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Stupid Column of the Week

I usually wait until all three New York Jewish weeklies are released before granting the prestigious SCOTW award. This week, however, there is no reason to wait for the Forward. Gary Rosenblatt's Jewish Week column is the winner.

The column's headline 'Why Modern Zionism Trumps The Maccabees,' is a sign of how off the wall it is. (While a columnist doesn't always get to choose his headline, it's safe to assume that Rosenblatt, the JW's editor, chose his.)

Rosenblatt writes that what "troubles" him is that "the story of the Maccabees is taught universally in Jewish schools while so few young people know anything about modern Zionism." I happen to agree that modern Israel should be taught much more comprehensively in Jewish schools, though it certainly need not (and should not) be at the expense of Chanukah.

The extent of how troubled Rosenblatt is becomes clear when he writes:

"The truth is, the Maccabee story happened thousands of years ago and, while we focus on the stirring tale of the defeat of the invading Greeks, it is also about how a small group of Jewish religious zealots made war against their more assimilated brethren. In many ways it's an ugly story, resulting in a reign of Maccabee descendants in ancient Israel who brought no glory on their family name.

"It's almost as if the haredim of Jerusalem today were to take up arms against the secular Jews of Tel Aviv, and much of Israel, and become the basis of a tale that would be taught to succeeding generations and a holiday that would be observed with great pride."

Wow.

If Rosenblatt would study just a little about Chanukah, he would discover that it was a war of liberation against the Greeks, who forbade Jews from practicing our religion. They banned Jewish observance - including of the Sabbath and circumcision - and desecrated the Temple. The "more assimilated brethren" to whom Rosenblatt refers were not exactly secular humanists who wanted to be left alone to live their Hellenist pagan lifestyle. They actively aided and supported Antiochus in the existential Greek war against Judaism.

Rosenblatt's invective against charedim is sadly typical of his expressions of animosity toward the observant, whether charedi or not. His suggestion that Chanukah is "almost as if the haredim of Jerusalem today were to take up arms against the secular Jews of Tel Aviv, and much of Israel," is moronic and hateful. Clearly the secular Jews of Tel Aviv - even the very anti-religious Tommy Lapids - are not calling for a ban on Shabbat observance and supporting a brutal occupier of Israel, as our "more assimilated brethren" did at the time of Chanukah.
posted on 12/17/2003