May 31, 2012 | 4:55 am

This week in power: Schultz speech, African refugees, Shavuot message, Family Guy

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Speech canceled
A Miami synagogue canceled a program featuring Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz when an influential Republican donor quit the congregation to protest the event, according to reports. Stanley Tate’s protest caused an uproar, and the temple’s president maintained that the speech was nixed over security concerns. “The problem here though is not just poor judgment on the part of Temple Israel but the assumption on the part of many liberal Jews that there is no difference between their faith and their political party,” said Jonathan S. Tobin at Commentary. Nobody wins over this incident, said Michael Miller at Miami New Times. “The saddest part of syna-gate 2012 is that a 16-year-old girl was scheduled to speak before the congresswoman. The focus of her remarks: how all Jews should admire Wasserman Schultz for her achievements, even if they disagreed with her politics. Free speech fail.”

Refugee riots
Opposition to a large number of African migrants living in Tel Aviv has some advocacy groups up in arms. Violent riots in the Hatikvah neighborhood in recent weeks has the topic of deportation on people’s minds. “As Jews we have matured sufficiently in our treatment of our border policy but we have yet to do so when it comes to our internal policy. We have created our Jewish state precisely for such an opportunity. It is time for us to embrace it and move our society to greater heights,” said Rabbi Donniel Hartman at YNetNews. Something significant needs to change, said Bernard Avishai at The Daily Beast. “What Israel needs are legal changes, now, to extend secular standards, valorize equality in Israeliness, and curb the privileges of the Orthodox rabbinate and educational systems. Mofaz and Netanyahu have the votes, for now.  Do they really have the will?”

Business Insider’s ill-advised article
The popular news site’s top dog Henry Blodget posted a story on Tuesday titled “Why do people hate Jews” that upset many people around the web. By the end of the day Blodget apologized, swapped out the main photo, and scaled the headline back. Many claimed that Blodget was deliberately fishing for traffic and intrigue with his post. “The comments section is basically like an Internet-based Mensa-level think tank, I’m sure by the time that the 24-hour period is over, Henry Blodget will have the definitive, unquestionable reason behind anti-Semitism. I, myself, am waiting with baited breath,” said Mark Dommu at Heeb. There might be some merit to the conversation, though. “Treated with nuance, this and other questions of its ilk can force us to confront hate and prejudice in uncomfortable, but ultimately productive ways,” said Danielle Weiner-Bronner at The Huffington Post. However, not when it’s presented this way.

What’s Shavuot mean to us?
Last weekend’s holiday got some people thinking. Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah. to the Chosen People. “Perhaps the time has come to leave behind this flawed way of thinking, as though we are favored and better understand what’s right for the world, as though our Torah is the exclusive truth across the universe and there are no other ways to experience a revelation, and as though any foreigner who wishes to live in our country is a threat,” said Dina Avramson at YNetNews. Others find meaning in the holiday, particularly in imagining themselves receiving the Torah from God directly. “The experience has had a lasting effect on my life in the ensuing years. Being shaken by the thunder, seeing the lightning and hearing the words of our Torah convinced me that I really did stand at Mt. Sinai. We were all there together. As a community,” said Rabbi Jason Miller in The Huffington Post.

“Family Guy” upsets
Ever provocative and controversial, the “Family Guy” writers have riled people up in an Emmy flier by asking “overprivileged Brentwood Jews” to “let us into your little club.” The show “has made such a knack out of offending people that at this point, a stunt like this is as likely to shock someone as a Madonna performance is,” said Penn Collins at Screen Junkies. “That said, it’s funny to see Seth Marcfarlane and Co. keep trying to raise the bar, possibly just out of boredom and a general malaise.” Others said it wasn’t the smartest ad to run. There’s no doubt that Seth Macfarlane can “showcase his freedom of speech creatively,” said Britt Hayes at Screen Crush, this “isn’t the most clever use of that talent.”

May 24, 2012 | 5:15 am

This week in power: Olmert remarks, Olympics controversy, Asifa, Columbus

Posted by Danny Groner

Christopher Columbus. Photo by Wikipedia/Sebastiano del Piombo

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Olmert opens up
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday said that Israel should abandon the idea of a unified Jerusalem if they truly want peace. He made the statements during the 45th anniversary of the capturing east Jerusalem. “Olmert makes a bitter mistake in thinking that separation, not unity, is the solution. His words are demagoguery,” Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat said. “He wants to run from conflicts in Jerusalem and give in to them, instead of coping with them and directing them. That is not the way,” Barkat continued. “The attempt to unify Jerusalem by fiat—by annexing the land while trying as mightily as possible to ignore the people, their needs and their desires—was mistaken. Jerusalem needs a diplomatic agreement that leaves it open physically but divided politically between two states. When it happens, I’d like to commemorate that day—modestly, without claiming that it heralds redemption, but with thanks and hope,” said Gershom Gorenberg at The Daily Beast.

