Is Merrick Garland Jewish?

Yes, Merrick Garland is a Jew.

According to Popsugar, Garland is a 63-year-old current chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Born in Chicago to a Jewish mother and Protestant father, he was raised as a Jew and referenced his background in his nomination acceptance speech. He has a wife, Lynn, and two daughters, Jessica and Rebecca, who went to Yale.

Is Bernie Sanders Jewish?

Yes, Bernie Sanders is a Jew, but the Times says that, "He Doesn't Like to Talk About It."

I was disappointed in Joseph Berger of the Times for interviewing his brother and not getting Bernie to talk about this.

And trust me, there are dozens of rabbis who would be happy to slam him in the Times for not being a good enough Jew.

The Times didn't give both sides very well and it skipped lightly over the surface of this complex issue

Here is the story:

When Senator Bernie Sanders thanked supporters for his landslide victory in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, he wistfully reminisced about his upbringing as “the son of a Polish immigrant who came to this country speaking no English and having no money.”

While the crowd cheered, Rabbi Michael Paley of New York was among many Jews watching the speech who were taken aback. He said he was surprised that the Vermont senator had not explicitly described his father as a “Polish Jewish immigrant,” a significant distinction given Poland’s checkered history with its Jewish population.

“Nobody in Poland would have considered Bernie a Pole,” Rabbi Paley said.

Primitive Barbarism and Quitting Davening - My Dear Rabbi Zahavy Talmudic Advice Column in The Jewish Standard for January 2016

Primitive Barbarism and Quitting Davening - My Dear Rabbi Zahavy Talmudic Advice Column in The Jewish Standard for January 2016

Dear Rabbi Zahavy,

I was horrified by the actions of some of my fellow Jews in Israel, who recently appeared on a video of a wedding celebration brandishing knives and celebrating the violent death of an Arab infant.

I see this as an example of primitive barbarism, which I find repugnant. Am I wrong to object to this behavior? Please help me know how to understand and to deal with this.

Shocked in Secaucus

Dear Shocked,

I assure you that your moral outrage in this case is proper. We pride ourselves as Jews and as members of the civilized world on disdaining the barbarism of primitive societies and on aspiring always, even in times of war, to a high ethical standard.

True, many will argue that when our enemies engage in a wave of terror attacks on us, this creates a state of combat, and thereby it sanctions us to use concomitant fierceness in response.

You want to be clear, to know how ferocious we should to be in our responses, where to draw the line, and where to rise to a higher ethical ground.

Haaretz Op Ed: Iran Deal on Nukes is Good - I agree

Amazing how American Jews have become experts in Iranian Nuclear politics. Truly it is a miracle.

A Haaretz writer explains why Obama is right on Iran. I agree with him:

Jewish Americans are going through a harrowing dilemma. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been calling the nuclear deal with Iran a mistake of historical proportions. He has made opposing it the shibboleth of whether you are a good Jew and a true friend of Israel, or whether you let Barack Obama throw Israel under the bus. So Netanyahu keeps repeating it: By cranking up sanctions even more, a better deal with Iran can be reached, but Obama and the P5+1 group have been weak and defeatist.

Netanyahu's tactic has created enormous problems. He has dealt further blows to Israel's relations with the United States, created deep rifts in the U.S. Jewish community, and worst of all, he has turned the discussion into whether you are for Israel or against it. He has turned it into good versus evil: Care about the Jewish people or be willing to let them perish in the next Holocaust.

The shrillness of the debate has made many forget that dealing with Iran is not a matter of ideology but rather carefully balanced probabilities. Get the best deal under the given circumstances, and the best deal isn't a matter of rhetoric but careful calculation.

This is my call to U.S. Jewry. Turning the Iran deal into a partisan issue is about as wrongheaded as checking your doctor's political convictions rather than credentials and experience. This is why it's best to listen to top Israeli security officials, who have both the professional competence and dedication to care about what serves Israel best.

U.S. Jews might therefore wonder: Why are there no prominent Israeli voices supporting the Iran deal? Well, the noise has drowned out the fact that a phalanx of security chiefs has publicly supported the deal.

To my Jeremiad preaching colleagues: I am grateful to Barack Obama for completing an agreement with Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons

Hey all my Jeremiad preaching friends: I am grateful to Barack Obama for completing an agreement with Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons.

Let's hear your long, mournful complaints and lamentations and your list of woes, oh you Jeremiahs. This is the season preceding Tisha B'Av and it is a religious obligation to recall the woes of the ancient prophets, to lament and to mourn.

However, I'm not joining your moaning and groaning. I am rejoicing.

This deal with Iran is a major step forward towards the stabilization of the middle East and a good thing for peace in our the world. Here's some of the news from the NY Times.



Deal Reached on Iran Nuclear Program; Limits on Fuel Would Lessen With Time

VIENNA — Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States reached a historic accord on Tuesday to significantly limit Tehran’s nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions.

The deal culminates 20 months of negotiations on an agreement that President Obama had long sought as the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency. Whether it portends a new relationship between the United States and Iran — after decades of coups, hostage-taking, terrorism and sanctions — remains a bigger question.

