December 21, 2017 You Can Be Anti-Slavery And A Racist Luke Ford No sacred cows.

You Can Be Anti-Slavery And A Racist

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Luke Ford

Peter Burnett was the first governor of the State of California, ascending to the post on December 20, 1849. But his ignominious legacy is hardly known today.
Mr. Burnett came from Missouri via Oregon, settling near Sacramento amid the Gold Rush. Just as he had done in Oregon, Mr. Burnett pushed to exclude blacks from the state. While he seemed to couch his argument in antislavery terms, he was merely “disguising” his “equal opportunity racism,” said William Deverell, a historian and the director of the Huntington-U.S.C. Institute on California and the West.
“He was not particularly unusual at all at the time,” Mr. Deverell said. “That’s when the really vicious attacks on Native Americans started coming and gave way to genocidal violence. He was early opponent of the Chinese, which leads to the exclusion act. He really shows you can be antislavery and a racist to the core without any difficulty whatsoever.”
Though he is included in fourth grade state history, Mr. Burnett’s name has largely been erased from the public sphere. His name was on a San Francisco preschool as well as an elementary school in Long Beach, but was recently taken down and replaced at both schools after reports of his views and statements resurfaced.
“He talked in this undeniably ugly way about people, so we should talk about how we’ve honored him,” Mr. Deverell said. “These are not issues that are reserved for other parts of the United States without resonance in California.”

If it wasn’t for disgusting racists like this governor, California today instead of being about 35% white, would only be 10% white.

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Judge Kosinski Retires

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Luke Ford

Comments at Steve Sailer:

* A clerkship with Judge Kozinski is really hard to get, but it is a serious boost to people who want to go on to clerk for the Supreme Court. He really did have an “in” with Kennedy and O’Connor. Of course, he also only hires people who are plausible selections, but with only 37 slots in a year, there are far more plausible candidates than available positions, so he very much does give people a serious advantage. Or did, rather. The pool of candidates for a Kozinski clerkship are the top 3-5 people at maybe ten law schools, and the top 1 person at maybe ten more.

But the down-side is that he really is a slave-driver in terms of work. The clerks claim the hours are something like 10 AM to 6 PM, a two hour break for dinner, and then 8 to 1 AM. Weekend hours were closer to noon to 8. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one — he really does demand a lot. One former Kozinski clerk who went on to be a BigLaw partner told me that he worked harder during his clerkship than as an associate at a big firm.

A lot of working for Kozinski is doing tasks not strictly necessary for the judge to decide cases and write good opinions. A lot of it is make-work — forcing his clerks to do things that don’t add much to the decision process. And to fulfill odd requests, like driving to his home to deliver his favorite stapler at 11 at night. And also they spend a lot of time BSing about about things, going out drinking together, and doing things like snowboarding trips. If he just had his clerks do work that was useful in deciding cases and sent them home when those tasks were done, they would work half days.

Also, he’s a yeller. If you make a typo or grammatical error or miss a case he yells and screams. He’s actually a lot like Steve Jobs in that sense — he gives intermittent reinforcement, yelling and screaming one minute and hugging and kissing the next.

Most of the people who graduate at the very top of a very good law school tend to be both very smart and also psychologically pretty durable. They don’t mind being abused and tend not to get overly upset about things. I think Heidi is probably a bit unusual inasmuch as she is both very high IQ and also less psychologically robust than his average clerk. So the weird naked pics upset her a lot, while a lot of steely-eyed lawyer babes who work for him would have just laughed it off. Or called him a pervert — which would have made him laugh.

To those who say that Kozinski shouldn’t have retired, here’s something worth thinking about. Kozinski spent a lot of time socializing with his clerks — they went out together, partied, played poker, went snowboarding, etc. He likes having ambitious high-IQ people as his semi-vassals. Some poeple enjoyed their clerkships with him, but a lot put up with the demands because of the benefits (including an edge at the Supreme Court).

