Ignorant Jews in the News
First, this dispatch from London:
Plans for a four-star kosher hotel on Golders Green Road in North-West London have been approved by Barnet Council in the face of protests from residents and a Jewish councillor.
The 60-room building will include Shabbat-friendly door keys and lifts, meat and milk kitchens and mezuzot on all doors. Conservative councillor Melvin Cohen and local residents claimed there was no demand for the hotel and that it would worsen traffic congestion.
I love it when fellow Jews sabotage efforts to accommodate the observant community… real mature.
I couldn’t help my incredulity when I read this morsel of student journalism, from the University of Missouri - Columbia, about mezuzot.
The Jewish tradition of making mezuzahs has been passed down for thousands of years.
“It is commanded in the Torah to put the prayer on your door,” Berkowitz said.
The scrolls inside the mezuzahs can be kosher or non-kosher prayers. The kosher scrolls are those that have been blessed by rabbis.
“It’s up to the individual whether or not they want the scroll blessed,” said Cheryl Neiman, former Jewish Student Organization vice president.
Note: This must be done the same rabbis that bless food to make it kosher.
OK, so the first article is semi-related to kashrut–but what does the second article have to do with kosher food?
Jabett, your argument is fundamentally flawed. You’ve read an article and don’t know the context. First, you are assuming that those Jews objecting are not themselves observent, it’s an assumption I’d caution against as virtually all the Jews that live in Golders Green are exceptionally observent. Plus, the objectors have two key arguments. I drove down their tonight and the traffic is awful, yet another hotel would make it worse still. It was almost quicker to walk three quarters of a mile than to drive it. The second point about demand is harder to judge, but my gut tells me there is some merit to it. Although the free marketeer in me says let the market decide whether there is the demand, not the local council.
Nonetheless, you’re wide of the mark.
Ultra Con echos the comments of Silerbrow. A fair reading is that the objections would be based on any hotel not particularly an observant one. Traffic could be generated by the hotel guests or by the changes in patterns caused by the facility even if volume didnt change. Ultra Con just doesnt know.
Ultra Con thinks that Cheryl Neiman needs to learn more. Ultra Con then ponders how many Jews are at this school to begin with….perhaps she is the most learned or the most committed. Regardless, Ultra Con gives Neiman credit for being a vice president of a Jewish student group as he remembers how hard it was to develop leadership for Hillel back in the dark ages when he went to College.
BS”D
I’ll just point out that “The scrolls inside the mezuzahs can be kosher or non-kosher prayers. The kosher scrolls are those that have been blessed by rabbis.” was not attributed to Cheryl Neiman” or Shira Berkowitz or even Emily Israel, and might well have been the conjecture of the author, Samantha Crank. And perhaps she asked Cherl Neiman the question of why the “mezuzahs” were not given out with scrolls, either blessed or not blessed, and she came up with that answer. Or perhaps she was misquoted, having said “kosher” instead. I know that in northern California, there were stories in the Jewish Bulletin about people making “mezuzahs” and writing their own scrolls, that is , writing things that have meaning to them, such as their own prayers or poetry or the like, and using that as a “mezuzah”. There seem to be many people like that. And there are even more people who don’t understand that a mezuzah is one of 2 doorposts on a door, rather than the case that houses the prayer which is attached to the mezuzah, or the prayer itself. That’s why a door with a wall on one side and a mezuzah on the other does not get a “mezuzah” attached to it. But even if these people are as ignorant as Cletus the slack-jawed yokel when it comes to Judaism, they’re still trying to derive meaning from Judaism, and that’s to be commended. It’s the Jews who have given up trying who are the real problem, because they probably cannot be remotivated.
I have no problem accepting that I was fast and loose with my characterizations, though, for the record, I use the term “ignorant” in its plain form — unknowing — and not as a judgment of an ignoramus’s character or intent.
As for the relevance of the second article, I was trying to point to another issue where people think that rabbis bless something in order to make it kosher.
