Je Suis Hyper Cacher

The political inclinations of Charlie Hebdo magazine are definitely not my political inclinations.  And I am in no way a francophile.  My only experience on French soil was a stopover at Orly Airport for a few hours back in the 1970's; that was plenty for me.

This is not to say that I will never visit France, and not even to say that I would resist it if my travels and fortunes somehow bring me to transit French territory.  I have no plans at the present time, however, to do so.

And if I would have been in Paris this past weekend, then I likely would have made some public gesture of disapproval for the Muslim terrorist massacre at Charlie Hebdo; maybe even held a pen up in the air.  I certainly understand and appreciate and endorse the notion that threats to freedom of the press transcend political orientations of the materials published in any given tabloid.

Now that I've gotten that squared away, I hasten to add that you will not find too much in the way of any "Je Suis Charlie" paraphernalia on my person or property.  Yes, I do appreciate the millions who showed up in Paris in support of Charlie Hebdo (or, at least, its right to be Charlie Hebdo).

But, concurrent with the Charlie Hebdo massacre was another act of terrorism at the Hyper Cacher food market (the one in Porte de Vincennes; one of a chain of kosher supermarkets in France).  Four were killed there.  All were killed because they were Jews (so much for the old narrative that opposition to Israel does not mean hatred of Jews).

Had the Hyper Cacher incident occurred on its own, without the concurrence of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, how many of those millions who packed the streets of Paris holding the "Je Suis Charlie" placards would have cared about the Hyper Cacher carnage?  How many would have taken to the streets had the 1974 Kiryat Shmona massacre, in which 18 Jews, including babies, were brutally murdered by Arab terrorists?  A very, very, very small minority, methinks.  And methinks that a larger number of them, even if covertly, actually applaud the killing of Jews.

And so, while the masses all express their outrage over the Charlie Hebdo massacre, I will express my solidarity with the victims of the Hyper Cacher massacre.

Je Suis Hyper Cacher

It's About To Get Very, Very Ugly

Other than regularly and emphatically exercising their right to vote, my parents were not especially politically active, what with their other pressing issues and concerns.  They leaned Democratic, but that was the Democratic party of the 1950's and 1960's and 1970's, which is a totally different creature than the one we know today.   [Back in those days, the Republicans condoned too much antisemitism within their own ranks for my parents to really latch onto their wagon  --  the situation is essentially reversed today.].  My parents almost always split their tickets in the voting booth (though Dad did once write a letter to our Republican Congressman, in which he threatened to vote a straight ticket for the first time in his life if the Congressman did not come out against a particular issue.).

It was taken as a matter of faith that Jews and Blacks were in the same boat with the discrimination and prejudice, and indeed, there was much concord between the two groups (though some cracks began to appear after the riots of the early 1960's, when Black rioters looted Jewish businesses, and forays of African-Americans into what had been heavily Jewish neighborhoods caused much flight from cities to suburbs). 

Though some so-called Jewish "leaders" hew to that amity, it has long been a thing of the past, as the Black community leadership niches were filled by many who did not and do not measure up to the standards of a Martin Luther King.

Fast-forward to 9 December 2014.  The rabble-rousers and hatemongers in the Black community are already causing all kinds of disturbances in America because some police officers dared to try to arrest some Black thugs and criminals.  [N.B.  This is not to say that there should be no accountability for the police, and indeed, one component of such accountability would be body cameras.].  And then, a Black man, quite possibly with mental health issues, goes into a synagogue in Brooklyn, shouts "kill the Jews," and stabs a Jewish worshipper.   [Not just any synagogue, but the one at the headquarters of a major Jewish religious movement.].   The police arrive, the assailant resist arrest and makes threatening gestures, and is shot dead by the NYPD.  The incident was captured on video.

And the stabbing victim is reportedly not doing well in the hospital.

So now, the Black leadership is against police killing suspects (especially the NYPD), and the Jewish community has benefitted from the police killing a suspect who, in all likelihood, would have committed more murder and mayhem had he not been neutralized by the NYPD.

Fortunately, New York City and vicinity are now being inundated by a nor'easter storm, which will at least postpone the confrontations that may well follow.

