as a religious yet liberal jew who aims to get a PhD in hasidism, i just get so frustrated with the frankly orientalist fetishization of hasidic jews. it puts them up on a pedestal, as a proxy for less religious jews, as a way to symbolize the “ideal jew” (which by the way is always a white man).
first off, it means that liberal jews like who are, or are not, very committed to jewish law and texts (and, you know, God and stuff) are somehow deficient.
secondly, it completely ignores the different jewish cultures (sephardic, mizrahi, bene israel, etc.)
argh.
invisible_hand, I have no idea where you’re coming from with that two-pronged comment. I have never sensed a hint of antagonization of non-religious jews when hasidics are portrayed in media. And I don’t know where you’re going with the need to portray all the different Jewish ethnicities?
jose -
my “need” to portray jewish ethnicities? well…. it is quite similar to my “need” to portray americans as not just white men. there are black jews, middle-eastern jews, even female jews!
re: your first point, i was not talking about antagonism. i was talking about orientalism and fetishizing. please read my comment again.
the internalized antagonism, if you want to call it that, is towards non-orthodox jews, who
don’t fit the stereotype of “authentic jew,” which happens to be white and male. this is a big problem to all those who are none of the above, and it should be to us as well.
it’s offensive to hasidic jews to portrayed as a joke all the time.
it’s offensive to non hasidic jews for hasidic jews to be portrayed as “the real jews” (that you haven’t encountered this current doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist; as both invisible-hand and I have encountered it)
it’s offensive to non-ashkenazi jews to not be portrayed at all.
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anonymous wrote:
Your web site does not render properly on Safari, the browser included with Mac OS X. Looks great in Firefox.
Posted 17 Dec 2007 at 11:13 am ¶
invisible_hand wrote:
as a religious yet liberal jew who aims to get a PhD in hasidism, i just get so frustrated with the frankly orientalist fetishization of hasidic jews. it puts them up on a pedestal, as a proxy for less religious jews, as a way to symbolize the “ideal jew” (which by the way is always a white man).
first off, it means that liberal jews like who are, or are not, very committed to jewish law and texts (and, you know, God and stuff) are somehow deficient.
secondly, it completely ignores the different jewish cultures (sephardic, mizrahi, bene israel, etc.)
argh.
Posted 17 Dec 2007 at 11:51 am ¶
Mickey wrote:
Ha ha ha ha ha!!!
I would have hoped Weird Al would have done it first.
Just like when a soccer mom starts getting Victoria Beckham’s haircut, the Soulja Boy dance is on it’s way out the door.
Posted 17 Dec 2007 at 12:27 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
good point, invisible_hand.
Posted 18 Dec 2007 at 11:09 am ¶
jose wrote:
invisible_hand, I have no idea where you’re coming from with that two-pronged comment. I have never sensed a hint of antagonization of non-religious jews when hasidics are portrayed in media. And I don’t know where you’re going with the need to portray all the different Jewish ethnicities?
Posted 18 Dec 2007 at 2:00 pm ¶
invisible_hand wrote:
jose -
my “need” to portray jewish ethnicities? well…. it is quite similar to my “need” to portray americans as not just white men. there are black jews, middle-eastern jews, even female jews!
re: your first point, i was not talking about antagonism. i was talking about orientalism and fetishizing. please read my comment again.
the internalized antagonism, if you want to call it that, is towards non-orthodox jews, who
don’t fit the stereotype of “authentic jew,” which happens to be white and male. this is a big problem to all those who are none of the above, and it should be to us as well.
Posted 18 Dec 2007 at 8:51 pm ¶
Rebecca M wrote:
jose– it’s a much overused stereotype.
it’s offensive to hasidic jews to portrayed as a joke all the time.
it’s offensive to non hasidic jews for hasidic jews to be portrayed as “the real jews” (that you haven’t encountered this current doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist; as both invisible-hand and I have encountered it)
it’s offensive to non-ashkenazi jews to not be portrayed at all.
Posted 18 Dec 2007 at 9:06 pm ¶
susan wrote:
Me and my friends love kosher boy. It`s cool and funny!Most of the time I get up in the morning and watch kosher boy or soulder boy.
Posted 25 Dec 2007 at 10:05 am ¶