Posts from — June 2005

Jerusalem is not, and has never been, a bastion of secularism. It is, to this day, a predominantly religious city – religious in the classic sense, of strict adherence, and not in the modern, “spiritual� sense, of picking and choosing – and justifying it as “evolution� or “change�.

Jerusalem is not the last bastion of tradition, but rather, the most famous bastion of tradition. It represents who we were, and who we still are – not who we would like to be or become.

It is for this reason that a small portion of Israel’s gay community insisted on marching there.

Just as few cities (not to mention suburbs) are safe from corporations remaking them into a strip mall; so too ancient cultures are not free from being remade into multi-cultural civilizations.

It is not that different than if Starbucks or Trump decides to open a franchise or build a large glass building on the Lower East Side or in Williamsburg. In theory, there is no reason the new can’t coincide with the old – real estate developers and corporations will scream there has to be a “balance�, but in fact, these new stores and buildings create a deleterious affect on the culture of historic neighborhoods which defines these neighborhood’s sense of place. (It should be noted that Starbucks has NOT opened in either neighborhood – they have shown sensitivity to these concerns.)

So too with those forces determined to foist multi-culturalism and diversity of all sorts on the Holy City. The goal of these forces is to gain recognition from protected presence that only Jerusalem will afford, and to create cracks and crevices in Jerusalem’s traditional culture in the process. They are activist secular fundamentalists – intent on leaving their mark of progress. No city shall be spared.

But this is not about being a “part� of the City. It is about disrespecting all it represents, for political, instead of material, gains.

Instead of money, narcissism is the motivating force. Instead of a “balance�, it is a call for “tolerance�. Instead of economic growth, it is inclusion.

But whether a gay pride march in Jerusalem or the “Women at the Wall�, or building a mall immediately outside its walls - the city- because of its status, is a prime target for Jewish proponents of the New World Order and progressive “isms� of all sorts.

Jews have a right to resist such a push for a place in the city where prototype movements were always most passionately resisted, and should refuse to look sympathetically at any group or movement outside the primary lens of its intensely traditional culture when confronted with activists intent on redefining its character.

The Holy City represents that which does not change, or that which changed tragically.

There are more appropriate cities for the march of the progressives. Jerusalem marches to a more ancient beat.

Bloomberg shows that his on-the-job public sector training is starting to pay off. The Kvetcher did not support Bloomberg in his first term mayoral campaign, because he feared (rightly) that despite what neocons and other free market radicals claimed, the mayoralty of New York was not the place for an entry level job in the public sector - as even the greatest work experience in the private sector did not directly translate into preparedness for this most political of jobs.

But Bloomberg is a good student, even if he was ill-prepared for the first couple of years, and his business experience is now relevant as he has learned the ropes of politics and the public sector.

Sun Tzu says that one should harass his opponent, and if possible, drive him insane.

Bloomberg has apprently done just that to Gifford Miller, who is now exacting pointless revenge on his fellow city councilmen, who blocked his attempted override of the mayor’s veto for his own garbage-transfer stations.

See the whole story here.

Not only has Bloomberg embaressed an admittedly weak Democratic challenger, he has earned friends in the City Council through Miller’s tantrums.

Miller’s troubles will continue long after his ill-fated mayoral campaign, and, assuming a second term, has ceded more power to Bloomberg.

Koch must be proud!

Certain “moderates”, even in the Jewish world, have expressed complete insensitivity to the idea that the 9/11 memorial should be about 9/11 only, which would entail eliminating references to other acts of man’s inhumanity to man, including the holocaust.

Now a certain heroine skeptic by the name of Jane Jacobs (as if she should be weighing in on the future of downtown New York - it’s not like she saved it from the bulldozer of Robert Moses’s Lower Manhattan Expressway or anything like that) said we should wait (yawn) to build a memorial for awhile, because while it 9/11 is certainly meaningful, we “don’t yet know what it means.”

Nonsense! Let’s rush and build something, even if it’s grotesque and we’re stuck with it forever.

But it has to include something on the holocaust! We only have one museum (in downtown New York) currently dedicated to the Holocaust. This is (downtown) New York, not Albuquerque, New Mexico! One is fine there, I guess. Maybe.

The suffering we feel about the holocaust supercedes all others, even if it has nothing overtly to do with it. So what if the Holocaust happened in Europe?