Mr. Obama, in an early morning appearance at the White House that was broadcast live in Iran, began what promised to be an arduous effort to sell the deal to Congress and the American public, saying the agreement is “not built on trust — it is built on verification.”

He made it abundantly clear he would fight to preserve the deal from critics in Congress who are beginning a 60-day review, declaring, “I will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal.”...

Orthodox Judaism Escalates its War on Women

The Orthodox war on women is not an accidental element in the religion and culture of Orthodoxy. It is an essential defining fact of Orthodox belief and practice. 

An Orthodox "rabbi" in my town has escalated the war. He wrote proudly last week on his blog about how Orthodox Jews won the last battle against women. They kept the women in the back of the shul behind the mehitza. Now he says, they will win the next battle against women. They will prevent women from becoming rabbis.

The evidence is clear across the board. Orthodox Judaism without any doubt preaches that God wants women held in second class status. It teaches that God says that women must be discriminated against and denied civil rights and equality.

The Orthodox segregate women in synagogues, schools and streets and buses. 

Women cannot sit where they wish in synagogue or lead the prayers. Women cannot testify in Jewish courts. Married women cannot divorce their husbands. Women cannot sing for men. Women cannot become rabbis. Women cannot study in Yeshivas. 

The Orthodox segregate women with clothing rules. They say that women cannot wear the clothing of their choice. 

And this war on women is getting more intense. Orthodox men now refuse to sit next to women in public transportation on buses and airplanes. In Orthodox neighborhoods women are told where to walk on public sidewalks and what length their dresses and blouse sleeves must be when they go out of their homes.

Orthodox Judaism denies women the right to divorce their husbands. And there is more.

This war directed against women has been going on for centuries and continues to gain momentum now in 2015.

I have been writing in exasperation about this subject for many years. I originally wrote an essay in 1987 to analyze and characterize some of the darker clouds that I saw on the horizon within Orthodox Judaism's belligerent attitudes, especially its war on women.

These teachings about women are false. Orthodox Judaism is a beautiful religion.

What shall we do to stop this war?

Here is more of my original article...

Here are some other of my articles, reviews, independent study courses and more... 

[An earlier version of this post appeared here 10/28/10]. 

Is Bernie Sanders Jewish?

Yes, Bernie Sanders is a Jew. He is a senator from Vermont and a candidate for president of the United States.

Wikipedia reports on his early life:

Bernie Sanders was born on September 8, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Eli and Dorothy (Glassberg) Sanders. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Poland whose family was killed in the Holocaust. His mother was born to Jewish parents in New York.

Sanders attended elementary school at P.S. 197, where he won a state championship on the basketball team. He attended Hebrew school in the afternoons and had his bar mitzvah in 1954. Sanders attended James Madison High School, where he was captain of the track team. While at Madison, Sanders lost his first election, finishing last out of three for the student body presidency. Sanders's mother died in June 1959 at the age of 46 shortly after Sanders graduated from high school. Sanders went to Brooklyn College for a year before transferring to the University of Chicago. While there, he was active in the Civil Rights Movement, and a student organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. One of the actions he took was the coordination of sit-in protests against segregated campus housing. Sanders also participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He was a member of the Young People's Socialist League, the youth affiliate of the Socialist Party of America.

He graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor of arts degree in political science in 1964. After graduating, Sanders spent several months on an Israeli kibbutz, and he moved to Vermont in 1968.

My Jewish Standard Dear Rabbi Column for July 2015: Boring Shouting Apocalyptic

Dear Rabbi,

I have Facebook friends who are not personal acquaintances, but people in broad circles, friends of friends. Like me, many of them are staunch defenders of Israel. We share personal and public events related to Israel and news reports about the country. Lately, though, I noticed that a vocal minority in my circles has become louder and shriller about their defense of Israel against all criticisms. And beyond that I see a steady stream of apocalyptic pronouncements, statements that assure me of cosmic threats to Israel by numerous nations, and the catastrophic consequences of this or that. An example of recent note is a continuous drumbeat of the doom that awaits Israel (and the world) if the U.S. makes a bad deal with Iran on nuclear development. I have started blocking some of my friends from appearing on my feed because I do not want to participate in their doomsday fear fests. Have I been unfair to my friends?

Fearless In Fair Lawn

Dear Fearless,

On the one hand, your descriptive term apocalyptic does capture the character of some of the rhetoric that we hear at times from those who believe they ought to speculate about the fast-approaching fate of the world.

Genuine apocalyptic literature is a fascinating imaginative genre, a form of speculative theology and a characteristic of some fringe political thought. In Jewish tradition, the visions in the book of Daniel in the Tanach are classic examples of that mindset. The famous vision in Chapter 7 begins: “Daniel said: ‘In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.’” The Dead Sea Scrolls also contain conspicuous examples of the apocalyptic imagination.

This inventive thinking and writing often anticipates a high drama that posits that we are close to the end of days, that a great conflict is imminent, and that colorful mythic creatures — as stand-ins for nations of the world — will be part of the horrifying spectacle.

Given the history of anti-Semitism, it is not entirely far-fetched to imagine a world full of evil empires that target the Jews for elimination. And it is always meritorious to be on guard against the potential onslaught of our enemies.

