by Arun Venugopal
NEW YORK, NY February 16, 2009 —2,200 attendees from around the world crowded the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries, in Crown Heights.
Chana Weisberg came from Toronto, where she edits www.chabad.org. She says outsiders may have their own notions of Hassidic women, but that many of those in attendance are essentially CEO's.
WEISBERG: So they're running large corporations, and inspiring people and helping people and teaching people and educating people. And that's a tremendous part of what these conferences are about.
REPORTER: The conference includes a commemoration of the work of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who were killed during the Mumbai attacks.
Showing posts with label Chabad Women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chabad Women. Show all posts
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday, February 02, 2009
Another view at The View
To her credit, Whoopie Goldberg simply sits through the anti-Lubavitch crap looking rather pissed off. And Joy Behar makes a vague attempt to come to the Lubavitcher defense.
To her DIScredit, Baba Wawa lets the guest go on... I mean really Barb.. you've been conducting hard-hitting interviews since before I was born. You could have taken control of the situation much earlier.
And I gotta ask... what is WITH self-hating Jews and their need to write ridiculous screenplays and directors who are willing to produce these things without any research whatsoever... I wonder if the BBC gets scripts across their desk about how the Anglican Church is burning heretics at the stake in modern-day London... "Smashing idea! Wonder if we can get Hugh Laurie back on this side of the pond if we offer him the role of Bishop... it'll be a step up from playing that annoying Yank he's become popular with...
To her DIScredit, Baba Wawa lets the guest go on... I mean really Barb.. you've been conducting hard-hitting interviews since before I was born. You could have taken control of the situation much earlier.
And I gotta ask... what is WITH self-hating Jews and their need to write ridiculous screenplays and directors who are willing to produce these things without any research whatsoever... I wonder if the BBC gets scripts across their desk about how the Anglican Church is burning heretics at the stake in modern-day London... "Smashing idea! Wonder if we can get Hugh Laurie back on this side of the pond if we offer him the role of Bishop... it'll be a step up from playing that annoying Yank he's become popular with...
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Essman irks Chabad with TV comments
Actress Susie Essman has upset the Chabad-Lubavitch community with comments she made on "The View."
In an appearance on the television talk show last week to promote her TV movie “Loving Leah,” in which she plays a Lubavitch woman, Essman commented on the appearance of female members of the Chasidic group.
“I learned that they're not very good dressers,” Essman said, describing what she discovered in making the film. “The wigs, you know they wear the wig because God forbid a man should see your hair and be driven wild with desire.”
Sara Esther Crispe, the editor of the Chabad Web site TheJewishWoman.org, said her community was buzzing about the segment and that she was hoping to go on "The View" to rebut Essman's comments, which she said were not only “obviously incorrect” but degrading and insulting to all women.
“To reduce any woman to her mere physicality is insulting, it's degrading, and it completely denies the overall power that a woman has and her unique abilities,” Crispe told JTA. “And I thought it was very sad that nobody stood up for that.”
“Loving Leah,” which aired Sunday night on CBS, is the story of a secular doctor who marries his widowed sister-in-law. Essman, who plays a foul-mouthed character on the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm," plays the woman's Lubavitch mother.
In an appearance on the television talk show last week to promote her TV movie “Loving Leah,” in which she plays a Lubavitch woman, Essman commented on the appearance of female members of the Chasidic group.
“I learned that they're not very good dressers,” Essman said, describing what she discovered in making the film. “The wigs, you know they wear the wig because God forbid a man should see your hair and be driven wild with desire.”
Sara Esther Crispe, the editor of the Chabad Web site TheJewishWoman.org, said her community was buzzing about the segment and that she was hoping to go on "The View" to rebut Essman's comments, which she said were not only “obviously incorrect” but degrading and insulting to all women.
“To reduce any woman to her mere physicality is insulting, it's degrading, and it completely denies the overall power that a woman has and her unique abilities,” Crispe told JTA. “And I thought it was very sad that nobody stood up for that.”
“Loving Leah,” which aired Sunday night on CBS, is the story of a secular doctor who marries his widowed sister-in-law. Essman, who plays a foul-mouthed character on the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm," plays the woman's Lubavitch mother.
Curb your disses on Chabad women
As JTA reported earlier this week, Susie Essman has upset the Chabad-Lubavitch community with comments she made on "The View":
In an appearance on the television talk show last week to promote her TV movie “Loving Leah,” in which she plays a Lubavitch woman, Essman commented on the appearance of female members of the Chasidic group.