He’s actually a bit less of a “feeder” now than he was before — Kennedy (for whom he clerked) was his biggest contact, but he also fed a lot to O’Connor. (I think Heidi was technically an O’Connor clerk, but she got loaned out to Kennedy when he was first on the Court.) Kennedy is very sensitive to elite opinion, and the other Justices have some sensitivity as well. If Kozinski had weathered the storm, I strongly suspect that he would have dried up as a feeder judge — and this would have led to him having weaker applicants, which he wouldn’t appreciate.

Since shooting the breeze with the super-elite clerks who were likely to go on to a Supreme Court clerkship was a big part of the fun for him, I think he knew that being an appellate judge was going to be a lot less interesting going forward, even if he weathered the storm. Plus, he isn’t taking Senior Status — he’s retiring. Which means that he gets his full pay AND he can supplement his income with consulting/advocacy work.

* Kozinski would seem to be roughly in the top 1000 most talented men in America. I’m open to arguments that he only makes the top 10,000 or he’s in the top 100, but he would seem to be in the top 25 or so in the law, and the law has always been a really big deal in the U.S.

* One of the problems with fatties like Bond is that they turn to food for comfort so when she became anxious that Kozinski was NOT looking at her in “that way”, she got fatter and even less attractive which only caused Kozinski to ignore her feminine charms even more. In her mind’s eye, she sees herself as the irresistible bodice rippee of her novels, while in reality, men see a fattie whose bodice they are not eager to rip at all.

The REAL problem with when the Judge showed her “porn” (not actual porn – just a picture where people were sitting naked on a sofa amid others who were clothed, not engaged in any sex act) is that the Judge did NOT consider her to be a sex object. If she had been thin and attractive, he wouldn’t have done it. Fat people (esp. women) are often invisible to people of the opposite sex – he was treating her as “one of the guys” because he would no more mate with her than he would with an actual guy or a cow. This must have been very painful to Bond who like any fat person has the same inner desires as anyone else. Even if she did not want to have an actual sexual relationship with the judge, she wanted to be seen as ELIGIBLE to have one and not some repulsive creature that could never have made the list that the judge kept.

* Contrary to what you might think, successful romance writers are not messed-up women. They are hardnosed careerists who quite cynically write to market. They don’t write novels, they produce product, and they will mock your artistic pretensions while laughing all the way to the bank. They are completely unromantic, but they know how to manipulate the tropes of romance like an expert.

Don’t kid yourselves about these women. They are businesswomen first, writers second. Heidi Bond is not some random romance writer. She’s a bestselling author in the field.

Posted in Law | Comments Off

NYT: ‘Actually, Egypt Is a Terrible Ally’

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Luke Ford

From the New York Times Op/Ed:

When Vice President Mike Pence visits Egypt on Wednesday, he will follow in the footsteps of countless American officials who have stopped in Cairo to laud the “strategic partnership” between the United States and Egypt.
This has become a vacuous and badly outdated talking point — the kind we both drafted during our years in the government. Mr. Pence shouldn’t pay lip service to it.
American and Egyptian interests are increasingly divergent and the relationship now has far less common purpose than it once did. Mr. Pence should make clear to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s president, that the two countries need a reset, beginning with a major reduction in American military assistance.
In addition to saving American taxpayers’ money, this would send an important message to other recipients of American aid that our support is not unconditional. It would also help to rein in an arrangement that has distorted Egyptian-American relations.

I’m just glad the Times did not say these terrible things about America’s greatest ally — Israel.

There was a time when both countries derived important mutual benefits, including reliable Egyptian support for the United States’ interests in the Middle East. But over the past decade, the United States has poured more than $13 billion in security assistance into Egypt with little to show for it except more jobs for a defense industry exporting materiél that is ill-suited to Egypt’s defense needs and that allow the Egyptian military to sustain a patronage system that distorts the economy and fuels corruption.
For too long, the United States has allowed the Egyptian government to treat security assistance as an entitlement owed for making peace with Israel. The United States has not held Egypt accountable for how this money is spent and whether it serves broader American objectives in the region, giving Egypt a free ride on American generosity. The Obama administration took initial steps to make military assistance less generous and limit the weapons systems Egypt could buy with American funds. The Trump administration has withheld or reprogrammed more than $200 million in military assistance.
This is a start. More needs to be done.
In light of Egypt’s declining strategic importance and its problematic behavior, Washington should sharply reduce its annual military assistance by $500 million to $800 million to align our resources with our priorities. A cut in Egypt’s aid would free up badly needed funds. And a move to start reducing security aid to Egypt to a level that is more in line with the actual value the United States derives from the relationship would be broadly popular in Congress, which has grown frustrated with Cairo.

