- Sarah Palin is the victim of a blood libel! Or um, maybe? Depending on what blood libel means?
- Religious Zionist Rabbi Dov Lior says that women shouldn’t use non-Jewish sperm in IVF because it leads to “barbaric offspring.” Also, children of single mothers will become “criminals.”
- An Ohio science teacher evidently has been taking to burning images of the cross on his students’ arms.
- Ten Ultra-Orthodox women will enlist in the IDF, have been granted permission to bring their young children along.
- Some snarky imaginings of the rides at Disney World Haifa.
- Keshet is looking for the next great GLBT Jewish kids’ book. Did you (will you) write it?
12 comments
“Sarah Palin is the victim of a blood libel! Or um, maybe? Depending on what blood libel means?”
Oh for the love of G-d! Not every sentence has to be subjected to a 4 level meta-analysis.
And the analogy fits anyway.
Ten Ultra-Orthodox women will enlist in the IDF, have been granted permission to bring their young children along.
The sheer horror of it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Are they “Ultra”-Orthodox, or “Super Ultra”-Orthodox, or “SUPER DUPER Ultra”-Orthodox. I dislike “haredi” also, but at least it’s a generalization people call themselves. Do any of you know someone who calls themselves “ultra”-orthodox? I know hundreds of observant Jews, and none of them refer to themselves as such. If not, why do we keep using that term?
Victor, to make the blog more accessible to readers who don’t know what “haredi” means. I chose translation over inaccessibility.
I understand. It’s the language that UPI used in their article. I wasn’t attacking you, just questioning the use of the term. Besides carrying undertones of “otherness” and extremism, “ultra-orthodox” is really not a very helpful descriptor, grouping together people of significant diversity. Are they Chassidic, Litvischers, Oriental? We don’t know.
See BoingBoing on blood libel
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/12/sarah-palin-and-bloo.html
Victor dislikes the term ultra-Orthodox because it connotes otherness. Isn’t otherness exactly what they seek?
I don’t see why it matters one iota what sub-group of right-wing Orthodoxy they belong to. Charedi too is subject to the same distinctions. But I don’t think Danya need have backed off the word on this blog — perhaps explaining that it’s the catchphrase for those who dress, pray, and think as if they were in eighteenth century Poland.
Meanwhile, as to Sarah Palin being the victim of a blood libel — as long as she’s a victim, that’s fine with me.
Non-haredi Orthodox Jews should oppose the term “ultra-Orthodox”, since it implies that the haredim are like them, only more so.
BZ, I don’t like “Modern Orthodox”, or “Reform” or any other labels, for that matter, but at least that’s what “Modern Orthodox” or “Reform” Jews call themselves. Maybe there are people who call themselves “ultra-orthodox”, but I’ve never met them, despite knowing a large number of chassidim and litvischers. “Ultra-orthodox” is what some Jews have termed other Jews, with a certain elitist derision and glee. Why should we celebrate and prolong bigotry?
These Jewish mothers being inducted into the IDF are not “ultra-orthodox”. They subscribe to faith-movements within the Jewish people. Since when is the onus on minority groups to coral under one banner – a foreign banner not of their making – for our sake, because we’re too lazy and ignorant to know the differences among them? It’s like saying that all black people look the same.
@ point 6
Its easy to find people who want to be an ‘author’. But if LBGT people have as many children as, well, Debbie Friedman did, who will read such a book?
Cart, see horse.
Shorter FM:
Only WE are allowed to use wild analogies as we see fit.