It's Clobberin' Time! A recent issue of the Fantastic Four comic book reveals the shocking truth -- rock-skinned Ben Grimm, otherwise known as
The Thing is Jewish:
Created by Stan Lee (father of Spider-man) and Jack Kirby, the Thing made his comic-book debut in 1961. But it was not until the recent June issue of "Fantastic Four" (number 56, "Remembrance of Things Past") that the rockman's Jewish bonafides were firmly established for the first time.
The recent issue explores the Thing's rough-and-tumble childhood on New York's Lower East Side. Born Benjamin Jacob Grimm, he navigated the tough corners of Yancy Street. The Thing's father was an alcoholic, and his brother and idol Daniel was a member of the local Yancy Street Gang. After his brother and his parents died when Grimm was still a teenager, he escaped the Lower East Side to the comforts of his Uncle Jake's house. He wound up heading off to college, and eventually became a pilot. On a mission to outer space, Grimm and his three fellow crewmen were drenched with cosmic radiation that mutated them, giving them each superpowers. The four became Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch, Invisible Woman and the Thing — a.k.a. the Fantastic Four.
"Kirby always thought of the Thing as being Jewish," said Marvel senior editor Tom Brevoort. According to Brevoort, Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzburg) kept in his house, but never published, an early drawing of the Thing in full rabbinical regalia.
But while Kirby might have intended from day one for the Thing to be Jewish, and fans familiar with Kirby's career might have suspected as much, the superhero's Judaism had never been revealed in the pages of Marvel.
"It had never shown up in a Fantastic Four [issue], so was not what we considered canon," Brevoort said. The decision to reveal the Thing's Jewish roots came almost whimsically, he added, when Carl Kesel, the co-author of the recent issue, said that he would like to write a story about the Thing's past.
Brevoort noted that a high percentage of the early comic book artists were Jewish (Stan Lee, for example was born Stan Lieber). "Quite a few of them disguised themselves — that's what you did to get your foot in the door," Brevoort said, adding that the creations of these closeted Jews were, quite often, disguised personal stories.
In "Remembrance of Things Past," the Thing provides his own explanation for why it took so long for his Judaism to come out.
Mr. Sheckerberg, a pawnbroker from the old neighborhood, says to the Thing: "All these years in the news, they never mention you're Jewish. I thought maybe you were ashamed of it a little."
"Nah, that ain't it," replies the Thing. "Anyone on the internet can find out, if they want. It's just... I don't talk it up, is all. Figure there's enough trouble in this world without people thinkin' Jews are all monsters like me."
But, in fact, it seems fans are taking the news quite well, Brevoort said. "We had no idea that the response would be like this," Brevoort told the Forward.
He said that since the issue came out, Marvel has been inundated with hundreds of positive letters and e-mails, with responses ranging from "Wow! I never knew that — cool, like me!" to "I always suspected."
"The closest thing we got to a negative response was [a reader who said], 'It was a good story — but wasn't there a 1974 issue in which the Fantastic Four were all celebrating Christmas together?'"
But the new issue makes it clear that the Thing is no mere token Jew; he's not some Jew who's never seen the inside of a synagogue. Although the Thing no longer attends services, he still remembers his prayers. Kneeling over Mr. Sheckerberg, who appears to be dead, the Thing recites the Sh'ma.
Of course, let's face it, the Thing doesn't look Jewish. Nor does he exhibit qualities — studiousness, passivity, intelligence — that many readers probably associate with Jews.
"He certainly doesn't fit that stereotype," Brevoort said.
Michael Derosa, who has read the "Fantastic Four" since the 1960s, described the Thing as one of his favorite characters. "I was wondering about him," he said. "He's not good-looking, and more people fear him than love him."
But, Derosa added, deep inside the Thing is a good man. "What people look like on the outside [isn't important]," he said. "The inside's important. Isn't that a Jewish ethic?"
