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Silow-Carroll on haredim and everyone else… cue up Andrea Peyser on Brooklyn justice

By Ami Eden · May 24, 2012

 Andy Silow-Carroll, editor and publisher of The New Jersey Jewish News, reflects on the (growing?) unhealthy divide between the Haredim and the rest of the Jews:

... Haredim push buttons among the most and least engaged Jews. Observant Jews who aren’t haredi cannot forgive the “black hats” for suggesting that Torah values and modernity are in conflict. Many observant Jews will say that Torah comes alive only when it encounters the real world and all its shmutz. To drag Jews and their Torah behind a self-made ghetto wall is a hillul Hashem, a desecration of Torah and its real intentions.

On the flip side, there is a certain kind of Jew whose whole Jewish identity is tied up in condemning the failings and hypocrisy of the Orthodox. Their indictment usually starts with the phrase, “They call themselves religious, and yet…,” before reciting the latest scandal. This sort of obsession can be self-justifying and a little Freudian — by pointing out the failings of religion, they can better justify their decision to leave it behind.

But whatever the source, these kinds of feelings are bred in insularity, for which the haredim must assume responsibility...

No, I don’t think there is going to be warfare between haredi Jews and the rest of us -- not outside of Israel, anyway. What we have instead are two communities that relate to one another in two distinct and distinctly unhealthy ways. On one hand, we ignore each other, and regard the other as if he or she clings to a different covenant. Or we scrutinize each other, seeing the other as a representative of the values we most revile. Either way, it’s a recipe for discord.

Check out the full column for Andy's take on why everyone is obsessed with cases of Haredim behaving badly.

And right on cue, we have Andrea Peyser columnizing on what she describes as the broken and outrageous system of haredim in Brooklyn policing themselves.

There exists in this city a group of unparalleled perverts that’s wrapped in Teflon -- more resistent to charges of sexual exploitation than John Travolta.

I’m not talking about Hollywood nimrods or Catholic priests, but a sect not generally associated with serious crime -- ultra-Orthodox Jews.

A scandal of epic proportions is brewing in Brooklyn as District Attorney Charles Hynes uses kid gloves to handle creeps and demons charged with, or convicted of, sexual abuse that too often brutalizes children.

As a columnist, Peyser tends to go with her traditionalist instincts, inclined to be supportive of good old fashioned values and respectful of religious institutions. So if she's talking this way about the black-hatted faithful, assume there's a whole bunch of people thinking the same thing.

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The Jewish heritage barbeque at Gracie Mansion

By Uriel Heilman · May 23, 2012

It’s not yet clear what New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be doing with his time after Jan. 1, 2014, when his mayoral term expires.

But one thing is certain: He won’t be going into stand-up comedy. Or, at least, he shouldn’t.

At Tuesday night’s Jewish Heritage event at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence (where the $22 billion mayor doesn’t live), Bloomberg opened his remarks with a series of jokes that landed as flat as his delivery was uninspired.

“It’s an exciting time of the year: the holiday of Shavuot is coming up,” he said before cracking some nonsensical joke about Moses.

Acknowledging the absence of laughter in the tent pitched on Gracie Mansion’s lawn, the Jewish mayor tried a few more from his script before shifting topics and talking about the recent occurrence of Jerusalem Day, the anniversary of Israel’s capture of the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Except Bloomberg said it happened in 1987.

No matter: The audience wasn’t letting the mayor’s speech interrupt their conversations, anyway. They seemed much more interested in the barbeques filled with grilling hot dogs, hamburgers and teriyaki chicken than they did with the three-term mayor.

The event Tuesday night wasn’t so much a political event as a picnic party – hosted jointly by the mayor and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. It looks about the same from year to year, and is a nod both to Jewish Heritage Week-NY (which goes back decades) and national Jewish Heritage Month, which President George W. Bush inaugurated in May 2006.

Aside from the mayor’s brief remarks and a plug for Delta Airlines, one of the sponsors, all there was to it was music, Jews and food, complete with tiki torches, picnic tables and lemonade. When the mayor introduced the entertainment for the evening, Brooklyn’s own Neil Sedaka, he said, “Oy, I feel like kvelling.”

