Kesher Talk: 08/31/2003

Friday, September 05, 2003

Jews in odd places: Central Asia: Jewsweek examines the Bukharian Jews--so-called because they hail from the city of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, and the Central Asian countries of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan that surround it--who live in Queens, NY.

The Bukharan Jews trace their ancestry to an Israelite clan that never made it back from Babylon after exile in the 7th century B.C.E. In Bukhara, they survived for centuries subjugated to one conquering influence after another, first the Persians, under whom they learned to speak Farsi, then the Muslims, then the Mongols, then the Muslims again. Some traditions say the three magi who came to Bethlehem bearing gifts for Baby Jesus were rabbis from Bukhara (known in the bible as Hador), though the Bukharan Jews were essentially cut off from the rest of the Jewish world for 2000 years.

Under Soviet rule, anti-Semitism got worse, and the establishment of Israel fueled frictions with the Jews' Muslim neighbors. Finally, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, refusenik status was lifted and some 100,000 Bukharan Jews emigrated. Half wound up in Israel, while nearly all the rest -- more than 40,000 -- came here, to Queens.

Previous discussions of the Bukharan Jews on Kesher Talk can be found here, here and here.

Who's afraid of feminism?

The silence of the 'large F' Feminists is deafening.

sniffs a commenter on Kate's blog in response to a list of outrages against women that are not news to feminists.

Pardon me while I rant.

This canard seems to be rampant in the blogosphere and is well on its way to becoming a pundit's truism that bears no relation to reality, kind of like Phyllis Shlafly's defeat-the-ERA drumbeat against unisex bathrooms. Two examples from this week alone:

But the women's organizations are busy trying to get women golfers into Augusta. . . . They talked about the Taliban before the US military went in, but now that's not on their agenda. Sickening.

Scroll down: sage nodding of heads all around, including a successful female lawyer who I know ought to know better. No one doubts the assertion is true. Glenn sniffs:

Why don't we hear more of this kind of thing from feminists?

Why don't you stop beating your wife, Glenn? Oh - you say you don't? Well, why didn't you say so? What's that? You say I should check whether my accusation is true before making it?

What gets me is: here is a self-identified group of people who know that a lot of important news doesn't make it onto the front page. They know to dig in obscure journals and blogs and read between the lines to get the scoop on all sorts of domestic and international happenings. But if Gloria Steinem wasn't on "Good Morning America" last week denouncing female genital mutilation (although she and Robin Morgan wrote about it before it was on anyone else's radar screen), they assume the feminist movement is MIA.

What happened to all that investigative reporting and not taking conventional wisdom for granted that the blogosphere is famous for?

Have any of you picked up a copy of Ms. lately? Ever? When I used to read it regularly there was always news about Third World feminists and American allies challenging various oppressions. The Feminist Majority Foundation was trying to publicize the Taliban problem for years before anyone else cared. (And no one cared because of how they treated women, but because the Taliban harbored the gang that attacked us.) Guess what, Glenn? They haven't stopped. You just aren't hearing about it. But you aren't looking for it either. How hard would it be to go to their website and, you know, check your preconceptions?

I'm glad Kate's comment section is outraged by oppression of women in third world countries. Most of these cultures have had their own feminist movements for decades, work together with Western feminists (and disagree with them too), and periodically hold big conferences where these issues are addressed. So, believe me, they know what they are up against, and I bet they would appreciate your help.

Ironically, most of the "where are the feminists now?" crowd are feminists: feminism's successes are Exhibit B (right after capitalism) in their list of Western values worth fighting for. They proudly compare the personal autonomy, self-confidence, and smarts of American women to the subjugation of women in Islamic countries. And indeed, they recognize that the success of feminism is crucial to global freedom and prosperity, even as they resist giving feminism credit for its achievements because most self-identified feminists are Leftists.