(
GIF courtesy of R. Schwachöfer)
UPDATE: Jonathan Adler, of NRO's Corner, added this:
I'm hardly an expert on Jewish law, so it seemed obvious to me that The Thing couldn't have observed the Sabbath as a member of the Fantastic Four. A more informed reader, however, notes that it is permissible to violate the Sabbath in order to save someone's life. While this might not excuse Senator Lieberman's decision to campaign for veep seven days a week, it would seem to allow The Thing to devote the occasional Saturday to fighting the evil machinations of Dr. Doom, Mole Man, Super-Skrull, and other assorted bad guys.
Actually, the
Corner was taken up with extensive discussion of superheroes and which ones might have been Jewish. Check out most any post from Monday July 29th.
Vouchers and Jewish day schools: Richard Just disses voucher proponents for
mis-reading Jewish Americans and Jewish organizations. He thinks that Jewish day schools are places of seclusion, when Jews only want to assimilate.
But as
Josh Kraushaar notes, Just seems to equate the day schools with yeshivas and ghettos.
It's apparent that Just hasn't visited a Jewish day school in his life. Nearly all Jewish day schools graduate well-rounded students, knowledgable about their religious heritage who make contributions to all aspects of life in America. They generally have rigorous secular academic programs, as well as the standard Jewish classes of: Hebrew, Bible, Rabbinics and Jewish History. Jewish day schools offer the best of both secular and religious education and many are non-denominational. Since when did raising children with knowledge of their religious traditions become "fundamentalist?" Unbelievable.
As the famed liberal attorney Alan Dershowitz has written many times, Jewish day school education is the key to Jewish continuity by giving world-class secular educations (much better than many public schools offer) and religious knowledge and values to be used in modern society. By misrepresenting Jewish day schools as enclosed yeshivas that teach students to memorize Torah leads Just to make manymistaken conclusions throughout his article.
For the record, I went to public schools all my life (including for university and grad school) -- I happened to have been lucky enough to attend what at the time counted as one of the best public high schools in the country. Among the most gifted of my classmates, a fair number had spent their elementary and middle school days in JDS. They seemed no worse for wear, at best. And to be frank, I'd have gladly traded my hellish middle school for the JDS.
"Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel" getting jiggy with Cynthia McKinney: The Inepundit notes that their latest Congressional report card gives its highest rating to - guess who -
a certain Georgia congresswoman.
Jay Leno on military security: from last night: "Parking lot attendants at the Pentagon are now routinely stopping every 30th car and asking the driver of that car if he or she is smuggling out any classified documents. And I tell ya, a lot of these spies are very clever. When asked, a lot of them go, 'Uh, no' ."
Suicide Hepatitis bombers? Israeli doctors have discovered a gruesome new way to catch hepatitis and possibly other blood-borne diseases - from the flying bone fragments of suicide bombers. They call it "the first report of
human bone fragments acting as foreign bodies in a blast injury."
"As a result of that case, all survivors of these attacks in Israel are now vaccinated for hepatitis B," say the doctors. They think embedded bone fragments should routinely be tested for diseases that might spread this way.
In theory, those could include four kinds of hepatitis, dengue fever, syphilis, CJD and possibly malaria.
The biggest fear is HIV: "these test kits are designed for blood. It is very hard to test bone," the doctors say, especially for a fragile virus like HIV. Only 50 cases of HIV/AIDS have been reported in the West Bank and Gaza, according to a 2000 report from the Palestinian National Authority Ministry of Health. But the true extent of infection is difficult to assess.
Sadaam calls for October referendum in Iraq: Saddam Hussein has called for a national referendum in October on his leadership.
In the last referendum held in 1995, Saddam won 99.96% of the vote.
99.96% of the vote ... and that was without winning any of the Jewish vote.
courtesy of Mike Sultan
I'm a big hit in the Prairies... thanks to the Wichita Eagle, which published my article on
college students and the war on terror.
Automatic v. Manual Transmission: My fiancee's gracious patience is being stretched as she tries to teach me to drive a stick shift. I personally believe the manual transmission is a plague upon this Earth. Just because most drivers on this planet drive a stick shift does not mean it is good. However, I have some doubts about my position, given my fiancee's love for the manual over the automatic.
