Where does Open Hillel get the money to send 4 speakers on a national campus tour?
When did Jerry Seinfeld tell jokes about Jews being lazy, hairy, cheap and self-absorbed? I missed that episode. One of the clever games that Seinfeld/David played was with identify: at various points on the show, George, Kramer and Elaine ("shiksappeal") each made it clear they were not Jewish - contrary to assumptions and against type - and also probably a dig at the studio execs who accused the show of being "too Jewish."
Anyway, Reich is on target. Seinfeld - and the comedians Remnick cited to defend Dunham (Silverman, Bruce, Allen) were making Jewish jokes about themselves as insiders. Dunham wants to have it both ways - she mocks supposedly Jewish traits in others (e.g., Antonoff, "Shoshanna" in friends) in the voice of the waspy "Lena Dunham" writer/tv persona but then, when called out, hides behind her Jewish mother and "culturally Jewish" identity (whatever that means). To add more pop-psychology fuel, Antonoff came across on Maron's podcast as having real hostility toward organized Judaism - so I wonder if this article is some kind of inside joke between the two of them.
Hasn't this stereotype reached its "past due" date yet? I suspect it's harder and harder to find real people who seem to embody these apparently timeless negative stereotypes. Maybe the rarity of such "Jewish mothers" is part of the appeal of Siegel's posts to the current generations in their 20s.
But that is not how you framed your article, intentionally or not. You could have written a thought-provoking article arguing that Jews today have a special responsbility to lobby for slavery reparations because of Jewish teachings and ethics, referencing Jewish abolitionists like Einhorn who defied the complacency of fellow-Jews in arguing for abolition based on Jewish texts. Instead, you made a convoluted and historically noncontextual argument that today's Jews have such a special responsilbity to atone because of egregious Jewish complicity in slavery.
Utter misleading nonsense. 3 or 4 examples do not constitute a fact. Try actually doing some archival research: at the time of the Civil War, most American Jews were poor, recent immigrants. The 20,000 or so Southern Jews owned slaves at much lower rates than their white, Southern neighbors and those who did have slaves typically owned just one or two. Very few Jews engaged in plantation slavery. In fact, in terms of absolute numbers, more free blacks owned slaves than Jews. As far as Judah Benjamin, we don't have to take blame for him: he converted and renounced Judaism.
Josh: what happened to your excellant Forward podcast?
Did the French government pay the funeral expenses and purchase cemetery plots for the dozen Charlie Hebdo office victims? Did the US government pay for the same for the Newtown children? I have no idea; maybe someone here knows.
"Why aren’t Jews asked to condemn all racist comments, crimes and murders committed by Jews?"
Um, haven't the past 2000 years of history shown that non-Jews routinely hold Jews collectively responsible for imaginary (and some real) offenses commmitted by Jews? #crucification #poisoningwells #capitalism #communism #nakba, etc. etc.
From Netanyahu's speech at the Paris synagogue (text availabe at the pmo.il website: "And I would like to use this opportunity to salute the French security forces who acted with remarkable bravery, as well as to express my appreciation to the Malian, who is a Muslim, who helped save seven Jews."
I can't post youtube links here, but go to youtube and search "11/01 paris synagogue" and you'll find the video with both anthems.
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Creation