Warning:This Post Uses a Few Words of the Mamaloshen (slang for Yiddish, means the mother tongue) So Zei Gezunt (be healthy) and continue reading.
On Yom Kippur, the rabbi stops in the middle of the service, prostrates himself beside the bema, (the platform from which services are conducted) and cries out, “Oh, God. I am not worthy!” Saul Rosenberg, president of the synagogue is so moved by this demonstration of piety that he immediately throws himself to the floor beside the rabbi and cries, “Oh, God! “I am not worthy” Then Chaim Pitkin, a tailor, jumps from his seat, prostrates himself in the aisle and cries, “Oh God! I am not worthy!” Rosenberg nudges the rabbi and whispers, “So look who thinks he’s not worthy.”
I’m not sure if this is just an American phenom or not, but here in the US Jewish Community everyone thinks they are a “macher” (big shot), not necessarily for the weight they have in the secular world but for the weight they think they have in the Jewish Community. In most cases the people who think they are “machers” are really “pisks” (nobodies). Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairman of the DNC is that kind of “pisk.”
Yesterday almost all the GOP candidates addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition in a candidates forum. The lone exception was Ron Paul who was not invited for his own health. The RJC was worried that the aged Paul would suffer undue stress being in a room with so many Jews (that is my theory, not the RJC’s rationale).
One by one the candidates spoke, each telling the truth about Obama’s anti-Israel policies, and his weak responses to the Iranian nuke program. Although Israel is an issue important to all Americans, it is especially important to the ones of the Jewish faith.
Every candidate promising they would treat Israel like the valuable ally she is (based on their track records probably true). Many of them even promising to move the US embassy to Jerusalem (don’t hold your breath on that one, George W Bush failed to come through on that promise and he was probably the most Pro-Israel president in my lifetime).
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney accused Obama of being “timid and weak” in the face of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapon capability and of insulting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He suggested Obama’s actions have “emboldened Palestinian hard-liners and said the president has “immeasurably set back the prospect of peace in the Middle East.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose recent rise in the polls has threatened Romney, earned applause when he suggested he’d ask George W. Bush’s hawkish former UN ambassador, John Bolton, to serve as Secretary of State.
Speeches mean nothing, but when you look into the background of all of the GOP candidates each (with the exception of Paul) would represent a marked improvement in foreign policy issues, than the present occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
To respond, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz held a conference call with mainstream media reporters.
“What we heard today was a lot of bluster from a bunch of candidates who are quick to support wiping out Israel’s foreign aid budget when talking in one forum, only to say something different when taking to the Republican Jewish coalition,” she said.
Not one GOP candidate is campaigning on the issue of wiping out aid to Israel. Even Ron Paul isn’t campaigning on that issue, although he wants to wipe out foreign aid to everyone, not just Israel. The closest to Ron Paul’s position is Rick Perry who talked about zero-based funding for foreign aid, with aid being subject to their support of the United States (which would be no problem for the Jewish State).
“Let me be clear: As an American Jewish leader, I am extremely proud of President Barack Obama’s ongoing commitment to Israel,” she said. Obama has signaled to the world that “while events in the Middle East might be uncertain, the U.S.-Israel relationship is stronger than ever,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Wait a second! American Jewish Leader? Her? Debbie Wasserman Schultz? That’s takes chutzpa (nerve-for example someone who kills both parents, then asks the court for mercy because they are an orphan) Like the tailor in the story above, Shultz is not even worthy of not being worthy.
Every year I hear Ms. Shultz’s voice on XM Radio’s Radio Hanukkah. She talks about the meaning of Chanukah being brotherhood and tolerance. That she celebrates the holiday by going over her best friend’s house with her husband and kids to help celebrate Christmas. While there is nothing wrong with stopping by a friends house during their holiday, a Jewish leader would not call that celebrating the holiday, especially because a big part of the Hanukkah story was a civil war between the Jews. The civil war was over the assimilation of part of the Jewish community. For a Jewish Leader to say they celebrate Hanukkah by celebrating Christmas is just meshugge (if you don’t know that one you simply aren’t American).
When the Democrats lost Anthony Weiner’s seat, Shultz’s excuse was it didn’t represent Jewish dissatisfaction with Obama, it was only those Orthodox Jews who voted against the Democrats. The implication was that the Orthodox were not really American Jews.
DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is already out with the party line: These were just Orthodox Jews, not the mainline, Democrat-supporting, population.
That drew an irritated email to me from a non-partisan Orthodox leader this morning.
“Of course the DNC chair has to downplay the NY9 result, that’s her job. But you would think that she would do so in a way that’s about politics by addition rather than subtraction. Chair Wasserman Schultz seems to be suggesting the Democrats should write off Orthodox Jews, rather than reach out – which is rather surprising since she has a sizable Orthodox community in her own Florida district,” he said.
I am not saying that the DNC leader is not a good Jew. Honestly that is between her and God, just as the question of whether I am a good Jew is between me and the Lord. But for her to call herself an “American Jewish leader, ” is simply “dreck’ (crap). As a Congresswoman she is an American leader and she is Jewish, but she is not worthy of being an American Jewish leader, which implies leadership on Jewish issues.
An American Jewish leader would not brag about celebrating Hanukkah by celebrating Christmas, an American Jewish leader would not look at the results of an election an say “Feh” it was just the Orthodox. And an American Jewish leader would not be a “Shabtsitvaynik” (follower of a false prophet) by praising the most Anti-Israel President in history as being pro-Israel.
Sorry Congresswoman, but you are not even worthy of being not worthy.
NOTE: You can now return to the “non-Yiddish part of your day”