I'm counting down the days until her lease is up and I can vainly try to convince her to get an automatic...
Our Ketubah! My fiancee and I chose our ketuba last night. It is a design by
Debra Band, who recently moved to the DC area. After several months of searching, we finally found one we both loved. I recommend Debra's artwork in general -- she does some amazing stuff. This particular ketubah has the entire text of the Song of Solomon running throughout.
The "Kosher Nostra Scam" on the American Consumer: There's a wacky e-mail urban legend making the rounds with a new twist on the old Jewish business conspiracy theories. It claims that certain symbols displayed on the packaging of a variety of grocery items signify that their manufacturers have paid a secret tax to the Jews. Guess what?
It ain't true.
Boycott Marriott! Unless you want to read the full story. Another e-legend circulating claims that the Marriott International hotel chain sent a letter to an Israeli travel agent addressed to "Jerusalem, Occupied Palestinian Area." This one is true,
but not so simple:
According to a Vice-President at Marriott Resorts, Inc., the basic details are correct: the chairman of an Israel-based travel agency did indeed receive a letter sent by Marriott bearing an address of "Jerusalem, Occupied Palestinian Area." However, that address was not the product of a deliberate decision by Marriott's corporate offices -- the letter was generated by Marriott's automated reservation and commission system, and the addresses used by that system are obtained from the database of a Swiss organization which registers travel agents all over the world. Someone at the Swiss organization changed the designation for Jerusalem, and that change was automatically picked up by Marriott's computers.
France ready to tackle anti-semitism? "Yes, we have a problem with anti-Semitic attacks against the Jewish community. Yes, most are perpetrated by young French Muslims and Arabs. Yes, many of these attacks are 'hate crimes'. When a synagogue is firebombed on Yom Kippur, it is absurd to claim that it doesn't constitute a hate crime because the attackers failed to spray paint the words 'Death to the Jews' on the temple's wall." Thus spoke France's new top cop, Nicolas Sarkozy -- the new interior minister -- when interviewed by the
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles (link requires subscription).
What are the obstacles in Sarkozy's path?
For starters, Mr. Sarkozy will have to change the culture of the French police. Since the outbreak of the latest Palestinian-Israeli conflict nearly two years ago, the Wiesenthal Center has logged 1,000 anti-Semitic attacks in France including the torching of synagogues, burning of Torah scrolls, beatings, physical intimidation and more.
Yet official police logs reflect none of the terror or horror. The attitude of law enforcement is best summed up by a notorious incident, when Arab thugs burst onto a school bus of Jewish children brandishing guns and smashing the windshield. An eight-year-old girl was hurt. The local police insisted on logging the incident merely as a "broken window."
Shortly thereafter, in the presence of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, President Jaques Chirac asserted that he had seen no evidence of an increase in anti-Semitic incidents. As a result of this official apathy, many French Jews have simply given up calling the police, instead opting to contact our grassroots SOS Truth and Security toll-free number, where legal volunteers still log in an average of three dozen cases of anti-Jewish harassment in metropolitan Paris every week.
... ... There is a growing awareness the French establishment must make a better effort to integrate the burgeoning Muslim population. There is a realization that a demographic time bomb could literally blow up in France's face. Thousands of disaffected, undereducated and unemployed Arab and Muslim youth are easy picking for al Qaeda-style imams, many of who draw their inspiration and funding from Iran, Libya and Algeria.
Put another way, the new Raffarin government has come to understand that even if all 700,000 French Jews left and the state of Palestine came into existence tomorrow, the challenge of reaching this increasingly disaffected and radicalized generation of young Moslems would remain. Indeed, one bloody episode last year brought home the specter of a new type of domestic terrorism, when 27-year-old Algerian Samir Berkara fired a bazooka at the car of Beziers' Deputy Mayor, Jean Farret, killing him instantly. He then opened fire on a SWAT team, shouting "Allah Akhbar" -- God is Great -- as he was shot by police.