But the dire predictions of disaster that you are reading on Facebook in obvious ways are not similar to ancient apocalyptic preaching. Those classic visions often cleverly encoded the message of the secrets of the end times. Only a select few knew the full meaning of which symbolic beast referred to which great world power or nation.

The shouting posts on your Facebook page are almost certainly totally transparent and obvious in their references to their specific targets. They are loud and shouting, not subtle or encoded or shrouded in any secret.

Bottom line: What you did by blocking the content was correct. Keep doing it. Turn off the noise. Stay focused. Do not be too distracted by others who constantly catastrophize about the future of the Jewish people or by those who claim with little basis some special or divine inspiration that with little nuance or imagination, enables them to express troubling and alarmist opinions about the destiny of our people.

Try to stay attentive to the here-and-now, and to find positive meaning in the rich content of your own present-day Judaism.
________________________________

The Dear Rabbi column offers timely advice based on timeless Talmudic wisdom. It aspires to be equally respectful and meaningful to all varieties and denominations of Judaism. You can find it here on the first Friday of the month. Send your questions to DearRabbi@jewishmediagroup.com.

Yitzhak Zahavy's fantastic book, "Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel"

Preview

A brilliant book. Available in Teaneck and worldwide on Amazon!

Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel

by Yitzhak Zahavy

This book explains how archaeology is used in the politics and nationalism of the State of Israel through its stamps, coins and currency. Taking the reader from the pre-state years to the modern day, Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel catalogs and analyzes the Israeli government issued materials that employ archaeological motifs.


Purchase this excellent book online or pick yours up today at the Judaica House on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, NJ.

Is Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Jewish?

No, Judge Sonia Sotomayor is not a Jew. She is Catholic.

In the Times blogs, Charles M. Blow wrote about the religious composition of the court in his post called, "The Catholic Court":

"Thirty years ago eight of the nine Supreme Court justices were Protestant. Now only two are. Five are Catholic, and two are Jewish. If federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed as a replacement for Justice David H. Souter, who is Protestant, she will become the sixth Catholic justice on the court."

Is Sotomayor the first Hispanic Supreme Court Judge?

Technically, you could argue that Sephardic Jewish judge Benjamin Nathan Cardozo was the first Hispanic judge to serve in the US Supreme Court. Cardozo served from 1932 until his death in 1938.

Cardozo was born in New York City, the son of Rebecca Washington (née Nathan) and Albert Jacob Cardozo. Both Cardozo's maternal grandparents, Sara Seixas and Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan, and his paternal grandparents, Ellen Hart and Michael H. Cardozo, were Sephardic Jews; their families immigrated from England before the American Revolution, and were descended from Jews who left the Iberian Peninsula for Holland during the Inquisition. Cardozo family tradition held that their ancestors were Marranos from Portugal, although Cardozo's ancestry has not been firmly traced to Portugal. [Wikipedia]

The AP reported via the StarTribune that, "Some definitions of Hispanic include Portugal and Portuguese-speaking cultures; others don't." [reposted]

Are Buses Kosher on the Sabbath in Israel?

Amazing as it may seem, under the right circumstances, the operation of buses in Israel may be Kosher on the Sabbath.

The Times has a report from its Jerusalem Bureau on Israelis who are lobbying for the easing of the restriction on public buses running on Shabbat in Israel.

There are many Israelis who oppose Shabbat bus service, including non-Orthodox Israelis who appreciate the special nature of one day a week without bus congestion on their streets.

Orthodox Israelis on the whole approve of the ban on buses. But some Orthodox have started to realize that limited public bus service, where non-Jews drive on fixed routes, could be a great asset to them and could cut down on the non-religious Jews' driving, considered by the Orthodox to be violations of the Sabbath.

Changes ordinarily don't happen fast in Israeli public services. But I suspect that in this case, the winds have shifted after 67 years of rigorous bans. Pressure groups have been organized. Kosher or not, Shabbos buses may be on their way in.

My Jewish Standard Dear Rabbi Column for April 2015: Self hating Jews and Media bias against Israel

Dear Rabbi

Your Talmudic Advice Column

Dear Rabbi,

At a family dinner, after I criticized Israeli policies and Bibi Netanyahu's politics, my uncle accused me of being a self-hating Jew. I am a proud Jew, with my own opinions. But I was caught off guard by his caustic remark to me. I had no come-back. What should I have said to him?

Loving My Jewish Self in Lodi

Dear Loving,

From novelist Philip Roth in the sixties to TV personality Jon Stewart today, numerous Jewish writers and commentators who are critical of particular Jews or who depict negative Jewish stereotypes have been accused of self-hatred. After publishing his early fiction with controversial and comical Jewish characters, Roth often was accused of self-hatred. Back then, people apparently mistook Roth's fiction as philosophy, and his theatrical characters as theology, and called him by a nasty name, "self-hating Jew". And lately people mischaracterize Stewart's comedy as political dogma and go on to label him the same way.

It would be accurate to depict writers like Roth and Stewart as comical Jews, self-berating Jews, self-critical Jews, self-analytical Jews, or even simply as self-conscious Jews.

