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Annus horribilis: I can get it for you wholesale
Here are the two leading stories in today's "Jewish Daily Forward", which is probably America's oldest and certainly its most prestigious Jewish community newspaper.
Peace Groups Lose First Major Gaza Challenge On Capitol HillWhen these two stories are juxtaposed in The Forward, it seems to me that a certain American-Jewish "golden age" is coming to an end, one whose beginning we might put arbitrarily in World War One, when financier Bernard Baruch became an adviser to president Wilson and the chairman of the War Industries Board or perhaps in 1932 when Herbert Hoover named Benjamin Cardozo to the US Supreme Court... or maybe even a bit earlier in 1924 when composer George Gershwin premiered his "Rhapsody in Blue".
As Israel's military campaign in Gaza entered its second week, Capitol Hill became the latest battleground where Jewish hawks and doves are trying to shape the American response to the ongoing violence. Dovish groups bombarded lawmakers with calls and e-mails in an attempt to influence the wording of pro-Israel resolutions being shaped in the House and Senate. The groups' line in the sand on those resolutions was straightforward: Unless the House and Senate included a call for an immediate cease-fire, the dovish groups would call on their supporters to actively oppose them. For the Jewish peace camp, the first Middle East crisis of the new Congress and administration was an opportunity to flex its muscles and show presence on the national scene. But in the end, they lost.AndAJCongress Crippled by Madoff Scandal
One of the Jewish community's most storied national organizations revealed that it has been gutted by the financial collapse of investor Bernard Madoff, losing the vast majority of its endowment. Officials at the 90-year-old American Jewish Congress disclosed that apparent fraud at Madoff's investment firm had cost the organization roughly $21 million of the $24 million in endowments that supported the AJCongress and its programs.(...) It's ironic that the Madoff scandal, with its tales of exclusive country club life and high-priced international hedge funds, has been so destructive to an organization that was founded to be the voice of the Jewish masses. The AJCongress was founded in 1918 and became a populist counterbalance to the American Jewish Committee, which was dominated by the wealthy and conservative German-Jewish establishment. Under the leadership of its legendary founder, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, the AJCongress was one of the first national organizations to support Zionism and to protest the Nazi regime, and it established a reputation for being politically liberal. After World War II, it made its mark as an active litigant on church-state issues and civil rights.
We are talking about a golden age of the Jewish diaspora that compares favorably with those of Babylon, Al-Andalus or Wilhelmine Germany.
More than a golden age, a love affair.
It is impossible to exaggerate the significance and harmful consequences of this disenchantment and the effects it will have on the fabric of American life, cultural, social and political in years to come.
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I wish I knew what the hell you're talking about David. You pick three fairly noteworthy but certainly not earth-shaking and certainly quite disparate events (what the Gershwin one has to do with shit, except music, I don't see) and knit them together with several thousand miles of imaginary yarn to knit yourself a "Jewish Golden Age" sweater.
I don't think jewish people are some sort of Atlas carrying all of our culture on their backs. I'm pretty sure that even the most egocentric or egoistic of Jewish-culture-is-the-best-the-world-has-to-offer people in our country believe that our nation or the world is going to collaps if jewish influence (of any flavor) decreases. Do you actually believe this? Get a grip!
January 9, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Man, you blow a lot of smoke, David.
January 9, 2009 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
While the first of your quotes is heartening and the second is sad. How they are joined at the hip I fail to see.
January 9, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Foxy,
What joins these stories together? ... You'd have to ask America's most important Jewish newspaper, The Forward, that question, they are yesterday's two leading, front page stories.
January 10, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bullshit. You offer absolutely no evidence to support your wispy assertion that " . . . a certain American-Jewish "golden age" is coming to an end." None!
I am convinced that some of your more inane posts are heavily alcohol or drug induced, and this is one of them.
January 9, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also, if you must continue to post here, please lay off the "Annus horribilis" prefix in your post titles. You have worn it out already.
January 9, 2009 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I often take advice from such faithful readers as yourself, you never miss anything I write.
January 10, 2009 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can draw a different conclusion from the 20th century, in that most of the Jewish contributions to music and literature, as well as science, occurred before the founding of Israel, and even those that followed depended on the American or European populations. But we are far from a dark age of American Jewish life.
So what is your point? That there are no Leonard Bernsteins or Irving Berlins? Seems like with Madoff so popular (until recently), things were going swimmingly for world Jewry. Israel is likely to outlast the Palestinians, albeit with an indelible stain on its moral record. And plenty of Jewish scientists, musicians, writers, and political leaders, are still active.
Can we note Barney Frank, now in a very powerful position in Congress? Can we acknowledge that American Jews are very well connected to the neocon crowd, as well as the peace activist folks? They are not marginal, in any way, and face much less resistance than in those halcyon days of Baruch and Cardozo. Harry Truman and Richard Nixon distrusted "kikes", but now that word is as unwelcome as "nigger".
January 9, 2009 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Although I don't pretend to understand your points, which are nonsequiturs in the extreme, Isreal in particular, and Jews in general have only themselves to blame for seeing the world through a teeeeeeeeeeeeny tiny microscope, only big enough to let themselves and their own whiney victim-attitudes through.
They have totally blown the advantage they had after WWII (as W blew ours after 911) by their selfish and bull-headed desire to have eternal war. They cherish a piece of sand, and are willing to kill anyone for it, all the while shedding tears about their terrible lot in life.
For the record, the Muslims also cherish this worthless piece of sand, and only hold onto it because Jews value it. What kind of a dolt would believe that blowing up a family in a pizza place would send me to heaven?
I guess my point is this:
Jews!
Muslims!
Professional Christians!
Get over yourselves and grow up!
Your children have a life to live! Did you forget that? What happened to relaxing and reading a story to your children? Oh! Did Hate get in the way? Did your GOD tell you to kill people?
Well, maybe you would be happier if you realized that there is no god, and the world would be better off if you all acknowledged this very simple fact!
January 9, 2009 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem seems to me that until the Six Day War the relationship between America and its Jewish people was "made in heaven" all positive... But now, with the entire political class of the USA groveling before AIPAC, while Israel commits hideous war crimes with US money, weapons and diplomatic cover, reality begins to look like some antisemitic, czarist secret-police, caricature, or something dreamed up by a Nazi propagandist smoking opium. People are reconstructing ancient stereotypes that had been buried for decades. Horrible: with the potential to tear America's social fabric apart.
And if you don't understand me now, believe me, before that much time has passed, you will.
January 10, 2009 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink