Obama and the Jews III: Bloomberg Steps In June 22, 2008

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped up to the plate for Barack Obama on Friday forcefully denouncing anti-Obama propaganda e-mails directed at the Jewish community, the New York Times reported yesterday. Bloomberg, in a rare display of faith, spoke to Jewish communities in South Florida denouncing the e-mails as “lies” and raising speculation about an outright Obama endorsement, or perhaps even an Obama-Bloomberg ticket:

Speaking before a crucial constituency in the coming election, Jewish voters, in the pivotal state of Florida, Mr. Bloomberg said that rumors of Mr. Obama secretly being a Muslim represent “wedge politics at its worst, and we have to reject it — loudly, clearly and unequivocally.”

“Let’s call those rumors what they are: lies,” said Mr. Bloomberg, who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for both Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain, the likely Republican nominee.

Residents of South Florida, home to the second-largest population of Jews in the United States after New York City, have received e-mail messages claiming that Mr. Obama sympathizes with radical Islam and does not support Israel. Mr. Obama, a Christian, has repeatedly rejected both claims.

The article continues:

Mr. Bloomberg is Jewish, but he rarely discusses his faith in public. On Friday, he broke with that tradition. He joked about sitting through long Jewish holiday services (“I thought Yom Kippur was the longest day of the year”) and referred to “our people.” Mr. Bloomberg, an outspoken supporter of Israel, said that fears about Mr. Obama’s faith “are cloaked in concern for Israel, but the real concern is about partisan politics.”

“Israel is just being used as a pawn, which is not that surprising, since some people are willing to stoop to any level to win an election,” he said.

Jewish voters, he added, “have a particular obligation” to fight such false claims.

A particular obligation.

A particular obligation to declare that Obama’s “links to radical Islam” are outright lies, that Obama is not a Muslim but an observant Christian, to declare that Obama’s future will be adamantly Wright-free.

Obviously lie-filled emails like these also damage Jewish-Muslim relations as well, with Bloomberg also saying that this most recent email campaign “threatens to undo the enormous strides that Jews and Muslims have made together in this country.”

The National Jewish Democratic Council also recently released their “Obama vs. McCain - A Jewish Perspective” checklist, worth reading (even if they connect their premise only to “progressive” values).

Jews in particular — but all American Democrats also — need to realize that there is far too much on the line when the election contest is Obama vs. “in Iraq for 100 years.” There is far too much on the line when the economy is in recession, human rights are under suppression and the people are feeling depression. From health care to the economy to homeland security to domestic spending — America is in desperate need of change and one should shudder at the thought of four more years of Bush policies, whether foreign or domestic.

America deserves far more than this, far better than this. America deserves the positive change that Obama represents — the tikkun if you will — and I hope all Jewish Democrats (and Independents, and even some Republicans) realize that this November.

The Rising Black American Jewish Population June 18, 2008

Baruch Hashem v’yishtabach Shmo for this story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Rachel Pomerance.

Black Americans make up a “significant portion of those learning about Judaism” in Atlanta, a sign of a growing Black American Jewish population:

At Congregation Shearith Israel, a conservative synagogue in Virginia-Highland, where Pamela Harris works as the senior nonclerical staff member, at least eight of the roughly 20 people learning about Judaism with Rabbi Hillel Norry are black.

At the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody, roughly 20 percent of the nearly two dozen people enrolled in Steven Chervin’s introduction to Judaism classes are black.

Although there are no sound statistics on the subject, anecdotal evidence suggests that, in the past 15 years, increasing numbers of black Americans are exploring Judaism, said Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research in San Francisco.

“Ten years ago, it was almost unheard of that a black person would come in and want to convert,” said Rabbi Ilan Feldman, who is working with the Harrises and two other black people pursuing conversion.

Until their conversion courses intensified last year, the Harrises led a weekly learning/support group in Decatur for about a dozen African-Americans interested in Judaism.

Putting aside issues and debates regarding halachic status — this shows a sociological occurrence which deserves to be noted: namely that, in at least one congregation, 40% of the new people coming in as debutantes to Jewish observance will be African-American. About 12 black people interested in Judaism coming to a support group. Baruch Hashem Black Jewish visibility is increasing and ken yirbu, may Jewish communities of all ethnicities continue to thrive.