Hungary fears
Since the Jobbik movement entered Parliament two years ago, Hungary Jews have been in high alert.The party “spout xenophobic, anti-Roma, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric,” according to JTA. “The danger is about Hungarian democracy, not about anti-Semitism,” Rabbi Istvan Darvas warned. Due to the effects of the Holocaust, “There is no relationship more fraught, complicated and prone to political exploitation by both right and left than that between Hungary and its Jews,” said Adam LeBor on Free Faith blog. “Hungarian Jewish culture is beautiful. We have a nice history. The government and the Jewish community must do what they can to make Jews feel safe and calm in Hungary,” said one Jewish leader.

Olympics memorial debate
Israeli officials were upset after the International Olympic Committee refused their request to hold a special tribute to the Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games, according to reports. In London this summer, they hoped for a minute of silence to honor the slain Israeli athletes and coaches. “The IOC clearly doesn’t want Munich to be repeated. But it also seems like the IOC doesn’t want Munich to be remembered,” said Reid Forgrave at Fox Sports. Moreover, “The Munich 11 were targeted because they were Israelis and Jews, but anybody who thinks the massacre was only an assault on Israel and Jews does not understand—well, does not understand the Olympic spirit,” said Tablet’s Marc Tracy.

Anti-internet rally
Over 40,000 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men attended a rally on Sunday at New York’s Citi Field concerning the state of the internet and how technology perverts their way of life. “There is a very significant downside to the Internet,” a spokesman said. “It does pose a challenge to us in various aspects of our lives.” The reaction from the blogosphere was fast and unwelcoming. “The Internet does not molest, only people do; they always have. But if they can just persist on blaming internal problems on evil outside forces, they can continue to remain blind to what they refuse to see: themselves,” said Judy Braun in The Jewish Week. And until they accept that, said Emily Manuel at Global Comment, they will continue to live in the dark. “It would be better if the Haredim gave sexual desire a place in their religious practice where it could thrive more openly and honestly. But then again, if that were possible, perhaps the asifa never would have taken place in the first place,” she said.

Was Columbus Jewish?
Long been a subject of debate, the topic of explorer’s Christopher Columbus’s heritage heated up again this week. “Columbus’s voyage was not, as is commonly believed, funded by the deep pockets of Queen Isabella, but rather by two Jewish Conversos and another prominent Jew. Louis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez advanced an interest free loan of 17,000 ducats from their own pockets to help pay for the voyage, as did Don Isaac Abrabanel, rabbi and Jewish statesman,” according to CNN. What should we make of this revelation? “As we witness bloodshed the world over in the name of religious freedom, it is valuable to take another look at the man who sailed the seas in search of such freedoms — landing in a place that would eventually come to hold such an ideal at its very core,” said Maqsood Hussain at The News Tribe. And this news could change the history of the Jewish people in the United States, said one blogger: “It is quite possible that the United States was blessed of God – not only because of the English Puritan colonists, but also because of the first Spanish-Jewish settlers.”

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May 17, 2012 | 4:39 am

This week in power: Flag burning, Obama appointee, Greece, Abuse coverup

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Antwerp burning
A Lag b’Omer bonfire in Antwerp got out of hand last week when Haredi participants burned an Israeli flag. Afterward a picture from the incident went viral, showing a man burning a handmade Israeli flag as kids watch along. “This is one of the first times we have seen this sort of thing in recent years,” the editor of Joods Actueel told JTA. Some have begun to worry that the incident will have a negative impact on the perception of Jews in Hungary, and beyond. “In Judaism there is no room for hatred,” said David Terry, general manager of the Jewish News.  “Do these people forget that Jews were burned in Auschwitz?  We must always strive for reconciliation, not this kind of malice.”

Obama’s controversial appointee
Stephanie Rose is a candidate for a U.S. attorney position to the dismay of some Jewish people, according to reports. She is known for being involved with the prosecution of Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of a Kosher meatpacking company that came under fire for using illegal immigrants and violating child labor laws, and some felt that she crossed the line into anti-Semitic waters. Should it matter? At least one senator was quoted as saying that he “did not feel Rose’s character as U.S. Attorney in the Rubashkin matter should be at issue because she was acting mostly out of orders from Washington.”