“I learned that they're not very good dressers,” Essman said, describing what she discovered in making the film. “The wigs, you know they wear the wig because God forbid a man should see your hair and be driven wild with desire.”
Here's the full interview:
(follow title link)
Brace yourself, Susie, Chabad fans aren't please.
Here's a video response -- posted by user ahandemeidel -- titled "Susie Esman is Ugly!" (wait till the second half, for a beauty contest of sorts between teh Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star and various Lubavitcher beauties):
(follow title link)
In the info field on the video page, is a column by Debbie Schlussel:
The attacks on Jews--especially Orthodox Chassidic Jews--don't just take place in Mumbai, India, or during a late-night anonymous act of vandalism on a synagogue in North Carolina.
The attacks on Jews have spread to ABC daytime talk shows, watched by millions of mindless, easily propagandized women.
Jonathan Mark of the Jewish Week also weighs in, and also plays the Mumbai card:
The idea of Essman comparing right-wing Republicans, whom she despises, to Chabad’s kindness and willingness to socially interact with secular Jews, not one of whom is turned away from a Chabad House, is simply ignorant.
But what makes Essman’s righteous liberalism all the more unfortunate is what she goes on to say about chasidic women. Essman was asked by Joy Behar, “So what did you learn about the chasidic religion?”
Well, said Essman, “they’re not very good dressers... Have you seen what these women look like half the time?”
Behar replied, “Well some of them are pretty and some, you know, like everybody else.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Essman dismissively.
Now let’s imagine the subject were black women. Imagine someone on “The View” saying of black women, “they’re not very good dressers... Have you seen what these women look like half the time?”
Would not the speaker be branded as a racist, an instant pariah? Why is it OK to speak that way about Orthodox women?
I remember the photo of Rivka Holtzberg, the Chabad woman who was murdered in Mumbai. She wore a wig, like the ones mocked on “The View.” She was attractive, if I could be forgiven for speaking of her that way, all the more attractive for the dignity she exuded precisely because of her wig and modest style of dress. I was reminded of her not only for her style, but also because of her dead child.
There was an item in Reuters the other day from Gaza, quoting psychologists and trauma experts on how the war will make Gaza children into the Hamas terrorists of tomorrow: “Counselors and aid workers fear that Gaza’s children... will grow up hating Israel and become easier prey for extremists.”
Has anyone written, anywhere, that Jewish children, such as little Moshe Holtzberg, might grow up hating anyone, let alone become easy prey for terrorist recruiters? Why is that future only assumed for Islamic children? There have been many thousands of Israeli children whose parents were murdered by Muslims; millions more who were in concentration camps or whose parents were. Where are the psychologists interviewed by Reuters to explain why so few of these Jewish children, in Israel or the United States, have grown into violent adults? Why not, if a murderous second-generation resulting from wartime trauma is so inevitable?
In an appearance on the television talk show last week to promote her TV movie “Loving Leah,” in which she plays a Lubavitch woman, Essman commented on the appearance of female members of the Chasidic group.
“I learned that they're not very good dressers,” Essman said, describing what she discovered in making the film. “The wigs, you know they wear the wig because God forbid a man should see your hair and be driven wild with desire.”
Here's the full interview:
(follow title link)
Brace yourself, Susie, Chabad fans aren't please.
Here's a video response -- posted by user ahandemeidel -- titled "Susie Esman is Ugly!" (wait till the second half, for a beauty contest of sorts between teh Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star and various Lubavitcher beauties):
(follow title link)
In the info field on the video page, is a column by Debbie Schlussel:
The attacks on Jews--especially Orthodox Chassidic Jews--don't just take place in Mumbai, India, or during a late-night anonymous act of vandalism on a synagogue in North Carolina.
The attacks on Jews have spread to ABC daytime talk shows, watched by millions of mindless, easily propagandized women.
Jonathan Mark of the Jewish Week also weighs in, and also plays the Mumbai card:
The idea of Essman comparing right-wing Republicans, whom she despises, to Chabad’s kindness and willingness to socially interact with secular Jews, not one of whom is turned away from a Chabad House, is simply ignorant.
But what makes Essman’s righteous liberalism all the more unfortunate is what she goes on to say about chasidic women. Essman was asked by Joy Behar, “So what did you learn about the chasidic religion?”
Well, said Essman, “they’re not very good dressers... Have you seen what these women look like half the time?”
Behar replied, “Well some of them are pretty and some, you know, like everybody else.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Essman dismissively.
Now let’s imagine the subject were black women. Imagine someone on “The View” saying of black women, “they’re not very good dressers... Have you seen what these women look like half the time?”