While this particular family, the Harrises, happen to be in Atlanta, the founder of Temple University’s Center for Afro-Jewish Studies says that Black Jews have long been all over America:

The 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey, conducted by the United Jewish Communities, North America’s central Jewish fund-raising organization, found that 1 percent of Jewish adults, or 37,000 people, identified as black or African-American. An additional 1 percent of Jewish adults called themselves biracial or multiracial. However, that was based on a total estimate of 5.2 million Jews in America, a number that [Institute for Jewish & Community Research President Gary] Tobin and other key Jewish demographers have called too low. Tobin believes the number of black Jews in America exceeds 150,000.

The notion of black Jews is hardly new. The Jewish history of worldwide migration has led to Jews of every ethnicity. But much of the black Jewish experience in this country has flown under the radar of other Americans, [Center for Afro-Jewish Studies founder Lewis] Gordon said. That’s because many black Jews historically practiced privately or in segregated communities, he said. The population was “swept up in the tides of racism in scholarship and institutions” that saw Jews as exclusively white, even though American Jews of European descent did not consider themselves white until recent decades, Gordon said.

“There have always been communities of either black people who are already Jewish or black people considering coming to Judaism. What is different is that institutional structures are changing,” he said. Gordon speculates that as many as 1 million black people in the United States have Jewish roots, among them African-Americans, African and Caribbean immigrants and Afro-Latinos.

Which is why Gordon thinks that, among the rising numbers of black Americans coming to Judaism, some of them are simply returning to it.

The next logical question then becomes, if a black person knows that their mother is a Jew, why would they not identify themselves as Jewish? The answer to that lies not only in racial and cultural alienation — both the black and Jewish communities have elements which perceive their counterparts as the epitome of “the Other” — but also in the pervasive racism and anti-Semitism which unfortunately permeates many areas of American culture. We grow up in a world where unfortunately pervasive — but by no means ubiquitous — racism and anti-Semitism make being standoffish a norm, and to embrace both identities becomes more difficult. But the more black Americans who are already Jews begin to realize that Judaism as practiced is for them, the more Jewish neshamot living in bodies of black Americans will come home — upon seeing all the familiar faces.

May we see the uniting of the Jews from all four corners of the earth — speaking all their languages and looking as distinct from each other as G-d intended — speedily in our days.

Beitar Illit: Acid Spilled on 14-Year Old? June 5, 2008

A new disturbing word has apparently entered at least a few Yiddish speakers’ vernacular: טאליבאניסט’ן (talibanisten — accent on the next-to-last syllable), “the Taliban”, to describe the new radical, violent charedizealots who have no problems terrorizing and injuring and maiming women in the most audacious of places.

Please, someone, someone tell me when it has finally gone too far.

YNet brings the lamentable story of that which should have never taken place:

A 14-year-old girl from Beitar Illite was taken to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem after an unknown person spilled acid on her face, legs and stomach, causing light burn wounds.

The act has been attributed to a representative of the so-called ‘modesty guard’ in this town where religious and secular residents are increasingly at bitter odds.

Right there. The leader line — and I rarely praise Neta Sela, whose charedi “exposé” articles can often border on anti-haredi prejudice — says it all. A 14-year-old girl was rushed off to a hospital in the closest major city because someone spilled acid on her face. The graphic on the Ynet article — of the girl with chemically burned, wrinkled eyelids — even if it is a stock photo, is most disturbing. One can only imagine the trauma this girl is enduring, and the most skilled plastic surgeon’s most precise laser can not make the slightest impact on the deep psychological scars this girl must have.

MDA received the call just before midnight on Wednesday and paramedic Dror Eini who arrived on the scene to treat the girl also managed to calm her down enough so she could explain what had happened. Eini told Ynet that “the modesty guards have been threatening her for quite some time.” According to the paramedic the focus of the threats has largely been the victim’s 18-year-old sister and some suspect the attacker mistook the younger girl’s identity for that of her older sister’s.

Eini said the teenager was in a difficult emotional state: “She cried the whole way to the hospital, partly because she was in pain but mostly because she was terrified.” According to Eini at the time of her attack the girl had been wearing loose-fitting long pants and a short-sleeved shirt.

“If she would have been wearing the same thing in Jerusalem or in Tel Aviv, she would not have stuck out in any way,” he added.

An ultra-Orthodox teen from Beitar Illite who is in contact with the girl’s family spoke with her sister who described the incident. According to the boy, the attacker stopped the girl and first asked her for directions. Then, after confirming her surname, he spilled a bottle of acid on her.

