Occupy Mishegas
A week ago, between 500 – 1000 Jews showed up at the Occupy Wall Street encampment for Yom Kippur services alongside three other cities. (Our first-person reportage from NYC, DC, Boston here and here.) Here’s a collection of the highlights:
- Occupy Sukkot quickly followed on the success of Yom Kippur, with independent plans to erect sukkahs in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Oakland, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle.
- “Occupy Judaism” saw its first arrests in Seattle, where police arrested 10 and dismantled the illegal structure (pics, video).
- The NYPD however, according to Dan Sieradski, gave the Wall Street sukkah a wide berth while Josh Nathan-Kazis tweeted the NYPD were warning those erecting tents about halakhic requirements on seeing the stars.
- David Brooks in a NY Times editorial coyly accused the Occupy Wall Street movement of anti-semitism, picked up swiftly by (oh yes) Rush Limbaugh. The 1% vs. 99%, apparently, is code for “Jews” and “Gentiles.”
- Mik Moore responded forcefully on Facebook, reposted to Jewschool, “What he is doing is divisive. It diminishes real antisemitism. And it ignores the thousands of Jews who are active participants in shaping Occupy Wall Street.”
- Connect with Occupy Judaism’s official blog, Facebook page and Twitter account.
Got pictures or reflections on your Occupy Sukkot goings on? Tell us on Twitter, Facebook or email.
There is also a Occupy Sukkot action planned in Chicago on Monday Oct 17: https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=150275088402425
It’s: a contraction for it is or it has.
Its: a possessive pronoun meaning, more or less, of it or belonging to it.
It should be no surprise that Brooks and Limbaugh echo the same idea, nor that William Kristol has made a video based on it. The Republican right conducts a weekly conference call on messaging. (I think Kristol may have been one of the organizers of it, back in the ’90s). Limbaugh and Brooks and Kristol are regular participants in this effort to hammer out the party line.
Incidentally, Dean Baker fisks Brooks on the economic piece of his column.
Being able to see the stars is, of course, not a halachic requirement. The NYPD gets it wrong.