Would not the speaker be branded as a racist, an instant pariah? Why is it OK to speak that way about Orthodox women?
I remember the photo of Rivka Holtzberg, the Chabad woman who was murdered in Mumbai. She wore a wig, like the ones mocked on “The View.” She was attractive, if I could be forgiven for speaking of her that way, all the more attractive for the dignity she exuded precisely because of her wig and modest style of dress. I was reminded of her not only for her style, but also because of her dead child.
There was an item in Reuters the other day from Gaza, quoting psychologists and trauma experts on how the war will make Gaza children into the Hamas terrorists of tomorrow: “Counselors and aid workers fear that Gaza’s children... will grow up hating Israel and become easier prey for extremists.”
Has anyone written, anywhere, that Jewish children, such as little Moshe Holtzberg, might grow up hating anyone, let alone become easy prey for terrorist recruiters? Why is that future only assumed for Islamic children? There have been many thousands of Israeli children whose parents were murdered by Muslims; millions more who were in concentration camps or whose parents were. Where are the psychologists interviewed by Reuters to explain why so few of these Jewish children, in Israel or the United States, have grown into violent adults? Why not, if a murderous second-generation resulting from wartime trauma is so inevitable?
Friday, December 26, 2008
What Not to Wear
Some in Crown Heights detect modesty crisis
By Marissa Brostoff
An outsider visiting Crown Heights might be forgiven for thinking that the women in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood represent the height of modesty. But some in the Brooklyn community, where the Chabad-Lubavitch movement is based, are concerned that modesty standards are slipping, and have launched a campaign to counter the trend.
Thus far, the effort— organized by a woman named Sheyna Goldin, with the approval of Chabad’s women’s organization, N’Shei Chabad—has involved putting up 500 posters encouraging adherence to modesty laws. But not everyone in the organization agrees with Goldin’s approach, and a frisson of disagreement has broken out over it—and whether the declining standards are even anything new.
“It’s Not Just a Good Idea, IT’S THE LAW!” proclaim the posters, which appeared recently on Kingston Avenue and other neighborhood thoroughfares. The fliers go on to list the laws of tznius, or modesty (modest dress must begin at age three; shirts must cover collarbones; skirts must cover knees) and their talmudic sources. Fine print at the bottom explains the spiritual rewards for modest dress and the consequences for disregarding it.
Even in Crown Heights, such public pronouncements of religious law are unusual—which was the point, Goldin argued.
“Everything is out in the street now; it’s kind of corresponding to the times,” she said, in an interview with Nextbook. “In the shuls, not everyone would see it. It’s more emphatic, like we really mean business.”
“You have to set the standard, not lower yourself to it,” echoed Esther Rochel Spielman, who coordinates subscriptions for N’Shei Chabad’s newsletter. Spielman said that she was seeing more short or slit skirts and tight clothing on young women in the community.
“There is a decline in the men also, the teenagers,” she added. “A lot of them will think it’s cool to go without tsisis [ritual fringes].”
But even some who agree that modesty standards are slipping find Goldin’s approach too aggressive.
“Modesty standards have been declining for decades,” said Bronya Shaffer, a mother of 10 who teaches and lectures in the community on Jewish family life. Shaffer, who was sitting in her dining room surrounded by hundreds of religious books, picked up a copy of the New York Times Magazine that was lying on the table beside a copy of a Chabad magazine and gestured disapprovingly at a risqué Chanel advertisement on the back cover. But the posters also made her wince.
“The medium itself is antithetical to the very essence of modesty," she said of the posters. "It’s not the Chabad way. I cringe at the specter of kids, young boys and girls, reading in huge letters, in bold technicolor, about uncovered legs and necklines and tight clothing."
Goldin said that the posters are directed toward both Lubavitchers who live in the neighborhood and visitors to the community.
“The darkness in the world is very great and influences everybody,” Goldin said. “The posters are a fortification and a reminder that this is really not just a nice thing, but a total law from the Torah.”
Sara Labkowski, the dean of a school for young women in the process of becoming more religious, said that because Crown Heights, unlike more isolated ultra-Orthodox enclaves, is “a very open community” located in the heart of Brooklyn, the posters would help to remind young Lubavitchers in the neighborhood of the modesty laws. She helped to distribute flyer-sized versions of the poster at a vigil for the Chabad emissaries killed in the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai.
For Spielman, the decline in modesty is just another sign of what she believes is directly on the horizon.
“I guess we’re getting very close to the moshiach,” she said, using the Hebrew word for messiah. “The satan [devil] tries to attack in any ways he could.”
By Marissa Brostoff
An outsider visiting Crown Heights might be forgiven for thinking that the women in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood represent the height of modesty. But some in the Brooklyn community, where the Chabad-Lubavitch movement is based, are concerned that modesty standards are slipping, and have launched a campaign to counter the trend.
Thus far, the effort— organized by a woman named Sheyna Goldin, with the approval of Chabad’s women’s organization, N’Shei Chabad—has involved putting up 500 posters encouraging adherence to modesty laws. But not everyone in the organization agrees with Goldin’s approach, and a frisson of disagreement has broken out over it—and whether the declining standards are even anything new.
“It’s Not Just a Good Idea, IT’S THE LAW!” proclaim the posters, which appeared recently on Kingston Avenue and other neighborhood thoroughfares. The fliers go on to list the laws of tznius, or modesty (modest dress must begin at age three; shirts must cover collarbones; skirts must cover knees) and their talmudic sources. Fine print at the bottom explains the spiritual rewards for modest dress and the consequences for disregarding it.
Even in Crown Heights, such public pronouncements of religious law are unusual—which was the point, Goldin argued.
“Everything is out in the street now; it’s kind of corresponding to the times,” she said, in an interview with Nextbook. “In the shuls, not everyone would see it. It’s more emphatic, like we really mean business.”
“You have to set the standard, not lower yourself to it,” echoed Esther Rochel Spielman, who coordinates subscriptions for N’Shei Chabad’s newsletter. Spielman said that she was seeing more short or slit skirts and tight clothing on young women in the community.
“There is a decline in the men also, the teenagers,” she added. “A lot of them will think it’s cool to go without tsisis [ritual fringes].”
But even some who agree that modesty standards are slipping find Goldin’s approach too aggressive.
“Modesty standards have been declining for decades,” said Bronya Shaffer, a mother of 10 who teaches and lectures in the community on Jewish family life. Shaffer, who was sitting in her dining room surrounded by hundreds of religious books, picked up a copy of the New York Times Magazine that was lying on the table beside a copy of a Chabad magazine and gestured disapprovingly at a risqué Chanel advertisement on the back cover. But the posters also made her wince.
“The medium itself is antithetical to the very essence of modesty," she said of the posters. "It’s not the Chabad way. I cringe at the specter of kids, young boys and girls, reading in huge letters, in bold technicolor, about uncovered legs and necklines and tight clothing."
Goldin said that the posters are directed toward both Lubavitchers who live in the neighborhood and visitors to the community.
“The darkness in the world is very great and influences everybody,” Goldin said. “The posters are a fortification and a reminder that this is really not just a nice thing, but a total law from the Torah.”
Sara Labkowski, the dean of a school for young women in the process of becoming more religious, said that because Crown Heights, unlike more isolated ultra-Orthodox enclaves, is “a very open community” located in the heart of Brooklyn, the posters would help to remind young Lubavitchers in the neighborhood of the modesty laws. She helped to distribute flyer-sized versions of the poster at a vigil for the Chabad emissaries killed in the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai.
For Spielman, the decline in modesty is just another sign of what she believes is directly on the horizon.
“I guess we’re getting very close to the moshiach,” she said, using the Hebrew word for messiah. “The satan [devil] tries to attack in any ways he could.”
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Sarah Palin and Chabad share the same appeal
by Jonathan Marks
I'm getting a hunch the Republicans just might win for one reason alone, and it makes no sense, just like Chabad makes no sense to the Jewish elite.
That one reason is Sarah Palin. She reminds me of about a thousand different Chabad shluchot (the rebbe's women representatives). She's seems friendly, sexy (forgive me) in an Orthodox way, with that magnetism, optimism and accessibility that has made Chabad shluchot successful in 5,000 different locales, even though they are almost always considerably more right wing -- religiously and politically -- than their congregants and financial supporters.
Reform, Conservative and other Orthodox Jews don't get it. How is Chabad so successful in places where there are no Chasidim? Why do liberal Jews on New York's Upper West Side want to send their kids to Chabad preschools? Why do many hundreds of non-Chasidic, even non-Orthodox students at Harvard and State University of New York Binghamton, want to spend Friday night meals with these Chabad Sarah Palins, rather than the more mainstream, liberal Jews down the road? It makes no sense.
Don't get it, do you?
Who would you rather have a cup of coffee with on a bungalow porch -- a cup that can turn into a three-hour conversation -- Palin or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?