Against this backdrop, Mr. Sarkozy insists, "We need to find a way to create an Islam of France, not merely Moslems in France."
Easier said than done. French officials and their counterparts in London and Berlin, who are used to structured relations with leaders of minority groups like the Jews, are finding it virtually impossible to do the same with the Muslim community. Firebrand imams, some of whom do not speak the language of the host country, have no interest in any relationship with authorities. Those individuals who are prepared to be spokesmen don't necessarily represent a significant constituency.
Richard Dawkins regrets signing onto academic boycott of Israel: Prof. Mona Baker, who fired two Israeli academics for the crime of being Israeli, is one of the signatories of a British-led petition sporting more than 700 (mainly European) academics. It was launched by Prof. Steven Rose of Britain's Open University. Signatories include some of the most eminent Oxford professors, including Colin Blakemore and Richard Dawkins. This organized "academic boycott" is part of a campaign to suspend European Union funding of Israeli universities (though not, of course, the EU's generous financing of Yasser Arafat). Surprisingly, 10 Israeli academics have also signed the petition.
One of the petition's original signers, Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, has since written the following to a member of HonestReporting:
I publicly expressed my regret at having signed the original letter. When I signed it, it was a measure of desperation... Steven Rose put the petition in front of me and I signed it (along with many others including Israelis, and Jews including Steven Rose himself) as an immediate gesture of solidarity with the Arabs of the occupied lands. Only later did I think through the implications of an academic boycott, and... hence my later recantation.
This does not make me think much higher of Dawkins, but it is a start.
On the brighter side, other academics are organizing
a petition against the petition.
Anti-Israel protest tomorrow: From Noon - 1 p.m., look for protestors outside the C St. entrance of the State department. The organizers, "American Muslims for Jerusalem," will probably not get a big crowd, but watch for it to get a lot of media play.
Last night's Crossfire:
BEGALA: Aaron, thank you very much, and thank Matthew Chance for that report from the Middle East.
How much will this latest Israeli attack in Gaza hurt the peace process? In the CROSSFIRE now, James Zogby of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee who came over just moments ago as this news was breaking, good enough to loan us his time. And Clifford May of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Gentlemen, thank you very much.
Jim, it's the American-Arab Institute. I always get that wrong. Sorry. Get that in the wrong order. This attack, the target
apparently from Matthew Chance's report, which is all I have now and wire copy, the target was the founder of the military wing of Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization, right?
JAMES ZOGBY, ARAB-AMERICAN INSTITUTE: Hamas has committed terrorist acts at hands. They also have hospitals and other social institutions that they run, but it has committed acts of terrorism. I have had no problems over the years in condemning them. They are wrong in what they've done, and they've exacerbated, I think, the problem. But as well Israel has exacerbated the problem going the other way.
There is no solution to violence by simply accelerating the violence. As Palestinians have had to learn and have to learn that violence isn't the end -- isn't the way to answer the occupation, Israelis have to learn that occupation and more violence isn't the way to stop the violence.
The way to stop it is, in fact, with a peace process. But we have never really gotten there. You know, I mean, the violence has
continued through all these years. He made a very important point when he noted that it was the assassination of Yahya Ayash that, in fact, exacerbated and ended a very prolonged period of calm back in the mid-'90s. The fact is that every time Israel takes this kind of position, it ends up simply creating a new round, and that's what we've got now. And it's a terrible tragedy, but America has to act to stop it.
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: Cliff, I'm interested, I don't think anybody, certainly not on this set, probably not around the world, is going to grieve really for the death of the founder of the military leader of Hamas. On the other hand, does strike me as kind of a blunt instrument that Israel used here, lobbing a missile into a building, killing a number of children, wounding 150 people. They are a very technologically advanced country, Israel, very. A lot of nuclear weapons. And yet there is this theme in its military operations that they tend to be blunt, bulldozing people's houses, strikes me as unnecessary and that it draws sympathy away in the international world from Israel.