I agree with many of the critiques of typical feminist politics, but there are many flavors of feminism and disagreements about how to proceed. It's not that hard to find your own place to stand without smearing the movement that played a huge role in bringing us to the (imperfect but impressive) state of equality and opportunity that we want to export to the Middle East. Especially with a dumb cliche that 15 minutes of googling would show you isn't even true.

PS The Ms. blog makes the same point with some additional links, and leftist bloggers with whom I rarely agree on anything have also thoroughly debunked this particular piece of inanity.

UPDATE: Meryl and Ilyka and Allison and more Allison and Lesley and Diane all chime in. (Diane is living in an alternate universe, and so are the Brothers Judd, but I've said as much as I want to in some of the comment threads.) (I don't visit Dean's World anymore - life is too short.)

Tangentially relevant to my post: Women do not all agree on everything or like the same things: Exhibit A.

Thanks to Meryl for the link to the Afgan feminist group that first publicized the Taliban misogynist hell. I don't know how I overlooked them, but I'm sure they were on at least one link compendium I linked to above. (Mostly I just googled on phrases like "muslim feminist" and "feminist history" and "lies about feminism" (which brought back far more links to sites about "the lies of feminism") and sifted through what came up. See? Not so hard. I did link directly to Ms. because I knew the magazine reliably had international feminist news, and to the '95 NGO Women's Conference in Beijing because I knew a few people who had attended.)

UPDATE: Ilyka fisks the Kay Whatserface essay that Dean thinks is the death-blow to feminism. Like Glenn, Dean is so eager for feminism to be wrong that he doesn't bother to fact-check. And neither does Kay Whatserface, which makes it an easy fisking for Ilyka.

Thursday, September 04, 2003

Ellul countdown. Last week I linked to a wonderful commentary on Psalm 27 which can be used as a guide to self-examination during the month of Ellul, leading up to and preparing for the Yamim Nora'im. (As part of our spiritual preparation we recite this psalm everyday from the first of Ellul through Hoshanah Rabbah.) You don't have to be Jewish, or even religious, to find this moving and useful.

I have divided Psalm 27 into four sections with the thought in mind that you might like to concentrate on one section during each of the four weeks of Elul, as you prepare for your own teshuvah. I have correlated these four sections to four steps of repentance.

Last week: Responsibility.
This week: Regret.

Face time. While browsing my archives for other things I came upon this July update on the International Solidarity Movement conference planned for Rutgers in October (which has since been moved to Ohio State - more about that later).

Which reminds me that I met Steve Silver at a Shabbat service and potluck dinner in Riverside Park last Friday. Once we started talking about our blogs 5-6 people wanted to know their names, so my online and face-to-face lives are now slightly less distinct than they were. (I am not trying to be anonymous, but neither am I in a hurry to have everyone I know read KT; it makes me self-conscious.)

Anyway, in the course of fisking Chris Hedges' glowing portrait of her in the NYTimes, Steve mentioned that some of his Rutgers friends knew and disliked New Jersey ISM organizer Charlotte Kates, who made a name for herself by her zealousness (as befits an ex-Scientologist jumping from one cause to another). Now it turns out that - like most zealots - she has alienated the members of her own group who actually want to win friends and influence people, as opposed to just being self-righteous and doctrinaire.

Seven of New Jersey Solidarity's 25 members — representing all of the group's Arab members — resigned in protest recently, as the group pushed an increasingly radical anti-Israel agenda explicitly calling for the destruction of Israel. These seven formed a splinter group that aired its concerns on a pro-Palestinian Internet message board.

"NJS members have recently been involved in actions that have been thoughtless and immoral," wrote the seven dissidents. "Those who prefer reckless rhetoric have tried amending the mission statement to include 'Israel has no right to exist' and have openly welcomed the idea of inviting Hamas to events. We have had debates against steering committee persons who hold tight to the idea that there are no Israeli civilians and when confronted with 'Even the kids?' the reply was 'Yes, everyone's fair game.' This has been escalating for a number of months now. It has gone well past the point of return."