We come before all domestic tragedies. That’s why we received land for the U.S. Holocaust Museum decades before the African-American Museum on slavery, and before the Native-American Museum for their genocide museums.

So their tragedies occured here. So what? They aren’t as white, and they aren’t rich. And if they complain, call them anti-semitic.

When they build a museum for the Tsunami, it MUST include an exhibit on the Holocaust.

How dare anyone even think of building a memorial about 9/11 (or anything else) without including our Holocaust?

Long live our hegemonic death camp culture!

The attraction of young Jews to hip-hop is less about what we (supposedly) share culturally with African-Americans, but rather, what we are not.

The crossover, or parody, is most certainly one way for the most part. There is not, last time I checked, a similar interest among African Americans in Klezmer.

But if we are unhappy being who we are, it won’t help to pretend we are something we secretly wish we were, even in ‘parody� form.

This is not to say that Jews should refrain from listening to hip-hop. It is to say that pretending we have anything to do with it on an artistic level (as opposed to business, where we are very involved) or on an experiential level (even in parody form) is apparently not only dishonest, but leads only to even greater dissatisfaction.

As evidenced by 50 shekel’s recent conversion.

Today the NY Post had an article on a deal between Bloomberg and Ratner, who promised set asides to minorities and women. This type of political graft is increasingly becoming the standard bribery for getting things done. In the old days, if a woman demanded (and received) a payoff for a “favor”, she was not called a “feministâ€? or an “activist”.

I think non-Jews should get an Aliyah as well, since they are in the Israeli Knesset.

My story on the Brazilian Girls has been published as an exclusive between Jewschool and Heeb Magazine. Go here!

One of the strange things about this progressive movement is that its adherents are, ironically, more orthodox in their world view than the Orthodox world they are challenging.

Anytime any criticism is leveled at the “traditional Jewish feminist� movement, the criticisms are frequently dismissed because Judaism has changed in the past, so Judaism can change now. Judaism has evolved throughout history, so too Judaism can evolve now. The only obstacle recognized is Jewish Law – and the answer of “change� and “evolution� are considered not only sufficient, but a carte blanche.

In fact, traditional Jewish feminism suffers from blatant internal inconsistencies that have nothing to do with Jewish law per se, and these internal inconsistencies are rarely explored or exploited. Most shocking perhaps, even the ultra-Orthodox leaders such as Rabbi Shafran rarely take off the gloves, but prefer to politely admonish these women to stay within the confines of normative Jewish law.

Why are these women being coddled?

I concede that there are many other problems in the world, more threatening to the world generally and Jews specifically, and that it may seem a bit strange that I would feel a need to focus on traditional Jewish feminism as a source of complaint, bitterness, and debate. Additionally, I am not particularly religious.

So why should I care?

Some of the problems with the traditional Jewish feminists are merely extensions of those in the general world, as acutely displayed with the attempted lynching of Harvard president Larry Summers, who barely escaped with his career but for a triple Soviet style apology and a $50 million dollar ransom.

But as deplorable as the case against that hapless schlemiel might have been – the goal of egalitarianism in western society is hardly a foreign goal (at least in theory) to western civilization. It is only the means being taken and attempted that are so acutely problematic.

But in the traditional Jewish world, such goals become more absurd, as it is a civilization that is quite contrary to such goals. At times, this is hinted at and acknowledged in the language of traditional Jewish feminist leaders – language that studiously avoids demands for true egalitarianism.

But even with these additional weaknesses, part of my draw to wage debate is inspired not only by some of my own contentious interactions with traditional Jewish Feminism, but strangely enough, with poetry slams.

As a college student, I used to go to poetry slams at the Nuyorican Poets Café, and later, at a bar in Washington, DC. What I saw were not people interested in saying what was really on their mind, but performers afraid to alienate the multi-cultural audience and the judges randomly selected from the audience. What generally transpired were attacks on republicans, and appeals for ever-greater liberalism. A typical guarantee of a high scoring performer was to recite a poem condemning Giuliani as “fascist� and “racist�.

But my dissatisfaction was not that the performers were consistently rewarded for a leftist stance – it was that the performers seemed frequently afraid to say anything at all.

Unbeknownst to me, others had the same or similar concerns. Faceboy, and then Reverend Jen, began slams without the conformist inducing scoring. Black began poetry slams within the protective enclaves of their own communities, which later transferred to the HBO show, Def Poetry Jams.

