Culture, Mishegas, Politics

The Level of Jewish Discourse

So I signed a letter to the Jewish Journal, disagreeing with the lunatic level of outrage against Prof. Neve Gordon from Ben Gurion University. I got this email today:

So you support Neve Gordon. You are disgusting little antisemitic cretin of unfortunately Jewish ancestry. Go fuck yourself! Paul Almond
Paul Almond to aryeh
show details 3:20 PM (42 minutes ago)
Fischbach, Perlstein, Lieberman & Almond
1875 century park east s.1450
los angeles, california 90067
t. 310 556 1956
f. 310 556 4617
c. 310 963 9930
email. [email protected]
This message is intended for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and return the original message to us at the above address. Thank you.

I love the fact that Mr. Almond Esquire was nice enough to include his confidentiality sig with the message.
If you are bothered by this level of discourse, you might want to drop Mr. Almond a line and tell him so. Or maybe even call him up if you are in the area.

33 thoughts on “The Level of Jewish Discourse

  1. If we’re really talking about raising the level of discourse, I don’t think posting the e-mail and office address of someone who disagrees with you – no matter how childishly – is really appropriate.

  2. I think everybody who is bothered by Professor Cohen providing somebody’s private information should call his office and/or flood his e-mail with messages about the matter.

  3. Mr. Almond didn’t have to leave all of his contact info with his asinine retort. It was his choice to do so and maybe he’ll think twice about doing it again.
    Professor Cohen isn’t hiding from you, by golly you can even contact him by leaving a comment here!

  4. Shaming people out in a public forum, and getting your mob to lynch his mob, does nothing to raise the “level of Jewish discourse”. Mr. Almond had a strong emotional reaction, which he is entitled to. So what? Isn’t this website all about holding ourselves to a higher standard?
    How about we explore some other ways that Professor Cohen could have handled this.

  5. There is no rational argument for Almond to make here, hence the vulgar and delusional response, and the trying to hide behind his silly confidentiality clause.

  6. just a note on the confidentiality clause–it’s on there because he’s a lawyer. It’s on every email I ever get from any friend or family member who is working as a lawyer, it’s just a signature, like people who put their name and title or affiliation or whatever. That being said… what an f’ing douche.

  7. When you send an email to someone you are giving them the content. They’re not contractually or morally obligated not to disclose it. In a practical sense, my rule of thumb is that I don’t put something on the internet if I wouldn’t want it written it on the side of a bus.

  8. What I’m trying to say is that it’s a bit difficult to imagine that a UCLA-educated attorney, who works in L.A. representing film companies (inlcuding Amnesty International Media) would write the grammatically-incorrect message and above and, then, send it to Mr. Cohen.
    Perhaps this blog can be removed, and Professor Cohen might consider acting like an adult in the future.

  9. Jonathan, a few seconds with Google matches the email addy to him, though it is disturbing to hear Amnesty International worked with someone so hostile to this human rights issue. Also, I have family and friends in law too, but at least from what I have seen they only use confidentiality clauses when it is appropriate.
    Anyway, at least in my understanding of morality, it is wrong to make poor arguments and good to bring them to light. So I understand and respect Ayreh’s intent here; to raise the level of discourse. Attempting to shut down the discussion is only obscuring the issue at hand, much as many have been doing to Gordon since chose to bring it up.

  10. Between the email address matching that on his firm’s website and various other comments associated with pas5 I found around the net, I rather doubt it.

  11. Maybe those aren’t his comments either. Maybe he doesn’t exist. Maybe he became a devout Muslim, moved to Indonesia, and somebody got a hold of his old account. Maybe there’s another explanation. Maybe he’s dumb enough to use his actual e-mail in sending such idiot messages.
    Who knows?
    Professor Cohen doesn’t know, either.
    Cohen just slandered this guy here. Why? To “raise the level of discourse?”

  12. You are clinging to some rather weak maybes there to accuse Ayreh of slander. For all either of us know, Ayreh could have irrefutable proof of the email being sent by Almond, so why are you so quick to jump down his throat for posting it?

  13. mr. almond cussed at mr.cohen.
    mr. cohen went and told all his friends.
    mr. jonathon thinks they are both being childish.
    mr.kyleb thinks that mr.almond is vulgar and delusional but mr. cohen is raising the level of jewish discourse.

  14. For all either of us know, Ayreh could have irrefutable proof of the email being sent by Almond, so why are you so quick to jump down his throat for posting it?
    Professor Cohen,
    Are you sure that Mr. Almond sent to you this e-mail? I’m asking because his biography on a law firm website says that he is a UCLA-educated attorney, working in the film and TV industry. Among his clients has been Amnesty International Media. Also, he has lectured at UCLA and USC.
    http://www.fpllaw.com/attorneys.htm#almond
    It is a bit unusual that such a person would e-mail to you a hateful message, one that doesn’t even make sense grammatically, with his name and contact information included therein . . . but stranger things have happened.
    Please answer my inquiry. Thank you.

  15. Heh, yeah, EV has a knack for summing things up.
    Jonathan,
    if you are not familiar with this phenomena, I highly recommend you get out more. 😉

  16. kyleb, you are hilarious!
    Over and over, you write with passion about the sancity of law–in other posts.
    But above, you write that Mr. Almond is guilty of sending that e-mail, until proven innocent.
    And what’s your main “proof” that Almond sent the e-mail: an EV cartoon . . . you crack me up, dude.

  17. …you write that Mr. Almond is guilty of sending that e-mail, until proven innocent.

    That isn’t actually what I wrote, and you also seem to have mistaking this for a court of law.

    And what’s your main “proof” that Almond sent the e-mail: an EV cartoon…

    No, my main evidence is the email address matching that listed on his firm’s website. I didn’t even post the EV cartoon, but rather simply agreed with BZ’s use of it to explain how someone with the credentials you noted could spew such bile.

    …you crack me up, dude.

    I’d say you have yourself to blame for that.

  18. Jonathan1 writes:
    Perhaps this blog can be removed, and Professor Cohen might consider acting like an adult in the future.
    It’s hard to take you seriously when you repeatedly use “blog” to mean “blog post”. Ad hominem, I know, but I’ve been wanting to get this off my chest for a while.

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