Greece uproar
Some Greek Jews have condemned Nikos Michaloliakos, head of the Golden Dawn party, for publicly saying that “there were no gas chambers and ovens [crematoria] in Auschwitz.” Their statement included this response: “It is an insult to the historical memory, the memory of the 6 million Jews, our brethren, amongst whom there where 70,000 Greek Jews, who perished in the death camps of Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka and the other sites of the extermination factory founded by Adolf Hitler.” The comments have sparked outrage across the world. “It’s criminal, really, that a moment of natural beauty, a daily coming of the light into the darkness, should be hijacked in its description by a group of barbarians,” said a Sydney Morning Herald blogger.

Child abuse charges
A report in The New York Times last week got people talking about how New York City investigates and prosecutes child abuse within the Hasidic community. The sect “prefer not to use secular governmental institutions, such as the police and courts. Those not abiding by community rules are often shunned and sometimes even assaulted,” Newsmax reported. “Sometimes religious courts do not fully accept the testimony of children or women, making proving molestation claims very difficult. They also have no formal power to punish, subpoena or collect evidence,” said a New York Times writer. Amid the backlash that’s come, the Brooklyn DA has stated that his office takes these cases extremely seriously and will prosecute anyone who is proven to be guilty of such heinous crimes.

Is Hatikva racist?
Recently, the Israeli national anthem Hatikva, or “The Hope,” has been called into question, and some are calling for a revamping of the lyrics. “The successful integration of Israeli Arabs into Israeli life, on which the country’s future depends, has to have its symbolic expression, too. It’s unacceptable to have an anthem that can’t be sung by 20% of a population. Permitting it to stand mutely while others sing is no solution,” said a Jewish Daily Forward blogger in March. Proposed changes appear here. For others, though, the original anthem is so powerful that any changes at all could alter the meaning of symbolic moments and times.

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May 10, 2012 | 4:58 am

This week in power: Obama’s stand, France fallout, Greece fear, Sendak legacy

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Obama poll
Each week a new poll seems to come out proving the same thing: Obama is doing well with the Jewish vote, but down from 2008 numbers. This time it was an AJC survey showing that the President has the edge over Mitt Romney in many major areas. And with the President’s outspoken stance in favor of gay marriage late Wednesday, he has Jewish support behind him. But that could still all change in the coming months, warned MJ Rosenberg in The Huffington Post. “The bottom line is that a not insignificant percentage of Jews are, at least as of May, disillusioned with Obama’s presidency. If these numbers hold, it could cause problems for the president.”

Hollande’s win
Francois Hollande won the French election earlier this week and some French Jews are worried. “How France’s Jewish community will fare in the future, or what position the new president will take with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is now anyone’s guess,” said Alina Dain Sharon in the Agemeiner. But the Jewish Week’s Adam Dickter cautioned not jumping to any conclusions just yet about the new French leader. “Probably, though, no dramatic shifts are on store in the Israel-France relationship. But Jerusalem is hoping that Hollande will continue to press hard against Iran, the number one issue for Israel now,” he said.

Biden gets charged
Vice President Joe Biden used strong rhetoric when defending Israel and arguing that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be ousted within two years, according to reports. He made the comments in front of the Rabbinical Assembly’s annual convention in Atlanta on Tuesday, and he was critical of the past administration for not doing more to stop Iran from developing nuclear arms. “By going the extra diplomatic mile, presenting Iran with a clear choice, we demonstrated to the region and world that Iran is the problem, not the United States. That’s why China, Russia, Europe, and the rest of the world have joined us in these sanctions,” he said. But his visit wasn’t without issue. Biden suffered from a gaffe and a distraction that left people tickled.

Greece fear
Jewish leaders in Greece are worried about the fascist Golden Dawn party taking over the Greek parliament. “It is very disappointing that in a country like Greece, where so many were killed fighting the Germans, that a neo-Nazi party is now in parliament,” said a Jewish leader. Greece’s Jewish community is roughly 7,500 people, who already faced severe economic hardships. “The explosion of rage following the elections has left members of Greece’s Jewish community - and many others - confused. It is not difficult to read signs of concern about the rise of extremism in the country. While fascist parties are not new on Greece’s political landscape, the country’s current economic crisis has stirred an unprecedented number of outraged citizens to turn to extremist politics,” reported Haaretz.

