Important teshuvah moment: an alert reader informed me (offline and very politely) that the Holocaust Museum exhibit referenced at the end of the piece, was scheduled for renovation (HVAC repair and the like) long before President Trump began his second term. I should ahve probed further when I heard the exhibit was closed over Labor Day. The administration's desire to whitewash the unpleasant parts of our national history is so well known, it was plausable (but not factual) of me to assume this exhibit's content would be modified. Given that the sermon is about the importance of truth, I think this correction is key. Besides, there are so many other examples of the President erasing hard truths about America's past, that this case turned out to be innocent does not undermine the point of the sermon.
Meanwhile, the administration did, in fact, fire all 12 people appointed to the Holocaust Museum Council by the Biden administration, including former 2nd Gentleman Doug Emhoff. The Council has a long history of appointments from Presidents of both parties, but never a wholesale firing of a prior President's picks. I hope the content of its exhibits continue to be immune from politicization.
More than just “whataboutism”, the “But, Gaza” and “ripe for including Gaza” comments play into the one side of the dual-loyalty coin - that Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own countries. The flip side of that coin is that Jews everywhere (in this case an American rabbi) must answer for the sins of the Israeli state. While likely not your intention, that’s a fair interpretation of your comments in the context of the rabbi’s article. Also, given the occurrence of Yom Kippur last week, the rabbi was using teshuvah to illuminate how a fundamentalist theology is being used to undermine the concept of repentance - in our country right now. He was not suggesting that there aren’t other situations in the public sphere to which repentance also might apply.
Yeah except this specific entry is RIPE for including Gaza. Must we wait 50+ years to repent ? Only on historical stuff. I thought the beauty of Yom Kippur is that it calls on Jews to confront the awkward difficulties and wrongs in their lives, including family issues still ongoing in their immediate sphere as well as wrongs in the larger public sphere. The point is to repent and resolve in the present, not to review the past. And I think you know I’m right.
But let's not do that. Let's not indulge in a kind of progressive whataboutism that implicitly requires Jewish commentators to address Gaza in everything they write. As it stands, Holzman has discussed Gaza on many occasions, including in these pages: https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/ending-the-conflict-in-israel-will
Important teshuvah moment: an alert reader informed me (offline and very politely) that the Holocaust Museum exhibit referenced at the end of the piece, was scheduled for renovation (HVAC repair and the like) long before President Trump began his second term. I should ahve probed further when I heard the exhibit was closed over Labor Day. The administration's desire to whitewash the unpleasant parts of our national history is so well known, it was plausable (but not factual) of me to assume this exhibit's content would be modified. Given that the sermon is about the importance of truth, I think this correction is key. Besides, there are so many other examples of the President erasing hard truths about America's past, that this case turned out to be innocent does not undermine the point of the sermon.
Meanwhile, the administration did, in fact, fire all 12 people appointed to the Holocaust Museum Council by the Biden administration, including former 2nd Gentleman Doug Emhoff. The Council has a long history of appointments from Presidents of both parties, but never a wholesale firing of a prior President's picks. I hope the content of its exhibits continue to be immune from politicization.
More than just “whataboutism”, the “But, Gaza” and “ripe for including Gaza” comments play into the one side of the dual-loyalty coin - that Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own countries. The flip side of that coin is that Jews everywhere (in this case an American rabbi) must answer for the sins of the Israeli state. While likely not your intention, that’s a fair interpretation of your comments in the context of the rabbi’s article. Also, given the occurrence of Yom Kippur last week, the rabbi was using teshuvah to illuminate how a fundamentalist theology is being used to undermine the concept of repentance - in our country right now. He was not suggesting that there aren’t other situations in the public sphere to which repentance also might apply.
Good article. But, Gaza??
Yeah except this specific entry is RIPE for including Gaza. Must we wait 50+ years to repent ? Only on historical stuff. I thought the beauty of Yom Kippur is that it calls on Jews to confront the awkward difficulties and wrongs in their lives, including family issues still ongoing in their immediate sphere as well as wrongs in the larger public sphere. The point is to repent and resolve in the present, not to review the past. And I think you know I’m right.
Thank you for reading!
But let's not do that. Let's not indulge in a kind of progressive whataboutism that implicitly requires Jewish commentators to address Gaza in everything they write. As it stands, Holzman has discussed Gaza on many occasions, including in these pages: https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/ending-the-conflict-in-israel-will