I don’t know what else I can say. This actually makes the Meah Shearim spate of bleach-throwing incidents almost pale in comparison — whereas, in Meah Shearim, women were only physically injured as an unintended upshot of the attempts to ruin what were perceived as immodest clothes, here, a 14-year-old girl had acid spilled in her face. Naomi Regan, who was beaten on a mehadrin bus in Jerusalem in a chillul Hashem of cosmic proportions, was an adult — who could at least attempt to fight back — at the time of her brutal attack. This was a 14-year-old girl who had acid spilled in her face solely because of her last name.

Of course, and rightfully so, people in the charedi world, both in America and Israel, are calling for this man to be found and punished.

Punished? Were there the means to do so, I think he should be deported. The mindset — the values — that would propel one, in the name of modesty, to throw acid in a teenage girl’s face are as distinctly un-Jewish as that of any missionary or white supremacist. And if not this attacker, then whoever it was that put it in his mind to do such a thing. If this is how the Beitar Illit modesty patrol is operating, it is time for a Rabbinical Court — and if not a beit din, then the police — to completely revamp it.

This can not be allowed to continue for even another moment — because, remember, this attacker wasn’t targeting her.

He was looking for her sister.

And now one can only wonder what will happen to her if this organization seeks reprisal for this first attacker’s (G-d willing) imminent arrest, or if nothing happens, and the attacker goes out with another bottle of acid to “ask for directions” again.

Bahrain’s Newest Ambassador June 2, 2008

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain made a historic appointment on Wednesday, the appointment of Huda Azra Ibrahim Nunu to the post of ambassador to the United States. Ms. Nunu is Bahrain’s third female ambassador — the first being to France and the second to China — but it is not Ms. Nunu’s gender that makes her appointment so significant.

Ms. Nunu is Bahrain’s first Jewish female ambassador — and the first Jewish ambassador from the Arab world.

It was not initially known to which country Bahrain’s king would send the 43-year-old parliamentarian of Iraqi descent, but it soon became clear, Ms. Nunu was bound to represent her country in the United States. Ms. Nunu said she was proud to serve her country “first of all as a Bahraini”, and was quick to note that her appointment was not due to her religion, with one Bahraini official stressing that the selection of Ms. Nunu as envoy was “not propaganda”:

“This is not a public relations move,” the official told AFP, referring to the expected naming soon of Huda Nunu as the Gulf kingdom’s ambassador to Washington. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said King Hamad informed US officials during a visit to Washington in March of Bahrain’s intention to name Nunu…

“This move is not propaganda. It reflects a climate of tolerance towards minorities in Bahrain,” which is ruled by a Sunni dynasty and has a disgruntled Shiite majority…

“Nunu’s appointment stresses the seriousness of Bahrain’s reform policies … It shows that Bahrain does not differentiate between men and women in public offices and does not discriminate against citizens on the bases of their beliefs,” the official said.

Ms. Nunu’s appointment has drawn some criticism in Bahrain, where some have questioned the “political motives” which precipitated King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s decision.

Ms. Nunu’s brother Ibrahim was previously the first Jewish member of Bahrain’s Shura Council, the upper house of Bahraini parliament, and Ms. Nunu, a Shura Council member for three years, is herself the co-founder of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society, and is the granddaughter of Ibrahim Nunu who, in 1919, served as the Bahraini Jewish Community’s representative under the British authorities.

Bahrain’s tiny Jewish community numbers no more than 40, but its members are well-represented in Bahrain’s business community. The community in Bahrain dates back to Talmudic times, and Bahrain’s capital boasts the only synagogue in the Persian Gulf. When asked about her Jewish observance, Ms. Nunu told the Jerusalem Post:

“We keep Rosh Hashana and Pessah and the other holidays in our homes,” Nonoo said, according to a report by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. “When my son had his bar mitzva, I flew a rabbi over from London for it.”

The Bahraini king’s decision comes amidst talk to grant “full citizenship rights” to Jewish returnees to Bahrain, whereby any Jews “who were residing in Bahrain and are of Arab or Iraqi roots who migrated from another country” can become full Bahraini citizens.

Obama and The Jews II May 22, 2008

These past few weeks I’ve been touring, promoting my album, This is Babylon and haven’t been able to write as much as I had been in the past. From Berlin to LA and everywhere in between, these past few weeks have been a non-stop marathon of promotion and performance.