But he didn't feel like staying: Another minute or two, and the mayor was out of there.

Here's some video from last year's event (which was pretty much identical to Tuesday night's, except he was funnier last year):
 

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Is Tel Aviv or Jerusalem the real Israel?

By Uriel Heilman · May 21, 2012

Depending on your perspective, Sunday night's "60 Minutes" segment on Tel Aviv either was a spot-on look at Israel's greatest city, a cliche-filled mockery (the Forward's Gal Beckerman), or penance for Bob Simon's recent segment on Christians in the Holy Land (Honest Reporting).

The real question is whether Tel Aviv or Jerusalem represents the true Israel.

There’s a long-running dispute among Israelis about which city better represents Israel ’s true face: Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

One is a symbol of the historical and religious yearning of the Jewish people, the country’s political capital and a microcosm of the state’s divisions: religious and secular, Arab and Jewish, rich and poor.

The other has comparatively little historical baggage, looks more like Mediterranean Europe than the Middle East, prizes secular culture and liberalism more than it does tradition and religion, and is the country’s cultural capital.

Time cover mashup: Suckling Bibi

By Ami Eden · May 21, 2012

The New York Times went with a story over the weekend about news magazines jazzing up their covers, including Time's recent "Are You Mom Enough" with a three-year-old suckling his easy-on-the-eyes young mother. In its most recent issue Time went with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who reportedly joked about wanting to know if he would be photographed with his shirt off.

Well, our own Uri Fintzy had a slightly different idea..Read More >>>

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People of the Tweet: Hebrew-speaking Christians, early chasidim, married Jewish men

By Danielle Fleischman · May 18, 2012

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Mad Men recap (Dark Shadows): Roger loves Jewish women, WASPy pots

By Ami Eden · May 18, 2012

Yes, I know. Yet again I’m filing my Mad Men recap at the 11th hour.

One thing’s for sure -- this week I can’t blame my tardiness on a lack of Jewy material.

Earlier this season I ruminated over the question of whether Roger’s second wife, Jane, was a Yid, a secret Yid or not a Yid:

With that exchange, I think the writers are settling what has already been the subject of plenty of blogosphere speculation -- yes, Roger Sterling’s trophy wife is Jewish (or at least has Jewish roots). At the same time, the fact that we get there through a string of drug-induced moments of self-reflection suggests that whatever the extent of her Jewishness, it was essentially under the radar at work, and even to some degree in her own psyche.

Well, not exactly. At the start of last Sunday’s episode (“Dark Shadows”), Burt Cooper pushes Roger to take his “Semitic” wife to a prospective client dinner with a Manischewitz executive named Rosenberg (no relation to the spy, ha ha). So I guess it wasn’t a secret after all. (Wait, did we all find out that Roger's first wife, Mona, is also Jewish? Or am I just getting old and confused like Burt and Roger? I'm going with the old and confused option. And maybe Megan is Jewish too... how else to explain a woman who wakes up next to Don Draper and desires... bagels?)

That's not to say Roger didn’t want it to be a secret. Here’s Jane in the cab ride after the Rosenberg outing:

"So you suddenly have no problem telling people I’m Jewish."

Problem with it? You kidding me? Turns out Roger loves Jews, and especially Jewesses. Just ask him (during a business dinner with the Rosenbergs of Manischewitz, N.J.):

“Lord knows there is plenty of prejudice in this country. But growing up in Manhattan I’ve always envied the humor, the closeness, the way your people keep track of each other.”

“So you married your way in.”

“I always thought Jewish women were the most beautiful women in the world.”

Before we go on… for the record… I call bull ...  -- how is it that we haven’t heard any of the requisite snickering until now from the other folks at the firm formerly known as Sterling Cooper? Not one stray comment? And don’t tell me they want us to believe she’s been calling him bubeleh all along (no Roger, that’s not German). Or was Jane joking with that bubeleh comment?

OK, now a crack at the big picture.

Is there anything that says “Welcome to the New America” more than watching Burt Cooper and Roger Sterling needing to bribe the shmendrick copywriter so that they will able to claw for Manischewitz’s business in order to preserve one last sliver of professional dignity?

