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Monday, November 17, 2008

I'm shocked...shocked!!

A guest post by JS:


Apparently frum Jews are racist and teach this racism to their children. Who knew?


What kills me in all this is that frum Jews are isolationist by their very nature. This is true across the spectrum of Orthodoxy. We don't want to associate with non-Jews*. And part of ensuring we remain isolationist is to disparage everyone who isn't like us*. Go to any Orthodox shul and if you stick around long enough you'll hear a disparaging remark about non-Jews* or minorities* and if you're really lucky non-frum Jews as well. One of the main reasons frum Jews send their children to Yeshiva is to keep them away from society at large*. Even when the frum community engages in chesed or tzedaka work, it is often done to only help Jews (Fun story: I recently gave blood at work and had the following lovely comment made to me: "I only give blood at the shul blood drives so I can be sure my blood only goes to save Jewish lives." I would have told this isn't true, but then he might not give at all).


And yet, we're shocked when people express racist biases or when our children passively (or perhaps actively) absorb these sentiments? Give me a break. This article is meant for one purpose and one purpose only: so the Jews reading it can feel good about themselves that we're seriously confronting the problem in our community...as opposed to all those non-Jewish* anti-Semites and yet do nothing.


* - racist Yiddish terms ommitted for clarity.


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Buy DB's book. (please)

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