Thank G-d it's only Dershowitz we're up against

I just started started working at Tikkun magazine today. Woo!
I had a nice day talking to Rabbi Lerner and meeting the staff. My job for the day was to read his book, Healing Israel/Palestine, all day. It was awesome. It would be even awesomer if I was getting paid to read, but hey, I'm happy where I am.
To be honest, I'm kinda star-struck around Rabbi Lerner. Just look at the size of his wikipedia article!
Anyways, Jen sent me an interesting debate between him and Alan Dershowitz about whether or not people who are critical of Israel are labeled as antisemitic. Dershowitz is a veteran debater and an asshole. He doesn't let Rabbi Lerner speak! And he says, "Find me one leader who labels criticizers of Israel as antisemitic and I will give them a reward." Ok, I agree with you that it would be hard to find a Jewish leader who is so outspoken about being an asshole (although I'm sure we could pin Abe Foxman for something) but its not the leaders who inhibit the possibility of a safe-space for critique, its the communities, the synagogues, the schools, etc. It is not one entity, it is a culture of repression.

But after I watched this debate, I happened upon another debate involving Alan Dershowitz that led me to see him in somewhat of a different light. It is a debate the happened in 1985 between Dershowitz and Rabbi Meir Kahana at Boston University.

It's suprising to see Dershowitz as the lefty. This is definitely a rare sight. It's possible that Dershowitz's views have changed in the past 23 years and that is why he seems like such a good guy, but its also possible that anyone would seem liberal standing next to such a scary figure. Dershowitz himself compares him (to his face) to Louis Farrakhan for the African-Americans or Yasser Arafat for the Palestinians. If I didn't know his stance on terrorism and his staunch support for AIPAC, I would think that Dershowitz is a hero. Certainly in this debate he was.
I feel privileged to have Dershowitz on the Jewish far right, and not a maniac like Kahane. Although I disagree with his views, Dershowitz doesn't scare me. I get angry when I even see pictures of Kahana let alone hear him speak about forced transfer of Palestinians.
Unfortunately, there are still guys who talk like him, but luckily they don't have the charisma or the public support to pose as much of a threat as Kahana did.

Add One to the List!

At some point I'm going to actually compile a list of my favorite rabbis that, in my opinion, are bringing Judaism into the new millennium in a progressive way that is in line with halachic Judaism.
Today's new addition is Rabbi Steven Greenberg AKA the first gay Orthodox rabbi.
When I came home from school, I found his book, Wrestling With G-d and Men, on my kitchen countertop. My sister had been writing a paper for school on homosexuality in the Jewish tradition. She got it from the Gann Academy library, her high school and my alma mater, which is the type of library that would likely carry that book. It's a pluralistic, liberal Jewish high school, that tries to teach the students every aspect of Judaism so that they can decide for themselves how they want to practice. It's partially responsible for my apostasy from Conservative Judaism into whatever I am now (Orthodox?). I'm not really sure what I consider myself. Labels are for jars.
In the first 15 pages of the book he's mentioned almost every organization that I love and that are on my "links" tab (on the left). He started off by talking about how he became Orthodox (which sounded somewhat similar to my experiences) and how he became interested in the liberal, more modern aspects of it which include egalitarianism (which literally means equal leadership), ahavat olam and ahavat yisrael: respect and dignity for all people no matter what they do, and what it means to change halacha. I recommend this book to anyone reading this blog, because if you find me interesting, you'll find him interesting.

links 5/11

Medinat Weimar - The movement for a Jewish state in Thuringia, Deutschland

Think Tank Aims To Infuse Jewish Mainstream With Dashes of Color - Be’Chol Lashon Conference in San Francisco

Boogie Down: Movement and Music in the Middle of Jerusalem - My favorite pluralistic/post-denominational dance party

Large Knit Kippas and Flowy Skirts Not Required: Neo-Soul Hippie Culture in Israel - Me in a nutshell. I'm facebook friends with multiple people interviewed in this article

Anarchists and Jewish Nationalists - I'm not done reading this yet but it's fascinating so far

Smoking Is Bad (with the exception of hookah, cloves, and pot)

Smoking is Bad

A Fascist Against Islamo-Fascism

Earlier this week this cartoon appeared in the student newspaper at the University of Madison - Milwaukee. It is a depiction of David Horowitz, a Jewish neocon who associates with that constituency for Jews who support Islamophobia. He's been traveling around the US, going to different universities and doing this Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week which is all about scaring people about the evils of political Islam and how it threatens the US. He's the kind of guy who would show Obsession every hour on the hour on Tisha B'Av (An Aish tactic) and call upon moderate Muslims to save their religion.
When David Horowitz came here, he caused a bit of a commotion (as was his plan, I'm sure). His donors paid for a page add in the Badger Herald calling out the MSA of being a Jihadist organization and coercing them to support him or else he would have them blacklisted. Of course, the MSA didn't support him and, in fact, they went to his talk and wore all green in solidarity. They didn't speak out in order to protest the event like the ISO did which I'm glad because I think disruption of free speech is a cowardly tactic. But anyways, Horowitz is exactly the kind of AIPAC-loving Jew that is screwing things up for American Judaism as well as Israel's image in America.
So he decided to come over to UW-M to have an Islamo-Fascism Week There, and this cartoon was distributed by the MSA. Apparently, the person who drew it is not part of the MSA, they just distributed it. But I think the cartoon is great, it's a great representation of David Horowitz. He loves to call out organizations as being fascist but his methods are so medieval: He blacklists, he promotes hate, and he's just an overall unpleasant guy. So when I saw this cartoon in the Badger Herald I thought it was so funny and I was in immediate support.
And, to make things even better, Horowitz's reaction to the cartoon perfectly exemplified his character. He flipped out and called it antisemitic, arguing that they gave him a hooknose so its obviously slander and wildly inappropriate. Couldn't have been more spot on, right? Of course he pulls the antisemitism card, making him the victim and the MSA the badguys. It's perfect. And his arguments are so funny too:

“Sure, it’s free speech. It’s just inappropriate for a campus. I don’t think the university should have banned it from being posted, but had that been a cartoon on blacks or gays, there would have been hell to pay — there should be one standard rule.”