I’m glad the Times is not calling for reducing Israel’s aid “to a level that is more in line with the actual value the United States derives from the relationship.”

How can anyone question Israel’s strategic importance to America? Unlike Egypt, Israel never engages in problematic behavior. I’m glad the Times is not arguing for disabusing Jerusalem “of the notion that assistance is an entitlement might help to restore some leverage to extract concessions from” Jerusalem.

Instead of acknowledging that Egypt’s importance has diminished, President Trump has doubled down on the relationship, promising to be a “loyal friend” to Egypt and lavishing Mr. Sisi with praise. The White House has gone silent on the Egyptian government’s abhorrent human rights abuses, which fuel radicalization, increasing the global threat from terrorism. In so closely tying the United States to the Sisi government and its repressive practices, the administration is all but ensuring that millions of marginalized Egyptian youth will view the United States with hostility.
America is getting a bad deal in Egypt. That’s ironic for a president who prides himself as a negotiator. Mr. Pence’s visit is an opportunity to turn a new page with Egypt, and make the United States’ commitment to the country commensurate with what Washington receives in return. If the Trump administration does this, it will take a small but important step toward restoring America’s tarnished credibility and reputation in the region.

As all right-thinking people understand, the end of the Cold War in no way diminishes Israel’s strategic importance. American remains Israel’s loyal friend and we lavish it with praise. Nobody in the Islamic world is likely to have negative feelings about America due to its support for Israel.

America is getting a great deal in Israel. That’s not ironic for a president who prides himself as a negotiator. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a small but important step toward restoring America’s tarnished credibility and reputation in the region. Nothing makes the Middle East happier than staunch American support for the Jewish state.

Posted in Egypt, Israel | Comments Off

Going Postal

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Luke Ford

Comments at Steve Sailer:

* Taibbi wrote one of the best books on the 2008 debacle (Kleptocracy) and Ames wrote the only serious book on the mass shooting phenomenon (Going Postal). Ames was for many years the editor of the Exile, the best English-language newspaper about Russia (although it did have a nakedly supremacist streak and a good deal of the content was freakshow-watching, “look at those crazy goyim, ha ha they sure are poor”), there was still very good, unique journalism. The Exile was shuttered by Putin but Ames was still objective enough after that to point out that Putin was not the bad guy in the Georgian-Ossetian situation. Ames also vociferously defended LAPD burnout Dorner, who was criminally overreacting to very real problems in the department which the major media decided to ignore.
Attacking these real journalists who stand above an ocean of glow-in-the-dark intel operatives and airheaded liars — on the grounds that they sometimes chat like men — is simple witch-hunting.

* I remember a mysteriously venomous piece that Taibbi wrote in 2005 for a now defunct free paper called the NYPress, in which he made fun of the dying Pope John Paul II.

It was called “THE 52 FUNNIEST THINGS ABOUT THE UPCOMING DEATH OF THE POPE.”

Here’s how it began:

52. Pope pisses himself just before the end; gets all over nurse.

51. After death, saggy, furry tits of dead Pope begin inexorable process of melting away into nothingness, like coldest of Sno-cones under faintest of suns.

50. Pope survives just long enough to be acquired by Isiah Thomas for Stephon Marbury, 2005 #1 pick and cash considerations. “We feel like we’ve made ourselves younger and more competitive,” Thomas says.

49. After beating for the last time, Pope’s heart sits there like a piece of hamburger.

48. Whole world waiting until the last minute for a sudden improvement of his condition. Long lines of girls in the Philippines kneeling and praying. Catholics everywhere with ears pressed to radios, transfixed. Pope gives one last groan, spits, dies.

For more such hilarity, you can check out the rest.