But I cannot accept the "hating" side of the term. It's rude and pretentious to pretend to know another person's emotional state, to say someone is "hating". And in fact, few people can maintain the emotion of hatred for more than a little while. To characterize a person as a "hater" is rarely true and not at all helpful.

Besides that, our sacred Jewish literature, the Tanakh, Talmud and Midrash, are full of negative stories about Jews behaving badly and of Jews scathingly criticizing other Jews. The editors of those works who gathered and published such narratives and accounts about those Jews of the past are highly venerated and respected in our tradition. I cannot remember hearing anyone use the term "self-hating midrash."

It seems that your uncle is ignorant of the dynamics of Jews criticizing Jews in both the classical prophetic tradition, so prominent in the Tanakh, and in the entire body of Talmudic argumentation and criticism. It appears that he misuses the notion of chosenness (see the next question in this column) to create for himself a sense of entitlement that first of all makes him immune to complaints from other people and then, beyond that, empowers him to pejoratively classify those complaining folks in a bad way.

And so "self-hating Jew" is not valid as a descriptive category. It is after all nothing more than a lazy epithet, a political name-calling that is meant to attack and dismiss criticism or negative stereotypes, rather than to respond to them.

Calling someone a "self-hating Jew" is not much different from calling someone a "son of a bitch" or a "bastard." It was a form of name-calling, more prevalent in the 50s and 60s, directed mainly against secular Jews like Roth, who publically said or published critical things about Jewish characters (real or fictional), or about real Jews in general.

If your uncle calls you any rude childish name, my advice to you is that either you not answer him at all, or you reply with a disarming, "Thank you," or try simply, "No I am not," or, if all else fails, try a childish retort, "Hey uncle, it takes a self-hating Jew to know one."

Dear Rabbi,

Why is the world media so unfair to Israel? When I read about Israel in the newspapers, especially the New York Times, I often find myself getting angry about how one-sided and biased the media is towards the Jewish state. The NY paper criticizes Israel for many things, especially what they perceive is the mistreatment of Arabs. Sometimes I am so annoyed at the media, I can hardly control myself. The enemies of Israel do all kinds of violent evil things to Israelis and to their own people. Yet that barely gets covered by the papers and on TV. But if an Israeli harms a fly, that gets blown up in dramatic fashion and roundly criticized. What gives? How can I come to terms with this?

Agitated in Alpine

Dear Agitated,

You are right. Israel is covered by the media with more scrutiny than other countries. The Israelis are held to higher standards. Not only Israel. Jews in general get more ink and more scrutiny than people of other religions. And you know what? It's our own fault. Here's why.

We make no secret of our belief that we are God's chosen people. Thus, if all the world is a stage (as Shakespeare said) and all the nations are players on the stage (as I suggest), then Israel and the Jewish people are the self-declared stars of the show. And you do understand that in the reviews of dramatic public performances, the stars always get more attention and more criticism.

When the Torah tells us the stories of God's promises to Abraham and our forefathers, its narratives proclaim that the Jewish people are the chosen ones. And the promise of special selection of Israel is renewed in the Sinai stories and by the bulk of the historical materials in the Tanakh and the preaching of the prophets. Later Jewish philosophers reiterate the theme that Jews and Israel are the select, the chosen, the special folk, in other words, the stars of the show of world history and destiny.

The notion of chosenness does not make one immune to scrutiny. It invites intense interest and the accompanying criticism.

Rightfully, the stars get the focus and attention in the reviews and notices. When they do good, they get recognized. But when they stumble, miss one line or fail to impress, they get roundly criticized. That's how it works in the world of punditry and in the realm of media writing. Those high-profile subjects and people with notoriety, get put into the spotlight.

Accordingly, it's not right to question the fair or unfair treatment of one player versus another player.  It's right that the stars of the show will get the more thorough reviews – the greater praise when they shine, and the harsher criticisms when they slip up.

My advice to you: it shouldn't make you angry or upset when the Times runs a long appraisal and detailed evaluation and assessment of the actions of the Jewish state, the Israel Defense Forces or the citizens of Israel. We expect to be in the center of the stage. We proudly say of ourselves that we are special people. We invite attention and the spotlight. So when we get it, we really should not be surprised, and certainly should not be displeased.

You cannot rewrite the Jewish theology, ideology and religious history that says with loud and clear voices, "Look at us, we are the greatest." I advise you to come to terms with us Jews and with Israel being stars on the global scene.

And rightfully, when we celebrities go out on the public platform with some defect, with our makeup smudged, or when we suffer a wardrobe malfunction, expect that to appear prominently in all the media reviews.

Tzvee Zahavy earned his PhD from Brown University and rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University. He is the author many books, including these Kindle Edition books available at Amazon.com:  "The  Book of Jewish Prayers in English," "Rashi: The Greatest Exegete," "God's Favorite Prayers" and "Dear Rabbi" – which includes his past columns from the Jewish Standard and other essays.

The Dear Rabbi column offers timely advice based on timeless Talmudic wisdom. It aspires to be equally respectful and meaningful to all varieties and denominations of Judaism. You can find it here on the first Friday of the month. Please mail your questions to the Jewish Standard or email DearRabbi@jewishmediagroup.com.