In 1997, at the suggestion of Martin Kaminer who liked my idea, and under the institutional umbrella of the Partnership for Jewish and its leader at the time, Rabbi David Gedzelman, I began Jewish Poetry Slams in the basement of the Cornelia Street Cafe.

They went really well for awhile. And I learned that you can speak more freely within your own community, and say what is on your mind with less fear.

It is for this reason as well that I am interested in grappling with traditional Jewish feminism specifically, and not feminism or affirmative action generally. In the Jewish community, I can still be called insensitive, but I can’t be silenced with charges of racism. I can’t be silenced by threats of fainting. Such attempts can be made, but in the end, it is the Jewish community I am a part of, and I have a right to have opinions contrary to Jewish feminists. Most of the Jewish community will recognize that.

The last reason is that Jewish culture is not merely liberal or conservative, feminist or patriarchal.

Rather, as any page of the Talmud will corroborate, it is dialectic.

It is this dialectic that has been ignored. A pseudo-dialectic is recognized only – one of feminism vs. the most stringent interpretation of Jewish law. That is to say, ultra-Orthodox reactionaries – and ultra-Orthodox reactionaries only - are considered the opposition.

But there are other - greater - problems with traditional Jewish feminism than normative Jewish law.

They are frequently ahistorical. They are not, in fact, demanding egalitarianism, and have no coherent final goal. They are ludicrously selective in their choices of “gender issues�. They employ what Midge Decter calls the same/different model. They are victimologists.

It is neither a religious movement nor a secular one. It is neither feminist nor Orthodox. It is provincial. The fact that it is based in the U.S. does not change that.

No consideration is even contemplated that social change of an ancient culture in favor (or submission) to the norms of the modern, dominant one may have costs and repurcussions. With this particular brand of social revolution, no potential costs are foreseen. Rather, any and all proposed changes are deemed absolutely free of cost.

I am a man, who therefore doesn’t “know what it’s like� to be “a second class citizen�.

I am relatively secular, when these issues are considered to be religious ones.

I am, as far as I can tell, a lone voice (remember, I am coming from a secular perspective, not a frummie one), against a movement replete with institutions dedicated to its cause.

I am poor, while these women are wealthy, and their movements well funded.

Though I have a strong Jewish educational background, unlike these women, I did not attend nor do I currently attend, an ivy league school.

I have been blogging for a little over a week.

Never the less, I intend – on some level - to restore the dialectic.

This is fair warning.

In American culture, we are taught not to generalize. Certainly in the Jewish community, we are taught that such generalizations about Jews are hurtful and anti-semitic. In fact – the term “JAP� itself is considered a racial slur of sorts – even if it is limited to the female gender and higher classes, and even as the Forward Newspaper, the premier Jewish newspaper - accepts such a focus on materialism as a real trend within American Jewish life – and more intensely so among its women.

I dated a Long Island girl who, despite her claims of horror at and claims of thinking differently than the JAPS she grew up with, not only continued friendships these types of women who she knew from her past, but made new friendships predominantly with the same types of women. In the end, we conceded we had a value system too radical to continue dating. I knew it wasn’t happening when, after pondering an idea, she screamed at me “Why are you worrying about things like this when you should be concentrating on your career!�

I also had some painful incidents with Long Island girls when one had decided that it was ridiculous I expressed interest in her sister because she was so “out of my league.� I’m not angry at her for feeling that way. I’m just angry at her for expressing it in those terms to common friends of mine.

So were they.

But the bad incidents were not what finally lead me to consider and impose a general not-in-my-network policy. Rather, it was a first date that wasn’t even that bad. She was a girl who was intellectual, and had a sense of humor. But she was determined not to be a JAP, and to show the world that not all Jewish girls were like that.

I felt that this illuminated how pervasive the value system for these women truly is. You never meet Jewish girls from the former Soviet Union or from Beersheva who feel a need to prove that not all Jewish girls are JAPS.

Additionally, there is a false sense of smug among JAPS that when they are not materially focused, but have some level of interest about anything other than a shopping spree and a summer share in the Hamptons that this means they don’t suffer from this malaise.

But the JAP condition is much more than mere vulgar materialism. Watch how they react when you disagree with them on a political or philosophical issue outside their specific brand of liberalism. They don’t just take it personally – they take it as a rebellion. There simply is no acceptable world view outside of their own. An eloquent rebuttal isn’t even necessary. That would dignify such views! Eye rolling and lip curling only, please.

When I took a Marxist course at City College, and was the most outspoken dissident against a classroom of believers – they were more accepting of my different take on politics and economics than most JAPS are.

And they were hardly accepting.

Additionally, I am not saying that the JAP phenomenon is limited to Long Island. It is certainly not. But if you point to Scarsdale or Potomac, MD – you are not disagreeing with me. Rather, you are arguing for a more expansive policy of exclusion. As that’s the case - I have no interest in disagreeing with you.

I am also not claiming that there aren’t neighborhoods in Long Island somewhere that are different than the Long Island I am describing – there are more middle class ones – I have met people - Jewish girls even – from there – and they are not who I am speaking of.

But the template of JAP is most intense, and without nuance, in Long Island, as this is the greatest home in both density and size of such women.

It is for this reason that I began a no-tolerance policy of allowing Long Island Jewish girls into my life on any level. I don’t like how they make me feel for thinking different than they do, or the value system that inevitably surfaces, despite any and all vehement claims to the contrary.

In business, if a sector of the economy is consistently losing money, say the typewriter industry when pc computers started becoming big - and you are given the opportunity to invest - you don’t put money in such in industry because maybe one of the companies is “not like that� and will in the end make a profit despite the general downward curve of the industry as a whole.

So too with Long Island Jewish girls. And I’m not saying they’re evil.

I’m just saying they’re soul killers.

For me.

Maybe it’s not nice – but I feel a whole lot better since I started this policy.

And I met some really nice women from Queens and Brooklyn.

As the paleoconservative are quick to note, the neoconservatives are not purely right-wing thinkers - rather, they are usually a mix of left and right-wing thinking.

While the paeoconservatives bewail the “hegemony” of neo-cons within the conservative movement in general, in the Jewish world specifically, the neocons enjoy unbridled power in determining the agenda and parameters of those who dissent from liberal and left, as at least in the secular Jewish world, there is no other dissenting camp. For example, the only prominent American secular OVERTLY Jewish periodical in print that isn’t liberal or left is “Commentary”, the voice of the Jewish neocons.

A problem with this single exception to Jewish liberalism is that there is no place to challenge their ideas except from the left. But why should hybrid thinkers always agree with the neo-cons? Perhaps there are a few issues that we would and should differ from them.

For instance:

Immigration - The neocons are for relatively open immigration, but perhaps it is time to rethink this position? When we have affirmitive action for any member of a group that is a minority, perhaps it is rediculous to have more come when they are treated, at least by the second or third generation, to benefits over long-standing citizens that aren’t in the “minority” category. Something has to give. More ominously, we have groups that have a deep resentment of the U.S. that even if only a tiny minority of them are truly actively hostile to the U.S., perhaps they are too potentially deadly to not take measures to not curb their entry.

Privitization - This has proven a very bad idea - as in the case of Enron - to truly embrace it as they continue to do. Also - look at mass transit - even if someone never takes the subway in NYC, he still benefits from better air quality and less traffic. So why does the New York Sun continue to demand its privitization? Why shouldn’t he pay a subsidy? And recently the waterway to NJ went bankrupt - how is this not a security concern in a City that has occassional blackouts? Strange that neocons would allow us even more beholden to oil companies.

Elitism - Despite lip service to the middle class, neocons are openly elitist and classist to the core. But the Jewish community, while disproportionately wealthy, is not all wealthy - not by any means. With our paltry numbers, it would make sense for a push towards class ecumenicalism.

Israel and charges of anti-semitism - Currently, all right wing resentment over the attempted convergence of American and Israeli issues from the paleos are dismissed as anti-semetic all too frequently. But are these charges fair? If Jews on the right were willing, at least within the Jewish community, to assert that what’s good for America isn’t always what’s good for Israel - wouldn’t these charges be less frequently hurled, and instead, receive a rational, logical discussion, as perhaps they deserve? That will only happen when those Jews outside the left/liberal camp are prepared to ask the neocons these questions ourselves.

The neocons are let off the hook from the right, and are able to instead to define themselves by the easier bashing of the least sensible arguements from the most outlandish elements of the left.

It’s time for a fair fight, that is to say, a real fight - with both left and right dukes up.