I hope to be mistaken, but I believe that the situation will soon get very, very ugly!

Olympic Observation

On 5 September 1972, I was working in the Men's Shoe Department of a major department store.  I had been employed there on a part-time basis for about a month, and would resign the position in a few weeks for something ever so slightly more remunerative.  I was a college student then, and had no designs about making a lifetime career there.  Aside from the low salary and dearth of available work hours, it really was not a bad situation, inasmuch as the work was not too difficult (albeit monotonous at times), and I enjoyed the personal interactions with my co-workers, including Mr. Siegbert, my supervisor.

 [This was 1972, when the technology was not what it is today, and when my usual updates on world events occured (A) when I read the morning newspaper; (B) when I read the evening newspaper; and (C) if I heard it on the radio (which was relatively rare, inasmuch as the radio in the old clunker car I drove at the time was nonfunctional).].

That afternoon, when I arrived at my workplace after finishing my classes, Mr. Siegbert said to me, "That's terrible, what happened in Munich.  Do you think that they will cancel the Games?"

Until that time, I had not gotten word of the Muslim terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics, an event known infamously as the Munich Massacre.  But when Mr. Siegbert asked me the question, I immediately knew, without being told, that something dreadful had befallen the Israeli Olympic team.  (A year later, I would have occasion to visit Munich, and I paid my respects to the memorial outside the building at 31 Connollystraße in the Olympic Village where the Israelis lived).

Avery Brundage, the Chairman of the International Olympic Committee, stood up to the considerable public pressure to cancel what remained of the competitions.  But he was carrying plenty of baggage from his past, and in picking up that baggage had jettisoned his moral standing to properly act.

To say the least, Brundage was never a friend of the Jewish people.  Though nothing has been proven beyond a doubt in the sense of a criminal prosecution, the pulling of Jewish American runners Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman from the competition had Brundage's fingerprints on it, and in any event would not have occurred had Brundage truly opposed it, being that he was, at the time, the Chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee.  And at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Brundage took stances which were, at best, insensitive to the African-American athletes.

Following the Munich Massacre, Avery Brundage determined that the Games must go on.  That would be one of the few correct things Brundage ever did, inasmuch as it deprived the terrorists of a victory; but, in light of his past, Brundage's motives remain suspect.

With that as a background, I note an undertone of growing concern for the security of the upcoming Sochi Olympics, in light of the Volgograd suicide bombings.  Some people deign to privately asking themselves muted questions as to whether the U.S. Olympic Team should send any competitors at all (I do not wish to jack up the hit count meters on the websites involved, so there are no linkages to them in this posting).

Maybe I am paranoid, but I cannot help but wonder whether there is a double standard at play here.  When athletes' lives and safety are threatened by terrorists, then we need to protect them, even if it means mulling the possibility of not sending them to the Olympics.  But when the athletes who are being killed are Jewish, then "the Games must go on!"

Jewish American Heritage Month

Lots of my friends are getting all celebratory over the fact that May is officially Jewish American Heritage Month. President Barack Hussein Obama has once again this year issued a Presidential Proclamation to that effect, and the Library of Congress even has a dedicated website on it.


On one hand, it is not a totally bad thing for the government to recognize the contributions of its Jewish citizens, and send out the metamessage that Jews are not bad people. This is far, far better than is officially done by certain other governments of now and yore, Islamic and otherwise. It is far, far better than U.S. Secretary of State (and later, President) James Monroe's rescission in 1813 of Mordecai Noah's appointment as U.S. Consul to Tunis because he did not want to offend the Bey of Tunis on account of Noah's Jewish faith. [N.B. That excuse doesn't wash because the Bey himself had Jewish representatives in his service, including Aaron Nunez Cardozo in Gibraltar.]. And during his brief tenure as U.S. Counsel to Tunis, Mordechai Noah did have some respectable successes in diplomatically controlling the predations of the Barbary Pirates (who were the Muslim terrorists of the day).

But, proud as I am of the Jewish contributions to America and to the world, this Jewish American Heritage Month thing is not without its uneasiness for me.

