Religion Dispatches
If traditional notions of Judaism and Jewishness are at odds with the contemporary world, one can either change Judaism, or one can change the world. A new book makes a case for the former.
Read MoreI have a better idea.
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Parting Ways is Butler’s attempt to construct a Jewish narrative that coheres with her philosophical and political sensibilities as well as her allegiance to her Jewish heritage and lineage. As a Jew for whom religious practice and the Jewish textual tradition do not constitute her Jewish core, hers is a secular narrative of Jewishness outside the orbit of Zionism. Butler’s concern for Israel is that she believes its present construction is “Jewishly” indefensible (in the terms she develops in her book) and the muscularity with which Zionism is proffered squashes any alternative narrative of diasporic Jewish identity.
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For decades, American politicians have had a “gentleman’s agreement” regarding Jerusalem, Israel, and American Jews. On the one hand, all mainstream politicians kowtow to the (right-leaning) Jewish institutional community and mouth platitudes about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel. On the other hand, once they get into office, they realize that to put these platitudes into practice would lead to diplomatic chaos—and so they do next to nothing.
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Breivik’s racism is different from others that came before. It’s belonging to a generic European Christianity that makes you good, and your opposition to Islam that makes you smart.
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According to Professor Marc Ellis, a critic of Israel and the American Jewish establishment, Baylor University’s new president Ken Starr is seeking to replace him with “a right-wing, Israel-loving Jew that would cement [Starr’s] reputation with the right wing…”
Read MoreBut the ECI is no friend to Israel.
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A new book shows how a cohort of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews altered the nation; from the Social Gospel movement through anti-Communism, Civil Rights and even into the rise of the religious right.
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If Breivik is insane, then his insanity lies in taking fully to heart the widely fluctuating language of right wing Islamophobes who perceive an existential threat to our freedom and life, a Manichean vision of an uncompromising evil fighting a good that has to be equally unsparing in warfare.
Read More“Fundamentalist” doesn’t accurately describe him.
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