June 30, 2011 | 10:13 am

Last days for Argentina’s Jewish cowboys?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Follow me on

I was once surprised to learn that there had ever been Jewish cowboys. Then I met one in a Beverly Hills realty office:

Smiling behind the desk is Steve Freed, a blue-blooded Jewish product of Beverly Hills High School, a successful industrial real estate developer and owner, and a ... cowboy.

“This isn’t a typical office of a Beverly Hills executive,” Freed, tall, thin and tanned, in jeans and cowboy boots, said dryly.

That, like the fact Freed doesn’t run into many other Jewish cowboys, is a given. Not since the Southwest was pioneer country and Adolphus Sterne smuggled arms to Sam Houston have Jewish cowboys been commonplace.

Well, Jewish cowboys are still saddling up in Argentina—but only a few and maybe not for long.

The Washington Post has an interesting feature about the fading tradition of Jewish gauchos. An excerpt:

Today, the story of their arrival in Argentina’s outback is all but a footnote in the history of the Jewish diaspora. But in the 1890s, as whole towns of Eastern European and Russian Jews began packing, the offers of a new life in the New World seemed like providence.

With escalating czarist pogroms against Jews a foreshadowing of the calamities to come, the logical promised land was not Palestine but the wide-open spaces in the Americas — at least in the mind of an eccentric German-Jewish philanthropist and railroad financier named Baron Maurice de Hirsch.

So at the same time as the father of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, was marshaling support for a Jewish state, Hirsch was busily buying up huge tracts of land in the United States, Canada and Brazil. His Jewish Colonization Association, though, had its greatest success here, acquiring a a swath of farmland equivalent in size to Delaware and parceling out plots to 50,000 immigrant Jews over four decades.

And so the Jewish gauchos rode. Read the rest here.

June 29, 2011 | 10:42 pm

Muslims and Jews join to oppose Dutch ban on ritual slaughter

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

And now in news I should have mentioned yesterday so as not to seem like the only religion writer who didn’t hear about the Dutch vote to ban ritual slaughter ...

Here’s the story from Reuters:

The bill by the small Animal Rights Party, the first such group in Europe to win seats in a national parliament, passed the lower house of parliament by 116 votes to 30. It must be approved by the upper house before becoming law. It stipulates that livestock must be stunned before being slaughtered, contrary to the Muslim halal and Jewish kosher laws that require animals to be fully conscious.

“This way of killing causes unnecessary pain to animals. Religious freedom cannot be unlimited,” said Marianne Thieme, head of the Animal Rights Party, said before the vote. “For us religious freedom stops where human or animal suffering begins.”

Quite unusually, particularly in the Netherlands, which has been home to both Islamic extremism and anti-Islamic reactions, Muslims and Jews have joined forces to oppose the ritual slaughter ban.

So, if I understand this correctly, the key to interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Jews is just to put forward bans for ritual slaughter and circumcision.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

June 28, 2011 | 10:07 pm

Do liberals really hate God?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., made waves for saying on a Christian radio program that ”at the heart of liberalism, really, is a hatred for God and a belief that government should replace God.” Monday an Akin spokesman was working damage control:

Staffer Steve Taylor said the point that Akin was trying to make was that conservatives believe rights are granted by God and it is the responsibility of government to aid in protecting them. On the other hand, he said, “liberals believe rights are granted by government.”

“Congressman Akin believes those two concepts define the basic debate between the two ideologies,” said Tayler. With more time to articulate his point, Taylor said, Congressman Akin could have “provided a more artful answer.” Furthermore, Akin wasn’t talking about anyone’s individual relationship with God, Taylor said, only the “defining principles of two political ideologies.”

More from Beliefnet here.

I get Taylor’s rationalization, though it sounds a lot different than what Akin quite starkly side. I don’t buy the explanation. There is a big difference between saying American rights come from the U.S. government and completely disregarding God’s role in the universal giving of rights and responsibilities.

2 Comments — Leave your comment

June 28, 2011 | 12:50 pm

RNS retracts story about Delta banning Jews on Saudi flights

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia is officially anti-Semitic, and I’d like to see an American with an Israeli stamp on their passport—me, for instance—get into the country. But Religion News Service still overplayed that story I mentioned last week about Delta banning Jews on Saudi-bond flights.

NRO has RNS’ retraction:

The RNS story on Delta Air Lines’ pending partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines that was distributed on June 23 contained incomplete information about Saudi visa policies and U.S. Jews’ ability to fly Delta flights to Saudi Arabia. The story was not fully edited according to RNS standards:

- While Saudi Arabia does not issue visas to citizens carrying Israeli passports, Saudi officials say an Israeli stamp in a U.S. passport is not a barrier to entry, even for a stop in transit.

- While Saudi Arabia does not allow non-Islamic religious articles within its borders, religious identity and a passenger’s religious articles are not barriers to flights on either Delta or Saudi Arabian Airlines flights.

