"The explosion of left-wing antisemitism in academia and the streets of America"
It was always there. It was far worse a century ago. The federal government had deported thousands of radicals (most of whom actually *were* communists, anarchists, or held similar far left views) who were disproportionately Jewish (and many of whom would eventually be murdered by the Nazis). These raids focused on immigrants who had committed no crimes. They were led by A. Mitchell Palmer, Attorney General under President Wilson, who had previously been a supporter of civil liberties, but had sold out his principles to improve his chances for a successful Presidential campaign. His assistant in this was a young attorney named J. Edgar Hoover, who would spend the next fifty years violating civil liberties of Americans.
There was a big backlash to this and it was one of many things that led directly to the Republican blowout victory in the 1920 elections. The Republicans decided that the way to deal with undesirable foreigners (translation: Jews, Italians, and others from Southern and Eastern Europe) was to prevent them from coming to the US in the first place. In less than ten weeks after taking office, the Republicans enacted draconian quotas on immigration, and they were further tightened in 1924. (Interestingly, there were never any quotas on immigration from any Western Hemisphere country until 1965; had that aspect of the pre-1965 law been maintained, there would be no "border crisis" today.)
At the same time The Ku Klux Klan was getting more and more support, and not just in the South -- in 1924, prominent Klan members were elected Governors of Indiana and Colorado. Both President Coolidge and his eventual Democratic opponent, John W. Davis, quietly sought KKK support. Democratic candidates Oscar Underwood and Al Smith were bitter opponents of the Klan but lost the nomination to Davis; bigotry hurt Underwood and Smith because Underwood was from Alabama and Smith was Catholic.
And at the same time most universities slapped strict quotas on the number of Jewish students. Columbia was particularly bad; it had been the leader in imposing such quotas and among those rejected by Columbia were future Nobel Prize winners Richard Feynmann and Jonas Salk; they attended MIT and City College of New York instead. Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler, who was also sufficiently prominent in Republican circles to have received the Republican electoral votes for Vice President in 1912. Butler welcomed the Ambassador from Nazi Germany to speak at the university in 1933 and also expelled an anti-Nazi student whose strident protests were too loud. (This blatant discrimination eventually led Jews to found Jewish academic institutions including what would become Yeshiva University, Brandeis University, Touro University, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. I have been on the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine for 23 years and in addition to being a nice supportive place to work I can honestly say that I have never suffered from anti-Semitism at any point in my academic career.)
As a very wise man once wrote, there is nothing new under the sun.
Every now and then I think that, upon being emancipated, Jews could have made an internal pact that basically said, "Thank you very much, world; we will work toward your betterment; but we will not seek any positions of authority, nor will we support any cause that doesn't have at least, say, 90% popular support."
In 1924, in the three-way race for the US Presidency, Progressive candidate LaFollette was the only one of the three candidates who denounced the KKK; the other two sought KKK support. The KKK was a Populist movement, not a Progressive movement.
Only in the South. The two Governors I mentioned were both Republicans. Urban political machines run by recent immigrants were usually Democratic and Catholic dominated and the KKK hated Catholics as much as they hated Black people. The notorious corrupt Boston Demoocratic politician James Michael Curley organized bands of Irish American thugs to travel to Boston exurbs to bust Klan rallies. (The KKK hated Jews too but most US Jews back then voted Republican.)
Republicans in the South weren't saints then either. They systematically purged Black people from leadership positions all over the South in something called the "lily white movement".
The left wingers are very loud but few in number. The right wingers are much much louder, have bigger audiences and have a much larger base, and they are the ones I would worry about.
At least in the US this is absolutely true. The "Squad" is very good at getting on camera but has no real influence. The anti-Semitic right wingers are embedded in influential places in the Trump Administration and there are a few nasty ones in Congress as well.
Things can be different in other countries, though. For example, the President of Columbia is a far left former guerilla leader and a horrible Israel-hater.
I am upbeat about Israel and don't feel blue about all the goings-on. It is only child's play for the immediate time.
