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It is all well and good that the community concerns itself with the needs of its American born, Russian speaking, Bukhari youth. Interspersed among them is a shrinking, scattered population of American Jewish youth who are clamoring for places to go, and activities to keep them occupied (and out of harm's way.)
How did Martin Mayerson get picked as a spokesperson for this community? He does not reside here, and has been retired from Halsey JHS for almost 10 years now. If you look at Schechter's rosters (closer to 300 than 400 registrants), you will see that the school is becoming increasingly Bukhari by the year, and less than 1/3 of its population is American. A growing number of American families from his school are intermarried families seeking a place to send their children to be branded with a Jewish identity. The vast majority of students at that school come from Jamaica Estates, Hollis Hills and Fresh Meadows, not Forest Hills.
As for Machane Chodosh, with all due respect to the "new Rabbi", much of the credit for the thriving Hebrew school belongs to the Senior Rabbi, Manfred Gans, and the Hebrew school principal, Richard Schneider. Let's give credit where it is due.
As President of another great Brooklyn synagogue, the East Midwood Jewish Center, I heartily agree that there is a critical importance in being able to debate without division. Far too often in our society, folks tend to demonize the "other" and forget that one can disagree without being disagreeable.
Jewish tradition not only teaches that we are all made in God's image, and should therefore respect the "other", but that we can and should forcefully pursue our goals, and even debate with forces far more powerful that ourselves, without rancor. Witness patriarch Abraham's pleas for Sodom, for example. There is a tremendous challenge ahead, for both American Jewry and for Israel, and we cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand, and default on this Century's fight for survival. Equanimity is not capitulation.
Do you know what the Cordoba institute represents in the pantheon of thinking and ideology. It does not represent the medieval kumbaya but the Islamic domination of Spain and their so called discriminatory benign rule therein. You still had to pay a Jizya tax under this benign period as a non Muslim.
Think about the names on the envelopes sent from Yemen. One of them was addressed to a mostly forgotten French crusader who was a terror for the Muslims. He was beheaded when he lost the war to Saladin.
While you are ruminating in the present the jihadis are focused on the centuries of persecution they believe the western world has conducted against them. They are out for revenge against current and historical grievances and their narrative, behavior and action demonstrates it contnously. Muslim rule has never been benign for non believers and history is a witness to that.
I graduated valedictorian of a very competitive high school, went to one of the top five colleges in the country and graduated from one of the best medical schools in the US. But I didn't learn to think until I went to Yeshiva.
The Things that Rabbi Kahane did for Soviet Jewry, for poor Jewish trapped in the inner city and for assimilated Jewish Students in universities were heroic and unique. No one before or since had the positive impact in so many different areas of Jewish concerns. His tactics were what was needed at the time. He was never irresponsible or counterproductive as someone else here claimed. The tragedy is that so many who criticize Rabbi Kahane never heard a speech he gave and never read a book he wrote.
It is time that the likes of Hikind were taken out of public life. High time.
He does not see the forest for the trees.
This comment typifies the liberal response : Don't you know, its the fault of all those hateful racist biased xenophonic right-wingers ? How sad for all of us.
Go to joinrandy.org and help prevent the democRATS from stealing another election!
"Jewish Values are Democratic Values" ???no. not at all! As a native Israeli, not me nor most of Israelis jews share this opinion with you!
I did not know all that! how interesting!!
You mean everything the Rosh Yeshivahs have been saying for the past 40 years is true?!
I'm convinced that the Jewish addresses were a sick after thought by the
letter bombs creators - the bombs were meant to bring down an aircraft.
However, where did these maggots get the addresses? Hmm. . .
"Shoyn Tzeit" - It's about time!!!
The Rabbinate was designed as the national representation of the Jewish religion and its relationship to the state's powers of the purse and of coercion. Instead, it has evolved to present the "psak halacha" of those who sit in the blackest-hat yeshivas and are totally unconcerned with the problems of the real world and its inhabitants.
Rav Kook z"l must have cried a tear in heaven as thousands of soldiers who've stood between those who wish to destroy us and our homes and families were stripped of their Jewish identity; the g'dolin of the mid 20th Century who worked to save Judaism from the displacements of the Shoah could never have felt comfort with the exclusionary positions on dozens of issues which have been taken by these "defenders of the faith".
Pity the poor American yeshiva student; his education was so talmud-centric that they forget to teach him sufficient Hebrew to benefit from this translation of the Talmud. Instead, you find him sitting with an Artscroll English translation with its stilted language and its inability to overcome the difference between a flowing Aramaic-Hebrew-Aramaic back-and-forth with the need to accomplish word-for-word translation to English.