Specifically, at what point is the line crossed, and the U.S. government becomes more than just a recognizer of, but a definer and arbiter of the Jewish history and culture and people? They have already done this with the African-American race, and, quite insidiously, now have the Native Americans boxed into being a race of purveyors of tobacco and gambling (and, unfortunately, a disproportionate amount of prostitution).

Moreover, the Government's exemplars of Jews on the website include few if any religiously-observant ones. Which wouldn't be so bad if so many (though not all) of the nonreligious ones they did feature were not so antithetical to the true American values of strength and self-sufficiency.

And, in a broader sense, anything in the hands of Barack Hussein Obama is suspect.

Especially if it is Jewish lives!

I do not need the U.S. government to define my heritage. I do not need the U.S. government to tell me when to celebrate my Jewishness! It is all well and good that May has been declared Jewish American Heritage Month, but in my book, EVERY MONTH is Jewish American Heritage Month!

And so, while I am not without my appreciation of Obama's Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation, I cannot party too heavily over it. Someone's got to be the designated driver, to get people home safely after the party is over!

The Meaning of Christmas & New Year's Day

I, of course, do not celebrate the Christmas holidays. Nevertheless, to say the least, many of my friends and neighbors do, and this I do not begrudge them. Many of my neighbors spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on outdoor seasonal displays, which they no doubt have done with due regard for the household budgetary needs.

One of my neighbors whose outdoor accoutrements run towards the more ornate on the street has, among his several illuminated holiday themes, a Knights of Columbus "Keep Christ in Christmas" display. This I find not one bit offensive in the least, and I have told this particular neighbor as much. The more that the Christ is kept in Christmas, the more Jewish people will realize that it is not our holiday, and that we have our own holidays to celebrate.

And the more Christians will realize that Jewish people have a right to live in the so-called "West Bank" of the Jordan River. After all, more than 2000 years ago a Jewish baby was born to a Jewish family in the town of Bethlehem, which is located there. Contrary to what the Muslims and their allies and dupes would have the world believe, we Jews do in fact have a long, strong and documented connection to the territory from which our enemies now seek to exclude us.

When Christians celebrate Christmas, then, they are confirming and affirming the Jewish people's right to live in all of the land of Israel! So yes, all you Knights of Columbus, please do keep the Christ in Christmas!

And, if Christmas was the first day, then the eighth day is New Year's Day, which in fact is celebrated as the Feast of the Circumcision of a Jewish boy born to a Jewish family in the land to which the enemies of the Jews now deny we have any historic connection.

Fast Forward 2010 years (there being no Year Zero under the common era dating system):

The New Year's Eve celebration in New York at Times Square drew hundreds of thousands of people, both locals and visitors from around the country and the world.

As mentioned in a prior posting, I endeavor to avoid such crowd situations. This year, however, it was totally out of the question, because New Year's Eve fell on Friday night, which is my religious Sabbath and all that it entails.

So where do I stand on the Times Square festivities?

First of all, New Year's Day is, for me, an administrative new year because that is upon which the world operates. It means, for example, that I need to get my financial records in order so that I can do my tax returns. It has no religious significance to me (though, as mentioned above, it certainly does hold religious significance to others).

Secondly, I am saddened by the number of Jewish people out there who were desecrating the Sabbath. I would like to see more Jews observe the Sabbath, and maintain the kosher dietary laws. Unfortunately, achieving that ideal would require so many of my fellow Jews to make so many changes which they are not yet ready to make in their personal and professional lives, and in their interpersonal relationships. I can and do invite and encourage; I cannot (and do not even attempt to) compel.

Having said this, I view the Times Square events last night quite positively. For one thing, the participation in the event by many visitors from around the world provided some much needed economic stimulus for the region.

More importantly, the enemies of America, of the Jews, and of civilization do not want there to be any New Year's Eve festivities (except as targets for catastrophic high-carnage acts of terrorism). Had the celebration not come off, then it would have been a victory for the Muslim extremist elements.

It is important to continue and develop that tradition of Guy Lombardo, Dick Clark, Ryan Seacrest, and, hopefully, others to follow into the far future. And so, to all, I wish a Happy New Year!

A Good Name for Tefillin

The story has already saturated the internet news: Chautauqua Airlines Flight 3079 from New York (LaGuardia) to Louisville was diverted to Philadelphia, where Calev Liebowitz and his little sister were handcuffed and taken the plane. Why? Because Calev was praying his morning prayers with his tefillin ("phylacteries" in English/Greek), of which the stewardess was totally clueless. Once the Philadelphia Police realized what had happened, Calev and sister were released and sent on their merry way to Louisville.

Because I myself have a pair of tefillin which I lay on every day (except the Sabbath and Jewish festivals), I know exactly what they are and how they are used. But the fact is that most of the American population does not know what tefillin are. Accordingly, the stewardess was suspicious, and the pilot acted on the side of caution (he probably didn't know too much about tefillin either).

Of course, I now hear everyone in my own socioreligious circles screaming "anti-Semitism" and calling for the stewardess's termination. But the way I call it, everyone acted properly under the circumstances:

The Stewardess on Flight 3079: She saw Calev wrap two black boxes with long straps around his arm and over his head, respectively. She didn't know what they were. She said something. This was appropriate behavior (given that she didn't know what tefillin were).

The Pilot on Flight 3079: He decided to err on the side of caution after hearing the story second-hand from the Stewardess. This was an appropriate decision.

The Law Enforcement Officers: Working on a third-hand story, they handcuffed the suspected would-be bomber. Once they realized that he was just a religious Jew praying with his tefillin, they immediately released him. This was quite appropriate.

Calev Liebowitz: (A) He properly said his morning prayers with his tefillin. (B) He did it unobtrusively in his seat and didn't disrupt other passengers by trying to gather 10 or more Jewish men (a "minyan") all together in the aisles. (C) He totally cooperated with the cops and apparently didn't give them any backtalk. He behaved appropriately.

And so, all individuals involved appropriately (although the whole thing was certainly a collective over-reaction). But Chautauqua Airlines, the Philadelphia International Airport, the law enforcement authorities and the other passengers on Flight 3079 could have been spared the expenditure of much time, money and aggravation if only Chautauqua Airlines would have instructed its flight crews as to what tefillin are.


At the other end of the spectrum is some totally inappropriate behavior. Martin Grossman, now residing on death row in Florida, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on 16 February 2010. Martin Grossman is Jewish, and so, I am now being beseeched by certain groups to ask Governor Crist to spare Grossman's life. My gut reaction is that whenever a fellow Jew is in danger, I must go and help him or her. But under the circumstances, I must now ask myself what I would advocate if it were, instead of a Jewish criminal killing a Gentile victim, the situation were reversed. And so, stripping everyone of all religious and ethnic and gender labels, we have the following:

A 19-year-old person on probation from jail for a felony burglary and theft offense is high on drugs, has gone outside of the county and is in possession of a firearm, all in contravention of the terms of the person's probation. The person encounters a law enforcement officer, whom the person brutally beats because the law enforcement officer is about to report the person's misdeeds. The person then takes the law enforcement officer's weapon, and, while the law enforcement officer is forcibly wedged into the patrol car, shoots the law enforcement officer in the back of the head with the weapon, killing the law enforcement officer. The person and the person's accomplice then try to destroy and hide the evidence.

I really, really hate to see another Jew die, but Martin Grossman has given me damn little to work with in constructing an argument for mercy or lenity on his behalf.


Well now, it seems that Rabbi Menachem Katz of the Aleph Institute has been visiting Martin Grossman in prison. [This is appropriate behavior if, as I believe to be the case here, the visitor is not smuggling any contraband and is visiting in compliance with the prison visitation rules. The Aleph Institute is a credible organization, which offers its outreach services to Jews who are removed from the mainstream community. This obviously includes prison inmates, but Aleph Institute also reaches out to Jewish military personnel who are not in ready touch with Jewish communities.].

It has been reported that Grossman has requested a proper Jewish burial in the event that the execution is carried out. This I can endorse. Every Jew is entitled to a proper Jewish burial. The Hebrew Free Burial Association does precisely that for indigent Jewish decedents in the New York area (I myself send a check to HFBA every year). Surely a proper Jewish burial can be arranged for Grossman. They probably can dispense with the autopsy. And I do not doubt that there are Jewish law enforcement officers in Florida who would be willing to stand watch over the body between the time of death and the time of burial.