Pelosi and Sen. Hillary Clinton come across like the Queen of Spades of a nanny state -- school marms of a school you don't want to go to. Pelosi, in particular, seems like one of those sisterhood program chairs from a suburban temple whose calls you don't want to answer.
Palin seems like one of those Chabad women who don't have enough chairs at her table for all the non-Chabad women who'd take a plane or a subway to attend the next shluchot convention in Brooklyn's Crown Heights.
Something's happening, and you don't know what it is, do you, Nancy Pelosi?
And another thing: There are plenty of logical, rational reasons to abort America's relationship with Israel, the far left tells us, but Chabad doesn't abort and evangelicals (such as Palin) don't, either.
Rabbis who can't stop quoting Heschel or Soloveitchik don't get it.
Americans and Jews don't need another genius. We don't need another Herr Rabbi Doctor. We have enough "scholars," believe it or not.
We don't have enough human beings who'd rather rock a Down syndrome baby to sleep than abort it; human beings who can relate to a flunking child or the stuffiness of the sophisticates, parents who don't give a damn who's in the top shiur or who made law review.
We have too many of the best and the brightest, the wise and the brilliant, who can't communicate (and who, in the end, maybe aren't really the best or all that brilliant.)
The genius of Chabad is delivering their message in a down-home way, much as Palin did at the convention.
There are others outside of Chabad who know how to do it, too. Blu Greenberg, for one, the godmother of Orthodox feminism, is as smart and wise as anyone I've ever met, but like a Chabad woman, she doesn't enter a room like she wants you to know what she got on her SATs (or BJEs).
Her voice and manner are gentle; her visions for Judaism are prophetic and compelling, all the more so because her Judaism is poetic (she's a published poet, after all), not like Judaism's angry left, whose religion has all the appeal of a term paper, all about "J," "P," Deutero-Isaiah; the kind who can't look at any biblical verse with being "troubled" by it.
Chabad women know what really troubles people, and it ain't Deutero-Isaiah.
In 1950, all American Jews heard of liberal Judaism (that's Conservatives, too) but almost no one heard of Chabad. Chabad seemed a relic of history. Liberal Judaism was ascendant, inevitable. The rebbe's Chabad was as fringe religiously as Palin's conservative ancestors were then on the fringe politically.
Who would have figured that in 2008, liberal pews in most of America would be emptier than their rabbis would like, while everyone has now heard of Chabad? Men and women from Chabad are all over the continent, all over the planet, raising fortunes (without charging shul membership fees), getting men to put on tefillin, getting women to go to mikvah -- men and women who, if not for Chabad, wouldn't. It makes no sense.
Chabad women, like Palin, don't look at Judaism or the United States and then look at the world to worry, "Why do they hate us?" They don't blame Judaism or America first.
They are happy warriors. They don't think "bitterness" is what motivates religious people, as Sen. Barack Obama said with condescension. You come away feeling that these kind of women understand religion, they love America and religion like they love their kids, troubles and all, feeling blessed every step of the way.
The high-salaried great scholars of the other denominations, none of whom went to the University of Idaho, are very good at conducting studies, at going on high-priced retreats, at developing goalposts that can be moved to allow past failures to score.
Chabad women don't conduct studies. They cook a chicken (or Palin a moose) and invite you over on Friday night. And college students, middle-class families, international businessmen want to be there.
At the beginning of these successful relationships between Chabad and their guests, theology and politics have little or nothing to do with it. A lot of Palin's appeal has nothing to do with her theology or politics, either.
The other party and denominations are trying to figure it out. Maybe if they could get a grant. Maybe if they could find someone with whom they can dialogue.
Chabad women and Palin don't dialogue. They talk. And they don't talk down.
They win. Makes no sense, does it?
Jonathan Marks is associate editor of The Jewish Week in New York.
I'm getting a hunch the Republicans just might win for one reason alone, and it makes no sense, just like Chabad makes no sense to the Jewish elite.
That one reason is Sarah Palin. She reminds me of about a thousand different Chabad shluchot (the rebbe's women representatives). She's seems friendly, sexy (forgive me) in an Orthodox way, with that magnetism, optimism and accessibility that has made Chabad shluchot successful in 5,000 different locales, even though they are almost always considerably more right wing -- religiously and politically -- than their congregants and financial supporters.
Reform, Conservative and other Orthodox Jews don't get it. How is Chabad so successful in places where there are no Chasidim? Why do liberal Jews on New York's Upper West Side want to send their kids to Chabad preschools? Why do many hundreds of non-Chasidic, even non-Orthodox students at Harvard and State University of New York Binghamton, want to spend Friday night meals with these Chabad Sarah Palins, rather than the more mainstream, liberal Jews down the road? It makes no sense.
