To the remaining pro-Israel Obama skeptics

Guest blog by Gabriel Sassoon

Obviously, I am thrilled about Barack Obama's win - for the fact that it may spell the end of decades of reactionary conservatism in America, for the restored international confidence and leadership that Obama brings, for the symbolic value of his win, and for the ordinary people of America whose domestic interests have been trampled on by eight years of mismanagement and crony capitalism.

But the reaction among most of my pro-Israel friends and family has been lukewarm. A lot of Jewish people here in Sydney favoured McCain because he has a proven track record on Israel, so after the election, the most common greeting to me was, "Congratulations, your guy won. Now let's just hope he's ok for Israel. I am still concerned. We'll have to wait and see."

These fears, are, of course, mostly baseless. The big news out of the last couple of days, apart from Obama's comments on the economy, have been his remark that Iran's nuclear ambition is "unacceptable", as well as his selection of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff. You couldn't find a more pro-Israel politician than Rahm Emanuel - who also happens to be Jewish, and the brother of Ari Emanuel, the real-life Ari Gold, to boot!

Israel certainly isn't in any danger now that Obama is the man and the Democrats have strengthened their control of Congress. In fact, Alan Dershowitz has argued that just the opposite is true - a pro-Israel liberal is now going to be the president of the United States, which is a very good thing. Conservatives will support Israel regardless, is the gist of what Dershowitz says, but with the growing left-wing assault on Israel on college campuses and so forth in the US and around the world, there is nobody better than a pro-Israel liberal to be president to shore up left-wing support for Israel. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-dershowitz/why-i-support-israel-and_b_135660.html)

Another good way to gauge how good Obama is for Israel is to see what the people who hate Israel have to say about him. Let's just say that the Arab press and the Nazis ("white supremacists") aren't too pleased about Obama's views on Israel.

Arab press: http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD210308 -

"Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi expressed his preference for Sen. John McCain as president: "Personally, I would prefer for the Republican candidate, [John] McCain, to be elected. This is because I prefer the obvious enemy who does not hypocritically [conceal] his hostility toward you… to the enemy who wears a mask [of friendliness]."

Al-Qaradhawi added: "Whoever thinks that the Democrats are less hostile to [the Arabs] than the Republicans should know that the number of Iraqis killed during the siege [of Iraq] by the Democrat Bill Clinton is twice as high as the number of [Iraqis] killed by the Republican [George] Bush.

"The Democrats kill you slowly without you noticing it - and therein lies the danger. They are like a snake whose touch is not felt until its poison enters your body."

David Duke: (http://www.stormfront.org/audio/stormfront_radio-dr_david_duke-11-04-08-obama_response.mp3)

"Barack Obama has proven himself to be totally subservient to Israel. He's gone to AIPAC and genuflected (sic) himself before them. He's gone to the Middle East and bobbed his head before the Wailing Wall. He's their guy. And his top advisers are all Jewish extremists - he's talking about making his Chief of Staff Emanuel who's a very radical Jewish extremist. His biggest contributors have been Goldman Sachs. He's already talking about increasing American troops in Afghanistan. He's taking the Zionist position of anti-Russian rhetoric in the world, about calling Russia an aggressor... He has in every capacity been a person who's going to support the neo-con program all the way and yet he's going to have a free pass from the world..."

There you go - straight from the mouth of David Duke - Obama's good for Israel!

So, now that the campaign rhetoric is finished, let's worry about some actual issues - climate change, anyone?

Melbourne vs. Sydney

In my brief time in Sydney's number one enemy capital, I've made a point of talking to as many Jewish kids as I can in order to gauge how they responded to the article and whether the aforementioned problems are as prevalent in Victoria as NSW. Unsurprisingly, Melbourne Jews are a far more close-knit bunch than us. This can be attributed to a number of factors, the most obvious being that they have a stronger and larger community which is focused around a group of 'ghetto' suburbs, but not exclusively so. I went to a generic house party last night, not run by youth movement or AUJS kids but just a bunch of normal Uni students, and I couldn't believe how many well-dressed, smooth talking guys were rocking their Magen David necklaces in full view. It's one thing to be surrounded and comfortable with your people and another to be cool with openly stating your religion. These kids came out with us drinking and clubbing until 3 am. They didn't button up their shirts to hide their jew-elry, even though this was the equivalent of me walking through Kings Cross with a massive Chai chain and a target on my back. Which begs the question, why are Melbourne's Jews, as equally fucked up as their situation may be to ours, so cool with being publicly recognisible like this? The only boys who wear these necklaces in Sydney are the ones who augment it with a kippah and tzit-tzit, or keep it hidden well out of view until they're swimming in a Dover Heights pool.

