Wu Tang is for the children. Hassidut is for the people. Book is something you’d really enjoy.
Jun 19, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Fascinating conversations on twitter today about Juneteenth - whether it should be celebrated, mourned, commemorated, remembered...
Parades? Cookouts? Protests?
There is a Jewish angle to this: we remember different events in time in many ways. /1
Yom HaShoah commemorates and memorializes the dead of the Holocaust. It is a deeply sad day. And survivors are still with us today.
Purim is a celebration of a subjugated people who were nearly the victims of a genocide that was narrowly averted. It is a joyous holiday.
/2
May 31, 2022 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
The macro problem of escalating gun violence in society is not being addressed. Because government wont address it, heres how it forces Jewish orgs to respond.
/1
Synagogues and J. schools all have buzz in locked doors monitored by a staff person. Sometimes two sets, or a metal gate and a buzz-in door. This is a change from 20 years ago. /2
Dec 13, 2021 • 42 tweets • 8 min read
There's this rabbinic letter going around & it's not good.
So it's time to fisk it.
It's called 'The Committee of Concerned Rabbis.'
For starters, it's a letter, not a committee. It wasn't created by any recognized org - just 1 dude w/google docs. And 'concerned' - blech.
/1
Here's the 1st chunk. It starts with 'concern' for the 'censorious culture' in J. orgs.
Which... Jewish organizations have been cautious on messaging - forever. On Israel so as not to lose donors. On politics, so as not to lose donors. etc. /2
Feb 9, 2021 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
It’s good that the Jewish community met w/ Madison Cawthorn. I hope something productive comes of it.
But I want to focus on this other thing that happened:
Cawthorn apparently tried to defend his antisemitism by showing how much he loves Israel. /1
The rabbi he met with was not having it. Which, well done. /2
May 15, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I have a pretty low key day.
Considering starting a hassidic-style commentary twitter thread on this dr bronners bottle.
Call this sefer the 'Naki Kappayim' - The Clean of Hands.
Begun as a twitter thread on this day, 21 Iyar 5780.
/2
Feb 6, 2020 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
This article from @JTAnews about how Orthodox swung towards the Republican party was good and thoughtful, but I thought it worth addressing an issue the piece did not. And that's Nativism.
/1
The Republlican Party's most defining characteristic in the last election cycle was not trade or military spending or upper-income tax cuts or Israel or abortion. All those things were present as GOP platforms stretching back to GW Bush or before. The new element is Nativism.
/2
Dec 13, 2019 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Quick thread on the various spellings of the Jewish holiday that falls this month and what the spellings indicate about your own proclivities:
Spelling #1: Channuka- You've got the first syllable grammatically correct, but not the last. You love chaos. Your apartment is a mess.
Spelling #2: Hannukkah- Two doubled letters; sort of unnecessary, but has lovely symmetry. You like beautiful, extravagant things. You long for, but likely cannot afford, a Louis the XIV armoir and chest set.
Dec 11, 2019 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
There are many complicated reasons why this move by the Trump Administration, which practically will likely have little effect, is symbolically horrible on multiple levels. A thread.
/1
nytimes.com/2019/12/10/us/…
The move reclassifies Jews as a nationality and allows the department of education to withhold funds from universities that fail to police their students for trying to start a boycott of the state of Israel. The word 'problematic' doesn't begin to describe what that is. /2
Call this sefer the 'Naki Kappayim' - The Clean of Hands.