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Stupid Column of the Week

Rarely do Jewish establishment leaders reach a clear consensus. The recent obscene statements by George Soros were an exception.

As reported by the JTA, at a November 5 conference of the Jewish Funders Network, Soros claimed that "the policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon administration" are the cause of anti-Semitism in Europe. "If we change that direction, then anti-Semitism also will diminish," he said. "I can't see how one could confront it directly." Soros also called for "regime change" in the United States and talked of funding projects in "Palestine." Last week, in a Washington Post interview, Soros stated that a "supremacist ideology" guides this White House and that "when I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans."

Reaction to Soros' speech at the Jewish Funders Network was almost unequivocal in its strong condemnation:

Elan Steinberg of the World Jewish Congress said: "Let's understand things clearly: Anti-Semitism is not caused by Jews; it's caused by anti-Semites. One can certainly be critical of Bush policy or Sharon policy, but any deviation from the understanding of the real cause of anti-Semitism is not merely a disservice, but a historic lie."

Abe Foxman of the ADL called Soros' statements "absolutely obscene."

"He buys into the stereotype," Foxman said. "It's a simplistic, counterproductive, biased and bigoted perception of what's out there. It's blaming the victim for all of Israel's and the Jewish people's ills."

As reported in the New York Sun, James Tisch, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called the Soros remarks "an outrage" and "invoked the precedent of the early Third Reich, when Jews were told that if they'd just be quiet anti-Semitism would abate."

"It boggles the mind. Soros may be wealthy and he may be brilliant with the markets but he obviously hasn't learned his history," Tisch said.

Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents, reacted that "the fundamental case he makes is flawed - the idea that somehow the anti-Semites hate Jews because of particular policies. To shift the onus onto the victim is essentially exonerating the perpetrator."

The loan dissenter was Mark Charendoff, president of the Funders Network: "We found him to be enormously frank, candid and generous with his time," Charendoff said.

Defending Soros is stupid enough, but in a Jewish Week column, Charendoff takes his idiocy to a new level.

Charendoff is "not sure whether to be angry, disappointed or ashamed." Not with Soros, but "with the Jewish community's response."

Charendoff invokes the Talmud in complaining about those who criticized Soros: "When did unpopular ideas lose currency in the Jewish community? What happened to the Talmudic ethic of defending the minority view and recording for posterity the losing side of the argument?" In other words, all ideas, no matter how offensive, foolish or dangerous, must be defended and recorded for posterity. Seems to me that Charendoff should take an Intro to Talmud course before invoking Judaism's Oral Law.

It gets worse. Charendoff suggests that those who criticize Soros are responsible for "the lack of engagement of young Jews in the organized community." So Bush and Sharon are responsible for anti-Semitism, and those who condemn that notion are responsible for Jewish assimilation and apathy.

Worst of all, Charendoff writes, if we criticize Soros' remarks, the anti-Semites will win: "If the anti-Semites contribute to shaping a Jewish community that will neither tolerate dissent nor allow for fruitful debate, then I'm afraid their victory will be far deeper and more long lasting than they otherwise could have hoped."

Yes, I'm sure that in Paris shops, Vienna cafes and Saudi madrassas, anti-Semites are salivating about the Jewish leadership's condemnation of George Soros. They had hoped merely to burn down and blow up shuls and schools, to beat up Jews walking the streets with a kippa or Jews walking the streets without a kippa, and to convince others that the Zionist Jews were responsible for 9/11. Now that Foxman, Tisch, Steinberg and Hoenlein have condemned the notion that Bush and Sharon are at fault for their behavior, the anti-Semites have set their sights higher.

Thank heavens Mark Charendoff has come forth to protect us from this scourge. He is thus this week's honoree of the Stupid Column of the Week.
posted on 11/19/2003