Maurice Sendak’s legacy
“In the midst of this latest news, though, let’s not forget that Maurice Sendak was a Gay, Jewish man,” wrote a Jewish Journal blogger. How much did Sendak’s Jewish identity influence his work? “Chosenness in some renderings—including those of American Jews themselves during the nineteenth century—was a matter of essentialized, inherited identity; though this was debated and held in tension with more universalist models,” said Jodi Eichler-Levine at Religion Dispatches. “In the post-Holocaust period, these notions were rejected by many Jews due to the traits it shared with Nazi ideology, yet in some spheres, biological definitions of Jewishness keep emerging. As an American Jewish writer without children, Sendak moves us past the continuity crises and panics that dominated American Jewish discussions in the 1990s.” And while his books are primarily read to kids, said Jason Miller at JTA, “It wasn’t until I was an adult that I saw the Jewish flavor that peppers Sendak’s works. The characters in his most well-known children’s story are based on his old Jewish relatives. In some of his stories, Yiddish words are interspersed with his poetic English.”

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May 3, 2012 | 4:31 am

This week in power: Netanyahu’s father, Obama poll, France election, Google lawsuit

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

RIP Benzion Netanyahu
Netanyahu, whose son Binyamin is the Prime Minister, died this week at the age of 102. The elder Netanyahu was a statesman in his own right. “As far as he was concerned, this was a nation that had no political understanding, political culture or political leadership. Perhaps, when he overcame his failings, Benjamin Netanyahu could be the statesman that the Jewish people was lacking,” said Ari Shavit in Haaretz. And we can learn a thing or two from him, commented Jeffrey Goldberg at Bloomberg. “Israel’s security depends in part on Benzion Netanyahu- style vigilance and militancy. But it also depends on recognizing that the Jews of today are not the Jews of 1938, and that Jewish history is not preordained to repeat itself forever.”

Obama favor
The latest American Jewish Committee survey has Obama with 61 percent of the Jewish vote and Mitt Romney at just 28 percent. Respondents said overall that they preferred Democrats ahead of Republicans on every issue posed. Jewish Americans have to weigh their religion with their patriotism. “Collaborationists who have put their ideas into practice universally suggest that associating with Christian conservatives has made them more Jewish, not less,” said Michael Medved at Commentary. “In that context, it’s no longer necessary to promote the idea that Jewish Americans must overcome their horror at Christian influence for the sake of Israel’s security. The stronger argument insists that evangelical Christians deserve our friendship and cooperation because they aren’t just good for Israel; they’re good for America.”

France votes
“For the French Jewish community, appalled by the murders in the Jewish school in Toulouse, one of the key issues is how willing each candidate is to fight the new anti-Semitism that has developed under the mask of anti-Zionism,” said Richard Prasquier at Haaretz. Socialist candidate Francois Hollande took the first round of the presidential election, an election that will resume May 6. “Some voices in the French Jewish community have suggested that a Jewish voice be heard in the National Front,” reported Maxine Dovere in the Algemeiner. One person quoted said, “my belief is that it’s natural to turn to [Marine] Le Pen when you’re Jewish. She fights crime and Islamism and that means she defends Jews.”

Delmon Young’s rant
Detroit Tigers’ outfielder Delmon Young, in a drunken rant, shouted anti-Semitic slurs outside of his team’s hotel in New York last weekend that earned him a 7-day suspension from the league. “It is a shame that the team that was home to the greatest Jewish hitter of them all and which was routinely attacked because of his faith, should be, at least for now, the home of an anti-Semitic player,” said Jonathan S. Tobin in Commentary. Maybe this angry man can use the time off, said a Yahoo! Network contributor. “He could have time away from the Tigers; occupying that time with constructive behavior would be wise. His incident was a PR nightmare, but it could turn into a story of a man who made a mistake, went beyond the normal realm of apology, and set a new standard for MLB.”

Google faces a lawsuit
Some anti-discrimination organizations are suing Google for distributing “unsolicited and systematic associations between famous people and their Jewishness” through the site’s auto-complete function, according to reports. “Google is vulnerable to this sort of lawsuit. The world ‘esroc’ doesn’t qualify as pornographic, violent, hate speech, or promoting copyright infringement – it simply harms a reputation. Nevertheless, Google had to pay a fine and remove it,” said Josh Wolford at WebProNews. “If you find yourself wondering what exactly the big deal is, it’s kind of a French thing. In a way, the whole thing seems to imply that association with the word ‘jewish’ is somehow negative, but that actually has nothing to do with it,” said Eric Limer at Geekosystem. “The real issue here is that France has laws that explicitly outlaw the compilation of ‘ethnic files’ so whereas it may just be distasteful to compile a list of celebrities by religion in the U.S. or elsewhere, it is illegal in France.”

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