- Airline alliance programs typically allow passengers on one airline to book tickets on another, or redeem frequent flyer points on partner airlines. On Friday, Delta said such “code-sharing” agreements will not be part of its alliance with Saudi Arabian Airlines, nor will Delta passengers be able to redeem Delta frequent flyer miles on the Saudi airline.

That’s a doozy. Just count all the inaccuracies from their original story, which, not surprisingly, got picked up by a lot of publications and incited a lot of outrage on my FB news feed.

Thoughts?

0 Comments — Leave your comment

June 28, 2011 | 9:49 am

The Rays’ Sam Fuld isn’t Jewish, but still a mensch

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Speaking of baseball, Ben McGrath, one of my favorite New Yorker writers, largely because he writes about sports, has a very cool profile of Super Sam, the Tampa Bay Rays incredibly athletic outfielder. Fuld also happens to be Jewish, and you can see traces of my interview with Jordan Farmar.

Fuld is what the Jewish Chronicle called “the very definition of a mensch in uniform,” and he talked about what it’s like being a hero to young Jews—those longing for the days of Koufax and Greenberg and even Green. Like Ryan Braun, Fuld’s father is Jewish, but his mother is not.

Fuld tells McGrath:

“It’s a little tricky sometimes,” he said, and brought up the exampel of his presumed Judaism. “I wasn’t bar-mitzvahed. I feel like i’m almost letting some people down when I tell them, ‘Well, my mom’s Catholic, and I was kind of raised celebrating both.’”

More videos of Fuld going off here.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

June 27, 2011 | 9:42 pm

Weird updates in the battle over circumcision bans

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Jonah Lowenfeld has an interesting post about just how weird the circumcision wars are getting. Here’s a, um, snippet from Bloggish:

On one side, you’ve got a small group of religious Jews using Facebook to invite people to San Francisco’s Union Square on November 9. In the event that the ballot measure passes, the organizers plan to hold a public bris, or Jewish ritual circumcision, as a form of protest. The organizers haven’t yet identified a baby.

On the other side is an anonymous, dedicated publicist of all things opposed to circumcision. Despite repeated requests, this individual won’t reveal his or her name to anyone—not even to the very intactivists whose work he (or she) publicizes.

To be sure, individuals and organizations on both sides of this debate have been pushing their agendas in all kinds of ways ever since San Francisco announced last month that the measure—- which would ban circumcision of any male under the age of 18 for any reason other than a medical emergency—had qualified for the November 2011 ballot.

Opponents of the ban have talked about introducing legislation in the California State Assembly and the House of Representatives, and last week a group of plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in the hopes of keeping the measure off the November ballot entirely.

On the intactivist, side, the Bay Area Intactivists participated in yesterday’s Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco to promote their cause, according to a Facebook page. And who can forget “Foreskin Man,” the comic book by intactivist Matthew Hess, which was roundly critiqued as anti-Semitic?

Even so, Heshy Rosenwasser thinks his idea of what to do if the ballot measure passes—hold a public ritual circumcision of the first Jewish baby boy born in or around San Francisco on or after Nov. 2—breaks new ground.

“I’m not familiar with any case in which a bris was held as a protest,” Rosenwasser said. “I think this may be the first time that would be done.”

I, for one, hope it doesn’t come to that. Read the rest here.

2 Comments — Leave your comment

June 27, 2011 | 12:53 pm

Dodgers file for bankruptcy: What now for the boys in blue?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

If you’ve ever seen Albert Pujols cross home or a football player take a knee after scoring a touchdown, you might think that God cares about who wins and loses a professional sports game. I tend to disagree. But I know that God can’t be happy with what is happening to His chosen team.

Amid an already ugly season with even worse problems off the field, the Los Angeles Dodgers filed for bankruptcy today. Here’s the story from the Los Angeles Times:

McCourt has obtained $150 million in interim financing, according to the court filing in Delaware. If the bankruptcy court approves that financing on Tuesday, McCourt would meet Thursday’s payroll deadline and could remain in control of the club throughout the bankruptcy proceedings, with the intention of negotiating a television rights deal within 180 days that would satisfy the court by paying off all creditors in full.

Major League Baseball is expected to challenge McCourt’s move at Tuesday’s hearing in Delaware.

Under the MLB constitution, the act of filing for bankruptcy enables the commissioner to strip McCourt of ownership. But bankruptcy court proceedings generally override MLB rules.

Manny Ramirez is the Dodgers’ largest creditor, according to the bankruptcy filing. The Dodgers owe Ramirez $21 million, followed by Andruw Jones ($11 million), Hiroki Kuroda ($4.5 million), Rafael Furcal ($3.7 million) and the Chicago White Sox ($3.5 million, for Juan Pierre).

Yada, yada, yada. Turns out McCourt owes a lot of people money.

You can read the entire bankruptcy filing here. Possibly the most damning aspect of the whole ordeal: McCourt owes Vin Scully—the voice of God in the universe of televised Dodgers games—$152,000.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

June 24, 2011 | 2:04 pm

Judenrein Delta flights

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

To be sure, Jews weren’t going to Saudi Arabia anyway. But it’s shocking to see a U.S. airline discriminate against a class of minorities in an attempt to make some extra money.

