Posts Tagged ‘American Jews’

While anti-Semitism rages all over the world, we may be blind to the fact that it’s also growing right here in our own backyard. We thought America was PC—that anti-Semitism wasn’t cool anymore—and that this would protect us from it. Unfortunately, that was only a fad, and anti-Semitism is back. And it’s pretty ugly.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at this. According to JTA, in the last month, the following incidents occurred in the United States:

• Rocks were thrown through windows at Indiana University, including at the Jewish Studies building, and at a Chabad center off-campus. At the library, Judaic Studies books were brought to the bathroom and urinated on. (Nov. 29, 2010)
  

  Helen Thomas

• At the University of Florida Hillel, a large outdoor menorah was removed and thrown down. Some of the lamps were damaged. The vandalism came after an incident the previous evening in which about 10 people shouted an anti-Semitic epithet and kicked over a fence on the property. (Dec. 2, 2010)

• Former news correspondent Helen Thomas continued to mouth off after she resigned from Hearst over previous comments. This time she said, “Congress, the White House and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion.” At least her alma mater, Wayne State University, had the sense to withdraw their Spirit of Diversity Award. (Dec. 2, 2010)

• 200 headstones were toppled at the Jewish Washington Cemetery in Borough Park, Brooklyn. The incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime. (Dec. 20, 2010)

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States. In 2006, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said that anti-Semitism had become a “serious problem” on many campuses across the country. (JTA, Kenneth L. Marcus, Dec 8, 2010).

But here’s what’s new this time around. Often, the anti-Semitism is cloaked in anti-Israel political sentiment. And somehow that makes it okay.

Here are some examples:

• In the first Helen Thomas incident (an interview with RabbiLive.com), she felt perfectly comfortable saying that that the Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home.” (May 27, 2010) Watch the Video. One could have argued that she was simply stating a political opinion. However, her second comments (above) show her real beliefs. You can’t mistake her “Zionists” comments as anything but anti-Semitism. Thomas is of Lebanese descent.

• When Israeli Sgt. Kenny Sachs spoke at the University of Massachusetts Amherst about his injury from a terror attack, he got a hostile welcome from protesters, who would not even let him speak. Thankfully, the professor managed the situation well, and the protesters left peacefully. Watch the Video. The incident could be seen as only anti-Israel, but their “heil Hitler” kind of salute certainly smacked of anti-Semitism. A comment on the protestors’ own video of the event said, “Whoever is saying that this act is anti-semitic, well i tell them: if the Semitic values allows you to kill children of Gaza and steal land from others and commit massacres to defend your right of occupation .. then i am A PROUD ANTI-SEMTIC….”  (Dec. 2, 2010)

Again, the lines are blurring, and apparently, at least to some people, anti-Semitism is now something to be proud of.

• A bus ad was planned for 12 Seattle Metro Transit buses. The ad was going to feature a group of children looking at a demolished building under the heading “Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work.” There was enough of an outcry that Seattle decided the ads were no longer legal, as they would pose too great a security risk to the transportation system. (Dec 24, 2010)

What is going on here?

Israel has close ties of friendship with the United States. But that doesn’t mean that people in America can’t protest against Israel. Legally, they can. The problem is that it insults our sensibilities as Jews. We are so identified with Israel that insulting Israel is a direct insult to us. Whether justified or not, we do often think of this last group of incidents as anti-Semitic. And these kinds of incidents are on the rise as well.

I don’t think previous administrations would have stood for any of this nonsense one bit. However, President Obama’s own left-liberal stance has allowed this sentiment to flourish in America. They use words like “human rights,” “religious freedom” and all kinds of butchered American values to justify their arguments. And unfortunately, many otherwise good people, including many liberal Jews, fall into their trap.

The irony is that if these people only put things in perspective, they would see how life-affirming, growth-oriented, and progressive Israel and the Jews actually are. They would see how life-loving and generous we are as a people, and how much we further world peace, religious freedom and human rights for all.

There’s something very ugly about this new anti-Semitism. Things are being said that would never have been said just a few years ago. Helen Thomas waited until she was 90 years old to show her true anti-Semitic colors. Which public figure will be next?

On the international scene, this new kind of anti-Semitism comes from high-profile sources, and goes hand-in-hand with anti-Israel political sentiment.

According to the JTA, here are some of the most recent international incidents:

• A University of Toronto thesis argued against Holocaust education programs, saying that the “construction of a victimized Jewish identity,” is intentional; it produces “effects that are extremely beneficial to the organized Jewish community” and to “apartheid” Israel. Irving Abella, a well-known Canadian historian and former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, told the Toronto Star that the thesis is “not scholarship, it’s ideology. It’s totally ahistorical; I found it full of untruths and distortions and held together by fatuous and very flabby analysis. It borders on anti-Semitism.” Unfortunately, the writer of the thesis was a Jew. (Dec. 7, 2010)
• An Iranian-born elected official in Quebec joined a boycott of Le Marcheur, a Montreal shoe store, because it sells Israeli-made products. Amir Khadir, a member of the National Assembly in the province, took part in a demonstration over the weekend in front of the store, handing out flyers and asking customers to boycott the shop. The store owner, who is not Jewish, said, “I don’t care where my products come from, I only care about comfort and quality.” The Jewish community in Montreal has been especially supportive of the store. (Dec. 20, 2010)

• A high-level priest on the morning show of the largest television station in Greece blamed world Jewry for Greece’s financial problems. Metropolite Seraphim said during an interview that there is a conspiracy to enslave Greece and Christian Orthodoxy, and he accused international Zionism of trying to destroy the family unit by promoting one-parent families and same-sex marriages. (Dec. 21, 2010)

• A Chilean Senator, Eugenio Tuma, said that prominent Jews, including the country’s interior minister, are agents of the Israeli government. Tuma, who is of Palestinian descent, also said that Chilean Jews are responsible for holding back the country’s recognition of a Palestinian state. (Dec. 27, 2010)

Physical attacks against Jews are also on the rise in Europe. Jews in Holland, Hungary, Austria, France, and even England are questioning the future safety of their communities. Sadly, nobody can guarantee Jews a truly safe place to live. Terrorism, Anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitism are taking hold around the world—and yup—in our own backyard, the US of A.