Don't get it, do you?
Who would you rather have a cup of coffee with on a bungalow porch -- a cup that can turn into a three-hour conversation -- Palin or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?
Pelosi and Sen. Hillary Clinton come across like the Queen of Spades of a nanny state -- school marms of a school you don't want to go to. Pelosi, in particular, seems like one of those sisterhood program chairs from a suburban temple whose calls you don't want to answer.
Palin seems like one of those Chabad women who don't have enough chairs at her table for all the non-Chabad women who'd take a plane or a subway to attend the next shluchot convention in Brooklyn's Crown Heights.
Something's happening, and you don't know what it is, do you, Nancy Pelosi?
And another thing: There are plenty of logical, rational reasons to abort America's relationship with Israel, the far left tells us, but Chabad doesn't abort and evangelicals (such as Palin) don't, either.
Rabbis who can't stop quoting Heschel or Soloveitchik don't get it.
Americans and Jews don't need another genius. We don't need another Herr Rabbi Doctor. We have enough "scholars," believe it or not.
We don't have enough human beings who'd rather rock a Down syndrome baby to sleep than abort it; human beings who can relate to a flunking child or the stuffiness of the sophisticates, parents who don't give a damn who's in the top shiur or who made law review.
We have too many of the best and the brightest, the wise and the brilliant, who can't communicate (and who, in the end, maybe aren't really the best or all that brilliant.)
The genius of Chabad is delivering their message in a down-home way, much as Palin did at the convention.
There are others outside of Chabad who know how to do it, too. Blu Greenberg, for one, the godmother of Orthodox feminism, is as smart and wise as anyone I've ever met, but like a Chabad woman, she doesn't enter a room like she wants you to know what she got on her SATs (or BJEs).
Her voice and manner are gentle; her visions for Judaism are prophetic and compelling, all the more so because her Judaism is poetic (she's a published poet, after all), not like Judaism's angry left, whose religion has all the appeal of a term paper, all about "J," "P," Deutero-Isaiah; the kind who can't look at any biblical verse with being "troubled" by it.
Chabad women know what really troubles people, and it ain't Deutero-Isaiah.
In 1950, all American Jews heard of liberal Judaism (that's Conservatives, too) but almost no one heard of Chabad. Chabad seemed a relic of history. Liberal Judaism was ascendant, inevitable. The rebbe's Chabad was as fringe religiously as Palin's conservative ancestors were then on the fringe politically.
Who would have figured that in 2008, liberal pews in most of America would be emptier than their rabbis would like, while everyone has now heard of Chabad? Men and women from Chabad are all over the continent, all over the planet, raising fortunes (without charging shul membership fees), getting men to put on tefillin, getting women to go to mikvah -- men and women who, if not for Chabad, wouldn't. It makes no sense.
Chabad women, like Palin, don't look at Judaism or the United States and then look at the world to worry, "Why do they hate us?" They don't blame Judaism or America first.
They are happy warriors. They don't think "bitterness" is what motivates religious people, as Sen. Barack Obama said with condescension. You come away feeling that these kind of women understand religion, they love America and religion like they love their kids, troubles and all, feeling blessed every step of the way.
The high-salaried great scholars of the other denominations, none of whom went to the University of Idaho, are very good at conducting studies, at going on high-priced retreats, at developing goalposts that can be moved to allow past failures to score.
Chabad women don't conduct studies. They cook a chicken (or Palin a moose) and invite you over on Friday night. And college students, middle-class families, international businessmen want to be there.
At the beginning of these successful relationships between Chabad and their guests, theology and politics have little or nothing to do with it. A lot of Palin's appeal has nothing to do with her theology or politics, either.
The other party and denominations are trying to figure it out. Maybe if they could get a grant. Maybe if they could find someone with whom they can dialogue.
Chabad women and Palin don't dialogue. They talk. And they don't talk down.
They win. Makes no sense, does it?
Jonathan Marks is associate editor of The Jewish Week in New York.
Palin and Chabad
Two puff pieces for Sarah Palin in one issue of The Journal will not alter the fact that she is a radical right-wing ideologue who believes a woman who is raped should be prosecuted if she chooses not to bear the child of her rapist and who doubtless believes ours is a pseudo-religion and we need to convert ("Sarah Palin, Chabad Share Same Appeal," Sept. 10).