A friend of mine here, who is a Habo madrich and works for CSG, spoke to me at length about what he saw as the defining issues facing young Jewry. [Paraphrased, because my memory retention skills aren't the greatest on 5 hours sleep]
"It's the fact that these people who give nothing to the community, coast through until they hit a crisis or they have kids and then expect those same people they shunned to do everything for them.." he explained. He also contended that the amount wasted on an 'unlimited bat tab' for one single community event could be roughly equated with the cost of running a week-long winter camp. I agree with him, but then, everybody knows what I think. Sitting on Carlisle street drinking coffee on Saturday afternoon, he told me that he knew there would be at least a few Jews in the cafe we were at, but he was past the point of being fazed by it. "Hate it or love it, we live in a ghetto of sorts and we choose to be in the same areas." Why? Because like Cafe Bondi, these places are easy and convenient. Have we lost our ability to experiment? Would we go to the cafe across the road, even though it wasn't what were used to? Probably, but only if the herd moved there first.

At this point we started drawing some comparisons and differences between our cities. Here's what we (verified by other people I met that night and across this weekend) came up with.

1. The single, most successful way of keeping Jewish kids in touch not only with their religion, but indeed each other, at the time of writing, is the CSG. As we discussed, not only does this group encourage post-adolescents to be selfless, but also, through a rigorous program of 'tough love', teaches them the value of a combined struggle. In Sydney, as in Melbourne, the tightest clique in the community are the CSG kids. And though it's meant to be private, you can spot them from a mile away. Obviously we can't convince everybody to stand in front of shul every weekend and get the shit kicked out of them twice a week in order to bond with their fellow man. But somewhere, deep indside that organisation, someone is doing something right. Interestingly, while Sydney CSG keeps most things under wraps, Melbourne has no qualms about being transparent. After all, my friend was wearing CSG branded thongs! But it's an interesting thought...

2. Melbourne, as a city, has a lot more potential for interesting events than Sydney. That's because they have bars lining the street which are open til 5am, including outdoor seating where you can drink and smoke until 1 in the morning. As I was saying to Craig, 3/4 of these establishments would flop in Sydney, simply because our liqour and council laws fuck up any chance of a proper night culture. As such, most Sydney Jewish Uni events are relegated to the same couple of shitty bars, from the Eastern to Cherrijam to YU, which provide no atmosphere and generally shut people out by 12. In terms of culture, the band Big Fat Kill, a group of ex-Scopus kids, regularly plays at a bar called the Espy, and with little organisational fanfare, manages to draw sell-out crowds of Jews (and others) every time they perform. As stressed previously, Sydney Jews' emphasis on live music pretty much extends to whichever bellydancing, acoustic guitar strumming, offkey singing kid we can lure out of the Holy Land. It's a fucking joke, and we should use Melbourne as a prime example of how the arts are as powerful a tool as grog when it comes to bringing people together.

3. Like Sydney, AUJS down here apparently used to be run by the 'cool' crew, who then relinquished responsibility in the last ten years over to 'the nebisch' kids, who may not be as socially rad but are willing to put in the work, much of which is completely overlooked anyway. These organisations need rebranding. Their websites need to stop reading like the dummies guide to HTML and get with the fucking times. Look at how easy it is for me to set this blog up, and my web skills are all self-taught. Pay a designer and get your shit together, because image is everything. Flash animations, embedded videos, photo pages that don't take 7 years to load. We're not living in the Windows 98 era anymore. And don't expect Facebook to give you an accurate depiction of how shit is going. Facebook is the perfect outlet by which people can be as fake and apathetic as they want. Sure, I'll say I'm attending your cruise and press a little button. You think that's an RSVP? Please. Ditto people who join your 'group' but delete every update and message that you send their way. And if anybody has their finger on the pulse, they'll know that Facebook has a limited lifespan, one which is diminshing fast. I speak for myself and many others when I say that we are as fickle as they come. You want to take my word for something? Call me. Seek me out, after all, you are on my campus, aren't you? Don't rely on outdated technology like mass emails, invites and SMS'. The time it takes you to set those up is directly inverted with the time it takes us to erase them.

So do we learn from Melbourne? Do we copy their lifestyle choices and hope they apply in Sydney? That would be stupid, after all, we have Bondi, they have Acland St and we couldn't be more different if we tried. But given that we have a common goal (togetherness, mindfulness and community involvement), I think some valuable lessons can be taken from our buddies south of the border.

What do you think?

Don't believe me, there's always MK...

NEW APPROACH NEEDED
Published AJN 24/10

I WAS just reading through the selection of youth movement leaders, school captains and other assorted Jewish community aficionados that you selected in your article last week to represent Gen Y Judaism. When seeking to find the disenfranchised youths that Seidler spoke of, you obviously did not look very far. The issue that Seidler brought up, however, is that these now engaged youths are mostly lost once school ends. Coming from an organisation that targets student-age Jews, I can attest to the fact that most Gen Y Jews want to have nothing to do with the Jewish community. We are a very “what’s in it for me” generation and for the vast majority of my peers, Judaism is something that they were forced to do in school and has nothing in it for them. Gen Y Jews are becoming increasingly alienated by an establishment that clings to the attitude that Judaism and community involvement are something to do out of duty, whether to respect the memory of the Shoah or to support Israel or even to repay the establishment in which they were raised.

This mantra of “because you have to” may have worked in the past, however, a refusal to take authority as it comes is another trait of our generation, and the establishment seems afraid to change their thinking and the way they function to explore new avenues and begin to find new ways to attract the young.For anyone who disagrees with me, I would challenge you to go to any community event and point out anyone born after 1970. Even at on-campus events organised by the community, the turnout seems to have an average age of 50. The community desperately needs to look at new ways to attract the young, otherwise 20 years from now there may be no community. When “young leadership” is a term applying to a group aged 18-40, you are doing something wrong.

DANIEL MEYEROWITZ-KATZ NSW vice-president and national vice-president elect, The Australasian Union of Jewish Students
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Given that I got a letter from ed. of AJN saying the issue was effectively over and they'd be taking no more sumbmissions on the 'Call to Arms Topic', extra cred has to go to MK for not only managing to sneak through the obviously high filtering guidelines, but also managing to rip into that terrible 'Gen Y' piece that was boring as all shit. As one my good friends who will remain nameless remarked, getting a bland school captain and the son of a Jewish studies teacher doesn't really factor in the real target, does it? You know who I want interviewed? Judd Weinberg, Roy Steinman, a Levy or two and Daniel Stricker. Some real fucking people, thanks. On a side note, Britney Spears is sexy again. I don't know how that happened, but I think it shows that a-change is a-comin...

Jewish Culture

I don't know about you, but frankly I'm sick of being fed the same four personalities over and over again as the supposed saviours of Jewish Culture. Ladies and Gentleman, it may be shocking, but Jews did make music before Amy Winehouse! And we don't really care is Scarlett Johannssen in half-Jewish, because we've got more than enough of our own actors and directors to keep us dominating Hollywood in the fashion that Mel Gibson loves to get drunk and rant about to highway policemen.

In this light, I present you with some great music written by people you probably didn't know or care were Jewish. There will be a lot of these. In fact, I can probably do one a day until we start procreating and making more of these wunderkinds. Or until they make it into the 'Jewcy Jews' section of certain papers. That would be rad. Both of the musos below went to Jewish schools in Sydney. I don't think we need to outsource talent from Israel for big events when we've got plenty of yodelling yids right under our noses. Excuse the alliteration - I'm nerdy like that.

Ben Lee feat. Mandy Moore - 'Birds And Bees'




Ben Lee would have graduated Moriah if he hadn't become mad famous at age 14 and formed Noise Addict, been called a 'precocious little c*nt' by Powderfinger frontman Bernard Fanning and gotten dumped by Claire Danes. All in all, this guy has had a pretty damn interesting life. He was originally signed to Modular, home to The Presets and Wolfmother, before going major, getting dropped and starting all over again with his own self-produced record 'Awake Is The New Sleep', which spawned the monster hit Catch My Disease. This is also when Ben Lee met his new 'spiritual guide' somewhere in India. I'm not going to pass judgement, because I don't even remotely 'get' it, but safe to say, the key lesson is to be happy with your lot. This track, off his latest record (at the time of writing, I believe there's a new one in the works) 'Ripe', deals with sex. In fact, the whole album deals with sex, and it's gut-wrenchingly funny and contains a lot of truisms. Some food for thought for potential teenage newlyweds maybe?

Howling Bells - 'Low Happening'

Brother and sister Joel and Juanita Stein (the ones on the right) went to a Jewish school in Sydney (we're trying to figure out, but we're banking on Yeshiva) before forming Waikiki, a band who had moderate success before the darker Howling Bells rose in its place. With Juanita as their electrifying front woman, this band may not be well known in Australia but they are massive overseas, regularly playing headline gigs in the UK. As Juanita once remarked about making the song: "I was feeling Zen when I wrote it," she laughs in surprise. "I'm fascinated by that kind of thing. I went to a very religious Jewish school and that affected my outlook. It's a lot to deal with at an early age, a hell of a burden all those emotions and laws." Interesting viewpoint.