What do you think about anti-Semitism taking on this new form and increasing around the world?

Ever heard of a “segulah bed?” For those of you who haven’t, I’ll explain. When someone marries and vacates their bed in an apartment of friends, it is seen as a segulah that the next person to sleep there will get married as well. No joke, people say this.

Instead of segulahs, we need real-world solutions to resolve this shidduch crisis. And I don’t advocate relying on the old shidduch system either.

What’s wrong with the old shidduch system?

For the most part, girls just sit and wait for a shadchan to call. Just. Sit. And. Wait.

Guys, on the other hand, have lists and lists of girls. They randomly pick from those described as pretty. And sometimes, they go out with the one whose shadchan happened to call right after the last bad date.

I think guys just have so many options, they don’t bother to go out with a girl more than once.

This happens in more “modern” circles as well. When I was single and living on the Upper West Side, I used to call it the Head Turning Syndrome. A guy would come to OZ, see a girl he knew he liked, and chat with her for a few minutes. Then, while he’d be standing there, another girl would walk by who looked potentially more interesting. He’d drop the first for the second, and the second for a third, never settling on any one girl long enough to get to know her.

I am convinced there are more girls than guys available in the dating pool, but I also think guys are not willing to really commit.

Why can’t guys commit?

We are the generation of choice.

We were brought up on constant choices. Even our discipline offered choices everywhere we turned: Either you stop throwing your toys, or I will take them away. Either you stop yelling, or you will go to your room. Your choice. Then, as we grew up, we also had loads of every day choices that our parents actually listened to: Do you want a Nintendo game or a camera for Chanukah? Do you want pizza or Chinese tonight? Do you want to apply to this school or that school?

Previous generations had nowhere near as many choices as we had. Our grandparents grew up with the mentality that you listened, you followed, you did, because that’s all there was. And that was the only way.

Unfortunately, this “choice, choice, choice” culture has led us to a crisis in shiduchim. You can have this girl with the stellar academics, or you can have this girl, smart (not stellar), but she’s prettier. Or you can have this other girl, stellar academics AND a great job. But she’s not as pretty. Hm….how to choose?

I liken this decision to the experience of purchasing a cell phone. This one comes with anytime minutes, but has no keyboard. This one has a keyboard, but no touch screen. This one has a touch screen AND a keyboard, but requires a two year service agreement. How in the world is one supposed to compare these things and make any decision?

It’s like comparing apples and oranges.

In the end, guys just continue to turn their heads again and again (I’m sure by now they’re dizzy!) and they never get to the real experience of commitment—the real hard work of cultivating a relationship.

Here’s what I propose. We should create a new rule—a new choice, if you will:

You date twice or you don’t get dates.

That’s it. Shadchans won’t set up guys who don’t go out again. And friends won’t let friends go out with such guys. Let’s make it a social rule, as strong as the rules that the guy picks the girls up, and that he pays for dinner.

Let’s get these guys to really give girls a try. Then maybe our shidduch crisis won’t be such a crisis after all.

But for those of you who still like “segulahs,” here’s a story about another segulah:

A single friend of mine once went to a separate-seating wedding. As she sat down on the women’s side, someone came up and offered her “segulah bread,” bread from the chassan and kallah’s table. She explained to my friend that if she eats the bread, it is a segulah that she will find her shidduch. My friend looked at her and said, “You want a segulah that I should get married? It would have been more of a segulah had they seated me at that single men’s table over there!!”

I agree with my friend, and I think segulahs are silly, but what do you think?

American Jewry has arrived. We now have the opportunity to turn our attention to the finer things in life: gourmet foods with a culturally diverse palette, imported elegant wines of the finest vintage, and high quality restaurants with good service. And it’s all kosher. Because we made it so.

In our grandparents’ generation, things in America were simple. You worked hard at your job, you cooked your own food, you spent time with the family, and you were happy. That was it.

In our parents’ generation, there was more wealth to go around. Couples bought houses in the suburbs, new shuls were built, kosher restaurants opened, people you and I know started wearing designer clothes, and the kids went to summer camp. Jews kind of settled in, developed their communities, and got used to American life.

I was one of those kids who went to summer camp. And let me tell you, our generation has a lot of expectations. And it’s not our fault…that’s how we grew up! We want nice clothes, we want two cars, we want expensive vacations, we want nice wines, we want to go to fancy restaurants, we want good service, and we want good quality. And all at the best prices.

This is reality. This is what we want. And in certain parts of our community, we also want a nice chasan watch, a fancy set of china, beautiful bedding, and a chandelier above the shabbos table. We must admit, as a community, we’ve gotten pretty comfortable here in America. Our lives are a far cry from how our grandparents lived.

It’s not a bad thing though – I think it’s great! With our increased wealth, we’ve had the time and energy to devote to creating quality experiences. We’ve had the money to redo our kitchen with granite countertops. We’ve had the energy to open restaurants that non-Jews would hardly guess were kosher. And we’ve been able to buy iPhones for our kids.

It’s a good coming-of-age story. Each generation has seen better and better for its children.
Unfortunately, this is why the tuition crisis is so intense. Because we want everything. We can’t just live the simple life. Once we’ve tasted the Gourmet Life, we can’t go back.

What do you think about the “Gourmet”ing of American Jewry?