Israel

[steve58]

Well, looks like the UPenn commissar is on the hot seat.  Hope they deep six her.

Penn board of trustees hold emergency meeting over calls for president to resign

The University of Pennsylvania 's Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting as school president Elizabeth Magill faces calls to resign after testifying before congressional lawmakers this week.

The meeting began at 9 a.m. and was being held virtually, the Daily Mail reported.

Magill, and other Ivy Leagues school presidents, are facing mounting pressure to resign after they failed to condemn  anti-Jewish chants on campus as harassment.

[al_infierno]

Wokeness in general can also be included. 

Maybe this is getting off topic, but I really wish the word "woke" would just be retired from discourse.  Originally it meant "socially conscious/aware" and now it means absolutely nothing but a catch-all for stuff one disagrees with.  Just say what you think the root of the problem is.

[GDS_Starfury]

thank you Al!

[Gusington]

The root of the problem is it is now cool to hate Jews. Everything old is new again.

[MikeGER]

washed ... from the river to the sea 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1732270476167397541

[W8taminute]

Maybe this is getting off topic, but I really wish the word "woke" would just be retired from discourse

I agree with you.  That word is going to continue to be used as long as possible.  At least until it is no longer vogue. 

Just say what you think the root of the problem is.

The root of the problem is hate or, to put it another way, an extreme lack of love. 
In the context of this thread it is anti-Semitism.

Outside the context of this thread it means hate of anything that the movement disagrees with.  To be socially aware (reminds me of Victoria 1 where I first heard that term in reference to your POPs) is one thing.  To use the term as a blanket catch all (which I am guilty of but using it in antithesis to today's bastardized meaning) is a result of furthering an agenda, that's another thing. 

[Tripoli]

Maybe this is getting off topic, but I really wish the word "woke" would just be retired from discourse

I agree with you.  That word is going to continue to be used as long as possible.  At least until it is no longer vogue. 

Just say what you think the root of the problem is.

The root of the problem is hate or, to put it another way, an extreme lack of love. 
In the context of this thread it is anti-Semitism.

Outside the context of this thread it means hate of anything that the movement disagrees with.  To be socially aware (reminds me of Victoria 1 where I first heard that term in reference to your POPs) is one thing.  To use the term as a blanket catch all (which I am guilty of but using it in antithesis to today's bastardized meaning) is a result of furthering an agenda, that's another thing. 

I think of "woke" as being more than the hate of something a movement disagrees with.  While that is part of it, I believe it also combines that hatred with an element of narcissism.  The "woke" use their hatred to show how much better they are than the subjects of their hatred.  As such, the woke enter into a ever-increasing spiral of hatred as only by hating can they show their increasing virtue over others.  Of course, this is ultimately unsupportable.  Because of this narcissistic element, the "woke" will eventually consume itself.  However, the damage it will do to others and to society in general on the way down will be horrendous.

[Gusington]

^That is as good a description I have read of the phenomenon anywhere.

[W8taminute]

Well stated Tripoli.  I'm not good with putting my thoughts into writing but you hit the nail on the head with that.

[Jarhead0331]

I thought Rabbi Wolpe's statement about his resignation from the Harvard Antisemitism Advisory Committe was very well stated. He seems to agree with my sentiment about the role of oppressor vs. oppressed in the equation.

As of today I have resigned from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard. Without rehashing all of the obvious reasons that have been endlessly adumbrated online, and with great respect for the members of the committee, the short explanation is that both events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony reinforced the idea that I cannot make the sort of difference I had hoped.  Still, there are several points worth making. I believe Claudine Gay to be both a kind and thoughtful person.  Most of the students here wish only to get an education and a job, not prosecute ideological agendas, and there are many, many honorable, thoughtful and good people at the institution.  Harvard is still a repository of extraordinary minds and important research.

However, the system at Harvard along with the ideology that grips far too many of the students and faculty, the ideology that works only along axes of oppression and places Jews as oppressors and therefore intrinsically evil, is itself evil. Ignoring Jewish suffering is evil.  Belittling or denying the Jewish experience, including unspeakable atrocities, is a vast and continuing catastrophe.  Denying Israel the self-determination as a Jewish nation accorded unthinkingly to others is endemic, and evil.

Battling that combination of ideologies is the work of more than a committee or a single university.  It is not going to be changed by hiring or firing a single person, or posting on X, or yelling at people who don't post as you wish when you wish, as though posting is the summation of one's moral character.  This is the task of educating a generation, and also a vast unlearning. Part of the problem is a simple herd mentality – people screaming slogans whose meaning and implication they know nothing of, or not wishing to be disliked by taking an unpopular position.  Some of it is the desire to achieve social status by being the sole or greatest victim.  Some of it is simple, old fashioned Jew hatred, that ugly arrow in the quiver of dark hearts for millenia.   
 
In this generation, outside of Israel, we are called to be Maccabees of a different order. We do not fight the actual battle but we search for the cruse of oil left behind.  Remember the oil was to last one night, but lasted eight - which means there were seven nights of miracle.  But of course the first night was the greatest miracle — because the motivation to light the initial candle, to ensure the continuity and vitality of tradition in each generation, that is the supreme miracle.  Dispute but also create. Build the institutions you value, don't merely attack those you denigrate.  We are at a moment when the toxicity of intellectual slovenliness has been laid bare for all to see. Time to kindle the first candle.  Create that miracle for us and all Israel — Blessing to you and Hag Urim Sameach.

[Gusington]

^ I saw him speak last night on CNN, I hope his messages get spread far and wide.

'Belittling or denying the Jewish experience, including unspeakable atrocities, is a vast and continuing catastrophe.'

^Can't overstate the importance of that idea either. The re-writing or outright denying of history is insane and is so common now.

[steve58]

^ I saw him speak last night on CNN, I hope his messages get spread far and wide.

'Belittling or denying the Jewish experience, including unspeakable atrocities, is a vast and continuing catastrophe.'

^Can't overstate the importance of that idea either. The re-writing or outright denying of history is insane and is so common now.

So you're the one watching CNN. 

[Gusington]

Yes, it was lonely.

[al_infierno]

Related to the previous discussion, but if this statistic is true (and I have no reason to disbelieve it) then this is utterly frightening. About 1 in 5 Americans under 30 believe the Holocaust is a myth or exaggerated.

https://twitter.com/elikowaz/status/1733265260101210507

[Gusington]

^Incredible. Hard to even figure out how to respond to that, with the millions of photos and other documentation that the Nazis themselves created. Maybe these are the same people that are flat-earthers? Idiocy for the sake of idiocy really is all the rage.