Posted in Journalism | Comments Off

My Great Great Grandfather

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Luke Ford

This guy was my father’s mother’s grandfather:

There were few better known men
througout North Queensland than the late
Mr. George Simpson who took a most active
interest both in local and national politics.
Gifted with the power of speech and acute
reasoning powers he was an awkward
opponent, and whether in or out of the Mun-
icipal Council, he had always a say in the
local government of Townsville. Mr. Simp-
son who succumbed while chloroform was
being administered to him was about 44 years
of age, and was a native of New South
Wales. He came to Townsville about 15
years ago and started business as a saddler;
subsequently he edited the Townsville
Herald when it was a small four page bi-
weekly issued from an office opposite the
A.U.S.N. wharf. Afterwards Mr. Simpson
started as an Auctioneer and Commission
Fix this textAgent, and at the tame of his death was
keeping the Family Hotel. On and off he
was a member of the Municipal Council for
about 12 years but was never Mayor. In
1883 he contested the Kennedy against Mr.
Lissner but was defeated. Mr. Simpson’s
impetuous disposition and biting tongue
roused much temporary opposition but in
reality he was of an easy going temperament
and his sarcasms were soon forgotten. He
was an earnest advocate of the claims of
Townsville, in which place he held a large
landed interest; recently it is to be
feared with little profit to himself; the
value of property having collapsed there as
elsewhere.

Having a sarcastic difficult personality certainly makes him a Ford.

My father’s mother’s other grandfather was the Chinaman Chen R. Yeen, who operated King Yeen & Co. in Rockhampton and one of the products he trafficked in was opium.

My father published some short stories about crime in 1944 and 1945: Perfection, The Benevolent Looking Gentleman, One Night in Berlin, and Bolt from the Blue.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off

Parasha Vayigash (Genesis 44:18–47:27)

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Luke Ford

Listen here and here and here.

Watch. Wikipedia: “In the parashah, Judah pleads on behalf of his brother Benjamin, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, Jacob comes down to Egypt, and Joseph’s administration of Egypt saves lives but transforms all the Egyptians into bondmen.”

* Wikipedia: “By Way of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer [1] is a nonfiction book by a former katsa (case officer) in the Israeli Mossad, Victor Ostrovsky.”

* Link: “This week, Netflix released Wormwood, a four-hour mini-series that blends documentary filmmaking with dramatized sequences featuring Hollywood actors to tell the story of the CIA’s top secret MKUltra Program.”

Revelation 8:10: “Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter like wormwood oil, and many people died from the bitter waters.”

* “This video is not intended to condone violence or hate.”

* Salma Hayek: “Harvey Weinstein is my Monster Too.” Friend: “I like how she’s not aware that she actually does have nothing going for her but her sexuality.”

* New Yorker: Cat Person

* Variety: Inside Matt Lauer’s Secret Relationship With a ‘Today’ Production Assistant

We went to lunch. My intentions were purely professional…
He opens the door. There you go. It crossed the line. It was a consensual encounter. It happened in his dressing room above studio 1A, which was empty in the afternoons. He got in his car and I had to go back to work, and now my life had completely changed…
The last time I saw him that summer was at the 2000 Democratic National Convention in California. The “Today Show” was live from the Staples Center floor. He was looking at a script, and he leaned over and said to me, “Do you see that bathroom over there? Meet me there in five minutes.” I was leaving and I had no other chance to talk to him. So I went—and we had an encounter. He was like, “Alright. I’ll see you later.” He had no interest in making sure I was cool….
Even though my situation with Matt was consensual, I ultimately felt like a victim because of the power dynamic. He knew that I was leaving, and that there was no better prey than somebody who is going to be gone. He went after the most vulnerable and the least powerful — and those were the production assistants and the interns.

* Heartiste says Roy Moore did nothing wrong.

Friend: “In terms of biological realism, it’s more perverse to lust after a 40-year old than it is to lust after a 14-year old. That’s not to say the young ones should be legal, but our disapprobation shouldn’t involve terms like deviancy or depravity necessarily.”

Gen. 46: 3 “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.”

How would the Egyptians feel that the Israelites are going to become a “great nation” within their midst, simply use their land for a pasture during a famine, and then return to their own land triumphant?

