by Kung Fu Jew · Sunday, November 30th, 2008
I want to paraphrase what I said to commentors in the initial installment of guest poster Cascadian’s travelogue to Iran. Immediately, comments appeared committing a classic Jewish prejudice regarding Iran: because Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier and regional warmongerer could never — NEVER — implicate all Iranians. They underscored the very purpose of Cascadian’s amazing and incredibly risky trip. Against a Jewish mythos which claims that Jews will be lynched in the streets, Cascadian is taking a potentially life-threatening chance doing what most Jews would never do: see if for themselves. It behooves us to hear everything about his trip, simply to honor the risks he may (or may not) be taking in cross-cultural dialogue.
In these two installments, Erev Shabbat and Yom Shabbat, Cascadian spends the good day with Iranian Jews who, to his own incredulous ears, tell him that Ahmadinejad is “good for the Jews” and walk the streets with their kipot openly. The second correspondence gets into the politics of what Iranians think of themselves, Hezbollah, and nuclear weapons. Tehran is more than meets the eye, and the echo chamber of Jewish villainizing viz a viz Iran has fallen, unsurprisingly, as only half the truth. –KFJ
Iran Two: Erev Shabbat
Last night I fell in love.
It all started when a group of us were going for a walk. I decided to keep my kipah on, because we had Leila with us, who grew up in Iran, so speaks perfect Farsi. This is relevant, because if someone had a question about what is that thing on my head, she would be able to explain, and also understand if the questioner was hostile.
“Are you a Jew?” a passerby asks incredulously to me. I have the current distinction on the trip as the only visible Jew; among the four Jewish men I am the only one who wears a yamika in non-ritual situations.
After being momentarily taken aback, I realize that he too is wearing a kipah. More »
by Kung Fu Jew · Friday, November 28th, 2008
Guest post by Cascadian, a Jews in the Woodser who is presently on a Fellowship of Reconciliation trip to Iran. We’ll be guest posting much of his trip correspondence as he relates his first-hand impressions of the country the Jews presently love to hate. (His first paragraph is so noteworthy because last time he entered Israel, security held him for something like 12 hours.)
Last night, around 3 am in Tehran, I was accepted through passport security at the airport. The hassles didn’t turn out to be much; we didn’t get our bags searched, not even fingerprinted. The officer who was in charge of the x-ray machine wasn’t even looking at the screen as our bags filtered through.
As the plane landed, women covered their heads, many halfheartedly. The line of acceptability has been effectively challenged and blurred by the generation of modern women in Tehran; for some the hijab is halfway back on their heads, revealing plenty of hair, clearly stating “I’m just doing this ‘cus I have to.” This next to a handful of women, who are authentically observing the religious tradition.
More »
by Kung Fu Jew · Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Christ on a cracker, I have never seen so many Jewish social justice organizations in one place. These orgs are the answer to the staid and hobbled mainstream, at least in our eyes, and their presence in the Jewish world is all that prevents me from saying “Screw it,” and starting over. A ridiculously just AJWS-Avodah-led partnership including cosponsors NIF-JFREJ-JUFJ-HIAS-JFSJ-6th&I-Zeek-UriL’Tzedek-Jewschool-etcetera excitedly announces these events in DC and NY:
Jewschool’s very own Mobius joins distinguished panels of local, everyday Jewish changemakers in NY and those who attend will benefit from activism skillshare workshops, networking, an earload of local social justice opportunities, and mishegaas.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Washington, DC
Sixth & I Synagogue
4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
New York, NY
NY Society for Ethical Culture
4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Judaism was meant to be revolutionary. Check the info below the fold. More »
by Kung Fu Jew · Monday, July 7th, 2008
From The Independent, also in JTA and Reuters, Britain’s first Muslim minister Shahid Malik has said that many Muslims feel like “the Jews of Europe”:
“I think most people would agree that if you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe,” he said. “I don’t mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost – and still is in some parts – to target Jews, many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way.
“Somehow there’s a message out there that it’s OK to target people as long as it’s Muslims. And you don’t have to worry about the facts, and people will turn a blind eye.”
MP Malik speaks to a big truth – a plus ca change truth. Let’s play with this for a sec:
No, Muslims are not having their rights to property or occupation taken away (even if their rights to wear hijabs are under constant threat), even if people do eye them suspiciously. The animosity towards the Islamic bloc countries is rooted also in a fear of East vs. West geopolitical conflict — something the Jews never could claim to have. Further, terrorist acts on a grand scale are also missing from the early 1900s history of Jews and Europe. One might more accurately say that Muslims might be the new Russians. Or the new Communists.
All that being said, does it matter if Islam actually can declare war on the West — or if we just think it has? Jews were accused of running the world, manipulating finances, and so on, which were exaggerations and lies. The “Islam against the West” line is also a bit hazy in the facts area, yes? Islamophobia is a tiny hop, skip and jump away from anti-Semitism, in its pervasive nature, it’s reliance on cultural myths, and appropriation of populist fears. It is a disease of the logic, backed up by credibility and “research.” The target people is different and the trappings are green-tinted not blue, but the portrayal and useage of it is the same.
