July 18, 2010 | 8:17 pm

What was so great about the holy temple?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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I didn’t have any classes with Jonathan Zasloff this past year, though I may in the fall. Regardless, I got a quick education on the destruction of the Second Temple, and why Zasloff thinks it was good for the Jews, in his cover story for this week’s Jewish Journal.

He writes:

We mourn the Temple’s destruction on Tisha B’Av, but had the Temple actually survived, it would have meant the destruction of the Jewish religion.  Our religious and spriritual practices would have centered not on Torah, but rather on bloody sacrifices of bulls, lambs, and goats on the Temple altar.  Can anyone seriously argue that such practices represent the way of uplifting the soul and approaching God?

Perhaps more importantly, survival of the Temple would have deprived us of the extraordinary achievement of rabbinic Judaism—a religion vastly superior to the Priestly cult that preceded it.

Judah Ha-Nasi only decided to compile the Mishnah when it became clear that the Temple would never be rebuilt.  So had the Temple survived, there would have been no Mishnah.  No great tradition of scholarship and learning.  No Pirkei Avot.  No Tosefta.  No Talmud.  No Rashi.  No Maimonides.  No Ramban.  Only a lot of dead, bleeding animals.

Rabbinic Judaism, and the texts, institutions, philosophies, and traditions accompanying it, constitute not only one of the greatest achievements in the history of human civilization, but also one of the greatest paths for connecting with God.  The triumph of the rabbis represented nothing less than the divine spirit entering the minds, hearts, and souls of the Jewish people.  In this light, mourning the Temple’s destruction is entirely misplaced: the event represents the Jewish people’s maturation into a closer, more adult relationship with the Holy One.  It is not a tragedy, but more akin to our people’s Bar Mitzvah.

July 18, 2010 | 4:56 pm

Women and the Holocaust

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

There was a story about a different kind of Holocaust revisionism in today’s New York Times. Turns out the tales of brutal female Nazis weren’t as unusual as we’ve understood them to be:

The Nazi killing machine was undoubtedly a male-dominated affair. But according to new research, the participation of German women in the genocide, as perpetrators, accomplices or passive witnesses, was far greater than previously thought.

The researcher, Wendy Lower, an American historian now living in Munich, has drawn attention to the number of seemingly ordinary German women who willingly went out to the Nazi-occupied eastern territories as part of the war effort, to areas where genocide was openly occurring.

“Thousands would be a conservative estimate,” Ms. Lower said in an interview in Jerusalem last week.

While most did not bloody their own hands, the acts of those who did seemed all the more perverse because they operated outside the concentration camp system, on their own initiative.

Much more here. To be sure, Lower said that only 1 percent to 2 percent of those perpetrating genocide were women. But they were often close by, and influencing below the service.

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July 16, 2010 | 5:31 pm

Obama and Hitler: the odd couple billboard

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I’m all for hyperbole, but trying to draw a connection between Barack Obama and evil incarnate, Adolf Hitler, is quite absurd.

In May, anti-war protesters in San Francisco held up the above posters. Then the northern Iowa Tea Party put up a billboard that depicted Obama with the word “Change” below and “Democrat Socialism” above. On his left was Lenin and on his right Hitler. “Radical Leaders Prey on the Fearful and Naive,” the billboard proclaimed.

Now it’s been taken down, reflected on by Tea Party members as a poor decision. Uh, duh.

From the Associated Press:

After the billboard drew sharp criticism by other state and national tea party leaders, members of the local group sought the change.

North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson said he and other leaders agreed with critics that the image of Obama between Hitler and Lenin was offensive. He said the images overwhelmed the intended message of anti-socialism.

“They are absolutely right in their criticism because the image of Hitler just totally wiped everything else and it misrepresents the tea party movement,” Johnson said. “They were right from the standpoint that the image was not a positive reflection on the tea people.”

Johnson said Hitler images are usually not allowed at North Iowa Tea Party gatherings.

Usually not allowed—that’s an odd qualification.

This isn’t a First Amendment issue. It’s a PR nightmare. If you’re the Tea Party, you want to appear to be as mainstream as possible. This billboard wreaked of LaRouchees.

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July 15, 2010 | 9:03 am

Honeymooning in the Holy Land

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

You don’t often see long stories in the Israeli press about couples traveling the Holy Land on their honeymoon. Then again, you don’t often hear of couples like Matthew Lusia and his bride Zalga Kass Hanna.

