What is relevant is that George Allen is a racist. He hangs out with the Council of Conservative Citizens. He uses racial slurs in public. He hangs up the Confederate flag. He is a racist.

This should not come as a surprise. Since Nixon's Southern Strategy, racism has been the fuel that has powered the Republican Party in the South. It has been their ticket to a national majority. From Reagan in Philadelphia, Mississippi, to Willie Horton, to the current immigration debate, the Republican Party uses racism as a tool to win elections. In spite of recent protests that they are trying to shed their "race-baiting image", race baiting for the benefit of white audiences is what they do. Usually they use code words or try to conceal it so that it isn't obvious to moderate whites. It is just unfortunate George Allen is dumb enough to do it in front of a guy holding a video camera.

Thanks, John. My apologies. Next time, I'll do it right. mj

Why not just label the Senator a self-hating Jew, and let it fly?

I was wondering how long this fact would remain out of the public view. It is unfortunate that George Allen's mom didn't do a good job of inculcating him with the values at the heart of Judaism. Allen's efforts to run from his past speaks volumes about his lack of character.

Must correct your third sentence: Allen is a practising fundamentalist Republican.

This means having faith that one will elected POTUS by following a process of sucking up to (1) racists, (2) big business, (3) bible thumpers and (4) Hispanics.

All these guys remember how Bush beat McCain 6 years ago. Especially in South Carolina.

Nu?  It's always been more of a weapon than a thesis anyway.  Why let the k'nyockers have all the fun?

Perhaps she did, and he decided that another religion made more sense to him?

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

Perhaps because that is much like Santa Claus? There are fervent believers, but a large number of people who no longer believe the Jolly Elf exists, nor that people are defined by their descent rather their characters?

Now, I can picture someone being a self-hating hemophiliac. That's genetically determined and has objective symptoms.

Perhaps certain people who have genetically defined appearances of one sort or another, dwarf or giant, pinkish beige or dark brown, etc., may hate their appearance. I am unaware of religions that are genetically defined or, in most cases, even give any visual suggestion that a person is an adherent. Of course, someone may choose to wear hijab, or turban and dagger, or traditional Hasidic clothing, or a nun's habit with large crucifix. Those identify. Genetics don't.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

I just finished reading Jennifer Allen's memoirs ("Fifth Quarter") of growing up with three brothers and an obsessive coach for a father. The old lady comes off as unsympathetic at best. Unhappily, the daughter did not catalog the mother's epithets for blacks. Has someone asked her whether macaca was part of the family vocabulary?

It seems that George Allen's mother is Jewish (which, according to Jewish law makes Sen. Macaca Jewish too).

Maybe Allen can burn a cross on his own lawn, and meet with the good old boy town fathers about how his decision to move into his own house has depressed his house's market value.

But we can now add one more person to the list of those automatically entitled to citizenship in Israel. Meanwhile millions of Palestinians whose parents were born in what is now Israel are not so eligible.

Snicker...

But why should rabbinic tradition mean anything to someone who may, technically, have had Jewish descent, but has zero personal connection to Jewish culture or religion? Now, by personal connection, I mean an emotional bond.

For example, I find wisdom in the writings of Moses ben Maimonedes, Thomas Aquinas, Teilhard du Chardin, and Harry Golden, but that doesn't make me feel Jewish or Catholic.

Let us assume that rabbinic tradition, during the Diaspora, formed a government in exile. Governments in exile do have status in international law. At the same time, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states a right to choose one's citizenship and religion. For you to say rabbinic tradition overrides all, that one is a Jew whether they care to be or not, and that this (apparently) is not a matter of choice, flies in the face of my conception of human rights.

Returning to governments in exile, in WWII, a Pole, fighting in the RAF, might decide that the Polish government in exile didn't represent him. People that fought well in British units tended to get favorable treatment when they applied for British citizenship. At best, when he became a British subject, you could speak of him as an ex-Pole, and, indeed, if he were security cleared, there would have been a determination that he owed no dual loyalty to Poland.

Why is it impossible, it seems, to be an ex-Jew? I say this with regret, but the idea that rabbinic tradition overrides free will and choice of national identity, is right up there with the Nuremberg Laws.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

Today's Washington Jewish Week reports an Allen non-denial:
"A campaign spokesperson . . . tells us that Allen's mom "is of French, Italian and some Spanish descent, but we're not aware of any Jewish ancestry in her background.""

oh thank goodness.

someone that really gets it.

Our religion is a choice.

Remember that? Choice? And a constitutionally guaranteed one.

I think that part of the problem with Judaism is that people are still so hung up with it's "national" characteristics or associated "ethnic" identity.

