Like a bad rash that keeps coming back when it gets too hot, Nation of Islam leader the Rev. Louis Farrkhan has returned. He did so last week with a truly wacky letter to, of all people, Abraham Foxman, the national head of the Anti-Defamation League. For good measure, he sent it to some other American Jewish leaders as well. (What, Louie, my insults aren’t good enough to gain a copy? No more chocolate/toffee matzah Pesach packages for you!)
The letter was wrapped around a two-volume work called “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews,” which was written by the Nation of Islam’s alleged “Historical Research Department,” whose staff probably attended marketing seminars put on by the posse of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il.
In his June 24 note, the Rev. Farrakhan accused Jews of perpetrating “the most vehement anti-Black behavior in the annals of our history in America and the world.” And then – it’s true—he asked for a dialogue to “help me in the repair of my people from the damage that has been done by your ancestors to mine.”
Oh Louie, when will you learn?
But the real question is deeper: Does it matter? After all, is anyone surprised that the Rev. Farrakhan has yet again taken himself out of running for righteous gentile of the year?
Actually, it does matter. This is not just an unpolished idiot standing on a street corner. In fact, it’s a well-heeled idiot who lives a lavish lifestyle in a Chicago mansion in comforts of which his tens of thousands of followers can only dream. And they do come out to hear his very open anti-Semitism.
Take, for example, the Rev. Farrakhan’s June 26 speech in the Atlanta Civic Center. According to Mr. Foxman’s ADL – which has made a fine tradition of following the Rev. Fararkhan around—the black nationalist declared “[Jews] have always tied themselves to black people. They attach themselves to our talent. They are the managers, the agents and they are the accountants and that’s why our black artists loved fame and got fame but died poor because somebody else got their money… No black man or woman becomes a multimillionaire without friendship in the Jewish community.” (More excerpts from the recent talk are here: http://www.adl.org/main_Nation_of_Islam/farrakhan_atlanta_israel.htm).
As one who back in the mid-1990s attended one of his speeches – hint: make sure you have plenty of time; he was 90 minutes late and then spoke for three hours – this is far from something new.
Still, as we rightly express our outrage, we cannot allow this to paint the whole canvas of the American black-Jewish relationship.
Take, for example, the recent June 13 program at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History, one co-sponsored with the Jewish Museum of Maryland and called “On Point: The State of African American and Jewish Relations.” The conversation was part of the exhibit “Beyond Swastika And Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars At Black Colleges.” It runs through August 31 and offers a fascinating glimpse at the tensions and shared values of our two communities. It is provocative and worthy of a few hours. Find out more here: http://www.africanamericanculture.org/exhibit_special.html .
And as you walk through the displays, ponder how what’s being focused on is how blacks and Jews have struggled to live together (and not always successfully) – not the glorification of pathological racism so vital to the identity of Rev. Louis Farrakhan and his fellow worshippers of human depravity.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06/29/10 at 02:05 PM
As the adage goes, when you do the crime you do the time. Former influential Capitol Hill lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff – newly of Baltimore – knows that well. In 2006, the once super lobbyist pled guilty to three felony counts related to defrauding Native American tribes and corruption of government officials. His well-funded lifestyle was part of a national scandal that led to new limitations on lobbying and much discussion about political ethics.
It’s a decidedly less glitzy gig than his past one, but hopefully one imbued with much more personal meaning. A former kosher restaurant owner himself, he will help that business focus on marketing strategies, according to its owner.
So if you stop by Tov Pizza most business hours these days, you are likely to see Jack sitting in the room on the right while working at his computer. Mind you, he won’t talk to you – he can’t under the stipulations of his still incomplete jail sentence, which should be up by year’s end.
Frankly, he should be left alone regardless of that. It must be painful enough to reconstruct one’s life after committing a crime and gaining a pass to jail as a result. To do so when your name is part of a national scandal is even more arduous. Abramoff knows best the hell he put his family and friends through, having TV cameras and reporters follow their every move and dig into the personal lives of all who surround him.
With that in mind, we urge our community – and our colleagues in the media – to go easy on Abramoff. For certain, this is a story of national interest and the initial coverage cannot be avoided. However, after that Abramoff should be allowed to live out his life in relative anonymity and with dignity. The only exception would be if he chose to speak publicly. Indeed, if the authorities believe that he has paid his price, then we should, too.
This exemplifies the Jewish value of teshuvah or repentance. Abramoff, like anyone else, is entitled to the benefits of that hallowed concept. Let’s keep that in mind.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06/25/10 at 02:12 PM
It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to figure out that more seems to divide than unite American Jews who care about all things relating to the State of Israel. However, the fate of Gilad Shalit is finally – definitely later than should be the case – catching on here as a unifying issue.
Shalit was captured on June 25, 2006 by Hamas operatives who dug a tunnel from the Gaza side of the border into Israel. In addition to killing several Israel Defense Forces soldiers, they captured Shalit. The International Red Cross, Israeli government officials and even Shalit’s family have not been allowed to see or to speak to him. Occasionally, a letter from him is released to the media.
In exchange for Shalit, Hamas says it wants 1,000 prisoners held by Israel, including those “with blood on their hands.” For crying out loud, even the U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict has called for him to be released unconditionally.
• This week the, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism began conducting campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to raise awareness. They are calling for the display of yellow balloons in front of synagogues, organizations and residences for the week of June 21 to show solidarity. Likewise, many Conservative (and other) synagogues already mention Mr. Shalit in context with their weekly prayer for the well-being of the State of Israel. Here is a link to that prayer in English and Hebrew: http://jcrc.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=copy_of_Prayer_for_Gilad_Shalit
• Baltimore is preparing for the June 25 showing of the documentary “Gilad Is Still Alive,” an event sponsored by the Baltimore Zionist District and hosted by the Park Heights Jewish Community Center. (For details: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Baltimore-Zionist-District/261170861290)
• And Ami Ayalon, former head of the Israeli Shin Bet Kaf security services (ShaBaK), this week told a Baltimore crowd how he would have conducted Israel’s flotilla raid differently. He wanted to take a daytime armada of 50 Israeli ships with huge “Gilad Shalit” banners and sail right up to the Free Gaza ones, forcing their TV cameras to see the signs. Then the Israelis would say “We’ll sail together into Gaza harbor and you’ll let us meet Gilad Shalit.” (Even though that was highly unlikely to work, he said, at least the real focus would be where it should be – on Hamas’s illegal activities.)
Gilad Shalit is a captive of war, and as such it is the obligation of the Jewish people to strive to bring him home. There is a fair debate to be had over whether “paying ransom” will encourage the taking of more captives. In fact, it’s not a new conversation in Jewish history. (For an interesting article on how the State of Israel has dealt with this and how that squares with Jewish values, click here: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/captives.html).
All that aside, it starts with bringing attention to the plight of a young man who is paying a horrible price for standing guard on his side of the border.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06/09/10 at 01:58 PM
“Jews Film Back” – might be the headline of an article about the new video Gaza flotilla that’s making the rounds of the pro-Israel circuit these days. It’s called “We Con The World” and is a spoof on that ever-popular “We Are The World” one of years past in which entertainment stars raise money for valid causes. The roughly 4.5 minute video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg .
This well-done spoof on the cynical anti-Israel arguments made by the pro-Palestinian crowd features American-Israelis crooning in stereotypical Arab outfits (and with stereotypical Arabic accents) about how they are duping the world when it comes to the charade of innocents in Gaza being held hostage to the evil whims of an imperialist Israel.
Hold on! Stereotypical dress and accents? What if the pro-Palestinian crowd had done something from their perspective using Hasidic garb and Yiddish accents? We would rightly be screaming “anti-Semites!” Is this any different?
Now I’ve mentioned that to some friends in Israel and here and most (not all) disagree. I’ve gotten a lot of “They do it to us, so why can’t we fight back in this non-violent way?” My response: “Like Mom told me all those years ago, two wrongs don’t make a right.”
So for the most part I have no problem with the words and the lyrics, which are indeed quite clever. But we don’t need to lower our values to the crash cacophony of the haters of Israel. Do we?
Surely a sign of our e-connected times, there is a battle of videos on the Internet taking place between the Israel Defense Forces and the Free Gaza movement that directed the relief flotilla.
