Truthiness Macabbee http://www.jta.org/user/profile/64506 en-us zsilberman@washingtonjewishweek.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Roger Cohen must feel that if he keeps talking about Iran, eventually he'll get something right. Germany and France had both become peace-loving democracies before they started talking about European Union. It's a boneheaded analogy. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Considering I've never heard of any of these people before, I think this is a brilliant publicity stunt! Kudos all around. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 This of course means that the next time a major storm hits Florida, it's the Jews' fault. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Even though "Mussa Aliwat" is being facetious, as is his or her wont, that comment actually stumbles upon a basic flaw in the whole model currently being followed by the cabal of funders behind ROI, CLI, ReBoot, the former PLP, et al., which is: who gets to decide who's in and who's out? It seems like there is tremendous overlap among the participants in all those programs. Some might even call it a clique. Cliquishness is one of the biggest turn-offs about the Jewish community for those on the outside who these same funders are in theory trying to attract and retain. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Wow, what a beautifully written and insightful rebuttal. The only unfortunate thing is that by JTA calling attention to *anything* Commentary does, you basically quadruple their readership. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Yeah, I was there too. Why can't we American Jews just admit it aloud: Israelis are our loud pushy cousins that we see once a year, just to remind ourselves why we can't stand them. We so desperately want to forgive them for being overly-aggressive to the point of vulgar -- after all, they're on the "front line," we tell ourselves -- but I'm tired of giving them a pass. When I'm in Israel, I learn how to drive like a *****; now that they're in the U.S., they should learn a little manners. (Yes, I'm stereotyping, so please apply this smear only to the 85% of Israelis to which it applies, thank you.) 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 You're right, Uriel; Israel has not "annexed" the West Bank, so I guess it's just "quibbling" to point out how much land the settlers have taken. Are they simply "borrowing" it? It's obvious that for the settler movement, this is HOW they're going to get the West Bank, through "facts on the ground" rather than through official annexation. But I suppose as long as Israel hasn't "officially" annexed the land, nothing they do with it should be considered "illegal" in the eyes of the world, right? RE: counting Jews in East Jerusalem, Judt counts them because he is going by international law, not by what is convenient for Israel or her U.S. supporters. Pointing out picky issues like how many Jews live in Tel Aviv proper versus the municipality, or how right-wing he describes Bar-Ilan, is a way for you to avoid the substance of Judt's arguments, which I don't see you addressing in this blog entry. The various abstractions that the Palestinians have or have not yet accepted (the supposed "historically important" parts of Netanyahu's speech) are diversionary tactics to avoid acknowledging that (a) Israel controls the land, (b) Israel has taken over and settled large swaths of it, and (c) Israel has total decision-making power over whether or not to give the Palestinians their own state. Yes, keep "quibbling" over whether or not the Palestinians have had their "profound ideological conversion" yet as Israel continue to crush them under the Army's boots. How long can this go on? How profound a conversion can an occupied people have? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I hope Obama will ignore the letter the way 85%-90% of American Jews ignore the OU. Has the OU ever once made a statement suggesting that the Palestinians deserve the same right to self-determination as Israeli? And Will, were you upset every time your tax dollars paid for George W.'s trips to Crawford Texas? Or do you kid yourself into believing he was paying for those out-of-pocket? All Presidents have the same set allowance for travel and entertainment, and all of them use it. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Ben, that SimpleToRemember.com study is a total canard and I can't believe you fell for. It's not done by sociologists or demographers, and I challenge you to find a single such social scientist to back up the methodology. Among many flaws, the study does not in any way account for denominational switching, which -- if you look at any REAL study of American Jewry -- is SUBSTANTIAL and particularly affects the number of Orthodox. The 2001 NJPS found that of all Jews who said their denomination at birth was Orthodox, only 40% said they are now Orthodox. That was by far the highest out-migration of any denomination. Remember that fundraising-letter controversy of a month ago where JTA claimed the mantle of journalism over the blogosphere? Do a little fact-checking about that "study" you link to as fact. (Maybe call it "infamous" rather than "well known.") Otherwise, don't bother trying to differentiate JTA from the rest of the blogging screeds. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 And yet..."old wine" is often the best, most sought-after and expensive; they just call it "vintage." I am not convinced that any of those initiatives are reaching "hard-to-reach Jews" and would like to see some proof. Aren't PresenTense's offices in Jerusalem? Are the young Jews already living in Israel that hard to reach?! I want a definition of "hard-to-reach Jews." If you reach ANY Jews ages 15-35, does that mean you're automatically reaching "hard-to-reach Jews" because those are the traditional drop-out years from organized Jewish life? Or do these folks actually have to be at risk of losing their Judaism. If it's the latter definition, I bet there are very few Jews participating in ROI that the Jewish community was ever at risk of losing. They may not have been doing a thing about being Jewish before joining ROI, and that may be "proof" enough for the funders (who of course are entitled to do whatever they want with their money). But where are the pre- and post-evaluations? Do many of those participants answer "no" to the question "Do you feel it is important that your future children be raised Jewish?" And now that they're participating in PresenTense they answer "yes"? There has been so much talk about how this is different than business-as-usual but so few concrete examples. Can you provide some? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Great piece. Can we all post our organizational press releases to JTA now? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Ami, the list is called the most "Influential" not "Important." Pulpit rabbis may make a deeper impact on the individuals they reach (maybe), but the reach is limited compared to a guy who, say, has the President's ear (Saperstein), has his own PBS show (Kula), or whores himself on the Chelsea Handler show (Boteach). And isn't there something contradictory about bemoaning a list that is obviously all about publicity by actually giving it more publicity? Perhaps don't cover it next year. ;) 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I've long disagreed with just about everything you've ever written but this piece really takes the cake. If Sullenberger were Jewish you would already have feted him with a $1,000/plate fundraiser and suggested he was one of the righteous men holding up the world. Which is probably what you did for Madoff while he ran his scam FOR DECADES. The reason Madoff plead guilty is because HE GOT CAUGHT. You admire him for not becoming a fugitive?! You certainly have low standards -- when it comes to Jews anyway. But when it comes to non-Jews who are true heroes? Eh. Unimpressed. And to suggest that Judaism doesn't differentiate between stealing a dime and stealing a million dollars?! It must be nice to live in your simple world, sir. And then you bemoan why young Jews leave the fold. We will never accept disgracefully hypocritical leaders like you. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 "we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek" -- spoken like a true Christian! If we're attacked this year, I wonder how Chenney will feel when Obama blames it on the prior administration, just like Bush blamed it on the Clinton administration. Why isn't this guy out enjoying his retirement, playing golf or shooting hunting buddies in the face or whatever else he does for relaxation and let people who have actually read the U.S. Constitution run the country. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I meant jibe not jib; wish there was an "edit" feature on this blog after you post a comment to catch my inevitable typos. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Andrew Silow-Carroll makes some GREAT points on his blog (linked to in the above comment). Here's an additional thought: How does this survey jib with all those recent reports claiming that our young people are feeling more disconnected from Israel then ever before? I guess if you want to raise money to combat political critics of Israel, you create a survey that shows 4 out of 5 American Jews stand with Israel; when you want to raise money to educate young Jews in the importance of Zionism, you create a survey showing hardly any of them stand with Israel! Brilliant! We CAN have our kugel and eat it too. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Rachel, "learn much more about these techniques and ideas ourselves" -- yes. But "hire younger staff members for our communications"? I'm surprised to read you suggest that AGE should be a factor in hiring! So far as I know, Gary himself is well out of his 20s and 30s, and certainly he still has something creative to add to the discourse. On the contrary, I'm seeing a lot of philanthropic dollars being handed to very young and inexperienced people just because they are young. (They just have to claim to be "social entrepreneurs" -- not that the funder can even define that term before lunging for his or her checkbook.) Just because they're young doesn't mean they "get it", and just because someone is over 40 or (G-d forbid) over 50 doesn't mean they're not still producing the cleverest ads on Madison Avenue or more to the point, Facebook. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I like the way you put "edgy" in quotes. I'm taking that as a wink to those of us who sadly receive Fuel for Truth's seemingly-daily emails which I would call less "edgy" than "totally lame" and "transparently militaristic in a hormonal rage kind of way". 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 This is an excellent press release. Oh wait...is this an article? I think Jacob Berkman is generally a fine journalist, and I don't blame him for this; perhaps a few questions can reveal some facts that are sorely missing from this piece: 1. Does UJC fund JTA? If so, isn't JTA obligated to say so, kind of like CNN always does when they report on Time Warner? 2. Is Andy Neusner, the UJC spokesperson quoted in this article, the same Andy Neusner that used to work at JTA? 3. Doesn't Journalism 101 (at least in America) dictate the voicing of the "other side" of each story? For example, couldn't you find a single Jew age 18-45 to tell you what they really think of this initiative, which is that it is pathetic?! 4. Does UJC think we're idiots? This is for 12-year-olds. Ooh, a virtual medal on Facebook! It's not just idiotic, it's insulting. Why are all the Jewish "superheroes" WHITE? Are all Jews white?! They're trying to appeal to the most diverse generation in Jewish-American history, and they can't even shade one of their heroes Ethiopian?! Clueless! 5. Meanwhile, I read the email UJC sent to its funders. In case their motive was not transparent enough with the actual program, they told their funders "The outreach will help pave the way for broader connections – donations, activism and leadership." Where in this article does it explain that (a) UJC is a fundraising organization and (b) this is a program to increase fundraising?! 6. Also in that email: "Among the community building challenges to be posed during Chanukah: ...joining the local Jewish federation Facebook page or viewing a federation Web site". ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I hope they save that one for day 8, because that is the most blatantly and transparently lame thing I've ever read. 7. Why does UJC feel the need to be in the content-creation business in the first place? They spent $6 million on a study that lost key data before publication -- then fired the whole team responsible. They spent countless millions on "FedWeb", a hated web system that rendered most local federation websites painfully, uniformly bland and non-intuitive (and then, I believe, laid off the people responsible). If I were involved in this initiative -- and this article doesn't seem to mention a price tag -- I'd be pretty worried for my job. This article just went up. There's still time to turn this press release into journalism. Thank you for posting my comment. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00