And, as further detailed per this Blog's 19 August 2009 posting, Grossman is entitled to a memorial plaque on a Yahrzeit board. The Jewish community of Florida is quite affluent, so I'm sure that they will find a way to underwrite Grossman's proper Jewish burial and Yahrzeit plaque.


Rabbi Katz also reports that he arranged for "special permission from the warden to allow Grossman to put on Tefillin." This I certainly favor, but hope and pray that Grossman doesn't give tefillin (and those of us who pray with them) a bad name.

Honors for EL AL

It is not the purpose of this posting to delve too deeply into the entire history of EL AL Airlines. EL AL began as Israel's national airline in 1948, and at the time of its establishment, David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, made what purportedly was an ironclad promise that EL AL would serve kosher meals on its flights, and not operate flights on the Sabbath.

There have been a number of incidents over the years of departures from that ideal, especially following EL AL's privatization, a process that occurred between 2003 and 2005.

The latest major spat occurred in December 2006, when, following a short strike at Lod Airport (I do not care to glorify Ben Gurion by attaching his name to Israel's national airport at Lod, near Tel Aviv), EL AL played catch-up by operating a flight on Shabbat.

I am a Sabbath observer. But I understand that:

(A) Not every Jew is; and

(B) As a practical matter, EL AL cannot totally completely cease all activities on Shabbat (guarding its aircraft, for instance).


It is my stance that even though EL AL is privatized, EL AL is what it is today on account of its background. The name and trademark of EL AL stands for the Jewish people, and therefore, it should serve kosher meals in flight, and should not operate flights that require passengers to fly, or go to or from the airport, on Shabbat.


In December 2006, Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, the Editor of Yated Ne'eman, wrote an editorial for Yated which was carried on The Yeshiva World website (Yated does not -- yet -- have an Internet presence, what with all of the opposition to the Internet amongst its constituency) in support of the boycott announced by several rabbis in America and in Israel.

Now, on page 125 of the 11 December 2009 edition of Yated Ne'eman, there is a photo with a caption beginning: "EL AL was honored at the Belzer dinner with an award for outstanding devotion and dedication …" And so, in just 3 short years, EL AL has been rehabilitated from pariah to sterling, and is no longer (for now) shitlisted by the rabbis.


I am most uncomfortable in placing labels on my fellow Jews. But there are some insular groups of Jews who label themselves as "Charedi." The word means that they tremble in fear of G-d (except, for a few of them who have besmirched the others, when they are committing financial fraud and tax evasion). I have some relatives and friends who would be labeled as Charedi, but who, like most Charedi Jews, embody honesty, strong character, and class. In any event, the same Charedi Jews who run rampant in the aisles and knock into other passengers on EL AL flights when they assemble to pray (in light of safety concerns, one is permitted to pray from one's seat in an airline situation. The pilot, some of my pilot friends have informed me, can feel the weight shift when 10+ men all get together in the tail to daven.) all seem to behave themselves quite well on the transatlantic flights of other airlines. And, as I have seen, they exhibit greater courtesy to the flight attendants of other airlines than they do towards the EL AL stewardesses.

I take these rabbinical boycotts with more than a few grains of salt. By issuing various proclamations, the rabbis can periodically squeeze concessions out of EL AL that cannot be exacted from other airlines. If the rabbis ever are successful in shutting down EL AL, then they would have absolutely no power over any other airline.

The Belzer Chassidim have now declared that EL AL is kosher … at least until the next rabbinical boycott.

First Person Plural

The great ideal is that we Jewish people take responsibility for our own; not only in helping the needy among us, but some sort of responsibility for the actions of our fellow Jews. Though not fully achieved 100% of the time, this standard has sustained us through adversities of the past and present, and will ultimately redeem us in the future. Though everything, of course, depends upon G-d Almighty, we Jews are all connected to one another, and when one of us hurts, all of us feel the pain.