Judaism is -- like catholicism and buddhism - is a chosen religious identity and while Jewish heritage may go back thousands of years, its still not genetic.

I would just about guarantee you you will find shared genetic markers in Muslims currently in Yemen and the Jews that migrated Yemen to Israel in the 1950's ("Sephardim" - or Morroco or Iraq. Just as you would find shared genetic attributes in blonde haired "ethnic" German's (Lutherans?) and some American Jews of German ("Askenazi") descent who are currently residing on the West Bank.

However, none of that changes the fact that Allen is a moron - christian or jew - and a bigot whether he is white, black or green.

Howard,

For you to say rabbinic tradition overrides all, that one is a Jew whether they care to be or not, and that this (apparently) is not a matter of choice, flies in the face of my conception of human rights.

First, I didn't say that.  Nor would I.  Next, the fact that rabbinic tradition established a government in exile is historically sound and is evidenced by the existence of the social structure of the Kehilah through the medieval and early modern periods (it was different in Sephardic society, broadly speaking, in that there wasn't the perceived distinction between religious and national identity like there was in Europe).  However, the Kehilot preceded the establishment of any coherent international law as it's been understood since the UN Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights.  Rabbinic tradition overrides very little outside of orthodox communities anymore, or since the establishment of the state of Israel, and the rule of civil law within it, has arguably signaled the end of Jewish exile -- at least in a geopolitical sense.  Spiritual exile is perhaps a different story, but you would have to discuss that with someone else.

Howard,

I have the sense that you do not consider there is any option of rejecting these as long as one has matrilineal ancestry that, in some earlier generations, included self-identified Jews?

Reject whatever you want -- gey gezunter heit.  There's no gun to your head.  But I will consider for now, or until something better comes along while Jews make the transition between exile and national self-determination (not an easy thing to do after a couple thousand years), that the rabbinic tradition at least presents a sound legal precedent for determining whose claims to be "authentically Jewish" are stronger than others in matters where it really counts -- like immigration and citizenship.  Sure, Israeli civil law has yet to refine the process into a well-oiled machine, but show me who has perfected the art of governing in this world so far.

My concern is not those that claim to be "authentically Jewish". My concern is that when someone makes no claim to be Jewish, but has Jewish relatives, not necessarily immediate, in the matrilineal line, that certain people reject whatever is their own identification, and tell them they are "self-hating Jews".

I would also include people that indeed were born to a practicing Jew, studied the culture and religion, and made a personal decision to disassociate and identify with other spirituality and culture. That person, indeed, might even formally declare apostasy in public.

If you were a Muslim, that would get you very dead in many parts of the world. Members of several religions in the US will shun an apostate. Again correct me, but there seems a certain belief that Jewishness is absolutely binding on a person, even if they converted, went to seminary, and made it to the Chair of Peter.

[Pictures telling Henry VIII that he's a self-hating Catholic, and getting a date to be shortened by a head]

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

It is just unfortunate George Allen is dumb enough to do it in front of a guy holding a video camera.

I would change "unfortunate" to "fortunate" as now the so-called moderates can see who they are voting for.  

Howard,

Do you believe there is such a thing as a self-hating Jew?

Again, please correct me if I misunderstand, but it sounds like the end of Jewish exile should have eliminated the concept of someone not wanting to identify as Jewish having no obligation to do so -- and certainly not self-hating.

You're trying to take me into the realm of psychology, and I really am not trained to go there.  I initially threw the idea of tagging Senator Allen as a "self-hating Jew" more in the snarky socio-political way that I see it often used (or abused, really).  I wasn't trying to institute any deep social or religious policy with it. 

All kinds of jerks will spout all kinds of things they consider insults, no matter how little sense it makes, and "self-hating Jew" really makes very little sense to me beyond the grand rhetorical bar fight we call American political discourse.  For example, should we tag Mordechai Rumkowski, the head of the Judenratt in the Lodz Ghetto under Nazi occupation, a "self-hating Jew"?  While it can be argued that Rumkowski was responsible for lots of murdered Jews, our humanity perhaps compells us to at least try and understand the impossible circumstances he was placed into.  Personally, I won't serve on that jury.

Addressed, with appreciation, to Zionista, responding to several responses. First, it seems pretty clear that we are agreed that the usage, at least in a context such as TPMcafe, is rather thuggish.

You mention it would be difficult to be on the jury for some of the Judenrat leaders, even those who lived with some luxury until they were taken to extermination camps. That especially resonates today, as there are indictments handed down for "murdering" patients at isolated places in Louisiana. I have some reasonable contacts with the emergency medicine community in Louisiana, and, if the things I heard are factual, it will be a very tough jury. In one hospital, to which the medical staff had been encouraged to bring their families for safety, the staff itself, after about four days of no power, no water, etc., themselves expected to die. They were euthanizing their own pets, and it apparently came close on some family members.

