Concern Over Big Aish Widens
November 2, 2008 Aish, Judaism
I didn’t get involved with Big Aish’s distribution of “Obsession,” mostly because while I am on the other side of the political mechitza, I don’t have a problem if someone wants to disseminate warnings about the dangers of Islamicist goals, because it might lead to a wake-up of sorts on immigration. It doesn’t matter if their real goal is to affect the election. I think there is plenty to fear. And I knew about this early on. So all you frummies and religious-Zionists should give me some credit for not jumping on that bandwagon, despite my very understandable concerns about Big Aish.
However…concern over Big Aish is spreading beyond specific distribution of this film.
Jeffrey Goldberg writes in The Atlantic,
I neglected to mention a whole set of other issues about Aish HaTorah, including and especially its pre-modern attitude toward women, pluralism and non-Jews.
Oh, boy. Now the big dogs are starting to bark. The veneer is falling…Big Aish and the other fundie kiruv orgs are probably in for some serious resistance.
Aren’t you glad you stopped partnering with these guys?
And who is backing Big Aish, ultimately? No less than the State of Israel herself. This is whom they have chosen to represent the light of traditional Judaism. These yahoos. What a joke. But the joke is on Judaism.
9 comments
Credit as in a post or an appreciative nod? I’ll do the post in a minute…
Nice restraint! Now Hanukkah Harry will have an extra something special for you under the Hanukkah Bush. It’s too bad you didn’t push this story. You would have been in some stellar company. Absolutely stellar. Which ought to tell you something.
Excuse me why didn’t you do the post again? Because you’re a cold hard rationalist? Or was it because someone talked you down from the brink of yet another tirade against ‘Big Aish’, and the lair of evil that lay therein?
I like this new thing you’re trying of thinking first, then shooting.
Ah, they let Abitbol [deleted by site owner]
It’s always nice to see who David Abitbol supports. The fact that he’s protective of Aish and warning Kvetcher that he’d be in my company for criticizing the group is instructive of Abitbol’s values.
First, he makes up the fact that 2 skinhead nuts seeking to kill blacks are gays (see link). Then he says nice things about Aish. He’s sure got his head & his priorities screwed on right.
It is nice DK that you let Richard spew his lashon hora here – but I am not sure it is wise. The man has absolutely no funny bone. Zero. He also claims to be making the world better, but loves loshon hora.
ck hardly defends Big Aish at all
To be clear, I reject all the nasty things Mr. Silverstein said about ck. And I don’t want any personal attacks against my friends here.
Okay, the link to Mr. Silverstein’s blog was..er, fixed.
Fellahs, please. I don’t like personal attacks on my site, and don’t like fighting about Israel. Cool?
David: Thanks for fixing the link to rid it of Abitbol’s original personal insult.
And just to be clear: how does ck linking to my website in this thread using the link “richardsilverstein.com/whinybitch” NOT constitute lashon hara?
And just to be clear to David where my comment derived from…I do NOT level personal attacks against anyone unless they have initiated this type of hostile behavior. And then, yes, I do respond.
Ah yes, I have no funny bone. If I did this would bring on gales of laughter. I guess it all depends on whose ox is being gored. If you’re pals of Abitbol it’s a hoot. If not, tough s(&t.
Richard Silverstein continuously claims that I am a liar when I characterize his opinions as anti-Israel. For me to be a liar I’d have to knowingly misrepresent my true opinion. However, I honestly believe that he is anti-Israel, that his words and opinions provide succor and support to those whose fondest wishes are the complete destruction of the state I call home. that he claims to be a progressive Zionist is irrelevant with respect to my designation as a liar. He can believe he is the King of France. That doesn’t mean he’ll be moving into Versailles any time soon. I’ll go one step further. My opinion can be completely wrong, but it doesn’t make me a liar. Mr. Silverstein should consult a dictionary before he goes off on his tiresome tirades. For instance, when Silverstein scoffs at the notion that I am Liberal, I don’t call him a liar. I’m sure he honestly believes that I am not a Liberal. I just call him ignorant.
Another one of Richard Silverstein’s mantras, is that I love to infuse my comments with a healthy dose of testosterone. This he bases on a Forward Magazine article that discussed the lack of civility in the Jewish blogosphere. He was taken to task for this assertion by one of his commenters and he (momentarily) backed down and admitted that nothing in the article said that I had actually expressed a preference for testosterone fueled commentary. He then stated that this designation is, in his opinion, one that is apparent from my writing, but I guess he can no longer make the claim I “self-admit” to such a thing.
Another common theme that runs through Richard Silverstein’s rantings is the denial of the capacity for independent thought amongst those that disagree with him and who frequent Jewlicious. They are characterized as my “minions” and “acolytes.” Nothing of course, can be further from the truth. Jewlicious is an open space that allows people to express their opinions without fear of censorship except in the most egregious cases – ie if someone’s physical safety were at risk. This is not the case on Richard Silverstein’s blog where comments are regularly deleted especially when commenters disagree with Mr. Silverstein. I’ve had people send me comments they left on his blog that were completely innocuous and that were nonetheless not put up by mere dint of the fact that they were not in agreement with Silverstein’s positions.
Finally, amongst established bloggers of every political persuasion, Mr. Silverstein has a reputation as being quite shrill and aggressive. His self-designation as the noble warrior against cyber bullying is laughable given the nastiness and unsubstantiated innuendo with which he infuses much of his writing. In just the last 2 weeks he has mentioned me negatively twice on his blog – and once in a post titled “Abitbol’s Gay Slur” thus branding me a homophobe (!!) on top of everything else. This about a post that quite clearly condemned racism, homophobia and intolerance. He also recently left an anonymous comment on Jewcy attacking me in a post that I had nothing to do with.
The man seems a tad obsessed. Thus far I haven’t written about this on Jewlicious at all because frankly, he is irrelevant and I won’t drive traffic to his site.
Please note that none of my problem with Richard Silverstein actually has anything to do with his politics. I link to Kabobfest all the time even though they are strongly anti-Zionist and anti-Israel. That’s because they’re at least entertaining and somewhat friendly. Richard Silverstein is none of these. He is an arrogant, hypocritical, obsessed bully with a nasty streak that has to be seen to be believed.
All this started as a result of the 1st Jewish Israel Blog Awards some 3 or 4 years ago. The contest had an open nomination period. Anyone could be nominated. You could nominate yourself or get a friend to nominate you. Richard Silverstein’s blog was not nominated. He then went on a bit of a verbal rampage accusing the “contest” of being rigged in favor of right wing blogs blah blah blah etc. etc. That several “progressive” blogs were nominated and even won awards did not stop his tirade. I called him a “whiny bitch” in response to his incessant and ridiculous accusations against the organizer of the awards who worked tirelessly to make sure everything was above board and fair.
In the link to his Web site that I put up here in my previous comment, I added in a “?whiny_bitch” after his url. No one but him really would have seen that, and even then, only if he looked obsessively at his logs. Was that mature of me? No. But it was a measured and pretty understated response to numerous, otherwise unprovoked and unwarranted attacks from Mr. Silverstein. That’s not to justify it of course – I’m just putting everything into context.
Sorry to go off topic Duvidle. In conclusion I’d like to leave you of with a quote from the song “Get Bac” by Ludacris:
Woop-Woop!
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