Joe Klein Apparently Unscathed By His Divided Loyalties Charge

Posted on July 1, 2008 by Luke Ford

Mickey Kaus writes:

Klein Lives: Have the rules changed? Last Tuesday, Time‘s Joe Klein wrote:

The fact that a great many Jewish neoconservatives–people like Joe Lieberman and the crowd over at Commentary–plumped for this war, and now for an even more foolish assault on Iran, raised the question of divided loyalties: using U.S. military power, U.S. lives and money, to make the world safe for Israel.

Max Boot, Pete Wehner, Jennifer Rubin, Paul Mirengoff and Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League all wrote confidently outraged responses to Klein’s raising of the "divided loyalties" possibility–and, indeed, it’s not the sort of assertion that has typically gone unpunished in the past. When Klein stubbornly failed to back down in a second post, Wehner somewhat smugly anticipated his near-certain demise:

It’s like watching a movie that you now know is going to end very badly, and very sadly.

But here’s the thing: It’s now a week later, and as far as I can tell Klein still has his job. He’s still blogging (wondering "why Lieberman is so fixated on Iran"). He hasn’t been publically rebuked by his employer. He hasn’t been forced to issue a groveling apology.

Can it be that the rules have changed? I suspect they have. And I think this is progress, for reasons outlined here and here. It should be possible to publicly debate whether some "Jewish neoconservatives," among others, too easily convinced themselves that America’s and Israel’s interests happily coincided in the prosecution of the war. Meanwhile, Foxman’s view that

Neoconservatives have the right to make their case without having their religion brought up. … [snip] Religious beliefs are personal, and matters of faith belong in the heart, in the church and in the home

seems preposterously artificial. Note to Foxman: I worked at The New Republic! The magazine supported the war. I consider it’s editor, Martin Peretz, to be a friend and mentor. But if you think Marty’s views are uninfluenced by his affinity for Israel–and that the views of many of the eminent neocons who visited our offices were uninfluenced by "matters of faith" and/or religious identity–then you don’t know Marty and you don’t know The New Republic.

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Some Charedim Ban The Ipod

Posted on July 1, 2008 by Luke Ford

Jameel Rashid blogs:

Despite the attempts to elevate the ubiquitous iPod and other similar mp4 recording/playback devices to objects that are "kosher" within the ultra-orthodox Jewish community, the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Geula and Mea-Shearim are now plastered with "pashkevils" posters demonizing the gadget and technology.

"A terrible plague is upon us, calming victims every day… these sinful devices were banned by all the great rabbis, but are still common in the haredi world… their devilish distributors want nothing more than to drive the people of Israel to sin, through movies and other abominations"

"This little device is the devil’s way to try and gain entrance to our protected homes and yeshivas, disguised as something you can listen to Torah lessons through"

YNET reports that the fight against the device reached a new level last week, when an MP4 supplier, whose store is located on the outskirts of Jerusalem’s Meah Shearim neighborhood, found it vandalized – its window and showcases smashed. A second store, located just off the capital’s Shabbat Square, did not fare much better: It too was vandalized and its repair lab burnt down. Some say that was an event waiting to happen: For several weeks prior to the arson, a dozen-or-so yeshiva student used to demonstrate in front of the store every week and protest the sale of the banned devices.

I think it’s time that Apple’s master of marketing, Steve Jobs, show up with some new headgear and make a personal pitch.

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My Favorite Hymns

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

I’m thinking of cutting a CD of my favorite hymns.

I know it’ll be a hit.

Hear "Amazing Grace" as you’ve never heard it before.

I know a convert to Judaism is not supposed to dig Christian music, but I do (hey, if Rav Ovadiah Yosef can love Arab music, then I can heart some hymns).

Flay me, I’m a sinner.

Anyway, how could any Torah Jew object to the following lyrics of my fave hymn "Abide With Me":

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word,
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings;
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea.
Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me.

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile,
And though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee.
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

According to this: Henry F. Lyte (died in 1847)  was inspired to write this hymn as he was dying of tuberculosis; he finished it the Sunday he gave his farewell sermon to the the parish he served so many years. The next day, he left for Italy to regain his health. He didn’t make it though; he died in Nice, France, three weeks after writing these words.
For more than a century, the bells of his church at All Saints in Lower Brixham, Devonshire, have rung out "Abide With Me" daily. The hymn was sung at the wedding of King George VI of Britain, and at the wedding of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
The music used here, titled "Eventide," is by far the best known of four different tunes used over the years. Mrs. Monk described the setting for her husband’s composition of the tune:
"This tune was written at a time of great sorrow; when together we watched, as we did daily, the glories of the setting sun. As the last golden ray faded, he took some paper and penciled that tune which has gone all over the earth." Here are my favorite "Abide With Me" YouTube videos:

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Former LAT Reporter Ken Reich Dies

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

Here’s Kevin Roderick’s post.

