JustASC

From JTA:

RJC touts gubernatorial wins

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish Republicans are hailing Tuesday’s results in the New Jersey and Virginia governors’ elections.

“This off-year election was an indication of the ‘buyers’ remorse’ felt by independent voters who have found the ‘Hope and Change’ mantra of 2008 to be lacking,” said the Republican Jewish Coalition in a statement Wednesday after Republican Bob McDonnell defeated Democrat Creigh Deeds in Virginia and Republican Chris Christie knocked off incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in New Jersey.

Read the RJC statement here.

UPDATE: The National Jewish Democratic Council comments on the election, focusing on the bright side:

In both Virginia and New Jersey, the selection of strong Jewish women running for statewide office was historic. Jody Wagner – a former Vice President of United Jewish Federation and President of Jewish Family Services of Tidewater who became the Commonwealth’s Treasurer and Secretary of Finance – ran a strong and inspirational campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. And State Senator Loretta Weinberg was so much more than a “feisty grandmother” as she became a voice for Jewish values and economic development in her race for Lieutenant Governor in New Jersey. The Jewish community could not have asked for a stronger friend and supporter in New Jersey than Governor Jon Corzine. In Virginia, Creigh Deeds was eloquent in recognizing the importance of broadening the Commonwealth’s connection with Israel.

For NJDC, this was an election that truly energized our membership and activists around the country, but particularly in Virginia and New Jersey. NJDC launched critical new pilot programs, including the training of Jewish community campaign liaisons. Our field organizers did a remarkable job organizing community events, phone banking and canvassing of Jewish homes – which will pay key dividends as we look to the future. We look forward to continuing and building these programs in 2010.

Agudath Israel’s Josh Prusansky has an oped in the Asbury Park Press and Bergen Record today pushing state funding for private school education:

Private education in New Jersey is a more complex issue than simply favoring or opposing school vouchers. It is about the right of parents to choose where they send their children to school, and the state’s responsibility to ensure that they have equal access to education funding. Apart from school voucher programs, there are a variety of simple ways New Jersey could improve private education for more of our children.

He mentions two ways: extending federal funds allocated to state education to private schools, and a scholarship program for low-income children (corporations would get tax relief for donations they make to the scholarship funds).

In the comments section, someone using the moniker “TryAgainBubba99″ has a surprisingly articulate response:

Parents absolutely have the right to choose how their children will be educated. What they do not have is a right to taxpayer dollars to subsidize their private school choices. Nor is there an individual entitlement to the services funded via equitable participation. (Note – that’s services provided by public employees, for secular, neutral and nonreligious activities – not cash. See 1st Amendment for why.)

We (taxpayers) fund a system of public schools because we have determined that there is a common social benefit in providing this service. If you choose not to avail yourself of that service, that’s on you. Don’t reach into my pocket to fund your choice.

Tablet canvasses voters in Deal’s Syrian Jewish community, and finds voters who were willing to forgive (or ignore) Chris Christie for his role, as U.S. Attorney, in the corruption sting that bagged a number of local rabbis as well as politicians across the state:

[V]oters emerging from Deal’s public elementary school—its sole polling place, only a short drive from the synagogues whose rabbis are currently facing criminal charges—didn’t make the link at all between Christie and the arrests, and few were willing to answer any questions about ongoing repercussions of the arrests. Instead, they offered a litany of explanations for supporting Christie: healthcare reform, the economy, the Obama administration’s apparent willingness to put pressure on Israel. Some said they considered themselves open-minded when it came to partisan issues—several recalled voting for John Kennedy—but tended to side with the Republicans when it came to state and national politics. Deal’s Syrian Jewish mayor, Harry Franco, who stopped by midmorning with his wife, offered a more straightforward explanation for Christie’s popularity in Deal. “Right now I think the main issue is property taxes,” Franco explained. 

A number of local community leaders have written a dissent from my column last week on J Street.

In his Oct. 29 column (“J Street: It’s a generational thing”), Andrew Silow-Carroll posits that J Street has widespread appeal to the young generation. He says that “the debate over J Street is not just over Israel but over how to be Jewish.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The debate over J Street is entirely over Israel and over who the group purports to represent.

J Street is not representative of mainstream Jewish opinion, either in the U.S. or in Israel. In key areas it is not even in line with the administration that it so admires.

As I wrote to one of the authors, whether or not one accepts their critique, I think it is still possible to note a generational dynamic in the appeal of, and opposition to, J Street. My analysis doesn’t necessarily contradict theirs.

I attended opening night of the Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival last night. The film was “The Secret,” a 2008 film by French director Claude Miller about an assimilated French Jewish family before, during, and after the Holocaust era, and the secrets they don’t share with their haunted son. Based on a fictionalized memoir by psychiatrist Philippe Grimbert, it’s an adult, unsentimental family drama with wider meanings about memory, self-denial, and even national shame. Columbia U. film prof Annette Insdorf did a nice job of putting the film in context in her talk-back after the screening.  