Gen. 46: 31: Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were living in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 32 The men are shepherds; they tend livestock, and they have brought along their flocks and herds and everything they own.’ 33 When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”

Is there any down side to a group developing a tricky and dishonest reputation? Will becoming known for dishonesty and running scams and manipulation serve a group well in the long run? How do you think the Egyptians felt when they realized they had been manipulated or are the goyim too stupid to ever catch on? Might there be a backlash for this trickery? How would Jews feel if an alien group came to live among them and use manipulation and deceit to get what they wanted to keep the majority off balance?

How should Egyptians feel about a new group entering their land who made their living as shepherds when apparently the shepherd is detestable to Egyptians and the sheep is worshiped as divine? How would Jews do in the beef industry in India where the cow is sacred?

Gen. 47: 5 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you, 6 and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.”

So how might Egyptians react to their Pharoah giving the best parts of their land to foreigners? Might there be a backlash? How would they feel about these foreigners getting to run the Pharoah’s livestock? How do they feel about a foreigner (Joseph) being second in power in the land next to the Pharoah? Might they resent this foreign power and intrusion?

Gen. 47: 20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them.

Might the Egyptians come to resent Joseph and his people for turning them into slaves?

Posted in Torah | Comments Off

R. Gabriel Elias On The Way Out At Mogen David

Posted on December 16, 2017 by Luke Ford

I don’t have the full story yet.

Sandy says:

They never really have distinguished themselves from YICC or Beth Jacob, the two shuls most similar in practice to MD’s Ashkenazi minyan. A lot of the regulars are guys who used to go to YICC or BJ, and either live closer to MD or are old buddies with Rabbi Elias (or their wives are).
One unsung hero of Mogen David’s Ashkenazi minyan is their Torah reader, Aaron Breitbart. Aaron is about as self-deprecating a fellow as you’d ever meet, with a great sense of humor backed up by an academic’s intellect.

Posted in Mogen David | Comments Off

Growing Up Hasidic — and Racist

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Luke Ford

Shaindy Urman writes:

In the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community I grew up in, racism is a common aspect of life. It is seen as necessary in order to maintain the separation from goyim, or gentiles, and uphold the status of chosen nation (and as Hasidim, chosen Jews). As young children, we were educated about the horrors of the gentiles, who were out to destroy the pious Jews. ”In every generation,” we read aloud each Passover, “they [the other nations]stand ready to destroy us.” We are further taught that Esau, who symbolizes gentiles, forever hates Jacob, the Jewish nation.

As a young child I accepted what I was taught about the outside world without question. My exposure to non-Jews was limited to the few words I exchanged with the old Polish woman with the tattered kerchief on her head who cleaned our house once a week, and to passing by our black neighbors on the streets of Crown Heights. Any interactions with people outside the community were nonexistent — and unnecessary — since everything we ever needed was accessible through other Hasidic Jews just like us.

As a female I was taught to think, act and appear modest and demure at all times, hidden behind a mechitzah, the partition in the synagogue, and by layers of clothing wherever I went. I couldn’t talk or interact with boys past preschool, sing around men once I turned 12 or learn the intricate Jewish texts like the males in my family did.

Posted in Hasidim | Comments Off

Manners, multiculturalism, and the battle of Stamford Hill

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Luke Ford

The Independent in the UK:

On Wednesday, The Independent’s columnist Christina Patterson wrote a column detailing how rude she believed many Charedi Jews were to non-Jews. A gentile resident of Stamford Hill for 12 years, she described how the ultra-orthodox community had made her feel “about as welcome in the Hasidic Jewish shops as Martin Luther King at a Ku Klux Klan convention”.

“I didn’t realise,” she wrote, “that a purchase by a goy [a Yiddish phrase for a non-Jew] was a crime to be punished with monosyllabic terseness, or that bus seats were a potential source of contamination, or that road signs, and parking restrictions, were for people who hadn’t been chosen by God. And while none of this is a source of anything much more than irritation, when I see an eight-year-old boy recoiling from a normal-looking woman (because, presumably, he has been taught that she is dirty or dangerous, or, heaven forbid, dripping with menstrual blood) it makes me sad.”