And I believe today’s travesty which graces the front page of the New York Times is a quite apt segue to make my return to the blogosphere.

Jodi Kantor’s “As Obama Heads to Florida, Many of Its Jews Have Doubts” highlights, in black and white, perhaps one of the most lamentable upshots of collective Jewish consciousness: the anti-Semitism still latently looming over America (and the world)’s present and ominously towering over the world’s recent past, combined with the advent of Web 2.0, has opened the door to a whole new era of misinformation and paranoia. Ms. Kantor’s article chronicled her visit to the “Aberdeen Golf and Country Club” (so right off the bat — mince no words — we know precisely which class of people we’re dealing with) where she met Jews who voiced their insecurities with voting for Obama.

Predominantly representing the aging South Florida demographic whose largely 70+ populace have become anecdotal (and the butts of painful puns like “Botoxodox Jews”), Ms. Kantor’s interviewees showed a downright depressing susceptability to the Obama-noia that’s been plaguing the inboxes of many likely Democratic voters:

“The people here will not vote for Obama…because of his attitude towards Israel,” Ms. [Shirley] Weitz, 83, said…”They’re going to vote for McCain.”

Does anyone realize — or care — that the Jerusalem Post said that Obama’s voting record was “impeccable” regarding Israel? Is it that Sen. Obama supports a two-state solution regarding Israel and Palestine — the same thing that is advocated by both Hillary and McCain? Is it that Sen. Obama expressed willingness to speak to Iran? Would it be better to just consider Iran the world’s first “suicide state” prima facie, and react accordingly?

Perhaps the most disturbing thing is the rundown in the continuation of the article. Ms. Kantor’s article continues with an interview with Rabbi Ruvi New — who mused about the entire election coming down to a “few old Jews in Century Village” — and then moves on to Jews who have become a “conduit” for Obama misinformation.

Ms. Kantor’s article notes that some “older Jews…as well as many younger ones” believed any number of fanciful inaccuracies, One man believed his friends’ word that Obama was “an Arab”. One woman suspected affiliation with Palestinian organizations, and one woman suspected al-Qa’eda had endorsed Obama. As Jack Cafferty alluded today on CNN, how is it possible that such affluent people, such educated people, such worldly people could be susceptible to such misinformation?

And perhaps the worst part of all comes out when racism — the elephant in the room thus far — gets brought up. Ms. Kantor alleges that some of the voters’ apprehension was as rooted in race as it was in Israel relations:

At brunch in Boynton Beach, Bob W…in his 80s, said…bluntly, “Am I semi-racist? Yes.”

Is this really just “par for the course”, the “nature of the beast”? Does it have to be this way? Is Obama campaigning in Florida in vain? Is there really nothing that David Axelrod and Robert Wexler, Obama’s Jewish Florida strategist, can do to change these opinions? And perhaps worse — will these Jews vote for a right-wing candidate who Bush said will “continue…his policy”, in spite of their own and the country’s best interests, just because at the most cursory of face values, a white face is more trustworthy than a brown one? Mr. Obama shares very little psychographically with most of the anti-Semites in the black community, as Ms. Kantor notes — he lives in a community alongside Jews and has “close ties” to Jews his entire career.

Obama has denounced Farrakhan, Rev. Wright, and virtually every other enemy of the Jews in the African-American community. The Jews in Florida are demographically less poised to flip-flop to the GOP — as opposed to their New York counterparts — and if it’s really racism that would cause such a flip it is time for anyone who has come to pooh-pooh such conduct to engage in self-examination.

All the information on Obama’s voting record is available and can easily disprove the online rumormonger set. But nothing in the world can make him un-black. We have to remember what is at stake — and if American troops are put on track to “stay in Iraq for 50 years”, it will be small consolation that an old white man sent them there.

Ask Moses? Ask Musa! April 7, 2008

I recently stumbled upon a novel website, designed to explain about the fundamentals of Judaism and Jewish identity to the Muslim and Arab World. AskMusa.org is a project of a group of “traditional, observant Jews” from various Jewish organizations and presents answers to questions on monotheism and Jewish belief as well as an essay which asks “Who are the Jews?” — contrasting “sons of apes and pigs” with “contributors to society”.

A site too long in coming — but a pleasant change of place.

Visit AskMusa.org.