Jewish Identi-Kit

(As yet, unpublished)


The past few weeks have proven without a shadow of a doubt that not only was I justified in my observations about the state of young Jewry, but indeed nobody seems game enough to come up with an answer. To the hundreds of parents, grandparents and young community leaders who have commended my efforts, I thank you, but your support, unfortunately, is not enough. I appreciate that I may have a reputation as a big talker, or ‘stirrer’, and that this irks many of the older or more conservative among us who see their contemporaries engaging in dialogue over hot air. In writing “A call to arms”, I never posited that I held the solution to the problems facing our youth. But it’s been over two weeks, and short of some angry letters, I haven’t heard a single word from any ‘real’ authorities on Judaism, whether it is rabbis, educators or principals. Do they honestly hope to ignore this issue, like so many others facing our people, until it all blows over? And when they hit the Johnny Walker on Simchas Torah this week, will they finally take a good look around and see their young congregations have vanished?

Unsurprisingly, the largest positive movement has come from the youth itself. Last week I addressed a symposium of some of Sydney’s most prominent community leaders from AUJS, Hillel, Hagshama, JCA and Network. They too, had become utterly disillusioned with the failure of their target audience to react to anything but themselves. A lengthy discussion followed, in which, for the first time, some possible causes for these problems and potential solutions emerged:

Media: Your average teenager spends as much time on their Iphone, Facebook and the Internet as talking to real people. While each organisation had their own website, there is yet to be an online medium which actually speaks to young audiences. The possibility of a fresh blog which deals with contemporary Jewish identity and is updated daily was raised. Even better, I was given a copy of the magazine Heeb, created by a Jewish editorial team in New York with a readership of nearly 200,000. I know that if any twenty-something Jew realised this existed, they’d be subscribing right now. Why?

Humour: Our Sydney Jewish community has lost its collective sense of humour. We can’t tolerate other people making fun of us, because it’s anti-Semitism, and we very rarely make fun of ourselves. But why on Earth not? Being Jewish is a veritable goldmine for laughs. As Heeb, which features new Jewish comedic talent like Seth Rogen, Jason Segel and Jonah Hill, reminds us, Yiddish self-deprecation has ruled Hollywood since its’ inception. If we want to start coming together, chuckles at the ‘Jew-Tang Clan’ might be a better catalyst then vodka lemon-limes.

Alcohol: This huge trend around events with unlimited bar tabs has to end. If Kevin is going to blow millions of dollars Australians don’t have fighting binge drinking, we really shouldn’t be encouraging in our own backyard. The fallacy that the only time you can comfortably meet another Jew is when you’re veritably wasted is absurd, something in particular acknowledged by certain young leaders but begrudgingly admitted there was “no other way” to get people to events. I posit that the typical Jewish Uni student can afford to buy themselves drinks. I also believe that Jewish coupling, which is the aim behind many of these nights, is better achieved through educated conversation rather than fighting each other for free booze at the bar. I’m sure that’s how Mr Bogan and his kind were brought up. Why should we be any different?

Education: Contrary to popular belief, I loved my time at Moriah. However, it was universally agreed that a new program needed to be adopted in order for religion to survive into senior years at any school. As one speaker noted, the “disciplinary nature” of religion may be what is forcing children to turn on Judaism before they hit the HSC. After all, the most successful strains of our religion are those when you are given a choice. When you are continually reprimanded for not wearing a kippah, even for not praying (as if that can be accurately gauged anyway) you’re bound to come out a little angry. It’s a simple equation; teenagers despise institutions, and if Judaism is that institution, you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Personally, I think youth movement leaders like Dani Frisch should be teaching Jewish Studies. She knows the difference between teaching, preaching and the panoptic tower.

Food for thought? Let’s stop blabbing and start acting.

“We are not just individuals…”

Heeb Online

The Inevitable Hatespeak

This post comes from a prominent online blog called 'Middle East Reality Check', which states it's aims as "Exposing pro-Israel bias, propaganda, disinformation and spin in Australia's mainstream media. Monitoring pro-Israel influence in Australia's public and political arena." In other words, this guy has a thing against Israel, and probably Jews too. 'Merc', the coward who dare not speak his name, also happens to write for the Australian. What a wonderful world we live in. HSC students take note, this is how you fail an essay, by quoting a work out of context.