The article – headlined “The limits of multi-culturalism” – went on to criticise the Islamic veil and laments the lack of successful prosecutions for female genital mutilation, a form of female circumcision which is practised by a number of different cultures and faiths.

Within hours of the article appearing online The Independent’s website Patterson’s email account was inundated with emotional comments from readers who were either delighted that the author had dared to write about such a contentious subject, or were outraged by what they perceived to be a vicious attack on Judaism.

Jewish columnists rounded on Patterson in unison with Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, accusing her of “unrelenting unadulterated anti-Jewish bigotry”.

Miriam Shaviv, one of the paper’s most prolific columnists, waded in with her own response to the article which she said was “one of the ugliest, most vile pieces ever published in the British press”. “You rather get the feeling that [Patterson] a) hates the Jews and Muslims really, seriously more than is necessary and b) feels they really ought to thank her for generously giving them permission to exist,” she wrote.

Yet Damian Thompson, a well-known Catholic blogger who regularly defends Israel and Judaism in his writing, came to Patterson’s defence and said it was right to highlight the sense of superiority some Jews have towards gentiles.

“Monosyllabic terseness towards goyim?” he wrote in a recent blog for the Daily Telegraph. “I’ve experienced it and it’s maddening. Jewish hostility towards Christians isn’t confined to the ultra-Orthodox… I could tell stories, of unbelievable haughtiness by leaders of Anglo-Jewry, which would have led to diplomatic incidents if the Christians involved weren’t afraid of being accused of anti-Semitism. I suppose I’m afraid of that, too.”

Thompson’s blog has since prompted a further response from Ms Shaviv who said that Jews do need to recognise how they are sometimes perceived by friends, neighbours and strangers alike. “There is today no excuse for Jews holding racist attitudes,” she wrote. “We need to make sure we all understand that the odd comment about “the goyim” is not just a joke; that there are consequences to treating non-Jews as if they are inferior.”

Posted in Orthodoxy | Comments Off

WHY ARE ORTHODOX JEWS SO RUDE?

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Luke Ford

From Jew in the City:

I asked a Hasidic friend about this, as most of the complaints I’ve heard about rudeness seem to be about the Hasidic community. (Modern Orthodox students at Yeshiva University were recently named one of the ten most polite college kids in the country!) He made an interesting point and explained that a culture of politeness is a very American phenomenon, whereas Hasidic culture stems from the Old Country which operated very differently – more distant, more serious. However, he noted that lack of politeness should not be equated with a lack of kindness. Visiting the sick, having over lots of guests for eating and sleeping, and preparing meals for the needy are all very common in these communities. Far more kindness and giving is engrained into the people of these communities than what most “polite” people would do! (I would say the ultra-Orthodox world also practices more of these kindnesses than the Modern Orthodox world.)

Something else to keep in mind: one of the major divides between the Modern Orthodox world and the ultra-Orthodox worlds (particularly the Hasidic world) is how much interaction occurs with the larger world. While Modern Orthodox philosophy is that God gave us an entire world and we should use as much of it as is kosher, the Hasidic approach, particularly after the Holocaust (as a reaction to the destruction) is that the outside world ought to be avoided as it is both physically dangerous and will cause observant Jews to lose their way. So not only is much of the Hasidic community insular, it is fearful of interacting with the outside world.

Now why have some of the men been friendlier than the women? It’s a good question, and our Educational Director, Rabbi Jack Abramowitz had an interesting answer when I asked him why he thought this was: the men are more likely to have a job in the secular world and have therefore interacted with and are more comfortable around different types of people.

One final point: A story is told about a great rabbi (one of the greatest in his generation) named Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky (an ultra-Orthodox rabbi) who lived in New York and died around 20 years ago. After his funeral, when his family was sitting shiva (the Jewish week of mourning), a prominent nun from the community came to the house of mourning to pay her respects. She said that this rabbi would pass her by on the street every day with a big smile and a friendly “hello” and it really meant so much to her. This story of Reb Yaakov is very meaningful to me, because despite the fact that some communities conduct themselves in less friendly ways, I believe that Reb Yaakov’s approach captured the essence of what it means to be a religious Jew.

Posted in Hasidim | Comments Off