I also have no problem accepting the report of someone who lives closer to a news report than I. I didn’t suggest that Councillor Cohen wasn’t frum, only that he was sabotaging a frum establishment, and by hanging his fellow Jews out to dry in the media, he wasn’t being very upright. (In these parts, “traffic congestion” is most often code for “not in my backyard.”)
I do, however, have a problem with referring to oneself in the third person ;)
Ultra Con learned from Bob Dole. Bob Dole is Ultra Con’s hero.
Wow, the second article is really disheartening. A leader of a Jewish student group doesn’t understand the basics of one of the most widely observed mitzvot? Yikes!
–Ariella
p.s. I second the idea that talking about yourself in the third person is annoying. And modeling yourself after Bob Dole is even more annoying.
I attend Mizzou where this article was published, Cheryl was misquoted and the text was taken out of context. She was very upset that this was published. We are always excited that ANY story about anything Jewish gets published in the middle of Missouri. Don’t be so harsh to judge.
Okay I am the author of this article. I am not Jewish; therefore, I took everything those girls told me and quoted them directly. I even sent e-mails for them to verify they had said this. I changed quotes because they said they had not told me that. I took out everything they objected to. This is not something I just made up and that makes me angry that of course I am the one being blamed. She was not misquoted in this story. She was misquoted in a previous story that was published the week before mine. If anyone has a problem with this I will gladly send you the e-mail in which they verified their quotes.
There is an expression that a mezuzah being unkosher. According to answers.com Judaism. The word kosher in Slang means Legitimate; permissible: “consolidating noneditorial functions of the papers, which is kosher”
Genuine; authentic.
BS”D
Samantha:
With what you just wrote being the case, that is what Jabbett assumed when he wrote that they were ignorant Jews. Others, such as myself, tried to put them in a better light by assuming that they were misquoted. I understand your feelings were hurt, and I’m sorry. But I’m even sorrier that Jabbett appears to have been correct in his assumptions, which means there are many ignorant Jews out there and these are probably just the tip of the iceberg. And that makes me downright sad.
Hey, at least they stood up and proclaimed in public “I’m jewish”. Its a great start.
realy hope to find help here.where will i get any info as to what products (brand names) are kosher and which retailers keep them in stock?i am a christian caterer who decided never to buy any halaal marked product ever again.apart from this personal decision,i need to know where to find these products in witbank,mpumalanga for my guesthouse and catering business aswell.i really hope someone can help - please.
Sorry, Mr/Ms de Waal, but this blog concentrates on the USA (mostly Boston), and very few bloggers or commenters would know what kosher products are available to you in Mpumalanga. Your best source for information would be the Johannesburg Beth Din.
This page: http://www.uos.co.za/kashrut has a product search facility, which should let you verify the kashrut status of products at your local market in Witbank or at your commercial suppliers, and any questions you have would best be directed to the Beth Din, by
telephone: (011) 485-4865 (during office hours) or by the email form at the web page above.
PS: There is a synagogue in Middelburg, which is not too far away from you. The phone number is (013) 282-6419. They should be able to give you whatever information you need. (Don’t call for the rest of this week, though, because it’s a religious holiday and they won’t be answering the phone; call next week.)
Ironic that these comments come in the ignorant section…
I am Catholic, I am not Jewish; therefore I had never even heard of a mezuzah. When the girls explained it to me I gladly wrote down the facts they said they had read out of a Jewish source book. I would just like to make clear, I know some people are thinking that I misquoted these girls, and as a writer I had to show proof of my sources. I would just like to say thank you to the people who understand this, and to the people who are ridiculing, me, the writer who didn’t even have to write this story to begin with, you may want to get your facts straight before you begin to blame other people. How do you think slander starts?
BS”D
Who is ridiculing you? Since your last post, nobody here has posted anything about you or to you, except for my apology to you. Other than that, there’s been zip. No reason to feel defensive.