Regarding anti-Semitism in the world, I recall the words of Reb Shloma Akabitz, who wrote to the communities of Salonika and other places: "Why do you keep running from place to place where it is good for a while, in all these places eventually the other shoe will drop" The same is true here in America. They gave us a break for about 50-60 years after the devastating Holocaust, during which it was difficult for anyone to come out as a blatant anti-Semite. Now it’s moving back, not quite, but almost like Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.
Where do we go from here? More open anti-Semitism. How long before we can't ride a train or bus without many openly cursing us? There would be nothing we can do, as it is free speech, and they are exercising their rights.
Don't get so nervous. Israel, on the other hand, has many people who see the problem. The Charedim are becoming larger and larger, even potentially the majority. There is no doubt this will come to a head. Many will want to save what we have, to the point of picking up arms. We are still very far off from that (if nothing changes). My hope is that it will only be a coup and not a lot of Jewish blood lost. No, I don't want to see the Yarkon River overflow with blood. As the Dati-Leumi community is starting to see the light, they are the only ones who can fight back. They will sit it out, or maybe even join the saviors of Israel—our only country, and our only hope.
Please don't get so twisted up in worrying. We will survive and have a safe haven for the future..
I dressed up as a charedi. Black suit, black Fedora. Not only was I the only person in shul with a black hat, but I was the only person in shul with a suit! I figure if I am unemployed and unemployable come this summer, a distinct possibility, I can make aliyah and live on the charedi stipends for full time learning. So I need to try out at least the uniform!
"I'm often something of a Purim grinch, but this Purim I'm feeling particularly depressed.... And then maybe I'll get drunk enough to not be able to distinguish between those..."
Yippee-kay- yay to you too, gringo-hombre, you really understand Purim: we thank Hashem for half salvations; not callously pretending that the crisis has passed, yet still celebrating the partial victories. ודי לחכימא
דגם בימי עניינו וצרותינו ואכתי עבדי אחשורוש אנן, מ"מ לא הסיר השגחתו ממנו מלכלותו ח"ו, ולזה הטעם... בשתיית יין ...להורות לנו סי׳ שנהיה כיין הזה שאפ' בימי צרותיו של אדם משמחו ומשכחו דאגותיו כן אנחנו נשכח כל צרותינו ושעבודינו ונשליך כל יהבינו על ה' כי לא יטשנו ולא יעזבנו
-דרשות חתם סופר, פורים תק"ס, ד"ה חייב אינש לבסומי
(Elsewhere, the חת"ס explains that עד דלא ידע is not license to drink oneself senseless.)
When he won the election, his coalition was 48.38 of the vote. And no, the job of the MoD is not to defend the coalition. It's their job to be the civilian leadership of the IDF and doing the right thing even if it means dissolution of the govt.
The right thing to do is to investigate the failures leading to Oct 7th even if they might lead to PM having to step down. The right thing is to push for an equitable long term solution to the manpower issue of the IDF even if it will break the current coalition. The notion that the govt should do whatever it can to cling to power regardless of the consequences is a corruption of democracy. Also you don't even believe that. If Oct 7th happened on to a left-center govt, you'd be pushing for an immediate inquiry to hold those in charge responsbile.
Is your Michaela fixin' to follow in the footsteps of the illustrious (albeit fictitious) Colorado Springs physician, Dr. Michaela Quinn, Medicine Woman? 🤓
"The explosion of left-wing antisemitism in academia and the streets of America"
It was always there. It was far worse a century ago. The federal government had deported thousands of radicals (most of whom actually *were* communists, anarchists, or held similar far left views) who were disproportionately Jewish (and many of whom would eventually be murdered by the Nazis). These raids focused on immigrants who had committed no crimes. They were led by A. Mitchell Palmer, Attorney General under President Wilson, who had previously been a supporter of civil liberties, but had sold out his principles to improve his chances for a successful Presidential campaign. His assistant in this was a young attorney named J. Edgar Hoover, who would spend the next fifty years violating civil liberties of Americans.
There was a big backlash to this and it was one of many things that led directly to the Republican blowout victory in the 1920 elections. The Republicans decided that the way to deal with undesirable foreigners (translation: Jews, Italians, and others from Southern and Eastern Europe) was to prevent them from coming to the US in the first place. In less than ten weeks after taking office, the Republicans enacted draconian quotas on immigration, and they were further tightened in 1924. (Interestingly, there were never any quotas on immigration from any Western Hemisphere country until 1965; had that aspect of the pre-1965 law been maintained, there would be no "border crisis" today.)
