Comments on: Jeffrey Goldberg suggests anti-Zionists aren’t Jews

By: Jeffrey Goldberg’s standard for ‘Who is a Jew?’ would knock down Holocaust numbers

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:27:21 +0000

[...] Rosenberg responds to an earlier post about Jeffrey Goldberg’s suggestion that anti-Zionists aren’t [...]

By: Elliot

Elliot — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:01:38 +0000

JJ Goldberg: “I’m telling people who are worried about the hijinks at the unofficial J Street bloggers’ panel not to become overly bothered by it; it was a clownish event, and the people on the panel were marginal figures except in the rather circumscribed universe of anti-Zionists-with-Jewish parents (where they are giants). ”

Totally weird. JJ Goldberg’s non-Jews included one Orthodox Jew on the panel and, by my count, at least one rabbi and a cantor in the audience.
He also misses the point of Max Blumenthal’s comment. If the only thing the J Street conference did was to knock St. Eli Weisel off his pedestal – dayenu!

And btw, the panel was fun. Dunno how Goldberg would have fit in. Better that he stayed away.

By: Donald

Donald — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:04:14 +0000

Okay, Richard, this is one of those rare occasions where I’m sympathetic to part of what you’re saying. You want to define “being Jewish” as someone who exemplifies the best moral values one finds in the Jewish tradition (or anyway, the best values as you see them). That’s fine, except other people define it other ways. So you’re going to have to write out what you think being a real Jew means every time you use the term this way, or people won’t know what you mean.

It’s rather like saying a “real Christian” is someone who adheres to Jesus’s teachings in every respect. That’s fine too, but others use the term differently.

By: seanmcbride

seanmcbride — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:48:55 +0000

Inside Jeffrey Goldberg there is a little Pamela Geller struggling to get out. The undertone of hysteria is unmistakable.

By: seanmcbride

seanmcbride — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:47:45 +0000

Is there any reason why any human being with a fully functioning mind should pay attention to the proclamations of self-appointed cult leaders and spokespersons?

By: Chaos4700

Chaos4700 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:49:25 +0000

So basically, Witty, people are only Jewish if you say they are.

Got it.

Hey, if you’re going to make ridiculous reductions of my posts? Turnabout is fair play.

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:45:05 +0000

Is that your summary of Sand’s thesis?

When I say “are Jewish” I mean similarly to the question “are you human?”

Of course you are human, as in the species, the association, but are you fully human, as in the potential, the morality.

To be a real Jew, you have to be both. Not one OR the other.

If Phil for example was Jewish in association, but is now assimilated in association, then he has renounced one component of his real Jewishness.

If likud or further neo-Zionist right, for example was Jewish by birth and association, but has renounced its adherence to ethics and “loving thy neighbor as thyself”, they have renounced one component of their real Jewishness.

That statement invites a lot of anger, and actually rational accusations of hypocrisy when directed at me. I’m not as fully ethical or Jewish identified as it means to be fully Jewish.

The birth originated Jewishness is off/on. The qualitative is developed, and intentionally.

By: “Anti-Zionists with Jewish parents” « Clive Davis Blog

“Anti-Zionists with Jewish parents” « Clive Davis Blog — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:51:19 +0000

[...] Goldberg fires a salvo at blogger panellists gathering at the J Street conference. His old foe Philip Weiss hits back. (He also has words of praise for Jon Stewart’s guest-list. I haven’t had [...]

By: Chaos4700

Chaos4700 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:26:28 +0000

I guess we should consider renaming it to “No true Semite fallacy” in deference to Witty’s wearing the phrase out.

By: Donald

Donald — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:07:48 +0000

The “no true Scotsman fallacy” in action.