He is a Dutch Jew; she is a Syrian-born Muslim. They met a few years after Hanna’s family immigrated to Holland and, not surprisingly, their relationship was disapproved of.

From YNet:

Earlier in the month, the two tied to knot and became husband and wife. Immediately after their wedding, they came to Israel, their second visit in the country within a year. “What’s particularly great for me here is that I look like Israelis and fit right in.

“It’s a free country with human rights, equality for women—a Western culture within the Middle East. To me it’s like a dream. I wish the women in Syria could walk down the street uninterrupted the way they do here, but sadly I’m afraid this will never happen. This is all topped by the great food you have here, tons of falafels, hummus and pizzas.”

The couple is scheduled to visit Haifa and Jerusalem during their visit in Israel, as well as a less obvious site—Sderot. “We plan on visiting Sderot to see how the people live there in the shadow of terror attacks and rockets,” Zalga said.

It’s definitely worth the trip.

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July 14, 2010 | 9:22 am

Summer is for lovers: Levi and Bristol edition

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

My first thought was: I can’t believe Bristol Palin wants to marry Levi Johnston after the way he tried to sell her mom down the river to promote his own name and bank account. Him?

My second was: If this is news, so help us God.

The funny thing is they used the exact same engagement-announcement cards that my wife and I did. The cover of Us Weekly, of course.

The pair say they reconnected about three months ago while working out a custody agreement for their 18-month-old son, Tripp. “I really thought we were over,” Johnston, 20, tells the magazine, which puts the formerly star-crossed lovers on the cover. But after a walk, Bristol says, she was stunned how different her former fiancé was. Later, Johnston texted her: “I miss you. I love you. I want to be with you again.” “I was in shock,” says Bristol, 19.

According to the magazine, Johnston and Palin secretly got engaged two weeks ago. Perhaps that explains the public apology that Johnston issued last week via People magazine, for lying about the Palin family. (No word yet on what celebrity periodical will be catering the reception, but our money is on OK!)

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July 14, 2010 | 12:33 am

Soccer fields and rubble

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The World Cup is over—a painful reminder of that in Uganda—but the suffering in Haiti is not.

And neither is their love for futbol.

My GetReligion colleague Sarah Pulliam Bailey came back with this story after a quick visit to the island nation last month. A snippet:

Piles of rubble fill the streets of Port-Au-Prince, and hundreds of thousands of families still live in tents as hurricane season rapidly approaches. In one tent city of about 15,000 people, aid workers are fighting an outbreak of typhoid. But for a few hours in late June, Haitian children learned soccer skills from one of their own.

Born and raised in Haiti, Ricardo Pierre-Louis made the Haitian national team at 17; but getting there wasn’t easy. His parents couldn’t afford to give him the 25 cents needed to buy a soccer ball, so he would make balls out of blown-up condoms. Out of millions of Haitian children, he was one of 25 selected to play on the national youth team at 14. Now he wants to do something similar for the Port-au-Prince children living in tents.

“My distractions were my soccer and my education,” Pierre-Louis said. “Imagine seeing someone get smashed in the earthquake. How do you take that as a kid?”

Pierre-Louis, 25, was brought back to his home country for the first time since the earthquake by an organization called OneHope, a ministry that tells Bible stories to children through booklets and movies. The ministry recently sent a small group from their Florida headquarters to lead the Port-au-Prince soccer clinics, with the intention that Haitian leaders would continue the clinics throughout the summer.

The situation in Haiti remains daunting.

Read the rest here.

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July 13, 2010 | 9:43 am

Steinbrenner’s legacy: World Series rings and ‘Seinfeld’ laughs

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

George Steinbrenner died of a massive heart attack this morning. The Yankees owner was one of the most memorable people in sports, and certainly the best-known team-owner in the country. He was 80.

Not being a Yankees fan, most every “memory” I have of Steinbrenner comes from “Seinfeld.” It’s hard to pick a favorite scene involving the big boss, but it’s easy to pick my favorite scene in which the real Steinbrenner appeared. It’s from “The Invitations,” and it’s above.

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July 13, 2010 | 9:18 am

France gets closer to banning the veil

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The train has been coming down the tracks for some time now. From the BBC:

France’s lower house of parliament has approved a ban on wearing the Islamic full veil in public.

It must now be ratified by the Senate in September to become law.

Opinion polls suggest the ban has overwhelming public support but critics point out that only a tiny minority of French Muslims wear the full veil.

President Nicolas Sarkozy supports the bill as part of a debate on French identity but critics say the government is pandering to far-right voters.