At the same time The Ku Klux Klan was getting more and more support, and not just in the South -- in 1924, prominent Klan members were elected Governors of Indiana and Colorado. Both President Coolidge and his eventual Democratic opponent, John W. Davis, quietly sought KKK support. Democratic candidates Oscar Underwood and Al Smith were bitter opponents of the Klan but lost the nomination to Davis; bigotry hurt Underwood and Smith because Underwood was from Alabama and Smith was Catholic.
And at the same time most universities slapped strict quotas on the number of Jewish students. Columbia was particularly bad; it had been the leader in imposing such quotas and among those rejected by Columbia were future Nobel Prize winners Richard Feynmann and Jonas Salk; they attended MIT and City College of New York instead. Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler, who was also sufficiently prominent in Republican circles to have received the Republican electoral votes for Vice President in 1912. Butler welcomed the Ambassador from Nazi Germany to speak at the university in 1933 and also expelled an anti-Nazi student whose strident protests were too loud. (This blatant discrimination eventually led Jews to found Jewish academic institutions including what would become Yeshiva University, Brandeis University, Touro University, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. I have been on the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine for 23 years and in addition to being a nice supportive place to work I can honestly say that I have never suffered from anti-Semitism at any point in my academic career.)
As a very wise man once wrote, there is nothing new under the sun.
I duff my hat to you for being on the board of Albert Einstein college of Medicine for so long. We now have to respect you when you write.
Like I claim we got a 50 - 60 year break after the holocaust, but now it is right back to square one.
Every now and then I think that, upon being emancipated, Jews could have made an internal pact that basically said, "Thank you very much, world; we will work toward your betterment; but we will not seek any positions of authority, nor will we support any cause that doesn't have at least, say, 90% popular support."
Wasn't the KKK in the 1920s more aligned with Democrats?
Like most fascists of the 1920's, they saw themselves as "progressive."
In 1924, in the three-way race for the US Presidency, Progressive candidate LaFollette was the only one of the three candidates who denounced the KKK; the other two sought KKK support. The KKK was a Populist movement, not a Progressive movement.
Only in the South. The two Governors I mentioned were both Republicans. Urban political machines run by recent immigrants were usually Democratic and Catholic dominated and the KKK hated Catholics as much as they hated Black people. The notorious corrupt Boston Demoocratic politician James Michael Curley organized bands of Irish American thugs to travel to Boston exurbs to bust Klan rallies. (The KKK hated Jews too but most US Jews back then voted Republican.)
Republicans in the South weren't saints then either. They systematically purged Black people from leadership positions all over the South in something called the "lily white movement".
The left wingers are very loud but few in number. The right wingers are much much louder, have bigger audiences and have a much larger base, and they are the ones I would worry about.
At least in the US this is absolutely true. The "Squad" is very good at getting on camera but has no real influence. The anti-Semitic right wingers are embedded in influential places in the Trump Administration and there are a few nasty ones in Congress as well.
Things can be different in other countries, though. For example, the President of Columbia is a far left former guerilla leader and a horrible Israel-hater.
The squad sits in Congress.
And has no real influence, as I said.
That is a seriously rough looking bunch there.
Glad I no longer live on the Missouri/Kansas border.😳🤪
All we need is an “Esther” to seduce the gedolim to changing their minds…
I, too, struggle with Purim. May we all get something positive out of it this year, and move on in strength, determination, and hope.
Keep up the important work you do. We need more rational thinking.
Rabbi Slivkin,
I am upbeat about Israel and don't feel blue about all the goings-on. It is only child's play for the immediate time.
Regarding anti-Semitism in the world, I recall the words of Reb Shloma Akabitz, who wrote to the communities of Salonika and other places: "Why do you keep running from place to place where it is good for a while, in all these places eventually the other shoe will drop" The same is true here in America. They gave us a break for about 50-60 years after the devastating Holocaust, during which it was difficult for anyone to come out as a blatant anti-Semite. Now it’s moving back, not quite, but almost like Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.
Where do we go from here? More open anti-Semitism. How long before we can't ride a train or bus without many openly cursing us? There would be nothing we can do, as it is free speech, and they are exercising their rights.
Don't get so nervous. Israel, on the other hand, has many people who see the problem. The Charedim are becoming larger and larger, even potentially the majority. There is no doubt this will come to a head. Many will want to save what we have, to the point of picking up arms. We are still very far off from that (if nothing changes). My hope is that it will only be a coup and not a lot of Jewish blood lost. No, I don't want to see the Yarkon River overflow with blood. As the Dati-Leumi community is starting to see the light, they are the only ones who can fight back. They will sit it out, or maybe even join the saviors of Israel—our only country, and our only hope.
Please don't get so twisted up in worrying. We will survive and have a safe haven for the future..
"this year's dress-up theme"
I dressed up as a charedi. Black suit, black Fedora. Not only was I the only person in shul with a black hat, but I was the only person in shul with a suit! I figure if I am unemployed and unemployable come this summer, a distinct possibility, I can make aliyah and live on the charedi stipends for full time learning. So I need to try out at least the uniform!
Why a distinct possibility?
By the way, I imagine you know this, but no way you get charedi stipends, no matter how you dress.
"I'm often something of a Purim grinch, but this Purim I'm feeling particularly depressed.... And then maybe I'll get drunk enough to not be able to distinguish between those..."
Yippee-kay- yay to you too, gringo-hombre, you really understand Purim: we thank Hashem for half salvations; not callously pretending that the crisis has passed, yet still celebrating the partial victories. ודי לחכימא
דגם בימי עניינו וצרותינו ואכתי עבדי אחשורוש אנן, מ"מ לא הסיר השגחתו ממנו מלכלותו ח"ו, ולזה הטעם... בשתיית יין ...להורות לנו סי׳ שנהיה כיין הזה שאפ' בימי צרותיו של אדם משמחו ומשכחו דאגותיו כן אנחנו נשכח כל צרותינו ושעבודינו ונשליך כל יהבינו על ה' כי לא יטשנו ולא יעזבנו
-דרשות חתם סופר, פורים תק"ס, ד"ה חייב אינש לבסומי
(Elsewhere, the חת"ס explains that עד דלא ידע is not license to drink oneself senseless.)
A special note that now draftees with a profile as low as 67 will be eligible for krav.
Love the photos.
https://matzav.com/community-expresses-outrage-as-effigy-of-chareidi-soldier-hanged-in-mea-shearim/
No words for the idiocy
Can you explain why you put "Minister of Defense" in quotes? Is it because you spelled it with an American s instead of a British c?
Because he is not defending the country. He is defending Bibi's coalition.
Since Bibi's coalition comprises the majority of the country, this is obvious! And together with them, he is defending the rest of the country.
When he won the election, his coalition was 48.38 of the vote. And no, the job of the MoD is not to defend the coalition. It's their job to be the civilian leadership of the IDF and doing the right thing even if it means dissolution of the govt.
"doing the right thing even if it means dissolution of the govt." ????
What do you mean by "the right thing"?
There is a system whereby "the right thing" for a minister to do is what the government decides!
And this sytem is called "democracy"!
Dissolution of the government unless brought about by democratic elections is called a coup, and is the antithesis of democracy.
The government and its coalition are the collected will of the people - in other words - democracy.
Maybe you should take some lessons in civics.
The right thing to do is to investigate the failures leading to Oct 7th even if they might lead to PM having to step down. The right thing is to push for an equitable long term solution to the manpower issue of the IDF even if it will break the current coalition. The notion that the govt should do whatever it can to cling to power regardless of the consequences is a corruption of democracy. Also you don't even believe that. If Oct 7th happened on to a left-center govt, you'd be pushing for an immediate inquiry to hold those in charge responsbile.
What exactly do you mean?
Yes, Correct
Is your Michaela fixin' to follow in the footsteps of the illustrious (albeit fictitious) Colorado Springs physician, Dr. Michaela Quinn, Medicine Woman? 🤓
Nice!
Awesome pics!