Here’s my 2005 interview with Ken Reich.

Reich admitted at the time that the much lauded Frank Del Olmo (late LAT editor) was no great shakes as a writer, reporter or editor, but he did not want me to publish that. He only wanted me to publish his admiring comments about Frank.

How this patronizing attitude towards minority journalists is supposed to help anybody beats me.

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Jewish Billionaire Clinton Buddy Charged With Soliciting Underage Prostitutes

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

From the New York Post:

Florida- Manhattan money man Jeffrey Epstein will turn himself in today to plead guilty to soliciting an underage prostitute at his Florida mansion – and immediately start serving an 18-month sentence, a source said.

The silver-haired billionaire will enter his plea in West Palm Beach.

After he serves his term, Epstein is expected to have to spend a certain amount of time in house confinement at his pink Palm Beach mansion, the source said.

Epstein is being charged with soliciting only one of several girls mentioned in the case.

In 2006, state prosecutors charged Epstein with solicitation of prostitution in cases in which girls were allegedly paid hundreds of dollars to give him massages at home that turned into sexual encounters, sources said.

The prosecutors subsequently upgraded the offense because the girls were under 18

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Naked Gentile Chick

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

Yael Goldstein writes for Jewcy:

“Oh, and wear something bordering on appropriate,” my mother says into the phone, an hour before my cousin’s wedding.

“Hrmm,” I say noncommittally, reaching deep into my closet for an item that to the untrained eye might appear an elaborate doily. I’ve only worn this dress once before, to another Orthodox Jewish wedding.

I hadn’t planned it that way when I bought it. Or maybe I had. Orthodox Jewish functions are the only events that compel me to dress like a stripper on a cigarette break.

I don my doily with pleasure, feeling revolutionary. A sartorial Che Guevara. I’ve come a long way since the days when the best I could do was a jean skirt that showed some shin. At the New Jersey day schools I attended for my first 18 years of life, girls studied family purity while the boys wrangled with the Talmud, and the dress code was taken several times more seriously than college admissions; skirts had to reach mid-calf, sleeves had to cover the biceps, and even exposed collar-bones were risqué. If a student showed up to class in an outfit that didn’t meet the guidelines, she’d be forced to change into the tznius (modesty) skirt the administration kept on hand for such contingencies. I was rarely that contingency.

But the further I travel from the fold, the more compelled I am to flash the rabbis. It’s as though I’m trying to say, look at me and know the path I’ve chosen, know there’s a reason you haven’t seen me in ten years and it’s not because I moved to the Upper West Side. I am different. I am lost to your world.

I am an idiot.

I realize this as soon as I get to the decked-out hotel ballroom filled with dark-suited men and women in wigs, and remember why I’d buried this dress so deep in my closet. It was to prevent my third or fourth reprisal of precisely this moment, when I realize I am not about to pull off the grand moral heist I’ve envisioned. No one is going to look at me and find that the unquestioned truths they arrived with have been replaced with Kant’s categorical imperative.

I stick close to the edges of the endless tables of food, trying to blend in with the linens. This is where my mother finds me.

“Hey there nakadika shiksa,” she says. Nakadika. Naked. Naked gentile chick. Thanks for nothing, lady.

She’s dressed in a suit that veers so sternly away from sexy it’s in danger of qualifying as luggage. She’s overdoing it. Modesty does not come naturally to her either. Orthodoxy itself never came naturally to her, and she finally made her ragged break with the role of good Jewish wife around the time I was shucking the guise of good Jewish daughter. Unlike me, though, she has no urge to suggest to the faithful that they’d need special rabbinical permission just to hear what she did last Friday night.

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Women Need 12 Hugs A Day But What About My Needs?

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

From my live cam chat:

Emma:  Aparently we need 12 hugs and 15 laughs [every day] to stay healthy
YourMoralLeader:  and 1 —-job
Emma:  pfft
YourMoralLeader:  what if it were true?
Emma:  Too bad

Ain’t that just like a woman. Giving laughter and hugs are cool, but other forms of expression, well, too bad.

What if women need 12 hugs a day but men need just as keenly one —-job?

Why is our —-job less worthy and less important than 12 hugs?

I bet most men would trade 12 hugs for one —-job.

Is that wrong? Why?

Why are male needs less important than female needs?

Why is hugging and laughing inherently superior to more visceral forms of affection? Where is that written?