Faced with the New Jersey group's growing radicalism, the conference's organizing committee last week voted by the requisite two-thirds majority to move the third North American Student Conference on the Palestine Solidarity Movement — scheduled for October 10 to October 12 — from Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.J., to Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio.

(Well, I appreciate the attempt to insist on human decency, but I still don't see much daylight between the two groups.)

In the same article, Charles Lenchner of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel says of ISM and their ilk:

"They're not making a difference between selling weapons and Israel existing as a country . . . I don't have a moral problem with divestment. I think it's an unwise strategy in Israel's case because in order to achieve peace you have to convince them that it's in both societies' interest. Instead of demonizing one side and glorifying the other, you have to point to shared interests."

That's my litmus test for any supposed Israeli-Palestinian "peace" group: Do they demonize one side? Are they for a two-state solution? Do they rush to the territories straight from Ben Gurion Airport without ever spending any time in Israel talking to regular Israelis? Do they truly renounce violence as a means, or do they talk "nonviolence" while defending violent acts, making excuses for doing so, and engaging in their own attempts at violent intimidation?

There are numerous genuine peace, and reconciliation, and mutual project, and dialogue groups. (I have the most hope for the joint business ventures.) Somehow you never hear about any of these efforts from groups like ISM. Not as glamorous as throwing your body in front of bomb factories, I guess. And, you know, you might have to wear a tie once in a while.

UPDATE: Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of ISM and blushing bride of Adam "I am not a Jew but I play one on TV news" Shapiro, issued a communique on the subject of the Jerusalem bus bombing. True to form, she bitches about being expected to mention it at all, and blames it on . . . the Occupation.

Return of Son of Muslim Comedy Night. Diane doesn't think Muslim comics are funny, and has some good advice for them. When I wrote about Muslim comics I also came to the conclusion that Jews know some things about comedy that Muslims don't.

Jewish American war heroes live on: On a quiet side street in northwest Washington, a world away from the millions of tourists who throng the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, stands the modest, little-visited National Museum of American Jewish Military History.

I've yet to visit the museum, but JTA has a profile.

Culture wars.

NOTE: if you are looking for the feminism post, it's here. I took it offline and reworked it and reposted it.

Okay, culture wars. Sometimes a topic really gets me riled up and I post a lot on other people's comment threads. This comment was getting really long so I just decided to put it here:

You can't enjoy all these cute heirloom fruits and vegetables that are all the rage now unless others save the seeds and plant them and learn the growing methods, and you can't enjoy all these exotic ethnic musics and clothes and art and cuisines - and religious paths that some of you sample like appetizers, yoga one week and sweatlodge the next and kabbalah the next - unless there are distinct healthy cultures being preserved at the root of each of them.

You need a critical mass of people with a certain way of life and attitude toward reality to perpetuate a particular food, music, language, philosophy, way of life. Once it's gone, it's gone. Its loss is as devastating to the richness of human history as the extinction of a species is to an ecosystem.

If I live in an area where there aren't enough Jews who know the nusach and Hebrew text of the daily prayer service to make a minyan every day (plus people who can gabbai and leyn Torah on Mondays and Thursdays, and lead the services) it doesn't get done. That implies a critical mass of both knowledge and desire, which has to be passed on.

It is of vast importance to me that this continues - it doesn't have a whole lot to do with God per se (for me - YMMV), but with the sounds and feels and textures of the rituals themselves (in addition to the necessity of a quorum of ten Jews needed to recite certain parts of the liturgy, including the Mourner's Kaddish). I won't try to explain why, because I don't have to justify it to outsiders. I am sure many other ethnic/religious groups feel the same way about various aspects of their culture, and I "get" what that is about for them. People who can only identify the desire to continue a rich complex way of life with "victimhood" or "separation" don't "get it."

Modern (or post-modern?) people want to have multi-ethnic variety available to them as some sort of exotic decoration to their lives, while at the same time dissing the love and belonging and commitment, and - yes, separation and distinction - that make genuine cultural expression possible.