A Brilliant Account of Zionism - Arthur Hertzberg's, The Zionist Idea

Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg passed away in 2006 at age 84. One example of Hertzberg's intellectual legacy is his reader on Zionism -- is a brilliant statement of Jewish thought in its choices and its sensitive and sharply developed contextualizations.

In the introduction to The Zionist Idea, Hertzberg placed Zionism in its historical and cultural milieu:

Zionism exists, and it has had important consequences, but historical theory does not really know what to do with it. Though modern Zionism arose within the milieu of European nationalism in the nineteenth century, the historians of that era usually content themselves with briefly noticing the movement, for the sake of "completeness." The root cause of their difficulty (the relatively few members involved and the partial inaccessibility of the source material are quite secondary reasons) is that Zionism cannot be typed, and therefore easily explained, as a "normal" kind of national risorgimento. To mention only one important difference, all of the other nineteenth century nationalisms based their struggle for political sovereignty on an already existing national land or language (generally, there were both). Zionism alone proposed to acquire both of these usual preconditions of national identity by the ... of its nationalist will. It is, therefore, a maverick in the history of modern nationalism, and it simplifies the task of general historians to regard it, at least by implication, as belonging only on the more parochial stage of the inner history of the Jewish community.

The Geniuses of Zionism: Pinsker to Herzl

The great genius founders of modern Israel wrote astounding essays and books. From The Zionist Idea by Arthur Hertzberg - introductions by Hertzberg and primary texts by the Zionist writers, here is another installment.

Part 2: Outcry in Russia -- the 1870's and 1880's. Page 141.

PERETZ SMOLENSKIN 1842-1885. Page 142.
IT IS TIME TO PLANT (1875-1877). Page 145.
LET US SEARCH OUR WAYS (1881). Page 146.
THE HASKALAH OF BERLIN (1883). Page 154.
ELIEZER BEN-YEHUDAH 1858-1923. Page 158.
A LETTER OF BEN-YEHUDAH (1880). Page 160.
MOSHE LEIB LILIENBLUM 1843-1910. Page 166.
THE WAY OF RETURN (1881). Page 168.
LET US NOT CONFUSE THE ISSUES (1882). Page 170.
THE FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE (1883). Page 173.
LEO PINSKER 1821-1891. Page 178.
AUTO-EMANCIPATION: AN APPEAL TO HIS PEOPLE BY A RUSSIAN JEW (1882). Page 181.
Summary. Page 198.

Part 3: Headlong into the World Arena -- Theodor Herzl Appears. Page 199.

THEODOR HERZL 1860-1904. Page 200.
FIRST ENTRY IN HIS DIARY (1895). Page 204.
THE JEWISH STATE (1896). Page 204.
Preface. Page 204.
Chapter 1: Introduction. Page 207.
Chapter 2: The Jewish Question. Page 215.
PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS AT A SOLUTION. Page 217.
CAUSES OF ANTI-SEMITISM. Page 218.
EFFECTS OF ANTI-SEMITISM. Page 219.
THE PLAN. Page 220.
PALESTINE OR ARGENTINA? Page 222.
Conclusion. Page 223.
FIRST CONGRESS ADDRESS (1897). Page 226.
AFTER A MASS MEETING IN THE EAST END (1896). Page 231.

MAX NORDAU 1849-1923. Page 232.
SPEECH TO THE FIRST ZIONIST CONGRESS (1897). Page 235.
ZIONISM (1902). Page 242.

Hertzberg provides this penetrating analysis of the work of Pinsker:
The most significant reaction to the events of 1881 was the pamphlet Auto-Emancipation by Leo Pinsker. Like Lilienblum, he could not avoid the knowledge that the persecution of the Jew in Russia "is...not a result of the low cultural status of the Russian people; we have found our bitterest opponents, indeed, in a large part of the press, which ought to be intelligent." Pinsker, therefore, did not pretend to himself that Jew-hatred was merely a hang-over from the medieval past. On the contrary, the historic importance of his essay is in its assertion that anti-Semitism is a thoroughly modern phenomenon, beyond the reach of any future triumphs of "humanity and enlightenment" in society as a whole. Pinsker defined three causes of anti-Semitism: the Jews are a "ghost people," unlike any other in the world, and therefore feared as a thing apart; they are everywhere foreigners and nowhere hosts in their own national right; and they are in economic competition with every majority within which they live. To hope for better days in Russia, or wherever else the Jews were under serious attack, was, therefore, a delusion, and piecemeal emigration to a variety of underdeveloped lands which might be hospitable for a moment meant merely to export and to exacerbate the problem. There was only one workable solution: the Jews must organize all their strength and, with whatever help they could muster from the world as a whole, they must find a country of their own (if possible, their ancestral home in the Holy Land) where the bulk of Jewry would at last come to rest.

Zionism's Earliest Writers - Brilliant and Controversial

One of the best books on the subject is -- The Zionist Idea by the late Arthur Hertzberg, a great scholar who passed away in 2006. He presents in this book excerpts from the greatest Zionist writers.