[Just for the record, being Jewish is not me and my wife's sole, nor even necessarily our primary, criterion for selecting providers of goods or services. Our insurance agent, lawn mowing service, plumber, electrician -- none of these are Jewish. They have served us well, so we are loyal customers and clients. My wife and I have seen too many people get into too much trouble by automatically taking their business to a lantsman. We are equal opportunity employers. But I digress.].

This concept of "Am Echad," that the Jewish people are one nation, has its obvious benefits. My wife and I each travel out of town from time to time for professional and business reasons, and we are often aided by Jewish people in the out-of-town locations. And, over the centuries, the assistance by fellow Jews has often made the difference between life and death.

The downside is that we also have to account for the transgressions of our coreligionists. Much of the liturgy of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, when we seek G‑d's forgiveness and repent from our sins, is couched in the first person plural. "Avinu Malkeinu Chatanu L'fanecha" (Our Father, Our King, We have sinned before you). "Ashamnu, Bagadnu, Gazlanu …" (We have become guilty, we have betrayed, we have robbed ….).

When we go through the confessional prayers, we do NOT say "Mallayev murdered, Madoff swindled, Spitzer shtupped a hooker, Garson took bribes and Yagman cheated on his taxes." It is "WE murdered, WE swindled, WE shtupped hookers, WE took bribes and WE cheated on our taxes." It is, of course, physically impossible for a single individual to commit every one of the enumerated sins. And a goodly number of the transgressors are prosecuted, civilly and criminally, by other members of the Jewish community. But G-d -- and the nations of the world -- judge us not only as individuals, but as a group. We, as a community, are called upon to take an interest in the personal rectitude of all of our members.

And so, I shall now comment on two of our transgressors, and some of the broader implications.

First, there is Yochanan Levitansky, the New Haven man who swindled 1,077 Ebay customers to the tune of $237,257 by taking their money and not delivering the goods. He will be doing 6 - 12 months, and paying some restitution. Levitansky's attorney, public defender Sarah Merriam, argued in the sentencing memorandum that "As a young man who had been raised with the idea that he would one day become a rabbi, Yochi Levitansky was ill-prepared for the challenges of running a business on his own." Merriam further argued that Levitansky's fraud was mitigated by the fact that Ebay's insurance covered it. Hold it right there, buster!! Don't insurance companies have the Constitutional right to equal protection under the law?

[I don't know whether these really were Levitansky's own rationalizations, or whether Ms. Merriam came up with them in order to discharge her duty to zealously assert her client's interests. If it was the latter, then I can hardly blame Ms. Merriam. Sometimes, defense attorneys, civil and criminal, get stuck with piss poor clients who have little in the way of positive attributes. I myself have had such clients in years past, and was duty- bound to assert whatever arguments might lessen the negative consequences, even at the risk of ridicule by the plaintiff's attorney, judge and/or jury. I now can be more selective of whom I take on as a client. And Levitansky did get significantly less than the legal maximum, so Ms. Merriam certainly cannot be accused of being an ineffective counsel.].

Then, there is Yitty Shteierman, a Monsey, NY woman who stands accused of using a fake deed to a house she doesn't even own as collateral for two separate loans totaling $270,000, in two separate transactions. My rabbi has, of late, been talking about giving people the benefit of the doubt. Ms. Shteierman has yet to be convicted of a crime. She is legally presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. So I will give Yitty Shteierman the benefit of the doubt, however, I shall, pending further developments in the case, refrain from entering into any business transactions with her (unless, of course, my own rabbi sees fit to do so).

I shall not now dwell upon the shortsightedness involved in the commission of crimes such as the the foregoing accused/admitted ones, where the acts necessary to commit such crimes produces a reliable paper and/or electronic trail of damning evidence.