What? I don't know if Horowitz has a hooknose or not, and in fact, I don't think it really matters. I just don't see how a critique over his political views has anything to do with being black or gay. No one said anything about his Judaism, and if we accept his argument by imagining the same cartoon where he is black or wearing a pink scarf, would that change anything about his caveman attitude?
Mohamad Elsayed, president of the MSA of UW-M summarizes Horowitz's whole demeanor very eloquently:

“In typical demagogic form, Horowitz tries to characterize the very legitimate and very justifiable attack against him as an attack on all Jews. How ludicrous.”

The Jewish community in Milwaukee really freaked out too and is in full support behind Horowitz, speaking out against antisemitism. I hate how the conservative Jewish communities go along with this propaganda, it's a chillul Hashem. Hopefully, my generation of progressive Jews and Muslims can work to get rid of this nonsense. Enshallah.

Bittersweetness - Is That Even A Word?

Happy Birthday Israel!

In the words of UPZ's official educational campaign, this day is bittersweet for me. For many reasons.
First of all, I'm sitting in College Library, procrastinating on my research paper on how Shabtai Tzvi's main theologians like Nathan of Gaza reinterpreted Lurianic Kabbalah in order to justify his conversion to Islam. It's a really fascinating topic and I thoroughly enjoyed doing the research for it, but writing it is getting fairly tedious and I plan on pulling an all-nighter which is not so money.
I'm also a little nervous for Hillel's Israel@60 celebration at Library Mall tomorrow. Originally, Kavanah: A Progressive Jewish Voice, my rockin' political student group, was planning on setting up a table to promote the "bittersweetness" of the day by handing out pamphlets on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the problem with settlements, information on peace organizations and the peace process in Israel, and bittersweet chocolates. That's all still happening, but now there's an added complication. Madison-Rafah, my favorite anti-Israel buddies, who I've blogged about before, are going to be protesting the event and it's really pissing me off. They just have such chutzpah, they're so inconsistent in their views, and they're just trying to be confrontational. Although they say on their site that it's going to be "educational rather than confrontational," I don't see how it could be anything other. They're going to a student event (by the way they are all adults) so that they can picket, chant, and disrupt the celebration. What are they trying to accomplish? If they were protesting Israel's policies or its right to exist, then they could go somewhere where they would actually be productive, like the Israeli consulate. If they didn't want any pro-Israel celebrations, then they would have protested the Jewish community's Israel@60 celebration the other day. Maybe they're just lazy.
Either way, they're coming and they are handing out flyers that are just ridiculous. One of them asks if a normal person would celebrate racial segregation in the U.S., South African apartheid, or the decimation and conquest of Native Americans, and the other is a list of all the Palestinian villages that were destroyed in Al-Nakba. Whatever. They can back any statistics they want even if they are skewed and deceptive, in fact, I think the plight of the Palestinians should absolutely be recognized on Yom Ha'atzmaut, I just don't see why they have to be such bullies about it. Have your own event. At least get students to protest this event. I think they just need their mommies.
This constituency in Madison really upsets me. They have a voice but they have no feet. They'll protest anything and march anywhere but when it comes to education and political advocacy, they do nothing. And knowing Hillel and the "I love Israel" crowd, it's going to be ugly. Only Kavanah can save this celebration and I hate this burden. Without Kavanah there would just be yelling. But the fact that we have a table and we're passing out critical information totally undermines Madison-Rafah's stance. They're coming in thinking that Hillel is blind to Israel's problems, but our presence proves them wrong. Therefore, since they can't argue that Hillel is painting a biased picture of Israel, their only argument that would differ from us is that Israel has no right to exist or that all Palestinians should have the right to return to Israel, and I think that most normal people see that as outrageous and uncompromisingly extremist.

On a different note, earlier tonight I went to an amazing lecture by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, an Orthodox rabbi, president of CLAL, the National Jewish Center For Learning and Leadership, and a leading figure in interfaith dialogue who is promoting his book, You Don't Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right, about avoiding fanaticism. He's a great speaker with a ton of charisma, and he also has a really interesting story. When he became religious he did it through a yeshiva that promoted right wing politics as part of its theology. He didn't specify which one but I can assume it was Aish or Ohr Sameach. So he decided to move to Hebron to help support the fanatic settlers there - the worst of the worst. But after people from his community murdered two Palestinian students at the Islamic University of Hebron (in retaliation to people who had been killed in his own community) he began to question his choices and it eventually led him to move back to America and work in religious dialogue. It was a very powerful lecture and part of the LISAR conference. Unfortunately I was one of three students there. It's a shame that they scheduled this conference for the worst week of the semester. I shouldn't have even been there. I shouldn't even be writing this post right now, I still have nine pages left on this paper. Damn you, procrastination/distraction.

Schools of the Abayudaya

Smithsonian also released an awesome CD of Abayudaya music that won a Grammy apparently, and you can listen to it online.

I know, I keep somewhat cross-posting from Jewschool, but their articles are so good and I want to keep that dream alive. By the way, I got that internship at Tikkun magazine for the summer. Money! Actually, it's technically not money because I just found out that I'm not getting paid, but as long as I keep telling myself that it's an "investment for my future career," I feel better about myself.

Water - The Stuff of Life

"They call it 'Enhanced Interrogation.' We call it torture." -Amnesty International