Jewish Women of the Hijab and Burqa II March 10, 2008

“Muslim women are imitating Jews” — “M” of Beit Shemesh, follower of the new ultra-modest “sal” style

I was walking down 13th Avenue in Brooklyn’s Hasidic neighborhood of Boro Park a few weeks ago, and I saw a woman walking down the street decked out in a hijab and an abaya.

My first thought was that she was an observant Muslim woman — there is no shortage of hijabi women in Brooklyn — but her Hasidic female walking companion and her shopping bags made me realize she was Jewish. My realization of her Jewishness was followed soon by a sense of anxiety.

“Please tell me this woman is Persian, please let this woman be Persian”, I muttered under my breath as the woman approached. Many Iranian Jews in America continue to wear the clothing of their homeland, with some older Jewish women retaining the chadors they had worn in Iran. As she approached, I could tell by her accent — the woman was Hasidic and she was apparently a follower of the hijab and abaya-advocating movement of ultra-Orthodox women taking hold in Israel.

“They’re here,” I thought to myself. “They’re here in Boro Park.”

Friday’s Times Online featured a story about the Jewish women of the veil, and profiled “Sarah” and “M”, two of now 100 women in Beit Shemesh who have begun to go about fully veiled. “M” tells of how her first encounter with a woman in a hijab sal was at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:

“I saw a woman who looked like an Arab and I was scared. I got near her, to try to determine why she was there, and saw that she was praying in Hebrew. I began to talk to her and became curious and then attended her classes,” she said.

The woman M met that day was a religious instructor in Beit Shemesh, and the founder of the sal style. “We have been criticised by so many in the community who see what we are doing as the opposite of Jewish law. Many women have stopped wearing the sal because of pressure from their husbands or rabbis,” said M, who adds that her family persuaded her to stop wearing the garment.

“Muslim women are imitating Jews to try to gain God’s favour with modesty. The truth is that the women of Israel are lessening in God’s eyes because the Arabs are more modest in dress. If the Jews want to conquer the Arabs in this land they must enhance their modesty,” added M, who covered her face for over a year, but currently wears just a loose cloak over her garments.

One hijab-wearing self-described “Conservative Jew” talks about how she has endured difficulties since taking on hijab and jilbab.

I can’t think that this is happening in a vacuum. One commenter on the charedi newswire Vos Iz Neias implied that the same person who had rocks thrown on 13th Avenue at an “immodest store” in January was behind the recent concert ban.

Are we really witnessing the beginning of the ultra-radicalization of Orthodox Judaism? And if we are, what effect will this have on already-fragmented American Jewry? How will this impact those of us who have never had such a phenomenon impact them directly? The concert ban, as was shown, was just a recycled one from the charedi community in Jerusalem — how many more things will be imported from Meah Shearim and Beit Shemesh?

Moshiach. Now.

“The Battle for the Future of Orthodox Judaism” March 5, 2008

Life of Rubin, the Orthodox blog whose fan I have been for quite some time now, has been vocal in his opposition to the recent ban on concerts which has been legislated in the Orthodox community, in reaction to the “Big Event” which was scheduled for March 9th. LOR says, basically, that this is not about Lipa, or Shlomie, or Sheya — this is far bigger, and with far more gravity:

This is no longer about Lipa Schmeltzer or Jewish Music. This is about the future of Frum Yidden everywhere. This is not just a topic of the week it’s a battle for the next generation.

It has now been revealed that at least some of the rabbis who signed the ban were lied to — indeed, Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky shlit”a, BloginDm explains, had already previously said he was not opposed to “all concerts”. Some $700,000 originally earmarked for orphans in Israel will now not reach the intended recipients as a result of the concert’s cancellation.

In the Jewish Week, one Flatbush resident, identified only as “Mendy”, voiced his disgust with the controversial ban, saying that he could not believe that Jewish concerts were worthy of so much rabbinical scrutiny. “With all the problems our community is grappling with — teens leaving in unprecedented numbers, prominent yeshivas accused of knowingly employing pedophile teachers, chasidim rioting in the streets of Borough Park…I am astonished that this is the issue these 33 illustrious rabbis have chosen to tackle…Our children need an outlet, and what could be better than a frum concert? Riots are OK, concerts are ossur [forbidden]?”

