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Obama’s Real Jewish Approval Rating

August 28, 2010 in Judaism, Media, Politics | No comments

Ever since Jews rejected Moloch, Ba’al, Jesus, Mohammad, and every other foreign god/prophet/messiah/whatever, the world has been obsessed with Jewish approval in one way or another. It’s actually kind of creepy! There are even organizations which exist solely to spend billions of dollars annually trying to convince Jewish people to follow a foreign god.

Charles Blow enjoys his fair share of making up fake, misleading, and otherwise nonexistent “trends” to fill up space around the advertisements and obituaries in the NYT. (In a past weird column, he asserted that hooking up is an entirely new phenomena only done by people under age 30.) One such trend that doesn’t exist in the natural world is the current media meme in which President Obama is quickly losing steam amongst American Jews.

Aside from the general weirdness of specifically singling out Jews, this isn’t really happening at all:

From January to July 2010, Jews gave Obama a 61 percent approval rating, down from 66 percent from July to December 2009. Muslims gave him a 78 percent approval rating during the first half of 2010, and Mormons a 24 percent rating. The overall approval rating is 48 percent, down 15 points from the first half of 2009.

Obama received average job approval ratings from Catholics, and below-average ratings from Protestants.

Despite drops in the overall job approval rating from January 2009 to July 2010, Muslims have consistently given Obama the highest rating and Mormons the lowest. Jews’ approval ratings have remained above average.

Haredim Gonna Hate

July 19, 2010 in Judaism, Politics | No comments

There’s a bill in the Knesset which aims to invalidate conversions and marriages, and re-define Jewish identity at the exclusion of the majority of the world’s Jews.

Most important is the fact that this isn’t the Orthodox vs liberal Judaism battle that some people are trying to make it out to be, it is a power-grab by the Haredi minority. As such, the silence and shrugs by people who don’t seem to understand it (either willfully or not) are just as frustrating as the attempts to purposely misrepresent the intent behind the bill.

Last week, there was an op-ed in New York Times by Alana Newhouse (of Tablet) that does a really great job at explaining what is going on and what is at stake:

[...] The problem is not simply that some of these rabbinical functionaries, who are paid by the state and courted by politicians, are demonstrably corrupt. (To take the most salacious of a slew of examples, an American Haredi rabbi who had become one of the most powerful authorities on the question of conversion resigned from his organization in December after accusations that he solicited phone sex from a hopeful female convert.) Rather, it is that the beliefs of a tiny minority of the world’s Jews are on the verge of becoming the Israeli government’s definition of Judaism, for all Jews.

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4th of July

July 4, 2010 in Judaism, Politics | 2 comments

On July 4, 1976 the Israeli Defense Forces undertook a hostage-rescue operation. Backed by the Ugandan government under the lead of brutal dictator Idi Amin, Palestinian terrorists teamed up with German terrorists to hijack a plane in exchange for the release of prisoners in Israel, threatening death to 105 hostages. Condemned by the leader of the United Nations–a former Nazi who was later bestowed a Papal knighthood honor from Pope John Paul II–the mission was considered successful and supported by most Western nations.

It is depicted in the mostly-factual film The Last King of Scotland, which itself is haunting. It is a cerebral horror movie. It makes you wish you weren’t watching it and when it’s over, you can’t go back to living until it has worn off.

A year later, Uganda was appointed to the late United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Current membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council includes various countries with distinguished human rights records such as Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Pakistan.

Etz Haim

June 8, 2010 in Judaism, Links | No comments

  • How a girl named Yomaira became Yehudit: “Yehudit Tamayo’s path to Judaism began when she was a ten-year-old Roman Catholic by the name of Yomaira.”
  • Following their true paths: “The journey to one’s Jewish soul may have several bumps along the way, but those who choose Judaism for genuine reasons often find that they were on that path long before they themselves had the revelation that, at their core, they were already Jewish.”
  • When I told my family I wanted to be Jewish: “I was 14 the first time I told my mother I wanted to be Jewish. She reeled her arm back like a baseball player (she is Dominican) and she smacked me across the face.”
  • Tired of living in fear: “The issue is not who my mother is, but rather who I am. The question for all of us is – what have you done today? Are you a Jew by birth and an idol worshiper by practice? (Insert the name of your favorite idol, be it stone, drugs, money or physical pleasure.) Or are you a Jew by practice? By conversion, I am a Jew. By practice, I am a Jew.”

[Photograph of Synagogue Etz Haim (Tree of Life), circa 1700 in Izmir, Turkey & links via Aliza Hausman]

Halal: NOT Equivalent to Kosher!

October 1, 2009 in Judaism | 1 comment

HalalA little over a year ago, I noticed that the stuff at Holy Land had this little symbol on it. Since halal isn’t “equivalent to kosher,” I wondered exactly how legal it was–it’s illegal to imply something is kosher when it isn’t. In addition, kosher certification agencies generally freak out over misuse/misleading usage of their heschers, though that wouldn’t be the issue at stake here.

I hit up Shmarya after finding a post he made on the exact same thing, but he said that no rabbis seem concerned about it.

I had figured it was either a deliberate attempt at faking a kosher certification where there was none, or simply trying to poorly explain what “halal” is to people either too sheltered or too stupid to Google it for themselves, but assumed it was the latter.

Just recently, I noticed that the little symbol has changed from saying “equivalent to kosher” around it, to “certified since 1987.” I wonder if someone complained?

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