Something frightening is afoot in France. And it has little to do with the veil. In fact, some Muslims, like Mona Eltahawy, support a burqa ban. (I don’t think Burqa Barbie does.) But the French measures seems to be coming from a very xenophobic place.

Europe’s largest Muslim population lives in France—this is largely due to immigration but also a remnant of colonialism—and they have been both a source of fear and a victim of it.

But France is not alone. Spain and Belgium are debating similar measures, and two years ago Holland banned the burqa on college campuses.

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July 12, 2010 | 10:48 am

Britney Spears’ spills her Jesus ink

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

As I was standing in line at Blockbuster to swap out “Youth in Revolt” for “The Book of Eli”—more on that later—I spotted this issue of Cosmo with the Resurrected Britney Spears on the cover. Look closely—not too closely—at her waistline and tell me if you see anything unusual.

How ‘bout now?

That’s right: Spears has a cross tattooed right around the spot you’d expect to see a bikini line. Sort of reminds me of the Jesus fish tattoo that Ashley Harkleroad revealed in Playboy.

Because the rest of this photo appears to have been airbrushed, I guess we can rule out Britney having every really converted to Judaism.

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July 12, 2010 | 8:47 am

Rev. Jackson says Cavs owner treated LeBron like ‘runaway slave’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Sorry if you’re tiring of basketball posts—I’ve been on a bit of a roll—but I really couldn’t pass up on the latest comment from the Rev. Jesse Jackson. (Does anyone else feel weird when they type the letters R-E-V before Jackson’s name?) Lots of people are upset about LeBron leaving Cleveland for Miami, but it’s hard to fathom in what world Jackson thought this analogy was apt:

“He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers,” the reverend said in a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship—between business partners—and LeBron honored his contract.”

I’m no spokesman for the African-American experience—and Jesse Jackson isn’t the emperor of black people—but it seems to me that comments like Jackson’s belittle the true severity of slavery and are out of touch with life in 21st century America.

The impetus was an outraged letter that Gilbert fired off after James announce he would leave for Miami. The letter was childish from its tone, to it’s finger pointing, to the comic sans font it was written in. But I don’t think it went as far as Jackson suggested.

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July 11, 2010 | 9:52 pm

Jordan Farmar leaving LA for NY

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Last week I received the above invitation and the first thing I wondered was whether Jordan Farmar would be around on Aug. 15 for this benefit for children with cancer. That question has been answered. It looks like Farmar will be flying back from New York:

Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Farmar has agreed to a three-year, $12-million deal with the New Jersey Nets, his agent, Arn Tellem, confirmed to ESPN The Magazine’s Ric Bucher on Sunday night.

“Jordan will be an excellent complement to Devin [Harris] in the backcourt,” Nets president Rod Thorn said in a statement released by the team. “He comes to the Nets with championship pedigree, which will prove to be invaluable to his teammates.”

This is great news for one of the NBA’s only Jews. He’ll finally get his chance to shine.

But the contract is a bit surprising because, save for a great game against the Rockets last season, Farmar hasn’t really done much to warrant $4 million a year. But, then again, Sasha Vujacic made $5 million last year and look at all the bread thrown at Darko this off season. Speaking of Darko, the Free Darko twit had a great line:

FARMAR TO BROOKLYN!!!!!! #hesjewishdontforgetit

How could I? If you did, check out one of my favorite stories, not only from my time at The Jewish Journal but from my time as a journalist. A snippet about Farmar and the history of Jews in basketball:

Read more of this post

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July 11, 2010 | 8:40 pm

Suicide bombers rock Uganda while South Africa celebrated the World Cup

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

While the world watched soccer, they committed terrorism:

KAMPALA, Uganda — At least three bombs exploded Sunday in a synchronized attack on large gatherings of World Cup soccer fans watching the televised final on outdoor screens in this normally peaceful capital, turning a boisterous night of cheering into scenes of death and panic. The police and witnesses said more than 50 people were killed, including some foreigners, among them at least one American.

The bombs struck at 10:30 p.m. local time in the middle of the match between Spain and the Netherlands under way in South Africa, hitting a popular Ethiopian garden restaurant and a large rugby field in a different Kampala neighborhood where hundreds of people had massed to watch the game.

Ugandan police officials said they suspected that the Shabab, a militant Islamic group in nearby Somalia, might have been behind the bombings. If so, it would be that group’s first attack outside Somalia. But the police said it was premature to draw conclusions.

Read the rest here.

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