Jennifer Siegel of the Forward has turned in another fine piece of reporting, this on the fact that Republicans count their Jewish vote in the recent election at 26 percent, while the Associated Press puts it at half that, 13 percent. Siegel shows that the Republican statisticians define Jewishness with a high bar: synagogue attendance. By leaving out the unaffiliated or the secularized, Republicans are able to contend that they are gaining Jewish numbers.
Myself I think there’s something to the Republican argument. The more religious you are, the more conservative your politics tend to be. The more unaffiliated and assimilated you are, the more leftleaning. And though I’m for a big tent in terms of Jewishness, the Republican argument does touch on a significant divide: the extent to which conservative, religiously-identified Jews dominate Jewish organizational life, and the policy positions the organizations endorse. (C.f., Palestine, the Occupation; and its sequel, Iraq, the Occupation)
Dear Friends,
Excuse Phil for this current release of verbal diarrhea. If he knew what he was talking about, he wouldn't have this "pseudo-job" here at The Observer. He finds any excuse to bash Israel and the Jewsih people, it's kind of his niche here at The Observer. It's been a while since The Observer has given him an actual writing assignment, but he'll have a 'real' piece in the paper soon, since they like his hybrid journalism-fiction..
It's been a tough time for him lately. After a few decent journalism assignments over a decade ago, and two disastrous books, one which was painfully reviewed in the New York Times:
"The writing is bizarre and strange, disjointed, rambling, nonsensical much of the time. … Some cognitive problem? We are told this was written by a journalist,an editor no less, yet over and over as I read I kept asking myself: what? when? who? huh? where? huh?"
… padded with repetitions, nonevents, paragraphs full of sawdust, marginal details, purplish flights of fancy…." and in a few other terribly embarrassing reviews which he hates to even think about, his writing career tanked.
Check out the review, it helps explain why he has this job at the Observer now:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE4DE1239F932A15755C0A9629C8B63
Then, he hit a major identity/midlife/professional crisis.
Since he didn't want to blame himself for my lame situation he decided to blame himself and his culture. This sort of assuaged any responsibility for the mediocrity that his personal and professional life had fallen to.
The result is this provocative, edgy blog. He's stuck to my "rambling, nonsensical" style and gets things wrong a lot of the time, but sticks to my theme which digs at his family and culture, because he blame them for his lame personal/professional life.
He has created a new journalistic method called "code". When something doesn't fit his self-hating ideology, he interprets the "code" that the person is speaking to fit what he wants them to say. It's kind of like making things up, but more in keeping with my "strange, disjointed, rambling, nonsensical" style. Neat, huh?
Hopefully, when this is all over the Observer will be thoroughly embarrassed, but at least they'll get some credit for having gotten rid of him. Then, he can blame them for everything, too.
He's really happy that a lot of people post comments. It makes him feel like his career is resuscitating a little bit.
Thanks and Lifejuice to all of you,
Phill Weissman
Look what the judenrat Phil Weiss is up to now:
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/oy_vey_there_goes_the_neighborhood
Wow, he's even writing a book on the virtues of intermarriage and assimilation so Judaism goes away in a few generations and how those pesky orthodox ruin neighborhoods and the Jews ruin the world…..
I always knew it was you who wrote that "Dear Friends" letter, Weissman. Don't you have any real friends to write letters to?
Question: Why is "judenrat" used as a perjorative. Is it because it has "rat" at the end of it? Doesn't it merely mean Jewish leadership or Jewish council?
Only if you define religious as being indentical to being Orthodox. I know plenty liberal and left-leaning religious Jews. I know a gay couple who keep kosher and observe the Sabbath. You are leaving out all Jews who are religious and not-Orthodox.
It is true that I know Jews who used to be demonstrating in front of the Israeli embassy are now supporting Israel. Their views have been changed by the second intifadah, the election of Hamas and everything that has happend since. They are the "true" realists.
Here are a couple of "true" realists:
An Arab leader who should be hailed as truly insightful and ahead of the curve on this matter would be King Abdullah who wrote this in 1947 in The American Magazine at a time when apparently US citizens could get a more thoughtful and balanced account of the tension brewing.
Please read the whole thing as it is incredibly moving. Alfred Lilienthal is an amazing figure himself in his tireless efforts to foster peaceful coexistence in the region; not the hateful and paranoid ravings of those who helped bring about the conflict in the first place. If the Jewish leadership at the time had half as much integrity as either of these two men, the region would already be in the midst of a fair and just peace.
http://www.alfredlilienthal.com/arabsjews.htm
"As the Arabs see the Jews"
His Majesty ,King Abdullah
The American Magazine
November, 1947
SUMMARY
This fascinating essay, written by King Hussein's grandfather King Abdullah, appeared in the United States six months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In the article, King Abdullah disputes the mistaken view that Arab opposition to Zionism (and later the state of Israel) is because of longstanding religious or ethnic hatred. He notes that Jews and Muslims enjoyed a long history of peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, and that Jews have historically suffered far more at the hands of Christian Europe. Pointing to the tragedy of the holocaust that Jews suffered during World War II, the monarch asks why America and Europe are refusing to accept more than a token handful of Jewish immigrants and refugees. It is unfair, he argues, to make Palestine, which is innocent of anti-Semitism, pay for the crimes of Europe. King Abdullah also asks how Jews can claim a historic right to Palestine, when Arabs have been the overwhelming majority there for nearly 1300 uninterrupted years? The essay ends on an ominous note, warning of dire consequences if a peaceful solution cannot be found to protect the rights of the indigenous Arabs of Palestine.