CLIFF MAY, FEDERATION FOR THE DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: I think it does. But I think you also have to understand it's difficult to be subtle and use finesse in these circumstances. Hamas, as Jim rightly says, is a terrorist organization. Scores and scores of Israelis, citizens, not soldiers, not settlers, innocent children have been murdered by this terrorist organization, whose stated aim -- and it is candid about this -- is to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. That's what it intends to do, it doesn't kid around about that.
Now, it is important to recognize that Hamas leadership has been based in the -- in Gaza City. And Gaza City is a place the Israelis have not made incursions. They have not gone in there. If they did, it would be like Jenin, fighting door to door, plus there are bobby traps, plus there are roadblocks -- very hard to get in there.
Here is the real unfortunate part of this. Yasser Arafat had an obligation under the Oslo agreement. Under that agreement, he would get authority over the Gaza Strip, over the West Bank, and he was to use that authority to wipe out terrorism in those areas. He never did. And particularly Hamas in the Gaza Strip -- let me just finish, Jim, and then I promise I'll let you get back in -- you have the Hamas leadership living in villas by the sea, visited with their family by journalists as they play pool in their households, they lived perfectly openly, and unfortunately Arafat never went in and made the arrests he could have, and by the way...
ZOGBY: Actually, he did. Let's be clear with the record.
MAY: If he arrested this guy, he wouldn't be in his house with his family...
ZOGBY: Yet Arafat has been under arrest himself now for many, many months. The fact is that Arafat was able to do during the mid- '90s quite a bit to stem the tide of violence. What ended it was the assassination policy. What ended it was the settlement building. What ended it was the fact that the Netanyahu government, despite the appeals of this administration here in the United States, continued to provide obstacles and roadblocks.
You cannot have the authority in control with 60 percent unemployment, with 70 percent of the population in poverty.
MAY: All of this got worse once Arafat came back.
ZOGBY: No, it did not. In fact, in fact, what happened was Israel set up a protectionist -- almost -- have you been to Gaza? I have. It is like a concentration camp. Frankly speaking, it is.
(CROSSTALK)
ZOGBY: No, it has been a concentration camp before Oslo, and it got worse after.
MAY: Here is when it got worse. President Clinton took Yasser Arafat and he took Prime Minister Barak to Camp David and he sat them down and he made Barak offer Arafat everything he had ever asked for before...
ZOGBY: That's not true. And don't perpetuate this.
MAY: An independent state...
ZOGBY: It is not true.
MAY: Ninety-seven percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a capital in Jerusalem, the end to the settlement. He said no to that and sent off a wave of terrorism.
ZOGBY: That is (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
MAY: Now, that's the truth and you're trying to revise history. Everybody knows that's the way it was.
(CROSSTALK)
ZOGBY: ... end the distortions now. He did not -- he did not...
MAY: Clinton says so, Dennis Ross (ph) says so, who doesn't say so? Other than yourself and a few people who are Arafat sympathizers.
ZOGBY: In fact, Shlomo Ben-Ami and Yossi Beilin who are, in fact, chief negotiators on the Israeli side said that simply wasn't true. Understand -- if you want this, you have to deal with realities. are that Palestinians didn't get a generous offer from Barak.
MAY: Hamas wants to wipe out Israel.
(CROSSTALK)
ZOGBY: And Israel, under the current government, does not want to do anything but wipe the Palestinians off the face of the earth.
CARLSON: Let me ask you this question...
ZOGBY: We have a problem here. Both sides have a problem, and America has to play the middle road. We have not played the middle road since this administration was in place.
CARLSON: Nobody is arguing that the character who was assassinated today didn't deserve to be assassinated, but I think Mr. Zogby raises an interesting question, which is: Will Israel's action today reduce the number of suicide bombings, will it make the citizens of Israel any safer or will it make Palestinians any safer? It's hard to believe that it really will. Do you think it will?
MAY: Hamas is an organization dedicated to destruction of Israel through terrorism. I don't see there is anything you can do, anything you can offer, any appeasement or concession....
CARLSON: But as a practical matter?