While one blogger said the ban was evidence of rabbinical authority being raised to an uncomfortably Divine level in the Orthodox world, my sentiments are more like those of Sheya Mendlowitz, who called the fatwa ban just two people going and obtaining signatures “in a very slimy and shady way, two very dangerous people” in the Jerusalem Post:

Mendlowitz says he is owed roughly $700,000. Initially [A. Friedman] offered to pay part of that sum, but under the condition that Mendlowitz sign off concerts forever. “Who’s he to tell me not to do concerts, this is absolutely ridiculous,” said Mendlowitz. “They want to shut down the Jewish concert business, because they don’t feel it’s the proper place for their followers.”

…Mendlowitz is confident concerts will continue as they have up till now. “There are many rabbis, and I respect all of them, but I have enough to rely on for what I’m doing.”

“We have now banned sporting events, concerts, amusement parks, the circus & malls among other things. Of course, I don’t argue…But what in heavens name do we want people to do realistically for recreation?”
–commenter on Yeshiva World.com
It was to this end that Jewish music heavyweight Mordechai Ben David sounded in with his still, small voice of protest on the charedi newswire VIN. He was reminded of how he, too, once wanted to take the “high road” Lipa Shmeltzer is now taking, to stop doing concerts, and was told something drastically different by his rabbis:

R’ Mordechai served as the Holy Ribnitzer Rebbe’s Zt”l gabbai for appox. 5years. But during those years—when concerts still had mixed seating audiences — he asked his Rebbe many times: “Es pas nisht…”, feeling strange serving as a Rebbe’s gabbai on the one hand and singing at such concerts at the other. Nevertheless, R’ Mordechai reports, the Rebbe never told him to stop but rather always encouraged him to continue with his success.

About 20 years ago, after a draining 10-concert/10-city world tour, MBD felt he didn’t have the energy to continue doing concerts, and thus decided to stop performing. But he kept receiving calls. Upon a visit to Israel he mentioned it to the the Lelover Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Mordche Biderman Zt’L with whom he had a close relationship, of his decision. to which the Rebbe responded, “Who gave you permission to stop? Did you ask anyone? When you get a matana from Hashem, you can’t just stop. Continue singing and have great Hatzlocho.”

Ten years ago, before a major concert in Israel for the Zichron Menachem organization, two askanim tried to stop it, even meeting with the Amshinover Rebbe trying to get him to convince MBD not to appear. Nevertheless, the Rebbe told MBD not to stop, and even gave him chizuk to do the concert.

Indeed, as one commenter on the post notes, when asked if owning a radio was forbidden decades ago, the Satmar Rav, a revered head of a sect, said that he could not forbid it because to decree something that the population could not/would not uphold would decrease the esteem of rabbinical authorities in the eyes of the people. Seeing the big picture — that of rabbinical Judaism as a whole — and not the small picture with Lipa’s face in it.

BloginDm also asks his thought-provoking “20 Questions” about the ban, which also got me thinking — if we are talking about a fight for the holiness of the Jewish Nation, then why does said fight have to involve lying to Torah giants, physical violence (or threats thereof), and the depriving of $700,000 from poor orphans? Does G-d not say in the Torah, “You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you” (Exodus 22:21-23)? Is a poor bride not supposed to cry when she can’t afford to pay for what is supposed to be the happiest day of her life?

What are we supposed to do for entertainment? Life of Rubin alluded to kids-at-risk being pushed further and further away from a kosher way of life by having their alternatives oppressively restricted — how many more drug addicts will be spawned for lack of a Hasidic outlet in which to socialize? How many more Hasidic girls will, unable to hang out with Rivky and Shaindy at the MBD show, will now meet Ruchie and Bracha at the club?

Poor orphans perhaps unable to marry. Kids going further off the path away from Judaism. Perhaps a blow to one of the cornerstones of the faith of Orthodox Judaism. I hope this askan is proud of himself for his lies and pseudo-zeal, he really does now have quite the resume attached to his soul.

Moshiach, again, if you’re reading this — please, save us now.

S.O.S. - Save Our Simcha February 26, 2008

I hope Moshiach is reading this.

I hope Moshiach sees precisely what condition klal Yisra’el are in danger of being in and how so many Jewish souls are trapped in bodies which are being sucked into a joyless vortex of stringencies and bans.

A concert, billed the “Big Event”, was planned to happen in the coming weeks at Madison Square Garden, bringing together Jewish music heavyweights Lipa Schmeltzer, Shlomie Gertner, and composer Sheya Mendlowitz — the 20,000+ tickets were sold to a crowd set to assemble for a night of music and entertainment which was to be the buzz of New York.