You have another chance to see it on Sunday, November 8 at 1:00 p.m., at the Regal Cinema in North Brunswick. An added treat: Leading the discussion will be Annette Aronowicz, Judaic studies professor at Franklin and Marshall College and an old friend. (I used to give Annette a ride to Hebrew-language lessons when we were both living in Jerusalem. Between my driving, my crappy Fiat, and the madness of the Israeli roads, Annette was a basket case by the time we arrived at class. I didn’t learn much Hebrew, but I did learn “ATTENTION!!” [ah-ten-see-own], French for “watch out!!”)

CNN.com has a package on “The New Jew” — a competent if somewhat-late-to-the-game wrap-up of under-40 Jewish ferment. They round up the usual suspects: Heeb, Hadar, Limmud, Zeek, J-Dub, J Street, and Jewcy.

Here’s how CNN identifies the “story highlights”:

 Some Gen X and Y Jews are staking creative claims to identity, religion and culture

They don tattoos, blend Jewish sounds with hip-hop, write edgy blogs and own their spirituality

“They want to re-engage in the world as Jews, but not solely for Jewish causes,” one says

Where traditional synagogues fail to touch them, independent groups and alternatives step up

Brandeis’  Jonathan Sarna (the go-to guy when you need a quote on anything Jewish, it seems) and Steven M. Cohen offer the usual praise and caveats.

The piece has a strange, fetishistic focus on Jewish tattoos. Andy Abrams, who is making a documentary called “Tattoo Jew,”  says the tats represent a bold stand:

“They’re being overtly Jewish,” Abrams said [of the wearers]. “They’re saying, ‘I’m Jewish. I’m proud. And I’m willing to wear it on my skin.’ “

Of course, this is a people who have lopped off the male foreskin since time immemorial as a permanent identity marker; we’re kind of pioneers when it comes to body modification. So I can’t get all that excited about someone who inks a star of David on his chest.

Nor can I get all that upset about it either — I know the tradition finds the practice repugnant, but the majority of Jews reject halachic practices that are considered much more central to Jewish identity (as the old joke goes, “It sures beats a ham sandwich, doesn’t it, Father?”).  

As for those who  insist a tattoo is an insult to Holocaust survivors: I don’t understand why we allow Nazis to be arbiters of what we can and cannot do.

I think if my kid came home with a Jewish tattoo, I’d be somewhat proud that he/she would want to celebrate his/her Jewishness. But my problem with Jewish tattoos is my problem with tattoos in general: They’re permanent. They represent the naive belief that the things you think are hip and/or important today will be hip and/or important to you in 20 years.

I think tattoos should be like the kabbalah: You shouldn’t play around with them until you’re 40, when your identity is essentially fixed and you’re past the recklessness of youth. Of course by then, no one will want to see much of your skin anyway.

Irish tenor Ronan Tynan did sing at the ADL annual dinner last night, saying

“I come here tonight … to seek your forgiveness.”

Now will the Yankees bring him back for his regular gig singing “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch? At the Wall St. Journal W0rld Series blog, Nando di Fino suggests why they may not want to:

[T]he Yankees have won zero titles since Tynan started singing in 2001. Baseball is a notoriously superstitious sport, and I don’t think I would be accused of being a total conspiracy nut job if I suggested that the whole business with Tynan being ratted out to the Yankees by a pediatrician for allegedly making an anti-Semitic joke at an apartment showing (seriously…why go tattle to the Yankees?) was at least a mini-setup to get Tynan out and break the possible bad luck.   

L.A. Times has second-day coverage of the shooting of two men at a North Hollywood synagogue, and after initial talk of a hate crime the authorities are treating it as a random act of violence:

By day’s end, authorities had come to believe that the shooting, in which two men were wounded, was probably a far more mundane crime.

“There is absolutely no evidence to support any connection to terrorism or a hate crime,” said Mike Downing, deputy chief of the LAPD’s Counter Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau….

Several law enforcement sources told The Times that investigators were looking at whether the shooting was related to a business or personal dispute. The sources said detectives believe that one of the victims was the target and that the second victim may have been shot because he witnessed the attack.

The ADL is being cautious however, saying it

issued a security bulletin to all Jewish institutions in its Pacific Southwest Region (Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Kern and Riverside Counties) explaining that the situation is still unfolding, but we have no reason to believe that it is part of any larger plot or conspiracy.

Although early reports described the shooter as being black, police later said detectives were not certain of the suspect’s race.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat will run in Sunday’s New York City Marathon.  

Maybe he heard there would be 40,000 masochists clogging the streets of Manhattan and thought it was the Israel Solidarity Parade.

Ba-dump bump!

Rutgers’ satirical newspaper, The Medium, has fun with the Westboro church protest:

HABAD RABBI TO WBC: “WE’RE JEWS TOO!”

BY ABA SABABA,  News Editor

COLLEGE AVENUE—In a drunken rage, Baruch Goodman, rabbi and alcoholic-in-residence of the Chabad center on College Avenue, tiraded against the Westboro Baptist Church during services last week. “These people hate Jews,” said the rabbi, “so why are they picketing Hillel? Those Reform schmucks are half the Jews we are!”

He continued to kvetch about how faklempt he was that the WBC didn’t consider the biggest Chabad in the nation to be a viable threat. “The chutzpah they have!” shouted the rabbi.

Sophomoric, but pretty revealing of how some perceive Chabad on campus.