Part 1: Precursors
RABBI YEHUDAH ALKALAI 1798-1878
THE THIRD REDEMPTION (1843)

RABBI ZVI HIRSCH KALISCHER 1795-1874
SEEKING ZION (1862)
A Natural Beginning of the Redemption
The Holiness of Labor on the Land

MOSES HESS 1812-1875
ROME AND JERUSALEM (1862)
MY Way of Return
German Anti-Semitism and Jewish Assimilation
The Reawakening of the Nations
What is Judaism?
The Mission of Israel
The Nation as Part of Humanity
The Sabbath of History
Toward the Jewish Restoration

In the introduction, Hertzberg brilliantly placed Zionism in its historical and cultural context:

ZIONISM EXISTS, and it has had important consequences, but historical theory does not really know what to do with it. Though modern Zionism arose within the milieu of European nationalism in the nineteenth century, the historians of that era usually content themselves with briefly noticing the movement, for the sake of "completeness." The root cause of their difficulty (the relatively few members involved and the partial inaccessibility of the source material are quite secondary reasons) is that Zionism cannot be typed, and therefore easily explained, as a "normal" kind of national risorgimento. To mention only one important difference, all of the other nineteenth century nationalisms based their struggle for political sovereignty on an already existing national land or language (generally, there were both). Zionism alone proposed to acquire both of these usual preconditions of national identity by the elan of its nationalist will. It is, therefore, a maverick in the history of modern nationalism, and it simplifies the task of general historians to regard it, at least by implication, as belonging only on the more parochial stage of the inner history of the Jewish community.

It's a Good Time to Review the basics of Zionist Religious Nationalism, Zionist Mysticism and Zionist Philosophers

It's a good time (after an election) to recall some basics about Zionist Religious Nationalists, Zionist Mystics and Zionist Philosophers.

I recommend The Zionist Idea by Arthur Hertzberg.

-Part 7: Religious Nationalists, Old and New -397

-RABBI SAMUEL MOHILEVER 1824-1898 -398

-MESSAGE TO THE FIRST ZIONIST CONGRESS (1897) -401

-YEHIEL MICHAEL PINES 1842-1912 -406

-ON RELIGIOUS REFORMS (1868-1871) -409

-The Religious Idea -409

-Methods in Reforms -410

-JEWISH NATIONALISM CANNOT BE SECULAR (1895) -411

-RELIGION IS THE SOURCE OF JEWISH NATIONALISM (1895) -412

-JEWS WILL ACCEPT HARDSHIP ONLY IN THE HOLY LAND (1892) -414

-RABBI ABRAHAM ISAAC KOOK 1865-1935 -416

-THE LAND OF ISRAEL (1910-1930) -419

-THE WAR (1910-1930) -422

-THE REBIRTH OF ISRAEL (1910-1930) -424

-LIGHTS FOR REBIRTH (1910-1930) -427

-SAMUEL HAYYIM LANDAU 1892-1928 -432

-TOWARD AN EXPLANATION OF OUR IDEOLOGY (1924) -434

-JUDAH LEON MAGNES 1877-1948 -440

-"LIKE ALL THE NATIONS?" (1930) -443

-MARTIN BUBER 1887-1965 -450

-THE JEW IN THE WORLD (1934) -453

-HEBREW HUMANISM (1942) -457

-FROM AN OPEN LETTER TO MAHATMA GANDHI (1939) -463

The early forms of religious Zionism beginning with Mohilever and continuing with Pines, Kook, Buber and others -- which led to the organization called Mizrachi and other religious arms of the movement - were peripheral to the success of Zionism overall, but important for its ultimate inclusiveness and definition.

Hertzberg summarizes Mohilever as follows:

SO FAR the selections in this reader and the biographical sketches at the head of each selection have seemed to tell the story of the Zionist idea in a straight line: it began with certain stirrings in the minds of men of religion (e.g., Alkalai and Kalischer) and went on to express itself as a secular nationalism, though Zionism always more or less assumed, and was in tension with, emotions derived from religion. This impression needs to be qualified. Religious Zionism -- that is, not mere traditional piety about the Holy Land but a conscious blending of orthodoxy in religion with modern Jewish nationalism -- has been an important, albeit minority, trend throughout the history of the modern movement.

My Jewish Standard Dear Rabbi Column for March 2015: Seeking Saturday Weddings and Aghast at The Book of Mormon

Dear Rabbi: Your Talmudic Advice Column

Dear Rabbi,

My fiancée and I are both Jewish, but not at all religious. We are planning to get married this coming summer. We planned the wedding for a Saturday afternoon at a nice catering venue. And we want to have a Jewish wedding with a chuppah and with a rabbi to officiate at the wedding. Much to our surprise, we found out now that rabbis will not conduct the ceremony because Jewish weddings cannot take place on Shabbat. We don’t understand this. We don’t want to change the time and date. What should we do?

Engaged in Englewood

Dear Engaged,

I understand your consternation. For secular Jews and their non-Jewish friends, Saturday is a convenient and perhaps an ideal day for a wedding. But you found out that Jewish custom and law does not permit a Sabbath wedding. This holds true for nearly all the varieties of Jewish observance, from Orthodox through Reform. I’m going to guess that the history of the ritual is not of much concern for you.

You might have imagined that a wedding is a religious ritual and the Sabbath is a religious day, so why should there be a problem? Indeed! But that is not the case.