The intrusive social pressures in the insular communities in which Mr. Levitansky and Ms. Steierman dwell are notorious. Schools will reject or expel students because their fathers wear blue shirts instead of white, or their mothers wear the wrong style wigs to cover their hair, or if their homes have Internet access or a t‑e‑l‑e‑v‑i‑s­‑i‑o‑n. In arranging marriages for their children, parents will reject a match based upon the color tablecloth the prospective spouse's mother uses for the Shabbat table. And, notwithstanding the nonhereditary nature of conditions such as Down's Syndrome, some parents of such children will go to all lengths to hide the fact that there is a Down's Syndrome child in the family, lest it ruin their other children's chances for a shidduch (marriage arrangement). [N.B. This latter assertion has actually been confirmed by a reliable source -- a parent in an insular "black hat" community in Israel who has disregarded all advice to keep her own Down's Syndrome daughter in the closet (and many who would hide their Down's Syndrome child from the world do literally keep such children out on the enclosed terrace to their apartment, which effectively is in fact a closet.).

So what needs to happen? WE need to start taking a dimmer view of fraud. WE need to shun and ostracize those who commit "white collar" fraud-type crimes as much as WE shun and ostracize the children of the man who wears a blue shirt, or the person who watches television or surfs the Internet, or the siblings of Down's Syndrome children. Because if such crimes are less socially acceptable in OUR insular society, then they will, no doubt, occur with significantly less frequency.

Yes, the Rabbis have their work cut out for them in sending out the message, but, in the final accounting, WE cannot leave it all to the Rabbis. It is all up to US!

Oversimplification

In Europe, over the course of many centuries, the Catholic Church sent its best and brightest to be monks and priests, while the best and brightest Jews learned in the yeshivas and became Rabbis. The Rabbis went forth and multiplied, but the monks and priests did not.

As Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve, explains, this is an oversimplification, though the process probably did play a role behind the obvious and undisputed phenomenon of Jewish people being disproportionately overrepresented in the various fields of intellectual and scientific and financial achievement.

One Jewish disproportionate overrepresentation I have long wondered about is that of the field of leftist politics. Why are people of Jewish origin so commonly found amongst the activist elements of the Communists, the Socialists, or just plain liberals? It is very perplexing!

My own Jewish upbringing was, politically speaking, centrist (for the times) Democrat, though quite frankly, my parents had other personal and family issues which diverted most of their attentions and energies from the political scene. But their social circles included, though by no means exclusively, people of decidedly leftist political orientation.

More recently, with my increased dabbling into genealogical research, I now have strong reason to suspect (read proof positive) that some relatives, of whom my parents and grandparents rarely if ever spoke, acted solidly on the left side of the political stage.

One thing which all humans find very difficult is to imagine that there are those who do not share their perspectives and beliefs. Justice and charity are very strongly ingrained Jewish cultural norms. Seeing someone in an "underdog" position naturally elicits empathy from a Jew. What most of these Jews on the Left have trouble realizing (and what I myself for many years could not conceptualize) was that not all ethnic or social cultures share the Jewish values of justice, truth, charity and societal order.

For example, if everyone shared those values, then opposition to capital punishment would be entirely sensible. The trouble is that there are those for whom justice, truth and charity are irrelevant, and whose very existence imperils order in society. It is all well and good that the limousine liberal can oppose capital punishment on humanitarian grounds, but such will do little to induce the criminal element to abolish their own perverse variety of the death penalty.

This, no doubt, does play a role in many Jews' propensity to embrace Leftist causes, but it is an oversimplification.

What does induce people of Jewish origin to religiously pick up the cudgels of the Left? The word "religiously" is a tip-off. There is a very, very strong correlation (with certain exceptions, of course) for Jews of the Left to have long abandoned the Jewish religious practices (and in many cases, beliefs). Many Leftist Jews are not merely non-religious, they are anti-religious! There are many, many religious Jews (myself among them) who are solidly on the Right side of the political spectrum.

Nor is this phenomenon peculiar to Jews; the experience with Finnish immigrants to America, and their descendants, has notably strong parallels. The "Church Finns" hold strongly Conservative political values, while the "Red Finns" who have abandoned the religious rituals have flocked to the Left (including Gus Hall, who was the quadrennial Communist Party candidate for President from 1976 through 1984).

This does shine some light on the phenomenon of the disproportionate numbers of Jews on the Left, but it is an oversimplification. Jewish accomplishment and achievement is phenomenon that is both perplexing and intimidating to the world -- and indeed, to the Jews themselves.

Could it be that we really are G-d's Chosen People? I believe so! But this explanation, too, is a severe oversimplification.