Women like hugs and caring and conversation. Men like —-jobs. Why is the female sex superior?

It’s enough to make me cry.

What if I need a —-job a day or I’ll die? You say you care for me. Do you want me to live? A —-job might be the difference between me kicking the bucket at 43 or 93.

I think Plato talked about this.

YourMoralLeader:  not directed at you, just a philosophical discussion
Emma:  Hmmm
Emma:  That’s impossible
texlatex:  how do you know you’ll live to 93
Emma:  lol
YourMoralLeader:  i’d have something to look forward to every day
Emma:  That’s all you would look forward too?
texlatex:  luke is getting tired of using his hand
Emma:  There are more things to look forward to in a realtionshp…
YourMoralLeader:  oh?
Emma:  lol
Emma:  I give up.
User texlatex changed their name to BigDude.
YourMoralLeader:  how was work m?
Emma:  Dandy
Emma:  A kiddies birthday party
BigDude:  are you using the speaker on your camera
YourMoralLeader:  y
Emma:  Happy meals all round.
YourMoralLeader:  how do you like working with kids?
Emma:  I like it. I used to work in a youth club
Emma:  Kids are fun
BigDude:  the sound is like it’s coming through a paper towel tube
YourMoralLeader:  wait till you meet lass’s
KhunDiddy:  I can’t see anything…is the MoraL Lover in
KhunDiddy:  there he is John Denver aaaaaarrrrgggghhhh! Noise Pollution
Emma:  lol
Emma:  What? this song is ace
KhunDiddy:  Emma how is the weather in Old Blarney?
KhunDiddy:  You and Emma strolling through the heather …together…holding hands…? Yes I can see it now!
KhunDiddy:  you sit down on a grassy knoll and Luke starts to get passionate…he’s reciting poetry….you kiss sweetly
Emma:  Then he asks for a —job
KhunDiddy:  Leah just broke the mood
LeahKleim:  Im gonna kill myself today, my life has hit the bottom of the pit
YourMoralLeader:  Will you make sure you are on live cam when you do it leah?
KhunDiddy:  Leah you can jump out the ninth floor like that Russian Model and make a splash
LeahKleim:  yes i will record it
Emma:  lol that’s awful
KhunDiddy:  alls you gotta do is find a ninth floor
LeahKleim:  Im gonna poison myself
Emma:  Leah think of your children!
allthewayfromCyprus:  he doesn’t look anything like the photo…. must be all them peaches
Emma:  They need thier mummy
LeahKleim:  im gonna bang undiluted sulfuric acid
BigDude:  are you going to change your name to juliet too
Emma:  lol
KhunDiddy:  yeah  have some good insurance first so they’ll be taken care of
LeahKleim:  Im worth more dead than alive
Emma:  Nonsence
LeahKleim:  I am
allthewayfromCyprus:  waht are we waiting for?
Emma:  No way…
KhunDiddy:  Leah stick around a while….if this music doesn’t kill you then jump
Emma:  Leah you’re awesome
LeahKleim:  No ! I have no purpose in life ! Levi wont be my myspace friend, f**k this empty world !
KhunDiddy:  Luke my wife got her 10 yr Green card today…she’s one happy Thai, Wild Horses couldn’t get her out of here now hahaaaa!
LeahKleim:  I got a $190 check today from google for my Chabad House Blog
BigDude:  were you on to catch a preditor last week luke
KhunDiddy:  You’re somewhat of a flop in the uSA but a REAL HIT Internationally
KhunDiddy:  Leah do you still want to seduce Russian Dragon?
LeahKleim:  yes
LeahKleim:  he wants me to
KhunDiddy:  well Q-lass wants him too. I see a Cat Fight developing
Emma:  Hmm who will win…
LeahKleim:  ive gone to jail for battery many times
Emma:  There is my answer.
KhunDiddy:  I say Q-lass will win because Leah will committ suicide..they’ll only be one left

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Is It Ok For A Jew To Sit In Starbucks?

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

Dr. Marc Shapiro reviews three recent books on Rav Ovadiah Yosef: "Since we live today in an era when some rabbis have declared that one should not sit in or buy coffee at a store like Starbucks that has no hashgahah [rabbinic supervision], it is refreshing to read that R. Ovadiah and his students spent time in the coffeehouses of Cairo, where R. Ovadiah may have first developed his love of Arab music."

Rabbi Yosef said that Hurricane Katrina was punishment for the Bush administration supporting withdrawal from Gush Katif. Why was New Orleans selected? Because blacks live there and they don’t study Torah.

I never thought of that.