You may argue that weddings are symbolic moments in a rite of passage for a new bride and groom. You may even suggest that some of the symbolism in the marriage ritual is beautifully suited to be carried out on the Sabbath. The bride and groom are imagined to be like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And no matter where the wedding takes place, we imagine the sounds of a wedding celebration and its song are taking place in the streets of Jerusalem and are like foretastes of the joy of the messianic age of the redemption of the world. And the chuppah canopy has been likened to a cosmic symbol of the heavens.

So why not have a wedding on Shabbat? Primarily this is because Jewish law and custom treat a wedding as a contractual transaction between husband and wife. The ketubbah is a marriage contract that has to be executed and signed and given over by the husband to the wife, all actions that cannot be allowed on Shabbat.

So I am sorry, but I have no ready solution to your problem. I assume you don’t want to change the time of your party. Of course, you could hold a smaller Jewish ceremony in a rabbi’s study during the previous week and then have your larger public wedding feast on Saturday. But I’ll bet you don’t want even to hear about any such workaround.

Since I suppose that your event will be in New Jersey, you may be able to find a liberal unaffiliated rabbi who will conduct a Jewish wedding on Shabbat. But I cannot advise you to do that.

Perhaps you can step back and consider that your wedding is a single event, not an ongoing lifestyle choice. As such, I do encourage you to honor the age-old Jewish customs, to be flexible, and to reconsider the day of the week you selected for your wedding.

Dear Rabbi,

I went to see a critically acclaimed musical comedy on Broadway called “The Book of Mormon.” I did not know before going that the play was so sacrilegious! It was way over the border of blasphemy toward Mormonism in particular, and toward all religions in general. The show mocks the teachings of the Mormon church and ridicules its ecclesiastical history and scriptures. It derides the church’s founders, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. It makes fun of Jesus and the Mormon angel named Moroni.

Using language that is vulgar, crude, and offensive, the play rips into all religious mythology and ritual and portrays them as absurd inventions derived by foolish leaders out of desperation, and presented to desperate consumers. To do all of this and get away with it, the play uses the cheerful entertainment style of the Broadway musical to relentlessly deride God, and all teachers and preachers of religion.

Please explain to me how such a play can be tolerated at all in our society, let alone lauded as a smash hit, running for years on Broadway and delighting sold-out audiences.

Aghast in Alpine

Dear Aghast,

At their core, our American ideals promote the freedom of expression, without any boundaries. In its social essences American society is secular, mainly a-religious, but in some ways anti-religious. Some say that our powerful value, promising the freedom of religion, is in effect a means of affording us the freedom from religion.

Many social critics extol all of our freedoms as great strengths in the fibers of our culture. They see religions as restrictive of creativity and divisive to our communal lives. They say that American life is strong, vibrant, and healthy precisely because religion is tangential to our guiding values. The best and the brightest minds in the world come to our shores exactly because we do not allow religion to stifle or imprison our thoughts or actions.

You clearly do not share that view of the benefit of limiting the roles of religions in society. And you are horrified at the antagonism that a Broadway play directs at Mormonism, which to you is an obvious metaphor for all religions.

Surely, if you suppose that religion is a means to prescribe an ethical and moral life, to lend meaning to our existence and a way to worship a divine entity who created our universe, then you ought to be insulted by that comedic musical take down of religion and of God.

Now, on the other hand, you would be equally correct to be horrified that violence can be committed in the name of God and religion. Reading the news about such violence in recent morning papers, even the simplest unreflective person will conclude there are more facets to religion than just positive preaching and teaching of a wholly moral life.

Your reaction to “The Book of Mormon” makes me stop to think about how we were all “aghast” at the Islamic religious terrorists who killed secular cartoonists. The terrorists targeted their victims, whom they accused of heresy, saying they insulted their religion. And we were further horrified during these recent events by the wanton Islamic terrorist killings of Jews and by other acts of barbarity against non-Muslims.

And it’s troubling that all religions at one time or another sustain terrorism and preach and practice that violence be directed to the enemy, who often is labeled by religious leaders as a “heretic” or “infidel.” It’s disturbing that all religions in some way are guilty of inciting heresy hunters and of fostering barbaric acts of violence against those whom they deem heretics.

It seems so wrong to me that evil is committed in the name of God against people whose only sin is to hold unapproved opinions about this or that. Yet in the world at large, nearly all religions have held or now hold the idea that heresy is a crime that must be countered by violence.

It’s further disconcerting that there’s enough evidence to conclude that war and violence are not accidental byproducts of religion. They appear to be essential activities that derive from the core of a faith community. And yes, perpetrators of religious violence justify their aims and means in the name of a great and mighty and jealous God.

Evolutionary social biologists have explanations for this. They say that religion’s aspects of preaching violence against heresy is a social strength or a form of fitness that evolved over time into an innate trait of the group dynamic. It promotes solidarity in conflict and battle and hence it bolsters the survival of the group.

A vibrant secular democracy, like ours in the United States, however, will foster patriotism and social solidarity without seeking out religious reasons to wreak violence on dissenters.

The play you saw, the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon,” is a perfect example of how a free and open society will tolerate dissent and criticism of religion at no cost to its essential societal strength.