Soon after it was announced, it was banned. Prominent rabbis came out against the concert, saying that, in part:

It refers to the performers as “mezamrim m’ktze hamachane” (singers from the edge of the camp) and says [in Hebrew] “they’re going to sing and joke in front of men and women with an outcome of frivolity and light-headedness.” Oh, dear.

The ban goes on to assert that all concerts are prohibited. It also proclaims an “issur” for newspapers to publish ads for the event. And, it urges all to boycott these musicians and not hire them for your personal simchos or for tzedakah events.

BloginDm also notes that:

THE KOL KOREH WAS AN OLD, RECYCLED ONE FROM LAST YEAR, WHEN THEY WENT AFTER FRIED AND MBD IN ISRAEL!!!

Perhaps the worst news comes from a comment on Vos Iz Neias, the charedi newswire I’ve been into for quite sometime. Apparently, Sheya Mendlowitz let a little something slip during his Saturday night radio appearance with Zev Brenner:

I guess after you’ve been physically threathened, you would also change your tune (no pun intended) pretty quickly. Shye Mendlowitz alluded to that at his call-in on the Zev Brenner show this past mozei shabbos. He mentioned that this thing had gone into dangerous territory and he did not want to go into details as to what transpired behind the scenes. My sense is that violence was threatened and everybody is backing off because of this.

So now, in New York, just like Israel, concerts are banned. How this can be construed as a good thing is beyond me. Indeed, as the Noy G Show shows, these quotes from Lipa make one question where the Orthodox world is heading:

I have recently started learning Bichavrusa with a leading Rosh Yeshiva, and I promised him that I will never sing any songs which were composed by non-Jews. Being true to my word, I have sang at more then a dozen Chasuna’s since I made that decision - and I have not sang “Yidden”, “Abi-Mileibt”, or “Numa” (Rabbi Nachman M’uman) or any other song that is questionable as to its origin.

Has it really come to this? Now songs which involve musical compositions of non-Jews are forbidden to perform? Baruch Hashem I make hiphop! And — let’s say that I were to be singing lyrics about sex and murder — would the fact that my beats were all made by Jewish producers make my lyrics somehow kosher? As Noy G said, the zeitgeist spreading among far too many authorities is “ban it all and let G-d sort it out” and I, for one, am scared.

Scared that one day the Hasidic people I see on the street might not be saying “shalom” to me, but might be ready to take me out because I dared put on a show that brought kids closer to Judaism.

Scared that one day I may look into the dreamy eyes of a depressed child a few years from now and hear, “you mean you can do your music in front of other people?”

Scared that I will see year after year of increasing disaffiliation statistics, year after year of kids going “off the path”, while some pontificating group of sticks-in-the-mud can continue to manipulate Torah giants into banning everything short of oxygen.

We are talking about events with separate seating, set up by people who learn b’chavrusa (privately) with heads of yeshivas. There is nothing abominable, forbidden, or even questionable that I would ever suspect Lipa Shmeltzer of organizing or having a hand in. I can’t believe that the good names of frum, G-d fearing Jews are being dragged through the mud and that honest people — who, let’s face it, at the end of the day, are just trying to make a living using the talents and skills G-d gave them (what, Shwekey should do wireless networking?) — are being shamed and embarrassed in public (and for what?).

The Torah is beautiful, and Judaism should not have to be enforced this way.

King Moshiach, if you are reading this, may G-d allow you to reveal yourself.

Save our simcha. Save our joy.

Please. Save us now.

Jewish Women of the Hijab and Burqa February 7, 2008

Jewish women across Israel are joining what more and more Orthodox Jews are seeing as an alarming social trend. “Dozens of” charedi Orthodox women, under the tutelage of one Rebbetzin Bruria Keren in Ramat Beit Shemesh are eschewing their traditional covered wigs in favor of burqas, hijabs, and abayas/jilbab.

I first wrote about this on Jewlicious, when I first read the Muqata translation of the Ha’aretz piece which introduced me to this sect of ultra-modest women, one of whom “show[s her] children” to prove “[she’s] not…Arab” at security checkpoints, because she doesn’t want “men seeing [her] ID.” The story was run in the British Independent and Jewish Chronicle, and blogged about throughout the blogosphere. I echoed the same sentiments as MomInIsrael, that this was alarming and shocking — and I prayed that it never catch on.