Some of the worst problems for the medical staff was dealing with conscious people needing respiratory support. Ventilators need power, and while they have backup batteries, they eventually went out. The staff tried to continue supporting some patients with manual bag-mask-valve hand ventilators -- some of the patients needing more complex air supply were going to die quickly.

I don't know how many people here have ever used a hand respirator, but it is utterly exhausting work. Most people do not do extensive strengh training of their hands and wrists. Usually, 30 minutes is about the limit. At the worst of the hospitals, it came to a point where no one had the strength to bag any longer. Offhand, I'd consider dying, conscious, of respiratory failure one of the worst ways to go. What is right?

I really didn't mean to digress, as much as to say Zionista is quite right that one can't make a cavalier assumption of what is in someone's mind and heart. Thank you.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

BevD,

Now it seems to me that Jews and other Semitic people have a shared tradition of culture and ethics and they certainly share a common religious ancestory, since they are all descended from Abraham, so why they can't seem to live side by side in relative peace is beyond me. So there is something out there that is beyond religion - maybe it's that both Arabs and Israelis treat each other like second class citizens when either has power over the other. What do you think it is?

I would argue against the assertion that Arab and Jewish peoples share as much as you say. Which is not to say that either one is superior to the other, just different.  When the national identities of Jews and Arabs were established in forms recognizable today, civilization hadn't yet developed ideas like the separation of church and state, so Jews established their legal and ethical infrastructure on the rabbinic tradition (the Talmud), and Arabs established theirs on the Koranic commentaries of the Hadith. But both peoples have historically done well in merchantile commerce, so perhaps there is a viable pathway to mutual respect and relative cooperation in the expanding global economy.

Yeah well I think he would still come out ok in the polling because he has accepted Jesus Christ as his lord and savior.

Oh yea? Ask John McCain about his 'black baby'.

Push-polling has nothing to do with the truth of any fact.  The only 'truth' is the ugliness of racist politics even in the 21st century.

I never suggested that racism wasn't an issue in 21st century politics...I am only suggesting that is an issue only when the racists want to make it an issue.  They did with McCain but I doubt that they will with Allen...there is nobody to the political right of him in the Virginia senatorial race.

I'm not trying to reopen the whole one state/two state issue. I just think it is ironic that a man who apparently has no more Jewish feeling than David Duke, and probably couldn't tell a matzoh from a mohel, is now eligible for citizenship and residency in Israel, while some people who were actually born in the places to which Allen can move are not.

Interesting. I've certainly seen reliable reports of genetic markers common to subgroups, but the markers tended to differ among Ashkenazim and Sephardim. As you point out, there are also shared markers with other peoples of Mediterranean origin.

G6PD deficiency, about the most common genetic disease, is common for many people of Mediterranean and Subsaharan origin. In contrast, Sephardim have no special predisposition to Tay-Sachs disease, but Sephardim do.

Genetics and geography sometimes are mysterious mixtures. A friend of mine died from Behcet's Syndrome, originally described in Turkey. She was of Italian heritage, and the syndrome is seen there. The other area of prevalence is Japan, which no one can explain.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

Dan K,

A nichtiger tag.  Bravo for life's little ironies.

Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb can certainly take advantage of the fact his mother is Jewish and he feels some sort of shame.

Two weeks from tomorrow when Sen. Macaca joins Webb on "Meet the Press" and Russert asks Allen about his racist remark, Webb will be given a chance to comment.

He can then point out that America is a nation of many faiths and races. A country where a little Jewish gal (with some tidbit of Allen's mom's history) can proudly point out that her oldest son, only one generation removed from being an immigrant, is the junior senator from the commonwealth of Virginia.

That's not so hard is it?!?

I beg to differ. George Allen was a shitty governor. We have now elected two Democratic governors to try to undo the mess that Allen and Gilmore created. We may very well put Webb in also. There is hope for Virginia yet!!!!

Jan Knaus

CVilleDem,

User Rating CVille Dem 1

Do you even know what you're rating, or is who you rate the only thing left that matters anymore?

CVilleDem,

I realize you have a different opinion, but it was the Bravo for life's little ironies...that did it for me.

"Did it" for you, in a "last straw" sense, huh?  But my initial reply to Dan K's comment also earned your "1":

Palestinians ought to be entitled to citizenship in an independent Palestine, as Jews are entitled to citizenship in a secure Israel.