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The Kosher Toilet

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

Dr. Marc Shapiro blogs:

…Yated Neeman has never been interested in truth or intellectual honesty, but in pushing a religio-political agenda, and therefore not only do they refuse to print such corrections of their gedolim, but they have even published material which they know is untrue. I refer in particular to their slander of R. Kook, stating that he applied the verse Ki Mitzion Tetze Torah to the Hebew University. Even though the truth was pointed out to them they continued to print the slander. One can read all about this in Moshe Maimon Alharar’s book Li-Khevodah shel Torah.

…there was also a medieval Jewish view that doctors should only be consulted for things like sprained arms, but that when it came to internal diseases one should only resort to prayer. Lest one think that this idiosyncratic position has totally disappeared, I have even found a twentieth-century author who adopts it,[9] leading R. Ovadiah Yosef to strongly reject this view in his haskamah.

…With regard to the Netziv and reading newspapers on Shabbat, Dr. Yehudah Mirsky has called my attention to the Netziv’s article in R. Kook’s journal, Ittur Soferim (1888), pp. 11-12, where the Netziv offers halakhic justification for this practice.

…I was fortunate to spend back-to-back Shabbatot with Prof. Daniel Sperber. I learnt much from my conversations with him, and I think people will enjoy listening to his presentations. He is currently president of the Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies at Bar Ilan University, and was kind enough to give me a recent volume published by them, Mi-Sinai le-Lishkat ha-Gazit by Shlomo Kassierer and Shlomo Glicksberg. This book analyzes the relationship between the written and oral law, and the nature of rabbinical authority. What makes the book significant is the combination of traditional and academic study.

…R. Baruch Oberlander called my attention to Likutei Sihot, vol. 33, pp. 248-249. Here the Lubavitcher Rebbe states that there is no contradiction between Judaism and socialism. He adds that in Russia, before the Revolution, he knew many socialists, even radical ones (which I assume means real communists), who were completely Torah observant.

…In the haredi version of Daas Torah, the opinions of the masses are meaningless, indeed they are said to be – by definition – in opposition to Daas Torah (which always makes me wonder how laypeople such as Jonathan Rosenblum are able to understand and explain Daas Torah). Yet R. Itzele places the opinion of the religious masses on a higher level than that of the rabbis (à la kol hamon ke-kol shadai). One reader informed me that R. Avraham Shapira quoted this passage in defense of Zionism, i.e., the religious intuition of the people, who supported Zionism, trumped the view of the gedolim, most of whom opposed Zionism.

…In a future post I hope to deal with the history of the kashrut industry. For now, let me just note that among the many ways we are more fortunate than those of previous generations is that we can even buy toilet bowl cleaner with a hashgachah (it is parve.). See here. Here is the actual letter of certification.

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Chaviva Edwards – Jewish Blogger, Shul Hopper

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

Libby Ellis writes:

 

ChavivaMedJYSK

Chaviva may be on the CTA at this very minute

Chaviva Edwards is a super-blogger with a really long commute. The Buena Park dweller takes the CTA down to the University of Chicago where she works as an assistant to Nobel Prize winners and other big thinkers in the economics department. Originally from Nebraska, the 24-year-old is a lifelong fan of Chicago, but will head east this fall to start her graduate work in Judaic studies at the University of Connecticut.

So, whether you’re a fellow tea-drinker or a fan of her Jewish blog: Just Call Me Chaviva, her weight loss blog: Fat Miss America, or the blog she helped launch and still contributes to, Jews by Choice, Chaviva Edwards is a Jew you should know!

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?

My mom kept this elementary school book and every year I said I wanted to be an artist.Then in middle school I met this girl who was amazing; she could draw anything and I decided I wasn’t good enough. But I write now and I think that poetry is sort of my transition between art and writing.


2. What do you love about what you do today?

Blogging has connected me to people all over the world. It gives me an interesting perspective on who I am as a Jew and it’s amazing how connected the Jewish bloggers are. I never thought that by becoming a professional blogger I could have an impact on other people and meet people from so many different backgrounds.


3. What are you reading?

Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 by Mark Mazower. I bought it a year ago and picked it back up recently. Salonica was a sort of a hotbed of Judaism where people spoke Ladino. Then the Holocaust pretty much wiped out the people and the language. I’m just kind of fascinated by the idea of Jews in Greece.


8. What’s your favorite Jewish thing to do in Chicago—in other words, how do you Jew?

I’ve been doing a lot of shul hopping lately. I also spend a lot of time at Argo Tea on north Broadway doing personal Torah study and I have met a lot random Jews that way. I swear, every other time I go in there I meet Jews. I don’t know if they notice what I am doing or smell me out or what but I dig it.

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