It’s urgent that you think this over and even try to embrace the notion that criticism of religions is healthy. And finally, you do realize that the play you saw presented many of the positive aspects of Mormonism in particular and of religion in general?

And so, to conclude I offer you this simple unexpected suggestion. Go back and see the play again. And this time seek out and enjoy the constructive elements in the production. Have yourself a gleeful evening and a bunch of hearty laughs. It’s an uproariously rude and satirical show about the positive and negative functions and dynamics of religions on many levels.

And if you do go back, then afterward you can be confident that you can go home and continue to practice your piety and believe as you wish. That’s how we live in our great, free and democratic land, in America.

Rabbi Tzvee Zahavy earned his Ph.D. from Brown University and rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University. He is the author many books, including these Kindle Edition books available at Amazon.com: “The Book of Jewish Prayers in English,” “Rashi: The Greatest Exegete,” “God’s Favorite Prayers” and “Dear Rabbi” — which includes his past columns from the Jewish Standard and other essays.

Is Jon Stewart Jewish?

Yes, Jon Stewart is a Jew.

Marty Kaplan takes this question up in his Jewish Journal article, "Waiting for Jewman."

Jon Stewart did his show, business as usual, on Rosh Hashanah this year. That night, when his interview guest, Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John McCain, greeted him with “Happy New Year,” Stewart looked uncharacteristically nonplussed for a nanosecond, before replying, “What? Huh? See you in Times Square tonight.”

“Culturally Jewish, but not practicing” is what it’s called on the JDate profile form. Stewart grew up in suburban New Jersey with the name Jon Stewart Liebowitz. When radio host Howard Stern asked him about his real name, Stewart answered, “Actually, it’s ‘Jewy Jewman.’ ”

It’s hard to imagine someone who identifies more strongly with New York-style Jewish shtick. He switches into Jerry Lewis’ voice and gestures at the drop of a yarmulke. Yiddish intonations take up considerable space in his comic’s toolkit, as do mentions of obscure Jewish holidays, traditional Jewish food and top hits from the Torah. ..more...

Hollywood Jew blogger Danielle Berrin pursues the topic, "Jon Stewart’s version of Judaism," linking it somehow with the Jewish Standard brouhaha over a gay wedding announcement:

Earlier this week, The Berman Jewish Policy Archive, a research and analysis outfit at NYU, offered their findings on the state of Jewish journalism in the aftermath of a controversy at The Jewish Standard in New Jersey. One critique, from Andrew Silow-Carroll, expressed a wish “that journalists would move beyond their serial habit of assessing the ‘Jewishness’ of various public figures.”

The sentiment seemed shortsighted, because “assessing” the Jewishness of others enables communal connection. For example, knowing Jon Stewart was born Jewish is one thing; hearing him crack self-deprecating Jewish jokes night after night is intimately endearing. A Jew can participate in Stewart’s jokes because there’s a shared reference point; Jews aren’t laughing at Stewart, they’re laughing with him...more...

We are puzzled at the linkage of topics. But we want to make it clear that sometimes asking if someone is Jewish is just that and nothing more. And sometimes it is more.

Jon Stewart is a comedian. His profound impact as a cultural critic and political commentator is anything but funny. That's a big part of what makes him Jewish, no?

[repost from 10/16/2010]

Is Sheldon Silver Jewish?

Yes New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is a Jew. He is a member of the Orthodox community on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and a graduate of Yeshiva University, class of 1965.

Sadly, he was arraigned at a federal courthouse Jan. 22, 2015, on bribery and corruption charges.

JTA reported on the story and linked it to another scandal involving an associate of Silver.

William Rapfogel, the longtime CEO of New York’s Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, was arrested in September 2013 for involvement in a kickbacks scheme. He pleaded guilty to helping fleece more than $9 million from the charity, including $1 million that he pocketed himself, and was sentenced last July to 3 ½ years in prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution.

Rapfogel’s wife, Judy Rapfogel, is Silver’s chief of staff. After her husband’s arrest, Judy Rapfogel claimed she had no knowledge of her husband’s criminal malfeasance, and she remained on Silver’s staff.

Silver and William Rapfogel lived in the same neighborhood and went to the same shul, the Bialystoker Synagogue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The two men often sat together in the sanctuary on Shabbat morning, though in recent years Silver began going to the early minyan on Saturday mornings, a neighborhood insider who declined to be identified told JTA.

Is Yoga Jewish?

No, yoga is not Jewish, it is Hindu in origin.

I did yoga regularly in the early 1990s at the Northwest Tennis Club in Minneapolis Minnesota. My teacher was Bonnie West, an American woman from St. Paul with a wicked sense of humor and with no Hindu agenda at all. Her yoga classes provided wonderful exercise and discipline for the body and mind.

But the plot thickens. The Times chronicled in 2010 a controversy over the "ownership" of the practices of yoga in America..

Hindu Group Stirs a Debate Over Yoga’s Soul
By PAUL VITELLO

Yoga is practiced by about 15 million people in the United States, for reasons almost as numerous — from the physical benefits mapped in brain scans to the less tangible rewards that New Age journals call spiritual centering. Religion, for the most part, has nothing to do with it.