Jewish American Hypocrisy, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #322 | @MDWorld

April 15, 2013 Mike Gold 6 Comments

There’s a substantial theological college in New York City redundantly named Yeshiva University where, according to yesterday’s Jewish Daily Forward , a great many of its charges are pissed that the school “honored” former President Jimmy Carter for his mammoth works in helping the poor and the downtrodden across the United States and in establishing free elections and other human rights across the world. Peculiarly, these are causes that Jews like to think of as their own.

Because Carter has never toed the line on the Jewish lobby’s Israel über alles totalitarianism, these people are upset that the school is honoring this disgusting nonagenarian (he turns 90 next year) who has wasted our communal oxygen supply by building houses for the poor and establishing free elections in places where that concept remains unique. Indeed, 87% of those responding to an online poll of 5,000 people were opposed to the Carter tribute. Last week, the school’s president issued a statement distancing his employer from the tribute, stating it was presented by a “student-run” publication and not by the University itself.

The students do what students do, protected by both the laws and the morality governing free speech, and I have no problem with this: even shitheads get to squawk. But I find the depth of this protest of interest, as next month Yeshiva University honors one of its own, Rabbi Hershel Schachter. This man has suggested the prime minister of Israel be shot if he compromises with the Palestinians on Jerusalem. He compares women to monkeys, and he wasn’t talking about the glories of Darwinism. He has shown naked contempt for victims of child sex abuse, the 600 pound gorilla in the room of Jewish Orthodoxy, a controversy that has involved several other Yeshiva University rabbis. According to The Forward, “He also suggested that instead of immediately contacting police regarding an allegation of child sex abuse, the allegation should first be taken before a committee of psychologists trained in Torah to ensure that the child is not lying.” (Emphasis mine.)

He is, in my humble opinion, a bigoted, racist piece of filth and his being employed by this school – let alone honored by it – destroys any credibility Yeshiva University might have. But that’s just my opinion. Compared to the thunderstorm of protest over Carter’s honor, the response to Schachter’s tribute has been comparable to a fart in a blizzard.

Let me repeat something I have frequently said in this space: when it comes to Israel and its neighbors, I don’t have a horse in the race. I am completely opposed to nations that do not respect complete religious freedom, and despite my Ashkenazi heritage (of which I remain proud) I am no more likely to embrace a Jewish state than I am a Moslem state or a Christian state.

(Major digression: almost one third of Americans, including over one-quarter of Democrats, are in favor of a constitutional amendment making the United States a “Christian nation.”)

American Jews like to embrace themselves in the cloak of liberalism and concern for our fellow humans. The policies of the American Jewish community often reveal the over-cloak of hypocrisy. If we are to criticize other nations and other religions for their sexist, abusive and bigoted beliefs, if we are to criticize other religions for their tolerance of and complicity in child sex abuse… well, the shekel stops here.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com, every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check the website above for times. Gold also joins MDW’s Marc Alan Fishman, Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.