MAY: As a practical matter, there is only one way to win when you're in a war. And if you have people trying to kill you, you must attack them at some point and remove them. That's what they were trying to do. The fact that this leader lives among civilians all the time, he and -- uses civilians as shields shouldn't stop the Israelis from trying to get him.
ZOGBY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) civilians, and that's not the way to deal with the problem either. Come on. Let's get real.
(CROSSTALK)
ZOGBY: We have got people on both sides...
(CROSSTALK)
ZOGBY: We have people on both sides who are committing murder. We have to find a way to stop it.
MAY: No, it's morally (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Stop it. If the Palestinians would stop the terrorism, they would have an independent state in six months.
(CROSSTALK)
ZOGBY: ... there is nothing but moral equivalence. Dead on both sides, victims on both sides, and we have to find a way to stop it, not take sides.
MAY: Stop the terrorism, don't ask for concessions for the terrorists.
BEGALA: Don't you see a difference, though, between what they metaphorically call collateral damage, which means innocent people being killed, which clearly happened here, apparently happened here -- clearly happened in Afghanistan when the American military was acting from 50,000 feet up and bombing villages, and the intentional targeting of civilians, which Hamas does? That's a huge difference. That's a difference between right and wrong.
ZOGBY: You know something? Unfortunately, your applause aside, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't cut. And I'll tell you why.
BEGALA: But Bush is not a murderer because we had civilian casualties in Afghanistan, right? He was doing the right thing.
ZOGBY: My friend, my friend, if I wanted to get that lady in the red hat right now and I took a shotgun and fired at the audience, I could say with all the people around her getting wounded, oh, it was just collateral damage, I didn't mean it, guys, really, forgive me.
The fact is is that when you do what they've done, you are responsible for the deaths of the innocent people around, because you did not do anything but put them at risk.
BEGALA: How is that different from our country...
ZOGBY: There is no difference. It is the same.
BEGALA: Our country is not responsible for the civilian deaths.
ZOGBY: Oh, you know something? We are -- we are responsible for civilian deaths in Afghanistan, because we used bad intelligence, we did not use the best of our abilities, and in fact, we victimized a lot of innocent people, and it's a shame.
CARLSON: Unfortunately, we are going to have to break now. Just as I'm getting irritated, we're going to have to switch topics and go to a commercial break. James Zogby, thanks very much for coming over and joining us. Cliff May, thank you.
ZOGBY: And next time, I'll wear a suit.
Rumors of coming war with Iraq:
More war clues -- this time from Britain -- with no prizes for naming the target: U.S. officials tell UPI Hears that Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce an emergency call-up of British Army reservists in early September. These sources say there has already been a substantial boost in Royal Air Force training flights, especially air-to-ground support missions. And in a crash program, British Challenger II main battle tanks and other key armored fighting vehicles are being taken out of mothballs and restored to full combat efficiency.
... A 5,000-strong Jordanian strike force is being trained by U.S. military advisers in the desert specifically to find and destroy Iraqi Scud missiles. In the event of an Iraqi offensive administration officials are concerned about western and southern "Scud boxes" that would target installations and forces in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Since the Scud has a fixed firing range, it has to be placed precisely at that range from the target in order to hit it. Taking out the launchers would reduce Saddam's ability to retaliate. One bit of comfort: the Scud is designed to deliver nuclear weapons. So much heat builds up in the nose cone of a Scud during launch that it would "fry" any chemical or biological warheads and render them harmless, said one U.S. analyst. "I don't see Saddam being able to use anything but high-explosive warheads," he said. (UPI Hears, July 22)
Burmese days - "that boy is our last hope": I love reading about Jewish life in obscure places, but this New York Times story takes the cake. It turns out that, before the Japanese occupation in World War II, Burma (now known as Myanmar) had some 2500 Jews. Times have changed.
"Of the remaining 20 Jews who live scattered around Myanmar today, only one young man is likely to marry here, but he will have to travel abroad to find a Jewish wife to carry on his family line. This last hope for the Jews of Myanmar is
Sammy Samuels, 22, a bright and talkative student who already carries on his shoulders the burden of his heritage."