Acharei-Mot / Kedoshim. The danger exists of elevating sinners and scoundrels to sainthood once they've been peacefully planted and covered with a stone.
Yet, Kahane introduced a level of hatred and intolerance to Jewish discourse which infects the discussion of a myriad of issues.
One can agree with some of his goals. Yet, his tactics were so irresponsible and counterproductive, that giving him any positive recognition is just swimming in someone else's effluent and poison
It would also be wonderful if there was some recognition of Hebrew Day Schools in areas with a minuscule Jewish population.
Wellington, New Zealand has a population of 1,280 admitted Jews, and a tiny school "Moriah College". The student body is less than 30 ranging in ages from 5 to 13. Our tiny community is not wealthy with very few patrons who have the ability to make large contributions. You can Google our school to see what we have accomplished.
Surely, the universal need is great, but some consideration should be given
to Jewish communities outside of the U.S. and Israel.
The Rabbi does not understand the fundemental difference between Israael and the Us democracies.
The original founders of the state of Israel were secular Jews who came to Israel to be a Jewish Democratic state. Ben Gurion realized that to become a Jewish homeland the Torah must be the religion of the country and although not every one would be Torah observant the religious functions of the state must be handled by the Orthodox rabbinate through the offices of its Chief Rabbis. Ben Guron recognized that there were in the main part two religious strains in Israel, Dati( orthodox) or secular Jews.
Thier common ground was the use of a universal language (Hebrew) a Jewish lunar calendar, a noon work day Shabbat, and the Jewish holidays.
The secular Jews celebrated the Shabbat and holidays in their own ways, but everyone knew when the holidays and Shabbat were. Today, a great number of secular Jews light Shabbat candles, have a seder celebration meal on Passover, rural secular kibbutzim celebrate Shevuas as a harvest festival, universally refrain from driving on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is when children learn to ride their bikes in the then empty streets and the Shabbat is a family day when secular Jews enjoy the day with their families.
At the preset time, mmost immigrants come to live in Israel to live in a Jewish environment under the religious status quo. If anyone wants to live a secular democratic democracy, the United Statees with its comforts and security would be a better place than Israel.
The problem is that you (and your president) think that the whole world thinks like liberal Americans. Maybe you want a democratic Palestine but the Palestinians are more interested in killing Jews than founding a state. It's not pretty and it's not liberal but it is the truth.
Anonymous: What I am suggesting about the current state of affairs in both Israel and the United States is that divisive and extreme voices have drowned out the ability to carry forth a productive political process that makes compromise and shared fate possible. I believe we're witnessing a dangerous radicalization of politics in both places. Voices of moderation no longer rule the day and that's not good for anybody.
I think that this article is of critical importance to us as Jews. We cannot turn a blind eye to social injustice, even if it complies with laws and one of the most vile offenders that I have ever seen is the company called TOPIX.COM.
This website describes the problem with Topix which hosts forums which are annonymous, unmoderated and which contain posts which are not just anti-semitic, but hatred, bigotry, defamation and endless bullying.
http://toxictopix.webs.com
Perhaps one of the more difficult issues is that at least two of the employees of the companies are Jewish themselves. Hard to believe and a very interesting subject of debate as to how they justify their cause.
Where do I begin to discuss the logical fallacies of this argument? First, it is a prime example of "Tu Quoque" - the idea that if your opponent in a debate can be assumed to have done something, that makes it OK for you to do it. However, since the auther knows nothing about Abby Baker, he must set up a stray man '- "leftists". Then, despite the fact that Abby Baker is talking about being made to feel unwelcome in a synagogue - not a Subliminal concert, for instance - Jonathan Mark draws a perfect comparison between the two. The subtext is (and the continued denials that this is indeed the subject serve only to enforce that Mark knows this is, indeed what he is saying): Because some leftists do rude things to conservatives, Abby Baker should shut up about being humiliated in her synagogue.
I don't agree with J-Street's policies. In fact, I destest them - as policies. Other than the fact that I think they are mistaken, I have no emotional problem with the people who hold them, many of whom are my good friends, and who are similarly sure that I am wrong in my beliefs. However, what I detest more are the self-righteous anger-peddlers that will look for any excuse to raise the temperature in political debates. I don't like it when it happens in the US as a whole - and I certainly don't like it when it occurs within our Jewish community, which has enough problems, honestly, without importing the current temperature of national politics.