Or, to put it another way…talk about the WASPy pot calling the Jewish kettle sneaky and cheap.  Read More >>>

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Gideon Aronoff and the HIAS dilemma

By Uriel Heilman · May 17, 2012

For the second time in less than a week, the head of a large Jewish organization has resigned abruptly.

This time, it was Gideon Aronoff of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, who announced Wednesday in a letter to friends that he will be stepping down effective May 31; Mark Hetfield, senior vice president for policy and programs at HIAS, will be the interim president and CEO.

The reason for his departure, Aronoff told me, is personal. In his letter, he noted a "time of significant transition" in his family, and he confirmed as much to me in a conversation on Thursday. He will be spending more time with his young kids. Here's the letter:

Intrigue behind Schwager’s resignation from JDC

By Uriel Heilman · May 14, 2012

Still no definitive word on the story behind the story of Steven Schwager's abrupt resignation as CEO of one of American Jewry's largest charities, the $362-million-per-year American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).

But there are some hints.

Last Friday, the JDC announced that Schwager, the 10-year CEO of the organization, would be resigning effective June 30. With just six weeks' notice, the JDC probably will have to appoint an interim CEO until a new one is selected, complicating the transition process.

[UPDATE: On Tuesday, JDC announces that Darrell Friedman, former CEO of Baltimore's Jewish federation, The Associated, will serve as interim CEO starting July 1.]

The abruptness of the move raises obvious questions.

"I’m sure it does," Penny Blumenstein, the president of the JDC, acknowledged to me. "A lot of this is privileged. He felt this was the right time to do this. We are going through some transitional stages. That’s about all I can tell you. I believe this has to be a coordinated expression of what is happening at the JDC.

"There will be more news coming out; it’s only been a few days," Blumenstein went on. "I really want to be very confidential about what's going on here. There's no big secret. I don’t want to be seen as the person who is speaking too much about JDC at this point in time."

Schwager, in explaining his decision to step aside now, told me he had been contemplating the move for a while and talked about his eagerness to spend more time with his family.

That's usually code for "illness, sex or money" issues, one JDC board member told me.

People of the Tweet: Knesset PoliSci, Mourning Sendak, Translating Jewish Mom

By Danielle Fleischman · May 11, 2012

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Mad Men recap (Lady Lazarus): Ginsberg’s $15, Don’s elevator shaft, Tony’s jukebox

By Ami Eden · May 11, 2012

OK, OK, I’m a little late this week. Blame it on a multi-day (beat that Don Draper) power nap.

There wasn’t much Ginsberg to talk about in Sunday’s episode, “Lady Lazarus.” So let’s get that out of the way. First, I’m still not sure what to make of his “Did he fire you? That son of a bitch…” line. Joking or serious? Sarcastic or chivalrous? Cynical or clueless? Seems like the earnest type. So I’m going with serious, chivalrous and clueless.

And now for this week’s Ginsberg overdone moment… “I’ll tell you what takes guts -- never having money for lunch. She owes me like $15 at this point.”

Actually this is a double fault: Foul number one, of course, is the writers yet again handling the whole Ginsberg-Jewishness thing with the subtlety of a bad Shabbos wine. Even worse, though, is that this time there is collateral creative damage -- is there any way you see Megan racking up a $15 lunch tab with struggling Jewish copywriter guy? What is she, Pete Campbell or Harry Crane? Come on, she’s one of the good ones, with a devotion to detail to boot. So I’m not buying it. She’d be more likely to pack Ginsberg a nice Frenchy lunch every day and buy him a decent blazer then to mooch off of him.

On to less Jewy, more consequential moments… Don looking down the elevator hole. As one reader put it: “Don is staring into an abyss, fearing that he will once again be in a marriage where he feels empty and alone. Also using the metaphor of the elevator, 'Is the bottom dropping out'? Will Megan's decision be the death of the marriage? The tone is clearly ominous and foreboding, one of impending doom. Is this also the beginning of the end of his reign as creative wunderkind. Is Don going to lose his relevance at work and at home?”

He's worrying about all of the above, I’d say.Read More >>>

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