Michele Chabin of RNS has the story:

Jews and Israelis, or passengers carrying any non-Islamic article of faith, will not be able to fly code-share flights from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia under Delta Air Line’s new partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines that is set to begin in 2012.

Although Delta announced in January that the Saudi airline would join its SkyTeam network next year, the implications of the deal only came to light recently, according to people who have scrutinized the details.

Saudi Arabia, which is governed by strict Islamic law, requires citizens of almost every country to obtain a visa. People who wish to enter the country must have a sponsor; women, who must be dressed according to Saudi standards of modesty, must be met at the Saudi airport by a man who will act as a chaperone.

Saudi Arabia bans anyone with an Israeli stamp in their passport from entering the country, even in transit. Many Jews believe the kingdom has also withheld visas from travelers with Jewish-sounding names.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

June 23, 2011 | 10:06 am

U.S. evangelicals say influence is slipping

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

A new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 82 percent of U.S. evangelical leaders think their influence is slipping. RNS reports:

The Rev. S. Douglas Birdsall, executive chair of the Lausanne Movement, which worked with Pew on the survey, said the U.S. pessimism is rooted in a changed culture where Billy Graham has retreated from public life and government-sponsored prayer has been banned from public schools for more than a generation.

“There was a time when there was a Ten Commandments in every classroom, there were prayers in public places,” he said. “So having gone from that position of considerable influence, even though we might actually have more influence than churches in … other parts of the world, the sense is that it’s slipping from our hands.”

The perception of declining influence comes as the nation has become both more pluralistic and more secular. The vast majority of U.S. leaders surveyed — 92 percent — called secularism a major threat to evangelical Christianity.

Read the rest here.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

June 22, 2011 | 12:35 pm

FIBA to allow Israeli Orthodox basketball player to cover arms

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

FIBA has ruled that an Orthodox member of the Israeli women’s basketball team can cover her arms in competition. Only days after the International Basketball Federation rejected Naama Shafir’s request for a special jersey, it made an effort to at least accommodate her modest considerations.

RNS reports:

Shafir, who studied at the University of Toledo, helped the Ohio university’s Lady Rockets win the 2011 Women’s National Invitation Tournament last April. She has dressed modestly throughout her college career, and the team accommodated her religious needs, from kosher food to Sabbath observance.

FIBA will permit Shafir to wear skin-colored sleeves under her jersey. She said the solution will enable her to adhere to Orthodox standards of modesty while maintaining the spirit of FIBA’s dress code.

I wonder if FIBA would have allowed the Jewish Jordan to play wearing a kippah, or what the sports body already does with Orthodox male players.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

June 21, 2011 | 9:00 am

FAKE NEWS: Rabbinic court sentences dog to death by stoning *UPDATED

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Here is a story that really gets my goat. It’s about a dog:

A Jerusalem rabbinical court recently sentenced a wandering dog to death by stoning. The cruel sentence stemmed from the suspicion that the hound was the reincarnation of a famous secular lawyer, who insulted the court’s judges 20 years ago.

Several weeks ago, according to the Behadrei Hadarim website, a large dog entered the Monetary Affairs Court near the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. The dog scared the court’s visitors and, to their surprise, refused to leave even after they attempted to drive him away.

One of the judges suddenly recalled that about 20 years ago, a famous secular lawyer who insulted the court was cursed by the panel of judges, who wished that his spirit would move on to the body of a dog (considered an impure animal by Halacha). The lawyer passed away several years ago.

Still mad about that insolent lawyer, they sentenced the dog to death by stoning. The dog got away.

Really? I mean REALLY?! This is Israel, right, not Iran?

This story really defies comprehension. I didn’t even know Jews believed in cursed spirits being reincarnated as other life forms. However, as my GetReligion colleague Mollie points out, no one else has really corroborated this story. Hopefully this is a case of bad reporting. Hopefully.

*UPDATED Well, I’ll be. This story was, indeed, fake. Mollie’s intuition was spot-on.

23 Comments — Leave your comment

June 20, 2011 | 11:08 pm

Chabon onboard to write ‘Magic Kingdom’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

MIchael Chabon, one of the coolest people I have interviewed, was once hired to write a draft for “Spider-Man 2.” And I’m still waiting for the Coen Brothers to adapt Chabon’s “Yiddish Policemen’s Union.” But it looks like Chabon will be trying his hand at screenwriting again. The Pulitzer-Prize winning author has been hired to write the screenplay for “Magic Kingdom.”

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Chabon will now begin tackling a story whose details are being kept under wraps but is set in Disney’s flagship theme park and may even be connected to other parks worldwide.

If you’ve read “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” the choice of Chabon seems a bit adult for a family film but he definitely has a knack for entertainment-related adventures.

0 Comments — Leave your comment