(no subject)

[rymenhild]

This Newsweek piece on the "pending extinction of American Judaism" is more than a bit overdramatic, don't you all think? I find it difficult to believe that the sky is breaking into small plaster pieces and falling on us. Help, people. Are the holes in Rabbi Gellman's argument as large and gaping as I think they are?

In other news, the Washington Post has interviewed likely voters at the Berkeley Bowl.

Comments

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

At the Berkeley Bowl? I thought the Post specialized in news that didn't involve having to do any travelling.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Maybe someone really wanted an excuse to buy blood oranges?

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

I think they can get those in DC.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Ah, but can you get 'forbidden' black rice that cooks purple in DC? Where in DC can you buy a dozen varieties of granola in bulk?

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

I don't know about forbidden black rice, but I'm pretty sure DC also has varieties of granola in bulk. (I am basing all my opinions on what can be found in Cambridge, though.)

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

You can get "forbidden" black rice in CT, at the natural food store...

[batyatoon]

He's a fool.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you think so. I wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy.

[darcydodo]

Interestingly, when I was in Cambria the other week, the cashiers and baggers at the market were talking about voting for Obama.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Maybe there's a different staff demographic there? I don't know.

[a-trick-mind.livejournal.com]

Yep, they are.

[newredshoes]

...Christ, it's the comments that make me ill. "The sooner the Jews disappear as a distinct ethnicity in the United States the better"? "You call everyone an anti-Semite who disagrees with you, so therefore screw you, heebs"? (The second one is a paraphrase; the first one is not.)

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

It's articles like that that prevent me from taking Newsweek at all seriously. Gah.

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

The article does have some very prominent weaknesses. The most obvious is that there is a significant Jewish demographic that is highly resistant to intermarriage, and the Hassidic world is a small fraction of that demographic.

I need to email Rabbi Gellman...

[(Anonymous)]

...he taught my confirmation class. He was convinced that way to keep us from leaving Judaism was to teach us logical "proofs" that G-d exists. And here he is writing that anti-Zionist rhetoric on campus is the biggest threat to Jewish identity. Give me a break. Pediatric Judaism, and lack of any meaningful Jewish education is the biggest threat to Judaism that I see. People walk away from what they think has nothing to offer them.

EWH