This statement is more than interesting to Jewschool because it happens to have “Jews” in the article. And this issue is more important than an exercise in backing up or debunking the similarities between Jews and Muslims in Europe. MP Malik’s statement is a hot poker in the butt of the Jewish people asking us if we (and our societies) have not fallen into the same mental traps as our predecessors’ oppressors. And what, other than decrying or debunking the comparison, we’re going to do to prevent the accusation from going any further.
(By the way, the UK’s online resources for members of Parliament are phenomenal — on his overall Parliamentary participation; on terrorism his speeches and votes.)
by Aryeh Cohen · Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Pop on over to South Jerusalem
to check out Gershom Gorenberg’s latest tale of civility. In the midst of the insanity that is the occupation, Gorenberg has become one third of a team of friends that has been occasionally venturing forth to commit acts of kindness in the wake of this or that insidious act of quotidian cruelty committed by the Israeli forces of occupation.
The first outing (involving a washing machine and an abuse of power) can be found here. The latest chapter is here.
Three men in a battered station wagon do not a revolution make. And yet… it is the blatant crossing of boundaries and the acceptance of responsibility for evils which one did not commit—yet were perpetrated in one’s name—which will, in the aggregate, undermine the ability to wage endless war.
by Chorus of Apes · Sunday, April 6th, 2008
Listen to Avraham Burg talk about how Israel is like baklava.
More specifically, he explains how the notion that Israel is a Jewish democratic state is like baklava. When you first taste it, its feels sweet, but after a few minutes, things get sticky, and you are left with a lump in your stomach.
Burg says a lot more than that. The interview is 90 mins long. He talks about love conquering hate, the place of the holocaust in the Israeli psyche, the place of minorities in Israel, and the end of the zionist myth.
Its well worth a listen.
(link courtesy of JTA)
by Chorus of Apes · Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Is Obama the Tikkun Olam Candidate?
What does it mean that we are now seeing the language of Tikkun Olam pop-up in mainstream political discourse?
Does this make Obama our messiah? ; )
Hat-tip to Aliza for the link.
by Kung Fu Jew · Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Yehuda Shaul, Breaking the Silence co-founder, was covered on C-SPAN last week during a presentation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Watch his presentation here.
Yehuda talked about his service in the Israeli Defense Force in the West Bank, and about the organization he founded of Israeli soldiers whose mission is to give public witness to the impact of military service in the West Bank and Gaza on Israeli society. He presented a computerized version of the photo exhibition that the group is bringing to Philadelphia and Cambridge/Boston during February and March.
by Kung Fu Jew · Thursday, February 14th, 2008
by Kung Fu Jew · Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
(X-posted from Judaism Without Borders.)
I just got off the phone with a leftist student group who wanted to partner on the Israel-Palestine project I’m coordinating. They were ready to sponsor events on their campus, publicize it widely, etc. They’ve enthusiastically done it before. But when I told her that they couldn’t be seen associating with us, my poor heart ached as I heard the disappointment in her voice. She managed to not sound upset, but considering I’ve never met this person before, I feel like I’ve just betrayed a friend.
Reputation means everything. Breira was a 70s era Jewish peace group which aired to America the occupation opponents in Israel and even accompanied them to meet with Palestinian leadership…and quickly was accused of being non-Jewish posers or self-haters, and imploded. New Jewish Agenda of the 80s was another Jewish dove group which failed to cope with membership in the Jewish community when when “member” was defined by the arch-conservatives, and it collapsed from within. For both of those groups, their former leadership now quietly sits on the boards of present dove orgs, albeit after learning a costly lesson.
The lesson is simple as it is unfair. As much as we Jewish peace and coexistence activists want to partner with Arabs and peace-seeking goyyim, the cases where we can do so without being accused of treason are sparse. This is the reason in the early days of Brit Tzedek, the organization made the decision that to do it’s work inside the Jewish community, it had to play nice with the OJC, to pick its allies with care. Other organizations also make the same sacrifices on a regular basis. Those that weren’t careful, died. Or even worse, gained the title of the “irrelevant left.”
Reputation is all that we have sometimes in this work. It’s sad that to know that if I say “Such and such activist is kipah-wearing” or “served in the IDF” or “goes to shul” or “works in the OJC” suddenly gives that person a credibility boost. That credibility is built on stereotypes as flimsy and repugnant as any other. Yet we use them and even buy into them in order to open doors.
More »
by Kung Fu Jew · Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
A quick update from the peace beat, an event tomorrow in Manhattan. Last year at this time, C4P did a tour in the states promoting cessation of violence on both sides. During the tour, Bassam’s daughter was hit with a rubber bullet and died. Now C4P continues their tour across the states, including this stop in New York City.