And then I saw this. Perhaps my blog-prayer was in vain, after all.
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Judaism On Prejudice January 30, 2008

A beautiful article on Chabad.org caught my eye today at random. Normally I don’t read Chabad’s The Jewish Woman, but doing a Google News search for “Torah” led me to this beautiful article by Ms. Stacey Goldman, teaching about this week’s Torah portion. The piece is called “The Spirit of the Laws”, a phrase I am usually used to hearing in a different, more judgment-centered context — “don’t do X, it would violate the spirit of the law”, if not the letter — to justify the prohibition of any number of things.

Ms. Goldman’s Torah teaching, however, sheds light on a beautiful concept expressed by Exodus 21: G-d’s eschewing of prejudice between humans. Her story begins autobiographical, lamenting her ironic “loss of Jewish identity” as her Jewish observance grew:

It sounds bizarre, but I have found that the more I live my life as an observant Jew, the more I seem to lose my Jewish identity. When I was growing up in Minnesota, Jews made up less than two percent of the mostly Scandinavian, German population. My dark, curly hair was a constant reminder of my minority status. I never saw this as a negative aspect to my identity. On the contrary, I relished my membership in a global club of Jewish people all over the world…I didn’t discriminate; I would beam at every person regardless of age, gender, length of skirt, head covering or lack thereof. Invariably, I would receive a nod and a smile in return. Yes, we are one of the same; we shared a history and a destiny.

When I was accepted to an East Coast university, I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm at the prospect of constantly being surrounded by my People…I increased in my Jewish observance, got married and started to have children. I still smiled at other Jews, but I noticed that I was only smiling at Jews who looked suspiciously like me - the new religious me. In fact, I had lost my ability to identify other Jews who weren’t wearing the telltale uniform of Orthodox Judaism. I had found the Torah of Israel, but I seemed to have lost my sense of the Nation of Israel that had come so easily before I even knew about the commandments.

I hear this complaint far too often from non-Orthodox Jews — that Orthodox Jews don’t want to interact with them, that Orthodox Jews “think they are better” intrinsically, that Orthodox Jews are standoffish and clannish. This is especially painful when someone’s path to observance is dashed because - how were she supposed to know she wasn’t supposed to wear that..? - someone cut them off or embarrassed or admonished them when they were taking their first steps to Torah.

Ms. Goldman finds her way out of her mindset through learning Exodus 21, and what she learns is far bigger than just relations between Jews — she learns lessons for all of humanity:
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Jewish-Muslim Unity In the News December 3, 2007

The Muslim Council of Britain has finally voted to end its almost seven-year boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day:

“The MCB has always placed a lot of emphasis on inter-faith work and building ties … so this was becoming a problem.” — MCB assistant general secretary, Inayat Bunglawala

In Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, the 6th Annual Dialogue Project Teach-In was a huge success with people of all religious stripes coming together for “no feuding, just talking”:

At another session, an imam explained that Christians and Jews were to be respected and welcomed as equals in true Muslim nations. He went on to explain that much of the radicalism associated with Islam was not consonant with a true interpretation of the faith.

“Many of the fatwas that get issued, they are issued by scholars who are unqualified and therefore they are unacceptable,” said the imam.

In South Africa, Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Dr Warren Goldstein and the Premier of the Western Cape, Ebrahim Rasool will speak on “Jews and Muslims: Faith, Community and Country” at the Chief Rabbi’s Enriching Tomorrows: Sharing Ideas for the Future public speaking forum.

Rightwing British politicans scheduled to speak at the Oxford Forum at Oxford University in England were greeted last week by a joint protest from Oxford’s Union of Jewish Students and Islamic Society:

The Union of Jewish Students and Oxford University’s Islamic Society carried a huge banner marked with the symbols of both organisations. Some Muslim demonstrators carried posters proclaiming “Hands off our Jews”, while the Jewish Society carried others saying “Hands off our Muslims”.

This beautiful interfaith “holiday service” would have been better if it had a rabbi, but whatever…

And finally, in Washington, DC leaders of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities came together to fight a common problem: poverty and inequality, two things all faiths consider to be front-burner issues.

May we see the end of religion-driven violence speedily in our days, and may all religious leaders come to realize the huge benefits reaped by humanity when bridges are built instead of walls.