If you think all cultural alliegance is stupid, then you should only eat MacDonalds, listen to synth, and wear clothes from the Gap. Maybe you do - that's fine for you. Some of us have other deep soul needs, and we aren't asking you permission to nourish them. We are happy to put on show-and-tell sessions, and some of our groups aren't restricted to those born into them (there's probably more interest in conversion to Judaism now than any time since the Roman Empire). Some are hard to join, but possible if they really speak to you - for example, I had a very WASP friend who married a Singaporean and was accepted into that notoriously clannish culture because he "got it" - they called him an "egg": white on the outside and yellow on the inside.

If you aren't drawn to a particular culture, fine. You don't have to have one. But I get the impression that some of you are really jealous of those who do, and that's why you put us down so much. If you are really okay with not having one of your own, you shouldn't care if we do. And if you do enjoy all that multi-ethnic background color in your life, at least respect where it comes from.

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Alternative movie listings. What Matt forgot to mention in his oh-so-true expose of the conformity of "alternative newsweeklies" is that very few people even read them for their cutting edge political positions and trenchant reviews of obscure performance art.

In fact, very few people read them. We pick them up for the movie and theater listings. And the apartment and phone sex ads. And the personals. And Rob Brezny and Dan Savage and Tom Tomorrow. Yawn. (via Instapundit)

News of the Weird. Weird crime of the month. (Susanna considers the possibilities.) Just as weird, in fact, as this one. Maybe it's time to start a "Bizarre Assault by Complete Strangers" Watch.

How many mitzvot can dance on the head of a pin? The only point I ever had to make about the Alabama 10 Commandments controversy - which I made in several blog comment threads - is excellently laid out here. I'm sure Judge Roy Bean (or whatever his name is) doesn't even know there are more than one version.

This is an interesting solution - kind of a variation on the Noachide commandments.

Sort of related: Tyler Cowen reviews Kieslowski's Decalogue film series. I found all of those films engrossing and several of them very moving, and I would see the series again without hesitation.

UPDATE: How many Commandments are there, anyway?

Jews in odd places: Cuba: Israel's Birthright program, started three years ago, arranges 10-day tours for Jews from countries around the world. While Fidel Castro has allowed Jewish Cubans to go to Israel in the past for conferences and conventions, August 7 was the first time that a Birthright tour was approved. It took the Cuban group a month to get government permission for eight young Cuban Jews to make the trip.

Cuba's Jewish community started with a very small migration of Jews from the United States to Cuba after the Spanish-American war. Then more Jews immigrated to Cuba from Turkey. In the 1920s and 1930s, Jews fleeing persecution arrived in Cuba. By 1959 the community had grown to 15,000. After Fidel Castro came to power many fled. About 1,200 Jews live in Cuba today.

Castro broke off relations with Israel in 1973, like most other third-world jerk-offs.

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Harvard Radical. You can read the The NYTimes profile of Harvard president Larry Summers for no charge here.

The antiwar Left hits bottom and keeps digging Dept. As Damian Penny notes, the historical revisionism is already beginning.

NOTE: I haven't mentioned before that Damian and I had a very enjoyable dinner when he was in New York a few weeks ago. It was fun watching someone "from the sticks" express such unjaded enjoyment of our over-touristed town. (I still wish I had contacted Damian early enough to do the Empire State Building with him - I haven't been up there since I was a kid, and that something that has to be done with out-of-town visitors.)

Baghdad 2003 = Prague 1990 Dept. Like I keep saying, Baghdad 2003 = Prague 1990.

One of the more bizarre sights to be seen on Baghdad’s streets is men in Day-Glo Lycra pounding along the highway on racing cycles in the mid-morning sun. . . .

“Everything got stolen by the looters, including spare parts for the bikes,” said Abbas. “We used to have 40 of these Bianchi (Italian-made) cycles which are worth about $1600 each. We found many of them on sale again at the local black market for $50. They raised the price to $300 when they found out that the bikes had been used by members of the national team, saying ‘This is our share of the oil!’”