Palin sat through a Jews for Jesus sermon in her church and said or did nothing to contest its bile.
A quick study? Nonsense. Just listen to her babble. She is a stranger to the truth. Her multiple fabrications, too many to specify here, have now made her a laughingstock as her early positive ratings have plummeted.
The bubble has burst on Palin, and like Humpty Dumpty who to took that great fall, neither filmmaker Elan Frank or Chabadist Jonathan Marks can put her bubble back together again.
In the same issue, a letter from an Iranian Jew asserts she fears Sen. Barack Obama cannot be trusted to defend Israel. But on Page 21 there is reporting of news that Obama has introduced the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act, which will close the large loophole that now allows American companies through their foreign subsidiaries to do business with Iran. The article cites that his legislation is opposed by the Republicans in Congress who want to continue the loophole that aids and abets Iran.
There is no contest between Republican and anti-Obama rhetoric and Obama's substantive actions that clearly aid Israel.
George Magit
Northridge
Unfortunately, I was in the middle of eating spaghetti when I read Jonathan Mark's "Sarah Palin, Chabad Share Same Appeal." I almost choked on my noodles as I read this insipid article.
In a nutshell: Marks admires Sarah Palin for the same reason he admires Chabad women -- both women "know their place" and neither are intellectually threatening. Marks trumpets the "humanitarian" Palin because, as he claims, she would rather rock a Down syndrome child to sleep than abort it.
Gee, Jonathan, Palin's a regular Mother Teresa, huh? Too bad Palin -- brave hunter of defenseless moose and wolves -- belongs to the political party that will do everything in its power to prevent a baby's abortion but will not lift a finger to help that child once it's born.
Love the zygote, hate the child.
Oh, and regarding Mark's question: Whom would you rather have a cup of coffee with, Palin or Nancy Pelosi? Pelosi, hands down. Unlike Marks, I am more interested in picking the brain of a woman with intellectual curiosity and a desire to improve the human condition."
Eran Lagstein
Los Angeles
How insulting to equate Sarah Palin with the women of Chabad. How many of these women would welcome pregnant Bristol Palin's boyfriend into their family when he calls himself a "f----in' redneck" and talks about how if anyone messes with him he'll "kick their f---in' ass".
Also, he talks on his My Space page about not wanting children. Surely the women of Chabad want more for their daughters than to marry a thug like Palin's prospective son-in-law.
Judith M. Brown
via e-mail
How dare Marks equate this vindictive, vengeful, unknowledgeable woman with Chabad women? Women of Chabad are intelligent, kind, caring and do have their homes open to those of differing opinions.
Chabad women do not condone killing of wolves by helicopters. They care about the environment. When asked about their beliefs, they give a caring, intelligent response without intimidation.
Palin, on the other hand, is the antithesis of that. She is not home with her children. She has let others raise them, witness her returning to work when her youngest was three days old, and still she is not with him, nor her other children.
She has fired and tried to destroy all those who disagree with her. And, her intellectual ability is nowhere near that of a woman of Chabad.
As for opening her home, not on a bet. How many Jews does she even associate with or blacks or anyone who does not believe as she does?
Her answers on all the talk shows indicate a lack of understanding of issues or of those who differ with her. That is a far cry from anyone in Chabad.
Shame on you. Do you really think Jews of any preference are really that stupid?
Janeen Weiss
Via e-mail
The Chabad rabbis and rebbetzins I have been blessed to know have been among the most caring, compassionate, honest and spiritual people in my life. There is no doubt that they have dedicated themselves to the holy pursuits of making all of us better Jews and of modeling the mitzvah of being a light unto the nations.
This is why I could not help but be appalled by Jonathan Marks' column comparing Sarah Palin to Chabad shluchot.
The values, which seems to permeate the lives of all the shlichim and shluchot I have known, are ahavas Yisrael, love for our fellow Jews; achdus, Jewish unity, and dan lecaf zechus, always judging people favorably.
Palin has taken every opportunity since her nomination to disparage and insult her opponents, their good works and their supporters and to hammer home the wedge of divisiveness, which has rent our country and turned us against each other.
Palin does not represent all that is good about shluchot, rather, she represents the values and attitudes they spend their lives fighting against.
Marks uses his column as an opportunity to insult and disparage those Jews whose observance, he thinks, is too much in their heads and too little in their kishkes. With his tirade against intellectual Judaism, Marks proves that he has forgotten the most important lesson of the talmudic struggle between beis hillel and beis shammai: this and this are the word of the living God.
Jonathan Kamens
Brighton, Mass.