Mr. Mark is also not an astute reader of Brecht. Pirate Jenny - a terrifying song, if I've ever heard one - occurred in the context of murder, rape, and mass injustice raised to an ethical standard, and represented the fearful response of the utterly downtrodden. It was not meant to be, nor do I think can it be read, as the legitimate voice of a justified opinion finally coming into it's own - that song is from a place of violence and terror, and I am amazed that Mark thinks that it is a justified comparison in this case. As the Pirates ask Jenny who in the seaport should be killed, her answer is "All of them!" Is Mark claiming that it's time to disenfranchise everyone in the city except the new gang of Right Wing Politicians, and presumably, himself?
How can you write, that "...Hamas violently wrested power in the Gaza Strip from the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority."? Since when is a clean election considered violent?
Rabbi Bachman preaches pious pap. Comparing the east bank of the East River with Judea and Samaria (the Jordanian coined West Bank) is nonsense. It is just as nonsensical to compare Brooklynites with Arabs and the Civil War with the siege on the Jewish state. Ranting about wrongs is easier than either suggesting realistic solutions or in putting matters into context. It is plainly silly to paint the religious Zionists as battling to create a theocracy, thus equating them to Hamas supporters. It shows ignorance and political naïveté to decry the proposed loyalty oath. Firstly, the loyalty oath underscores the basis on which Israel was created; a homeland for the Jewish people. Jews are a people with a religion, language, history, culture, region of origin and shared genetics. Secondly, by having a loyalty oath to a Jewish state, the hypostetised "right of return" of "refugees" - the descendents of Arabs who ran away - is nullified.
I'd like to take a moment and share the side of J-Street, and the Columbia equivalent of the group, that isn't discussed in this piece. Although I find Abby's courage admirable and respect her for taking the time and effort to share her experience with what seems to have been a crazy old lady (most likely suffering from dementia), it really doesn't due justice to the situation Abby doe experience here at Columbia University.
I should know, as I too am a student here who is often berated, mocked, attacked, and cornered for his particular beliefs and stances on Israel. Why might you ask? Not because I support J-Street, because I do not. But because I actually go out of my way to stand up for Israel in the marketplace of ideas. What Abby Backer has taken the initiative in doing on my campus, in leading and forming her J-Street group, is in effect taking no issue with Israel at all. Has she been called "anti-Semite" by fellow Jews at my school? It is entirely possible, and if it is true I wholesale condemn it. Abby Backer is no anti-Semite, but what she represents is an organization that caters to the left, attempts to placate the true anti-Israel groups on my campus, and tries its best not to "offend" anyone or be too harsh to peoples "sensibilities". Enough is enough, call a spade a spade. Jews and non-Jews alike at Columbia University are beginning to realize that this mode of overindulged political correctness is not only ridiculous in nature, its completely insane, especially in the face of the bigoted and hate mongering speech of Columbia's own far left and highly anti-Israel professors and students.
Abby Backer's group Just Peace is still in its infant stages of growth at Columbia and she would do well to recognize that her group is one that is very much needed, but not in the context she and her fellow J-Streeters may perceive. It is important for Jews and non-Jews alike to have a community they can feel safe and open in to discuss issues they may have problems with, especially with regards to Israel. There is an old joke, How many Prime Ministers does Israel have? Answer: 6.5 million and counting. Why? Because Israel's harshest critics are Israelis and Jews alike. But when such a group and community goes out of its way to alienate the mainstream, (read: majority pro-Israel community) at Columbia University, it does not bode well for future endeavors.
Take the upcoming example of Just Peace's next big event on campus. Oh Abby didn't mention it in this article did she? Indeed, Just Peace and J-Street will be attempting to host John Ging on campus. Yes, the same John Ging who currently heads UNRWA or the United Nations Relief Workers Agency in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The same John Ging who encouraged flotillas and other means of breaking the legal blockade of Gaza. The same John Ging who refuses to denounce Hamas and consistently demonizes, condemns, and attacks Israel as an imperial aggressor and occupier. This is the type of individual that Just Peace and J-Street has decided should be given a platform to perpetrate his views at a prestigious university like Columbia.
Abby if you or anyone else believes for one second that this conversation, this debate, and the overarching issues surrounding it are all about the petty political differences we may have then you are truly naive. What you and your fellow J-Street friends seem to lack is a true understanding of the world we live in, a detachment from the realities of the situation both in the Middle East and here at home, and finally a sense of ideological purity when it comes to the State of Israel or pro-Israel activism.
So please forgive me for seeming skeptical and ironical Abby, but you would do well here to look in the mirror and see for yourself whom may in fact be doing the excluding.
Thanks for the refreshing read. But you forgot "neocon" and "stealth Islamist"! :)