Turns out that Sam Horowitz, Dallas boy whose bar mitzvah has become an excruciating ecsdyiastic internet sensation, is also a Zionist. He’s donating his $36,000 haul from the event to an Israeli village sponsored by the Jewish Agency (which performs the magic trick of turning Palestinian land into Jewish land). Haaretz reports:
According to the Jewish Agency, Sam’s parents asked all the guests at the event to make contributions to the Ben Yakir Youth Village in lieu of gifts. The youth village is one of four boarding schools funded by their organization. Sam’s online fans are also being asked to do the same.
The Jewish Agency youth villages were first founded to house and educate Jewish refugee children who fled from Nazi Germany and have served various waves of immigration throughout Israel’s history, providing youth at risk with remedial education and secure living accommodations.
The Ben Yakir village hosts 120 boys aged 12-18, predominately Ethiopian immigrants to Israel.
Other Zionist repercussions in the news. Larry Summers is being considered for the fed chairman nomination (Obama really thinks outside the box). I’m reminded that of course Summers once opposed divestment measure at Harvard saying that it was anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent. Summers established a line equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism that many have since espoused:
“Where anti-Semitism and views that are profoundly anti-Israeli have traditionally been the primary preserve of poorly educated right-wing populists, profoundly anti-Israel views are increasingly finding support in progressive intellectual communities,” he said.
Oh and another Zionist repercussion: Yesterday I posted about Cory Booker’s web startup having as a former adviser Andrew Zucker, 15. Zucker’s father is CNN president Jeff Zucker. From Zucker’s back pages: After September 11, John Hockenberry, then at NBC Dateline, wanted to do a piece on the origins of Muslim extremism.
It had occurred to me and a number of other journalists that a core mission of NBC News would now be to explain, even belatedly, the origins and significance of these organizations. But Zucker insisted that Dateline stay focused on the firefighters. smiled at me and said, in effect, that he had no time for any subtitled interviews with jihadists raging about Palestine.
Is Jeff Zucker a Zionist or did he just passively reflect the Zionism inherent in the media culture? I’m not sure it matters. But that confusion is why I think it’s so important for intelligent reporters to talk about the ideology of Zionism.
i’m sure that sam’s donation was the consequence of a heartfelt if difficult decision, given what a devastating effect it will likely have on his lifestyle. very selfless indeed. haaretz sums sam up nicely if unintentionally with its headline:
Sam Horowitz, star of the newly viral video, makes a spectacular entrance in sparkly white suit in the lavish ballroom of the Omni Hotel in Dallas.
like mother of sam says, he ‘wants to be famous in the entertainment industry.’ it may not turn out exactly like that, but that’s a sparkly, inspirational story.
RE: “Zucker insisted that Dateline stay focused on the firefighters, smiled at me and said, in effect, that he had no time for any subtitled interviews with jihadists raging about Palestine.” ~ John Hockenberry
FROM WIKIPEDIA [Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media]:
SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Political_Economy_of_the_Mass_Media
Nothing like a blowout to turn a boy ethnic cleanser into a man ethnic cleanser…
You’re indefatigable, Phil.
So many good stories, and yet nobody seems to be covering them.
“an Israeli village sponsored by the Jewish Agency (which performs the magic trick of turning Palestinian land into Jewish land). ”
All the Jewish Agency website says about Ben Yakir’s location is that it is “near Hadera”, a town within Israel proper.
Is this Jewish boarding school over the Green Line or otherwise on Palestinian land?