COMBATANTS FOR PEACE
BASSAM ARAMIN and YONATAN SHAPIRA
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 7:30PM
St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery
131 East 10th Street at 2nd Avenue
#6 train to Astor Place • F train to Second Ave.
Exactly one year after Abir Aramin was fatally wounded, founding members Bassam Aramin and Yonatan Shapira begin a national speaking tour with Combatants for Peace. Bassam’s wife Salwa and daughter Areen will be present.
More »
by Kung Fu Jew · Sunday, January 6th, 2008
Yalla Journal is back after a two great issues! If you are thirty and under, they want your short stories, poems, photographs, personal narratives, visual art, music, songs, and short essays about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Yalla is intended to create dialogue, and as such doesn’t stop short of accepting pieces from the extreme right and extreme left, only that pieces do not call for violence. Such a raw yet interfaith journal doesn’t exist anywhere else — and frequently runs short on Jewish submissions, so spread the world and submit something.
A year ago, I wrote this piece below for Yalla and read it at the Havurah Institute for shits and grins, useful here as an example. Read the full journal online here.
Dear Judaism
Yalla Journal ‘06
Dear Judaism,
I know it’s not been that long since we saw each other last, since I donned my tzitzit and said my morning benedictions in the after-shower cool of my shuttered bedroom. And when I walked outside today, it hadsn’t been long since I blinked at the sunlight and said shehekhiyanu for the first warm day of spring, “Blessed are You, O Divine One, who keeps us alive and brought us to this season.†It’s hardly been a long time since I stood on the subway platform and watched the myriads of ethnicities hustle and bustle in New York City, often fervently, on their ways to work—a sea of uniqueness all coined in the image of your Original Source.
But matters deserve this letter anyway, something it’s taken me a long time to muster. So as my friend, I think we need to talk, I think you need to realize some things.
Dear Judaism, I went to the Holy Land to learn a little more about you, about myself, about our people, but I didn’t like what I found. Not two weeks into my stay, I took a tour of the West Bank and I didn’t like it one bit. The next four months are a blur to me, a whirlwind of turbulent reeducation—security guards at grocery stores, checkpoints at roads, walls between houses, graffiti saying kill the Arabs, graffiti saying kill the Jews, towers with flags, flags everywhere.
Dear Judaism, you lied to me. You told me that I could be good and right and just. But in Israel, in Palestine, I couldn’t. There was no escape, no innocence.
More »
by Chorus of Apes · Monday, November 26th, 2007
While most “organized” Jews are downplaying the importance of Annapolis, Leonard Fein thinks the future of Zionism is at stake.
Time does not favor the concept of a Jewish state. Not the concept, not the reality.
Is a two state scenario even possible, or is it to late for that, given that the matrix of control is entrenched deeper and deeper everyday?
by BZ · Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
(Introduction.)
Today: What’s kosher
181. “The following you shall abominate among birds — they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination:” (Leviticus 11:13) = followed by the whole list of forbidden birds
182. “Anything in the seas or in the streams that has no fins and scales, among all the swarming things of the water and among all the other living creatures that are in the water — they are an abomination for you, and an abomination for you they shall remain: you shall not eat of their flesh and you shall abominate their carcasses.” (Leviticus 11:10-11)
183. “All winged swarming things are unclean for you; they may not be eaten.” (Deuteronomy 14:19)
184. “All the things that swarm upon the earth are an abomination; they shall not be eaten.” (Leviticus 11:41) = swarming creatures that reproduce normally
185. “You shall not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that moves upon the earth.” (Leviticus 11:44) = swarming creatures formed by spontaneous generation (I’m just reporting what the Rambam says)
186. “You shall not eat, among all things that swarm upon the earth, anything that crawls on its belly, or anything that walks on fours, or anything that has many legs; for they are an abomination.” (Leviticus 11:42) = worms that come out of fruit
187. “You shall not draw abomination upon yourselves through anything that swarms.” (Leviticus 11:43) = water creatures
188. “You shall not eat a carcass.” (Deuteronomy 14:21) = an animal that died by means other than kosher slaughter
189. “Its flesh shall not be eaten.” (Exodus 21:28) = an ox that gores someone and is executed
190. “You must not eat flesh torn by beasts in the field.” (Exodus 22:30) = or any animal (even if slaughtered properly) that has any of the defects that render it tereifah or “treif”
191. “You must not consume the life with the flesh.” (Deuteronomy 12:23) = don’t eat any part of a living animal
192. “Do not eat any blood.” (Leviticus 3:17)
193. “Do not eat any cheilev.” (Leviticus 3:17) = forbidden fat
194. “That is why the children of Israel to this day do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle.” (Genesis 32:33)
195. “Don’t cook a kid in its mother’s milk.” (Exodus 23:19) = don’t eat meat with milk