"Saturday, October 11, 2008

Zionist Indoctrination Exposed!
The Australian often acts as an echo chamber for The Australian Jewish News. Here's an editorial echo that could've happened, but, given the prevailing western Zionist zeitgeist, didn't:

ZIONIST INDOCTRINATION EXPOSED

In a disturbing account of what is actually going on in Jewish schools and synagogues in this country, The Australian Jewish News yesterday lifted the lid on the appalling level of Zionist indoctrination to which young Australian Jews are forcibly subjected.

The AJN featured - on its front page - the appalling story (Call to arms for Jewish young adults) of how Moriah College graduate and Central Synagogue attendee Jonno Seidler, and his fellow students, were brainwashed by Zionist extremists during their impressionable, adolescent years.

The AJN quoted Seidler as saying, "Despite having Israeli history rammed down our throats for most of our adolescent lives, our basic understanding of the Middle Eastern conflict essentially boils down to this: Israel - good, Arabs - bad."

In an equally disturbing twist to the Seidler story, it is evident from the young man's wholly incorrect use of the word "despite" when he meant 'because' that school literacy standards, a subject to which we at The Australian have sadly been forced to dedicate increasing amounts of editorial space, have continued to plummet.

This combination of virulent anti-Arab hatespeak and declining standards of literacy, exposed by the courageous revelations of the hapless Jonno Seidler, should not be allowed to jeopardize this country's status as a vibrant beacon of tolerance and academic excellence. It is incumbent upon the moderates in the Jewish community - and we have no doubt they exist - to root out those Zionist extremists among them who are engaged in poisoning the minds of Jewish youth."

Find out just what goes on behind blog doors - Middle East Reality Check blog

AJN Editorial, Oct. 10

Twenty-somethings

THE blowing of the shofar at the end of the Ne’ilah service marks the end of Yom Kippur. And if you believe people such as Sydney freelance writer Jonno Seidler, most 20-somethings won’t even know Yom Kippur has ended as they won’t be in shul to hear the shofar.

Indeed, as Seidler’s provocative article on the front page of our newspaper this week suggests, there are many Jews who see Yom Kippur as barely a blip on the radar.

According to Seidler, cigarettes and coffee are a Yom Kippur staple for many disconnected young Jews, as are bacon and egg rolls during Pesach.

So is Seidler being unnecessarily alarmist? Is he a muckraker attempting to create a stir, or is his a heartfelt and genuine plea for help?

There will be those who dismiss Seidler’s words by simply calling for a return to Torah Judaism. Others will say that whatever misgivings young Jews have about being Jewish – they would disappear the moment they set foot in Israel.

We suggest the problems are not so easily solved. Orthodox Jewry in Australia is undergoing a period of introspection and change, while Progressive Judaism’s rush to reform and to alter the status quo has also raised eyebrows.

At the same time, the Zionist movement, by its own admission, also needs “sexing up”, as the audience at a Zionist Federation of Australia meeting was told last month. And then there’s Jewish education, which is engaged at all levels in a difficult battle against spiralling costs.

We’re not sure that the solution is organising more social events for Jewish youth. Nor can we look overseas for inspiration.

The problem he writes about is a by-product of an isolated Jewish community whose key performance indicators, nevertheless, compare so favourably to many other Diaspora communities – strong Jewish day school attendance, relatively low intermarriage, loyalty to Israel and an impressively large and diverse range of cultural, social and welfare institutions.

Is there a crisis among 20-something Jews in Australia? We should take the time to listen to Seidler and his friends before we rush to judge them.

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Thoughts:


Why is Progressive Jewry always maligned in AJN? They and Reform Jews have as much right to agency as any other arm of Judaism..

Perhaps I didn't make it emphatic enough. The problem is not only our schools. The real problem, as made clear by a number of older members of our community, are the parents. The are the ones who send their children to expensive Jewish day schools, only to completely absolve themselves of any interest in Hebrew, Jewish Studies or Jewish History in favour of secular subjects. The number of parents I have heard who lamented the fact that they "Tell [their] kids to put that Hebrew aside on concentrate on their Maths homework" is extrodianary. Ultimately, what's the point of even having these schools if this is the attitude engendered by certain Baby Boomers?

Yes, I am a fucking muckraker. Anybody who knows me well enough is aware of this fact. However, I did not predict the impact my article would have on Sydney (and Melbourne) Jews and accordingly, I think it's high time I act. Because if I don't, nobody will. And my friends will toil away at their youth movements and their University organisations to no avail, and by the time my kids go to school, there may be no Moriah, Emanuel or Masada. That's not a reality my generation should have to deal with, but it's closer than we think.