Comments on: Racism, Amalek and Videotape

By: Joe Mustich

Joe Mustich — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:56:01 +0000

it’s time for one democratic and secular country in palestine – israel, like the us or switzerland.

cheers, from new england

By: levi

levi — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:15:15 +0000

you forgot to mention the midian episode in deut. 31

By: How Not to Read a Holy Book

How Not to Read a Holy Book — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:46:04 +0000

[...] a follow-up to an earlier post, I have a new column in Moment magazine on the Chabad rabbi who recently wrote that “The only [...]

By: This Week’s Links « Moment Magazine Blog

This Week’s Links « Moment Magazine Blog — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:18:52 +0000

[...] Moment columnist Gershon Gorenberg traces racism across American/Israeli lines. [SouthJerusalem] [...]

By: george hilborn

george hilborn — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:49:27 +0000

Over the years in handling DUIL cases in Michigan (35 years) I have found my good friend o6 ,that people express their true feelings when loaded not the contrary. Most folks excuse drunken declarations for the aforesaid reasons given ( the booze was talking ,BS)The speakers know they won’t be held accountable . Racism is a misnomer as used and really has no meaning unless you are talking about a specific race not a people primarilly identified by ethnicity or religion. Under the patina of skin coloration we are all the same,so let’s call the matter discussed here by it’s proper name-bigotry.

By: Ruth Canaani

Ruth Canaani — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:25:21 +0000

Who cares?
yawn

By: claskov

claskov — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:39:54 +0000

Blumenthal cites the high number of viewings the piece received as though that were some kind of validation of its significance. The same argument could be made for pornography.

More important, American Jews voted for Obama in greater numbers, as a proportion of their overall percentage of the population, than any other ethnic or religious group, with the exception of African-Americans.

Blumenthal’s piece is not merely divorced from context; it is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. American Jews remain at the vanguard of progressivism when matters of civil rights or race are at issue.

Blumenthal is just another trashy smut-peddler, plying his wares under the pretext of being some kind of noble crusader.

By: dave

dave — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:14:46 +0000

Kudos to Gershom for taking the time to render a proper analysis of the ‘drunken Jews’ video and concluding that Blumenthal is guilty to some extent of shoddy journalism.
What I notice about this piece (other than its ubiquity on the internet) is that the producer AND co-producer’s name are always mentioned with the video. This is a standard youtube pastiche, not Woodward and Bernstein uncovering Watergate. I can’t recall any similar piece where the producer’s name is featured so prominently.
I call this whole episode “some people will do anything to get famous”.

By: aliyah06

aliyah06 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:31:48 +0000

I cannot believe the furor over a bunch of absolutely sotted American college students’ rantings in a bar. I’ve done a lot of DUI cases….you would not be surprised to hear the garbage that comes out of peoples’ mouths when they’ve had too much to drink. No, it isn’t what they really believe. It’s that they’re REALLY drunk and the brain is in neutral and the mouth on autopilot. Lots of machismo BS driven more by hormones and alcohol than hidden agendas.

By: Raghav

Raghav — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:36:28 +0000

I think Ploni’s telling of history leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, while I agree that neither modern racism nor anti-racism are abstract, acultural concepts, they’re by no means exclusively American Christian ones. (Were the Jewish anti-apartheid activists in South Africa in thrall to an alien ideology?) Nor were they the sole province of the Reform movement: who were Abraham Heschel or Saul Berman, chopped liver?

More importantly, though, both the kids in the video and Rabbi Friedman are (whatever they might say) active participants in the discourse of racism, not outsiders looking in. And this discourse is no more foreign to Judaism than Zionism itself. How much better to openly recognize this fact than to pretend that a Judaism uninfluenced by non-Jewish ideas is desirable—or even possible.