I was delighted to see the following in my email this morning, from the thickly-furred Rabbi Michael Lerner, shown above in his winter pelt:
Former managing editor Dave Belden [of Lerner's smarmy mag Tikkun --ed.], Associate Editor Peter Gabel, and I were honored to receive the Utne Reader's Independent Press Award....So the mag is broke. Well, I'm not surprised, and it's long overdue. Here's a sample, taken at random, of recent Lerner handwringing:Tikkun won in the category of Best Body/Spirit Coverage....
The irony: we are unable to afford to print our Spring issue for lack of funds, or to remain in print. The only way we can continue is if you, Michael, and 400 other people like you, make a tax-deductible contribution of $1,000 each and commit to do so each of the coming years that you can afford to do so.
We at Tikkun hate violence from whatever source, so naturally we’ve been extremely critical of Hamas through the years both for its violence and its glorification of violent acts of terror against Israeli civilians. We’ve similarly been critical of Israeli violence which is built into the very structure of the Occupation. And we’ve similarly been critical of the U.S. , Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the list goes on and on. But we also critiqued the Israeli government and the US for demanding that Palestinians become more democratic, then after Hamas won a popular election in 2006, rejecting any negotiations with a government that had Hamas as part....This really captures something quintessential about the wimpery of Pwogs. Lerner has to read the triptychs of all his other criticalities -- to show he's a single-standard kind of guy, who doesn't "single out" anybody -- before he can get around to a "critique" of Israel and the US. This fretful flank-guarding, this backpedaling before you're even on the bike, this travail of the Prolegomena Mountains and this stillborn mouse of "critique", this absurd self-assurance of issuing every country in the world a report card and "criticizing" those who don't measure up -- it's a curious queasy cocktail of timorousness and conceit. In fact, this word "criticism" is starting to constitute a litmus test for me -- anybody who speaks of "criticizing" a country or a regime or a political movement has just removed his hat and revealed his fair large ass's ears.
And speaking of conceit -- or rather, chutzpah -- he wants a thousand dollars from me, and four hundred other people, so he can keep slaughtering trees to print this pabulum on? Where is the Sierra Club when you need it?
Comments (7)
I laugh whenever a person who claims the mantle and voice of God asks for money: "What, your deity doesn't give gold? Hasn't he spent the last three thousand years singularly obsessed with it? Ask him for some of that horde, Reb..."
Posted by Jack Crow | May 19, 2011 4:57 PM
Posted on May 19, 2011 16:57
A man whose 10th death anniversary is coming up was on the money when it came to Rabbi Lerner:
…much as I abhor the journal Commentary, I abhor Tikkun even more for its sanctimonious hypocrisy and for its methodical mendacity about everything that concerns Judaism. I prefer to deal with the overt chauvinism of a Podhoretz who is at least intelligible, than with ‘the politics of meaning’ of a Lerner devoid of any meaning and therefore more dangerous.
Posted by sk | May 19, 2011 5:35 PM
Posted on May 19, 2011 17:35
Man, that's good. But Shahak was always worth reading, or listening to. I recall a speech he gave at some pro-Palestine rally here, years ago, at which one of the innumerable Zionist hecklers, during the Q&A, asked Shahak how it felt to be "a traitor to his country." Shahak replied, "I wouldn't know; my country is Palestine."
Sit levis terra.
Posted by MJS | May 19, 2011 6:23 PM
Posted on May 19, 2011 18:23
Utne magazine, which is in my house against my wishes, is emblematic of the death of the liberal left.
It has become godawful, churlish and mendacious in its Obama promotions, happily accepting of murderer bribes advertising from "American Spirit" cigarettes, and still self-ennobling at all editorial turns. It's an overpriced clip job, about a step above the sub-amateur Progressive magazine.
It'll go a day after this clown's rag.
Posted by mjosef | May 19, 2011 7:44 PM
Posted on May 19, 2011 19:44
Tikkun Man looks like an unsettling cross between Jack Nicholson and George Segal. I am having trouble seeing past that.
MJS, re " Lerner has to read the triptychs of all his other criticalities -- to show he's a single-standard kind of guy, who doesn't "single out" anybody"
I understand he also opposes playground bullying, hockey brawls, and soccer-hooligan smackdowns.
Posted by chomskyzinn | May 20, 2011 11:54 AM
Posted on May 20, 2011 11:54
he wants a thousand dollars from me, and four hundred other people, so he can keep slaughtering trees to print this pabulum on?
Correction, he wants $1,000 every year from you and 400 other people. That's one hell of a subscription cost.
Posted by fldermaus | May 20, 2011 2:59 PM
Posted on May 20, 2011 14:59
Jack Nicholson and George Segal. Heh. That's funny, and dead on target. I was thinking Nicholson, but then I couldn't figure out what the other element was. Closest I could get was Sasquatch.
Posted by MJS | May 20, 2011 7:26 PM
Posted on May 20, 2011 19:26