Palin sat through a Jews for Jesus sermon in her church and said or did nothing to contest its bile.
A quick study? Nonsense. Just listen to her babble. She is a stranger to the truth. Her multiple fabrications, too many to specify here, have now made her a laughingstock as her early positive ratings have plummeted.
The bubble has burst on Palin, and like Humpty Dumpty who to took that great fall, neither filmmaker Elan Frank or Chabadist Jonathan Marks can put her bubble back together again.
In the same issue, a letter from an Iranian Jew asserts she fears Sen. Barack Obama cannot be trusted to defend Israel. But on Page 21 there is reporting of news that Obama has introduced the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act, which will close the large loophole that now allows American companies through their foreign subsidiaries to do business with Iran. The article cites that his legislation is opposed by the Republicans in Congress who want to continue the loophole that aids and abets Iran.
There is no contest between Republican and anti-Obama rhetoric and Obama's substantive actions that clearly aid Israel.
George Magit
Northridge
Unfortunately, I was in the middle of eating spaghetti when I read Jonathan Mark's "Sarah Palin, Chabad Share Same Appeal." I almost choked on my noodles as I read this insipid article.
In a nutshell: Marks admires Sarah Palin for the same reason he admires Chabad women -- both women "know their place" and neither are intellectually threatening. Marks trumpets the "humanitarian" Palin because, as he claims, she would rather rock a Down syndrome child to sleep than abort it.
Gee, Jonathan, Palin's a regular Mother Teresa, huh? Too bad Palin -- brave hunter of defenseless moose and wolves -- belongs to the political party that will do everything in its power to prevent a baby's abortion but will not lift a finger to help that child once it's born.
Love the zygote, hate the child.
Oh, and regarding Mark's question: Whom would you rather have a cup of coffee with, Palin or Nancy Pelosi? Pelosi, hands down. Unlike Marks, I am more interested in picking the brain of a woman with intellectual curiosity and a desire to improve the human condition."
Eran Lagstein
Los Angeles
How insulting to equate Sarah Palin with the women of Chabad. How many of these women would welcome pregnant Bristol Palin's boyfriend into their family when he calls himself a "f----in' redneck" and talks about how if anyone messes with him he'll "kick their f---in' ass".
Also, he talks on his My Space page about not wanting children. Surely the women of Chabad want more for their daughters than to marry a thug like Palin's prospective son-in-law.
Judith M. Brown
via e-mail
How dare Marks equate this vindictive, vengeful, unknowledgeable woman with Chabad women? Women of Chabad are intelligent, kind, caring and do have their homes open to those of differing opinions.
Chabad women do not condone killing of wolves by helicopters. They care about the environment. When asked about their beliefs, they give a caring, intelligent response without intimidation.
Palin, on the other hand, is the antithesis of that. She is not home with her children. She has let others raise them, witness her returning to work when her youngest was three days old, and still she is not with him, nor her other children.
She has fired and tried to destroy all those who disagree with her. And, her intellectual ability is nowhere near that of a woman of Chabad.
As for opening her home, not on a bet. How many Jews does she even associate with or blacks or anyone who does not believe as she does?
Her answers on all the talk shows indicate a lack of understanding of issues or of those who differ with her. That is a far cry from anyone in Chabad.
Shame on you. Do you really think Jews of any preference are really that stupid?
Janeen Weiss
Via e-mail
The Chabad rabbis and rebbetzins I have been blessed to know have been among the most caring, compassionate, honest and spiritual people in my life. There is no doubt that they have dedicated themselves to the holy pursuits of making all of us better Jews and of modeling the mitzvah of being a light unto the nations.
This is why I could not help but be appalled by Jonathan Marks' column comparing Sarah Palin to Chabad shluchot.
The values, which seems to permeate the lives of all the shlichim and shluchot I have known, are ahavas Yisrael, love for our fellow Jews; achdus, Jewish unity, and dan lecaf zechus, always judging people favorably.
Palin has taken every opportunity since her nomination to disparage and insult her opponents, their good works and their supporters and to hammer home the wedge of divisiveness, which has rent our country and turned us against each other.
Palin does not represent all that is good about shluchot, rather, she represents the values and attitudes they spend their lives fighting against.
Marks uses his column as an opportunity to insult and disparage those Jews whose observance, he thinks, is too much in their heads and too little in their kishkes. With his tirade against intellectual Judaism, Marks proves that he has forgotten the most important lesson of the talmudic struggle between beis hillel and beis shammai: this and this are the word of the living God.
Jonathan Kamens
Brighton, Mass.
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