RonL claims Zinn despised Judaism and the U.S., yet Zinn volunteered for military service during WWII in order to defend his country and fellow Jews overseas, running bombing raids against the Nazis as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Zinn also explicitly identified as a Jew, though not a religious Jew, and attributed his commitment to social justice, in part, to the teachings of the Jewish tradition and the experience of the Holocaust, though he was resistant to preferring Jewish teachings over those of other traditions. That is because Zinn was an anarchist — not a Stalinist or Communist as has been claimed — and opposed hierarchy (the privileging of one over another) in all its forms.

~~~

SF: Many on the Left seem to identify religion with the fundamentalist versions of it we see in the worst moments of human history. Do you see any value in religious ideas and traditions? If I can get personal: do you identify at all as a Jew, with the Jewish story? Is there anything in it that's meaningful to you? Are there any thoughts of the world beyond this one-where, for example, you can sit with Marx in Soho and eat Deli Haus blintzes together?

HZ: If I was promised that we could sit with Marx in some great Deli Haus in the hereafter, I might believe in it! Sure I find inspiration in Jewish stories of hope, also in the Christian pacifism of the Berrigans, also in Taoism and Buddhism. I identify as a Jew, but not on religious grounds. Yes, I believe, as Pascal said, 'The heart has its reasons which reason cannot know.' There are limits to reason. There is mystery, there is passion, there is something spiritual in the arts - but it is not connected to Judaism or any other religion.

For those who find a special inspiration in Judaism or Christianity or Buddhism or whatever, fine. If that inspiration leads them to work for justice, that is what matters.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/3835

~~~

The memory of the Jewish Holocaust should not be encircled by barbed wire, morally ghettoized, kept isolated from other genocides in history. It seems to me that to remember what happened to Jews serves no important purpose unless it aroused indignation, anger, action against all atrocities, anywhere in the world. 

[...]

If the Holocaust is to have any meaning, we must transfer our anger to the brutalities of our time. We must atone for our allowing the Jewish Holocaust to happen by refusing to allow similar atrocities to take place now—yes, to use the Day of Atonement not to pray for the dead but to act for the living, to rescue those about to die.

When Jews turn inward to concentrate on their own history, and look away from the ordeal of others, they are, with terrible irony, doing exactly what the rest of the world did in allowing the genocide to happen. 

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/60/145.html

Terrorists 1 - TSA 0

Instead of investing in actual intelligence infrastructure, how about giving flight attendants even greater ability to act like assholes?

Actually Jo Ellen, our next Habitus issue is Moscow, followed by Mexico City. We haven't yet done Prague and I don't think we'll be heading back to Eastern Europe for a little while.

Daniel Sieradski
http://danielsieradski.com

the historiography?

i assume you mean hagiography.

1. You should have called this feature i CAN'T has cheezeburger

2. Don't miss Kung Fu Jew's Israel-Palestine LOLcatz here and here.

now you're taking the issue of north african immigrants in western europe out of context and using it to drum up the threat of islamists.  you're being hysterical.  you really are reading too much vdare. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/paris_riots/

@Morganfrost You might want to try learning the difference between vocally dissenting and "shouting down" those with whom you disagree. Neither I, nor any other participant in the conference, silenced Yoffie. No one jumped up chanting and shouting, rushing the stage, barricading doors, making a spectacle of themselves, or anything of the like. We simply let our voices be heard. When I spoke 1 on 1 with Yoffie, I did so peaceably and respectfully, despite our serious disagreement.  Rather, he was the one who was ratcheting up the snark.  As for serious dialogue, your response to this article consists almost entirely of an ad hominem attack against me. If that's what you call "serious dialogue," you're the last person to be lecturing me on anything. Finally, the official positions of J Street and the personal opinions of its individual supporters should never be confused for one and the same thing, lest we should decry, say, the entire of the government of Israel for the reprehensible views of one Avigdor Lieberman.

@lanskymob Perhaps the reason "no one cried 'oppression' or 'occupation' when the territories were occupied by Egypt and Jordan" is because my generation was born at least 13 years after Israel began its occupation of the territories. But that aside, I do not criticize Israel because I am here to emptahize with Palestinians, I criticize Israel because I care about Israel, Jews, Jewish values and Jewish morality, and the occupation's cost to each of them.  I won't even dignify your personal attack against me.

@herbertkaine Funny, nearly all of my friends happen to be Jewish. Jewish and progressive. And none of us are tormented by our Judaism, we're tormented by our parents' and grandparents' generations defense of the indefensible.  We're tormented by the organized Jewish community speaking and acting in our names without bothering to check with us first.  We're tormented by an Israel that we were taught to believe embodies the righteous aspirations of the Jewish people and our discovery, upon visiting there, that the reality doesn't match the myth.  And, it's a shame you weren't at Eli Valley's show Monday night, because, per your final remarks wishing me to desert the Jewish people, he had some wonderful words for you.

Daniel Sieradski
http://danielsieradski.com

http://www.jstreet.org/page/policy

this article sucks with a capital S-U-C-K. 

a) there's nothing satirical about it and therefore doesn't qualify as a satirical guide to anything.

b) it's completely ignorant of the landscape of jewish print publications which is far richer and more complex than this list even remotely accounts for.  (really, the five towns jewish times came to mind before commentary, the jerusalem post, haaretz, azure, shma, jewish currents? and really, you call presentense a low budget heeb?  heeb is for unafilliated jews and is next to broke; presentense is for jewish young professionals & overachievers and flush with funding.)

c) it's centered around a marginal orthodox worldview that's reflective of less than 20% of the english speaking jewish population, and this is reinforced by the characterization of the jewish week as "orthodox bashing" when anyone with a critical eye is more likely to recognize its constant apologia for the orthodox establishment.

heshy, no offense, but stop writing about things you don't know shit about.

i can only give you credit for getting one thing right: lifestyles is the most ridiculous jewish publication out there.  and i should know.  my mother was the editor for a decade, and my father for a decade after her.

...please be so kind as to inform us as to which institution was responsible for Moishe's "return" so that I can proceed to vilify them for promulgating racist ideologies unsubstantiated by the breadth of available Torah wisdom?