Tag Archives: politics

(Cri de Coeur) Against the Reactionary Current in Contemporary Orthodox Judaism (Rabbi Elchanan Poupko)

Posted on June 29, 2022 by zjb

It’s no news that contemporary Orthodox Judaism has cascaded into the reactionary world of rightwing politics now overwhelmed by MAGA and with no end in sight. This cri de coeur by Rabbi Elchanan Poupko posted here at the Times of … Continue reading →

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(In Public Life) Nazis At The Moment

Posted on February 2, 2022 by zjb

It’s not one thing or another, but the way single incidents revolving around Nazis, swastikas, and the Holocaust aggregate in a relatively compressed moment in time. This past week was a case in point. A school board takes Maus off … Continue reading →

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Tablet Magazine Response to Coronavirus (Make Brooklyn Great Again)

Posted on August 31, 2021 by zjb

It is not just the this or that one-off, but the gamut of Covod related content that suggests that Tablet Magazine is a MAGA Jewish outfit. I’m offering below titles, subtitles, and links to what I think is a representative … Continue reading →

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Jewish Socialism (Abba Kovner)

Posted on July 25, 2021 by zjb

Responding with gravitas to a recent online piece of petty Jewish politics, historian David Myers posted something online and there was this picture there of Abba Kovner and his partisan comrades. I went immediately to Dina Porat’s biography The Fall of … Continue reading →

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(Israel) Has Changed Its Face (Judaism)

Posted on March 17, 2021 by zjb

  The best part in this article here about Merav Michaeli is when, with characteristic bluntness, she tells leftists to stop whining about Mizrachim in Sederot voting Likud. They at least have an effective political home. In this political ad, … Continue reading →

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(The Capitol Building) So Much American Civil Religion & The Problem of Evil

Posted on February 24, 2021 by zjb

There before or very eyes, for most of us on television or online, was the reappearance of American Civil Religion. It was there in the wake churned at the Trump Insurrection at the Capitol, the inauguration of President Biden, and … Continue reading →

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Rush Limbaugh at Yeshiva Bubble

Posted on February 18, 2021 by zjb

  Explaining the confluence between Haredi Jewish society and Trumpism, this piece here in Mishpacha indicates that in the tightly enclosed bubble of the Haredi yeshivot and culture, with limited access to secular newspapers, at least for this author and … Continue reading →

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(Arendt) Fascist Insurrection & White Christian Nationalism (Trump)

Posted on January 20, 2021 by zjb

Not wanting to overdo Arend’t famous excursus in Totalitarianism, it’s important to note that she draws a careful distinction between totalitarianism and fascism. And there’s something louche and laissez faire about the American fascism on display at the Capitol that … Continue reading →

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(Jewish) Prayer (Gentile Kings and Democratic Country)

Posted on January 11, 2021 by zjb

  This 16th prayer, of Portuguese origin, Ha’Noten Teshua (He Who Gives Salvation) was then translated into English and presented by  Menasseh ben Israel to Oliver Cromwell in 1655. It became the template in traditional Jewish prayer and still appears … Continue reading →

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I Do Not Understand American Christendom (2020 Elections)

Posted on November 5, 2020 by zjb

Now is as good a time to say it as not. I do not understand American Christendom, the underlying goodness and underlying depravity at the base of this majoritarian human phenomenon. I understand the myth of American exceptionalism, freedoms,  and … Continue reading →

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