscribes to more progressive views on American and Israeli politics, nothing troubles me more than Jewish people and Jewish groups who honor and sing the praises of pro-Israel individuals and groups, regardless of their track record on human rights and social justice. Last year, the AJ Committee permanently burned its bridge with me when it chose to honor Rupert Murdoch. In my estimation, no one has done more damage to the term "objective news reporting;" no one in the media has done more to cheapen the noble profession of journalism that this billionaire who, if he is not selling sleaze in low-brow tabloids, offers the world right-wing propaganda the guise of news. Nothing does more damage to the cause of human rights and democracy than selective news reporting. Let's hope that if there is a merger between the American Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee, it will bring leadership the helm of the new organization that has more respect for truth and Jewish values. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I respect the right of any Jew to eat what he or she wants. I respect the right of any Jew to open a restaurant that serves non-kosher food. Jason Marcus, the owner of this restaurant in Williamsburg can deny it until he's blue in the face, but his choice of names for his eat establishment is at best, arrogant, at worst its intended to "flip the bird" to his Chassidic neighbors. Do you really wonder who couldn't love prawns Jason? Your insensitivity and sense of self importance is certainly consistent. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Bad taste would be an understatement! I wonder if youtube.com would tolerate a video show Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy lamenting the loss of the "personal liberties" that he and other slave owners enjoyed in the dark hours of the night with their female slaves? This is an insult to the 6 million sacred souls Hitler slaughtered! 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 So then we can assume that family associations, history and affiliations of every NY Times Reporter are carefully scrutinized to make sure there are no possible emotional ties to the stories they are covering? If you believe that then you believe that Clark Hoyt doesn't apply any double standards when it comes to Jews and Israel. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 One of the great ironies of this struggle is that the more power and influence the Haredim insist on having, the less engagement mainstream Jews will have with Jerusalem and the Jewish State. Theocracy and democracy are antithetical. Judaism is no more finite than the the human imagination. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Only someone who identifies with the lies, bigotry, misinformation and hateful rhetoric of Limbaugh could possibly suggest that he is a harmless player on the American scene. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Rev. Al and Limbaaaaaaaah at war? I love it. Two professional demagogues at war with each other, how appropriate. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 An important difference Cheryl is "who" does the name calling. On the liberal side its hot heads with big mouths. On the right, its usually the establishment! E.G. this horrible hitler video was being circulated by the RNC. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 It's certainly about time! Finally, the veil of secrecy will be lifted and the truth and justice will hopefully be served. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 1. I'm tired of Hitler being invoked by idiots who want to vilify people they have disagreements with . Invoking his evil image and name to suggest that people you have intellectual or philosophical disagreements with is really no different than saying I have a monopoly truth so if you disagree with me you are the devil. In political science classes, they teach that people who think that way are "supremacists." Which is an intellectual label for fascism. 2. This is so typical of political conservatives in this country. Someone explain to me how any Jewish people can identify with the American right wing in general and the Republican party in particular. It's mind boggling. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 God forbid a learned Haredi Rabbi should suggest Jews make more time in the coming year to help some of the 1500 children who die of malnutrition everyday; or help the hundreds of millions of people who don't have clean drinking water or basic medical care. Yep, we need to be told our Crocs are not appropriate for YK. Big important issue that the Torah was certainly concerned about if every there was one. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Talk about a fifth column Esther. You don't have a clue do you how inappropriate, out of the mainstream, intolerant and ignorant your comments are, do you? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Bet he ends up the CEO Jewish Federation of San Francisco ;-) ......and why not? everyone whose anyone in the Jewish communal world does sooner or later. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I really get a kick out of reading Aliwat's comments in these JTA articles.... He's a living, breathing walking advertisement for stupidity. If you want to understand why the world doesn't quite work, try to follow his irrational logic which is bases on no knowledge of the real world or Judaism. More amazing than his limited cognitive skills is his apparent lack of shame. No sense of self, no self respect. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 In the meantime, I'm still waiting to hear the Republicans say something positive and constructive like: We have our own plan that we'd like to put forward. No, unfortunately that's not going to happen. Their vocabulary is limited to: no, oppose, unAmerican, socialist, evil, czar, Nazis like, take back America. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 As a Jew, a social worker and a humanist, the idea of employing violence to resolve disagreements in which no one's physical well-being is threatened is inexcusable. That said, at what point does the "mainstream" Jewish community in the diaspora and Israel acknowledge that certain "community's" with home we share similar religious ideas and practices, have in one way or another moved beyond the pale and are really another sect to be treated as "strangers" among us. There is no possible way anyone can use God or Torah to justify harming a human being because a parking lot is open on Shabbat. Its time for these hooligans and the leaders who incite them to be arrested, sent to jail and excommunicated. This is sinat chanim, this is self preservation from a dangerous element that is certainly NOT part of any Jewish community I identify with. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Bravo USCJ and RA! I'm proud of your statement and proud to be a gay member and a professional in the Conservative movement. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 gee Will, I feel so vindicated as "homosexual" and human being now that you've acknowledged that the murder of even a "homosexual" is murder. Aren't you the tolerant intellectual! 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I usually get upset and offended when my fellow Jews suggest every time a Jew commits a crime that we have all been shamed. After all, how assimilated do we have do be before the Jewish origins of people who commit crimes and shameful behavior are not mentioned. In this instance, I'm sorry to say, we have been shamed terribly. Every anti-Semite who preaches that we unethically control world finances were vindicated to day as this all came out in the shadow of the Madoff affair. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I must be missing something. Are we still at that point in the Jewish American experience that anytime a non-Jew makes a benign reference to our people in culture its newsworthy? And in this instance, the Jackson 5 weren't celebrating Jewish culture, they were did a salute to the Andrew sisters. Are we still so emotionally needy that something this obscure and meaningless gives us nachess? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Sounds like Dov Hikind lives in a closet of sorts. But getting out of this closet will take a lot more than love and self-respect. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 While I am not an Orthodox Jew, I have always considered Rabbi Norman Lamm one of the most cogent, honest and enlightened voices in the Orthodox rabbinate. I had the joy and privilege of studying with him at Brooklyn College long before he moved into the President/Chancellors office at YU. His now suggesting that Conservative and Reform Judaism are dying is a clear indication that he is either very, very out of touch with non-Orthodox world, or he has chosen to surrender his respect and humanity for non-Orthodox Jews to political expediency. I’ve never quite understood the depth of the hostility too many in the Orthodox world have for the two liberal movements of Judaism. Could it be based on the fear of the historical accuracy and intellectual honesty Conservative and Reform scholars demand in the study of Judaism? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Congrats Peter Wudland on getting this year's "Naive But Well Intended Intellectualizing" hateful people award. Believe or not Peter, Jews do have the capacity to realize that they are guilty of prejudice, cruelty and intolerance. The fact that some of us are passionate supporters of Israel does not mean that we are unaware of its faults, missteps and subculture of anger and intolerance towards Palestinians. That having been said, suggesting that Israel’s faults, justifies classic anti-Semitism is naive to say the least. (And if you are yourself Jewish, I respectfully suggest you’re not very proud of that birthright and probably don’t much more about it other than the fact that one of your parents was Jewish.) Israel's seeking out militants trying to murder innocent civilians in an aggressive military action that regrettable includes civilian casualties doesn't justify the boundless cruelty, murder and culture of hate the Palestinians have nurtured over the past 60 years. I'm frustrated by the double standards of so called enlightened intellectuals who believe that any confrontation between white Europeans and third world people of color automatically means the white’ies are evil-doers and the people of color are the innocent victims regardless of the facts. Such reasoning smacks of prejudice, double standards and outright hypocrisy on the part of arrogant intellectuals who can’t see their own prejudices beyond their sense of historical guilt. Hate is hate, whether it’s being verbalized by trailer trash wearing a white sheet or enlightened liberal politicians whose noble soapbox is fighting for the downtrodden. It is quite sad and ironic that the country that tried to colonize much of the world; that tried to suppress countless nations and cultures to build an empire upon which the sun would never set; that was quite comfortable shoving homeless Jews into DP camps in the wake of the Holocaust is today infected with such hate for Jewish people. Rationalize as you may, if walks like a duck…… it probably is. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Young Israel never fails to remind us of how provincial, unsophisticated they are in their humanity and grasp of complex social and political issues. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Sounds to me like Rabbi Weiss is guilty of initiating foreplay and leaving the bed without finishing the obvious desired task he initiated. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 It never fails to amaze me how Orthodox rabbis inevitably miss the forest for the trees when it comes to setting priorities and criticizing the behavior of people. In spite of countless reports and warnings, the OU rabbanim told us for years that Rubashkin meat was kosher even though its production process was a Chillul HaShem! Spiritual leaders of good will gather together at a special moment in as American history to celebrate and ask for God's love and blessings and the RCA has no better response then condemn one of their most esteemed members for participating? Duh!!! The word halacha doesn’t mean “the goal,” it means the way! Nonsense like this reminds us that regardless of where they live or what knowledge they now have access to, some people have never cognitively left the intellectual shtetels of Eastern Europe. Judaism in general and the RCA in particular would better served by Rabbis who know that holiness is not limited to the Jewish people and that every path to HaShem is sacred and worthy of our respect. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00