UPDATE: Another cohort of Jews near Myanmar, 100 of them, just made Aliyah. "They call themselves the Bnei Menashe, descendants of Menashe, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. ... There they will join 500-odd members of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo tribe who have done Aliyah... since it was discovered that they are the children of Menashe.
"This batch of Bnei Menashe are sponsored by their relatives who are already in Israel," Lemuel Henkhogen Haokip, general secretary of the Bnei Menashe Council (BMC) told
The Pioneer. (link courtesy of Joe Katzman via the Kolkata Libertarian)
Anti-semitism in the U.S.A.: Nat Hentoff is reacting to a Leon Wieseltier article on "Jewish panic" about an impending second holocaust. To be frank, I think Hentoff is over-reacting to an under-reaction to an over-reaction. Wiesltier underplayed a lot of different things, as Hentoff
demonstrates I was surprised when in May of this year, Leon Wieseltier — in the New Republic and on National Public Radio — referred to the "Jewish panic" in the United States about the rise of anti-Semitism in the Arab world, Europe and here. By contrast to what Jews had long experienced in Europe, Mr. Wieseltier said, "even the anti-Semitic prejudice that Jews have experienced in this country — being refused a room in a hotel in Saratoga Springs — is not like a pogrom."
I doubt if the first-generation Americans in my Jewish ghetto in Boston had even heard of Saratoga Springs or would have had the money to try to get a room there. But they knew that the incendiary forgery, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," was being sold on Sundays outside churches in the city. They knew that, on weeknights, young bullyboys — avenging the death of their Lord — descended on our neighborhood.
As a reporter, I have covered this undying bigotry in these United States ever since. I saw "The Protocols" re-emerge in campus newspapers, published by acolytes of Louis Farrakhan. The late Khalid Abdul Muhammad, invited to speak at Columbia University by the black student union in the fall of 1990, began by praising his "guide," Louis Farrakhan, and then added, "I thought that should be said at Columbia Jewniversity."
In a letter to the Columbia Daily Spectator, Rachel Stoll wrote, "As a white Jewish American, I'll just stand in the middle of a circle comprising . . . Khalid Abdul Muhammad and let them all hurl large stones at me. From recent events and statements made on this campus, I gather this will be a good cheap method of making these people feel good." Jewish students at other campuses also wondered, in the 1980s and 1990s, "Why do they hate us so?"
On March 6 of this year, the self-ordained Rev. Matt Hale, leader of the World Church of the Creator — exercising his First Amendment rights — spoke at the Chicago Public Library on "the history and present of Jewish ritual murder," the century-old claim that Jews murder Christian children before certain of their holidays. The charge is also familiar to present-day readers of the press in Arab countries.
At San Francisco State University in May, students trying to break up a pro-Israel rally regretted that "Hitler did not finish the job." On June 25, Jonathan Schanzer and Daniel Pipes of the New York Post reported that "even after this incident, pro-Palestinian students continued to use a San Francisco State College Web page to engage in Holocaust denial and accuse Jews of ritual murder . . . At the University of Colorado at Boulder, students desecrated an Israeli flag and chalked anti-Semitic slogans on the main campus walkway."
About 10 years ago, as I was lecturing at Michigan State University on homegrown anti-Semitism, a well-organized phalanx of black students tried to shout me down. I silenced them briefly by quoting from one of the last speeches by my friend Malcolm X (a friend, I told them, even when he was in the Nation of Islam): "We don't judge you because you're white, we don't judge you because you're black. We judge you because of what you do."
When the shouting resumed, a young woman stood up: "I am a Jew. Nobody knows that by looking at me, so I hear worse things than blacks do — because the bigots don't know they're talking about me. I hear all the time that Jews should be driven out of every country."
I have been taken as a Greek, an Armenian, a Lebanese, and like her, all my life I've heard anti-Semitic comments not only from blacks but from varieties of Americans. But Mr. Wieseltier said on National Public Radio that "Anti-Semitism never enjoyed any legitimacy whatever in this country." Never?
