How odd of God
to choose the Jews.
Not original.
This highly unusual people regularly gives examples both of brilliance and of stupidity, sometimes combined. High group IQ average, yet massive voting for Obama.
On the happy side of the ledger, folks like Dr Krauthammer remind us that we have a statue of liberty, not a statue of equality.*
Well said, Reb K.
On the unhappy side, constitutional law professor Louis Seidman (employed by a Jesuit --and hence only nominally Catholic-- university) encourages us to dump the stupid, nay evil, Constitution.
Reb S., no thanks.
It is one thing to critique America's founding document. It is not sacred scripture, and I have ventured a few objections of my own. It is quite another to slander its founders and blithely call for us to dump the damn thing. Especially if your name is Seidman and this evil country has been more welcoming and accomodating to your kind than any other in history.
As the admirable Reb Prager has pointed out, with regret, it is the standard path of the non-religious Jew to transfer his or her loyalties to lefty utopian ideologies of liberalism or worse. As I noted not long ago, my historically high level of philosemitism has taken a hit as I see that there are many many more Seidmans than Krauthammers. As my sense of my country and culture's future darkens, I become less forgiving of the Seidmans.
And although most negative commentors are too PC and polite to point out that the professor's name is Seidman and not Jones, this does not passed unnoticed.
Jews can be exquisitely sensitive to any hint that they are looked upon as not-belonging. On the other hand, they typically carry a vivid sense of themselves as eternal outsiders. It must be tiring. And it drives the anti-Christian and anti-nationalist energies of Jewish liberals**, who are great champions of secularism and multiculturalism. But they often act outraged and surprised when these attitudes and programs, which are experienced as an attack on the religion and culture of the most Jew-welcoming country in history, result in anti-Jewish feeling. I call this species of ingratitude the Chomsky-Zinn reaction: biting the hand that freed them. I suspect that the professor might be one of these. Whatever may be the sources of the complex soup that goes by the name anti-Semitism, Jews are not simply its groundless and innocent objects. No historically loaded group with such a hugely disproportionate role in a society can play dumb like that. Especially when they are so smart. And it is sad that for every laudable Krauthammer, there are far too many Seidmans.
*Emma Lazarus' poem on the base, added in 1903 or so, and treated as virtually canonical, sentimentalizes the whole thing, providing a hook for those who feel that everyone on earth has a right to enter America.
**And not just liberals. The very (neo)conservative maven Midge Decter, (in)famous for her call to see homosexuals not as individuals but as a group, also reacted viscerally against "this notion of a Christian civilization:.
to choose the Jews.
Not original.
This highly unusual people regularly gives examples both of brilliance and of stupidity, sometimes combined. High group IQ average, yet massive voting for Obama.
On the happy side of the ledger, folks like Dr Krauthammer remind us that we have a statue of liberty, not a statue of equality.*
Well said, Reb K.
On the unhappy side, constitutional law professor Louis Seidman (employed by a Jesuit --and hence only nominally Catholic-- university) encourages us to dump the stupid, nay evil, Constitution.
Reb S., no thanks.
It is one thing to critique America's founding document. It is not sacred scripture, and I have ventured a few objections of my own. It is quite another to slander its founders and blithely call for us to dump the damn thing. Especially if your name is Seidman and this evil country has been more welcoming and accomodating to your kind than any other in history.
As the admirable Reb Prager has pointed out, with regret, it is the standard path of the non-religious Jew to transfer his or her loyalties to lefty utopian ideologies of liberalism or worse. As I noted not long ago, my historically high level of philosemitism has taken a hit as I see that there are many many more Seidmans than Krauthammers. As my sense of my country and culture's future darkens, I become less forgiving of the Seidmans.
And although most negative commentors are too PC and polite to point out that the professor's name is Seidman and not Jones, this does not passed unnoticed.
Jews can be exquisitely sensitive to any hint that they are looked upon as not-belonging. On the other hand, they typically carry a vivid sense of themselves as eternal outsiders. It must be tiring. And it drives the anti-Christian and anti-nationalist energies of Jewish liberals**, who are great champions of secularism and multiculturalism. But they often act outraged and surprised when these attitudes and programs, which are experienced as an attack on the religion and culture of the most Jew-welcoming country in history, result in anti-Jewish feeling. I call this species of ingratitude the Chomsky-Zinn reaction: biting the hand that freed them. I suspect that the professor might be one of these. Whatever may be the sources of the complex soup that goes by the name anti-Semitism, Jews are not simply its groundless and innocent objects. No historically loaded group with such a hugely disproportionate role in a society can play dumb like that. Especially when they are so smart. And it is sad that for every laudable Krauthammer, there are far too many Seidmans.
*Emma Lazarus' poem on the base, added in 1903 or so, and treated as virtually canonical, sentimentalizes the whole thing, providing a hook for those who feel that everyone on earth has a right to enter America.
**And not just liberals. The very (neo)conservative maven Midge Decter, (in)famous for her call to see homosexuals not as individuals but as a group, also reacted viscerally against "this notion of a Christian civilization:.
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