On the radio going home yesterday afternoon, I heard Adam Shapiro – who runs the Free Gaza movement – speak on the Marc Steiner radio show about the many cell phone videos that captured Israeli soldiers beating on the “humanitarian protestors.” I have yet to find those videos on YouTube and the Free Gaza web page (http://www.freegaza.org/) or Al-Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com), but welcome someone sending them to me. All I can find are videos of protests like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvErJSJUWL4&feature=youtu.be&a .
There are links on something called http://witnessgaza.com/ , which are witnesses testimonies – but no live videos of the event itself.
Despite the above, I also do not want to callously dismiss the fact that nine people are dead. As Jews, we should be able to mourn that reality while defending the Jewish state – and continuing to ask hard questions about a military move that was made necessary by the flotilla, but which obviously went awry.
It all had the tragic and predictable outcome of an ancient Greek play that, despite being staged 1,000 times before, yet again evoked powerful emotions amongst its intended audiences.
For certain, the pro- and anti-Israel crowds – Jews and gentiles – took expected stands after Monday’s deadly debacle in the Mediterranean. During it, at least nine people died on a ship in a once Gaza-bound relief flotilla, one staffed by humanitarian activists who pummeled Israeli commandoes seemingly more prepared to disperse an impolite crowd than to combat a motivated enemy armed with rudimentary weapons (which still kill).
But in a subdued manner, many American Jews with whom I spoke were left grappling with what to think, how to respond and to where it would lead.
They were angry at Israel for messing up the mission – which is undeniable. They were frustrated by not having a meaningful message that spoke to them. And they were uninterested in the knee-jerk protectionism they heard from many Jewish groups and leaders. In short, they were not – and have not for a long time – been willing to accept without questions the standard pro-Israel rhetoric.
Mind you, some of them forget that such responses are actually needed in a world where so many people are far less understanding of the nuanced brutality Israel faces. Likewise, in eying the criticism from within Israel itself, much of the globe does not see in context the intense and time-honored soul-searching so intrinsic to Jewish life, which has a rhythm that beats to the notion of collective fate because, after all, we do have a history.
As this ongoing mess continues to unfold – one of which at this writing could indeed trigger the third intifadah Palestinians and others have warned of in recent years – here is some context to consider.
While I do not have a military background, it seems hard to argue that this mission’s planners had prepared their troops for every contingency. It’s fair to question why more soldiers were not sent to the ship at once, why non-lethal stun grenades were not used and why simple techniques – say nets dropped from above on protestors—could not have ended the situation more quickly.
Tuesday morning quarterbacking for sure, but Palestinians and humanitarian activists already pledge repeat scenarios in the coming weeks. After all, from their perspective all worked beautifully (although the families of those killed would disagree).
Look at the plusses from the organizers’ perspective: In addition to the waterfall of anti-Israel publicity, the Egyptians “indefinitely” ended their complicity in blockading Gaza (which saw quiet coordination with Israel); Turkey has new respect in the Arab world for aiding the Palestinian cause; other European nationals were wounded; and the United Nations fulfilled its ever-present desire to rush through an anti-Israel resolution.
Where does this leave us as American Jews? After all, part of our raison d’etre is to defend the Jewish state. And we are in fact commanded to remind the world of a double-standard regarding the Third Jewish Commonwealth. Indeed, last week U.S. State Department Hannah Rosenthal informed a Baltimore audience that in the last five years the U.N. Human Rights Commission has passed about 170 resolutions condemning the Jewish state– and five on Iran and Sudan.
If that’s balance, I’m a ballerina.
So what’s next?
Be prepared to hear of this situation for some time. It’s oats for the troughs of the United Nations. The Palestinians will make it the latest chapter in their ongoing saga against “the facist, apartheid Israel.” That could resonate loudly on the Arab/Muslim streets – and in a few other neighborhoods as well.
So what can we do? Explanations are nice, but not enough. We need to push for an U.S.-led investigation, one not stacked against Israel as was the U.N.’s Goldstone Commission, but run in consultation with – not giving veto power to – the Europeans.
And we need to not avoid this sensitive matter with Christian and Muslim allies in local and national dialogues. We need conversations, not public fiascos.
And at day’s end, were are left with this: Israel had warned of a confrontation. Israel had planned for a confrontation. And yet, Israel was not fully prepared and people died. That’s a failure of intelligence, creativity and action.
FEATURED JOBS
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