Now, he would have no trouble finding active anti-Semitic Web sites. And in April, a construction site at the University of California, Santa Clara, was marked by the graffiti: "God hates Jews!" One can say racism is no longer "legitimate" in America, but it, like anti-Semitism, has not died away — whether you call it legitimate or not.
Luckily, things are not as dire as he makes it seem. All kinds of "ism"s have not died away. Many of them thrive in academia. But thankfully most of them are on the fringe. They become worrisome when they travel beyond that fringe.
While we are measuring anti-semitism in America, how about the Anti-Defamation League's latest
anti-semitism report? I never wrote anything substantive on it when it came out. The research/survey methodology were sound so there was no reason for me to get professionally involved. I do feel they may have over-stated the case for precisely the reason identified by
Samantha M. Shapiro -- some of their questions used to identify the phenomenon are vague and out-dated. This is mostly in order to maintain continuity back to their first report in 1964 (changing the questions asked would make measuring trends over time less useful). But it is still note-worthy, and casts some doubt on the ADL report's results.
UPDATE: And yet, at least some authorities have recognized where we have real problems with anti-semitism. Governor Grey Davis of California has asked the heads of two major state university systems to
take action against anti-Semitic incidents on their campuses.
New blog on the block: Frequent Kesher Talk reader Lynn B. has started her own blog,
In Context. Her first two topics? Slamming Michael Lerner's TIKKUN campaign against Israel and picking apart a Baltimore Sun article by Ahmed Bouzid (president of “Palestine Media Watch”).
Kudos to friends and family for throwing my fiancee and I a fabulous "jack and jill" shower on Saturday. We combined a picnic with sports, a little of the typical shower "games," great presents and great fun.
Go to Luzon creek: 6 of us were there yesterday cleaning this creek (in Rock Creek Park) from top to bottom -- and I was in hip-waders. Luckily, no cameras were available. But that creek is now damn clean, especially without all the condoms, car parts, dirty socks, unidentified plastic bits, etc.
Now, DCers can go and enjoy.
Link of the Day: "A beautiful wife makes for happiness and her husband's days are doubled." (Talmud, Yebamot 63b)
I found this in the Jewish Wisdom Database:
http://www.J.co.il
Money not yet flowing to McKinney's opponent: Today's Roll Call reports, "After Artur Davis (D) ousted a five-term incumbent in Alabama last month in a runoff fueled by Mideast politics and out-of-state money, some strategists were privately buzzing that former Judge Denise Majette (D) could be on track to do the same in Georgia's 4th district. Majette is challenging Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D), who has been beset by controversy over her own views on foreign policy and the war on terror, in an Aug. 20 Democratic primary. But new financial disclosure reports indicate there are some big differences between the Georgia race and Davis' defeat of Rep. Earl Hilliard (D). Federal Election Commission reports filed last week show Majette raised almost the same amount as McKinney during the second quarter reporting period, but she fell far short of meeting the incumbent's cash-on-hand total. The Congresswoman raised $263,000 in April, May and June, compared to the $246,000 Majette raked in. McKinney, meanwhile, ended last month with a war chest of $463,000, more than four times the $99,000 Majette showed in the bank. Davis' defeat of Hilliard gained international attention after money from outside Alabama flowed into both candidates' coffers. Davis was heavily supported by the Jewish community, while Hilliard was backed by pro-Arab groups and affiliated interests. Both Hilliard and McKinney, viewed as hostile to Israel by some Jewish political groups, voted against a resolution passed by the House earlier this year that condemned Palestinian suicide bombings. ... But a month and a half later, when the candidates filed pre-primary reports, Davis had outraised Hilliard by more than a 2-to-1 margin and had more cash on hand. However, the new FEC reports indicate that Majette has not benefited from the same monetary windfall that helped propel Davis' candidacy. According to Majette's campaign, 90 percent of the contributions she has received have come from individuals in Georgia."
