He’s a big boy now

November 23, 2009   Chabad, Immigration  

by DK

Moshe Holzberg has turned three.

All the best, Moshe

Photo courtesy of the Forward.

12 comments

1 Jeff Eyges { 11.24.09 at 7:31 am }

As tragic as it is, it wouldn’t have happened if these people were not going all over the world telling others what to believe.

I meant to tell you – I spoke to my nephew last week. He’s more insufferable and condescending than ever. He’s so deeply imbibed the KoolAid, he’s never going to rid his system of it. I can’t even bear to talk to him any more. He crossed a line with me last spring, when he refused to go to a panel discussion about Israel, because it was being held at a Conservative shul. I told him, “No one is asking you to go to services there.” Didn’t matter; merely walking in would be seen as tacit approval of the institution. According to him, the old crackpot forbade it – yet I’m quite certain I’ve seen the Harvard shliach at Hillel, where they hold mixed services.

Meh. Walking anachronisms, the lot of them.

2 formermuslim { 11.24.09 at 12:32 pm }

“Walking anachronisms, the lot of them.”

Didn’t people say that 100 years ago?

3 HalfSours { 11.24.09 at 12:57 pm }

Jeff,

I believe in cautioning people to use sense, be careful, not taunt the dogmatists among us — as some would say holding a gay pride parade in the Vatican or two blocks from the most fanatic Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem is. But placing blame on the victims in hindsight is in poor taste, and smacks of shadenfreude.

4 HalfSours { 11.24.09 at 1:02 pm }

Also, if nobody was “telling others what to believe,” everybody would have to figure out their world view entirely on their own, without any philosophic input to synthesize one’s own thoughts from. Even Abraham sought to learn the philosophies of polytheists before committing to monotheism, and G-d loved him all the more for it.

5 Jeff Eyges { 11.24.09 at 9:04 pm }

Half Sours, I don’t mean it in the sense of “they had it coming”, but the fact of the matter, in my view, is that they shouldn’t be out there doing it in the first place. You want to help people? Feed the hungry, house the homeless. Leave people’s souls the hell alone.

As far as telling other people what to believe is concerned – we’re using the phrase differently. I’ll use my nephew as an example again. He loves to parrot the party line to me – “A Jew is a Jew is a Jew”. And he doesn’t seem to buy into it, as long as the frei Jew comes to him submissively, hat in hand, cultivating an attitude of insufficiency – “Please help me to be more like you.” In other words – as long as he knows his place. However, if that same Jew suggest a change of venue, wants my nephew to meet him on his turf – it’s a different story. All of a sudden, maybe a Jew isn’t quite a Jew.

This business of meeting people where they are, nonjudgmentally, is pure and utter bullshit. They don’t mean it; they’ve never meant it. Their goal is to turn you into one of them. My nephew has told me, point blank, that God wants every Jew practicing authentic Judaism, and Chabad is the only authentic form of Judaism left (everyone else is too far to the right or to the left). You should only hear what he says about Modern Orthodoxy.

And the reason they’re doing this isn’t because they feel they have something wonderful and precious and want to share it with you. They’re doing it for the same reason the evangelicals proselytize – in attempting to convince you, they’re really attempting to convince themselves. Because if they can convince you that they’re right, then, they reason, they really must be right, and they can stave off for a little while longer the ever-present doubt that threatens to overtake them. That, and they apparently get extra brownie points in heaven equivalent to the number of heilige yiddishe neshomos they bring in. Just like the evangelicals.

Of course, you’ll disagree with me, you’ll think I’m generalizing unfairly. Take it up with your boyfriend; he’ll tell you I’m right.

6 Jeff Eyges { 11.24.09 at 9:06 pm }

Oh, crap. “And he *does* seem to buy into it”

Damn it, David – where’s my edit function? Oh, that’s right – you pissed off Mobius, and now we don’t get one.

7 Freely { 11.24.09 at 9:31 pm }

isnt censorship grand DK?

8 DK { 11.24.09 at 11:35 pm }

Get off my blog, Freely. I tolerate White Nationalists and even Kiruvniks, but I will not have some fahfrumpteh claiming I hope some little orphan murders someone someday.

Go to one of the Kiruv blogs, and talk about how crazy everyone is except your putrid little group of frummies.

9 Freely { 11.25.09 at 12:00 am }

but you will tolerate someone who says that the holzbergs deserved what they got? and make no mistake that’s exactly what jeff is saying, he wishes all frum people dead. but i get it, IM putrid

10 DK { 11.25.09 at 12:39 am }

That isn’t what Jeff said. But what you did was ascribe motives to me that are complete nonsense.

Ask someone secular to explain this to you. Or a religious person versed in Talmud, not Hashkafa and stupid Kiruv proofs.

11 Jeff Eyges { 11.25.09 at 5:34 am }

I’m not saying they deserved what happened to them, which is a tragedy. I’m saying it wouldn’t have happened if they’d stayed where they belonged.

I don’t want you dead, Freely. I want you to leave alone people who are trying to get on with the business of forwarding civilization.

I also want you to stop killing chickens and swinging them around your heads like a bunch of goddamn savages, but that’s another issue.

12 Naomi { 11.30.09 at 7:37 pm }

Jeff,

“My nephew has told me … Chabad is the only authentic form of Judaism left.”

Are you kidding? Did he really say this?
How old is he? He sounds very young. Up until around 25-28ish the supreme holier-than-thou crap is in full gear, and then it peters down, especially if the person is still single.

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