(via Buzzmachine)

Jews in odd places: Azerbaijan: In the highlands of northern Azerbaijan, a community of Jews has quietly thrived in a mainly Islamic region. Legend has it that the mountain Jews of Azerbaijan are descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel, having fled the Holy Land after the destruction of the first temple in 722 b.c. They settled in the mountains of northern Azerbaijan roughly two centuries ago, after being forced to flee from what was then Persia.

Hardened by centuries of self-defense and self-reliance, and free of the anti-Semitism and pogroms that plagued the Jews of Eastern Europe, these mountain Jews are a proud, tough-minded, patriarchal lot. Respected as horsemen and marksmen, some of them were among the first fighters in Jewish Palestine.

But every year, fewer Jews are living — and dying — here.

The paucity of jobs and economic hardship common here since the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Communist system has compelled thousands of Jewish mountain men to venture abroad in search of work, often leaving their wives and children behind or resettling with their families in places like Israel, New York or Moscow, which now has its own cemetery for mountain Jews.

Monday, September 01, 2003

This week's Pintele Yid recommendation - For our gentile friends and Jews who want to rediscover their heritage - recommending quintessentially Jewish cultural works (books, TV specials, CDs, Torah teachers, poets, websites, and more) which transport you inside a Jewish skin and show you the world through Jewish eyes.

Last week's recommendation.
Week 8 recommendation.
Week 7 recommendation.
Week 6 recommendation.
Week 5 recommendation.
Week 4 recommendation.
Week 3 recommendation.
Week 2 recommendation.
Introduction to the series and first recommendation.

Down to Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life, Arthur Waskow.
This book is about Jewish practice as a life path, by a tirelessly inventive liturgist, a prolific poster to many Jewish email lists, and a passionate progressive activist who dearly loves his tradition and people. You could call Waskow the anti-Douglas Rushkoff. His suggestions can be very radical, but they are always built firmly on tradition and a close reading of original sources, and he works within the mainstream Jewish community (albeit on its left wing) instead of positioning himself as an iconoclastic gadfly. It's not hard to understand which approach I have more respect for.

Whatever you think of Waskow's politics, this book embodies the very Jewish tradition of reinterpreting sacred texts with respect for both tradition and contemporary life. This is the kind of invigorating God-wrestling (the literal Hebrew meaning of Yisra-el) that has kept Judaism vital for centuries.

Sunday, August 31, 2003

The sorrow and the pity. Bret Stephens is pissed.

We are talking about a country that insists on its "exception," which is only true in the sense that it actually conforms to every caricature about it: vain, cowardly, conniving, intellectually superficial, self-deceiving, politically and socially corrupt, with low moral standards (except when it comes to standing in judgment over the rest of the world), fundamentally anti-American and pervasively anti-Semitic.

But I understate.

Tell us how you really feel, Bret.

But he goes into remorseless detail about how France has persistantly and boneheadedly screwed itself up, so read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Dissident Frogman reports that about 50 victims of the heat wave have been purposefully left in the morgue by their relatives, who don't want to pay funeral costs.

UPDATE: And no one bashes the French like Sylvain Galineau, who knows whereof he speaks. Fun comments too.

Cool Jewish stuff. A recreation of Nazareth as it was in Jesus' time, in Nazareth itself.

Another pop singer into Jewish music. I'm going to have to dig out my Specials CD. . . .

Via Diane, an interview with a Moroccan Israeli Jewish Amazigh poet.

A photo from this year's National Havurah Committee Summer Institute (from one of the people who led the extremely humid but fervently melodic and sociable Shabbat service and potluck in Riverside Park last Friday night).

Kesher Talk

Friday, September 05, 2003

Thursday, September 04, 2003

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Monday, September 01, 2003

Sunday, August 31, 2003

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