Of dreams and disappointment: Oz at 70

In a recent interview with the Daily Forward, Israeli novelist, essayist, literature professor, and peacenik nanpareil Amos Oz describes eloquently the  inevitable disappointment inherent in the Zionist dream: "I have seen the age of monumental dreams, and I have lived through the morning after, and the morning after the morning after. Unlike other countries, Israel was not born through a historical evolution of a population. It was born out of a dream. This is why it is destined to be a disappointment. This is not about the nature of Israel; it’s about the nature of dreams. The only way to keep a dream intact and perfect and rosy and unspoiled is never to live it. The moment you fulfill a dream, there is a certain air of disappointment about it. This is true of planting a garden, traveling abroad, living a sexual fantasy, or writing a novel."

Read the rest of the interview and buy Oz's new novella: Rhyming Life and Death.

Don't tread on me

While I'm certainly no fan of Benjamin Netanyahu and his way-right-of-wacko coalition of dunces, while I remain convinced that implementing a fair two-state solution and returning the Golan to Syria are necessary steps along Israel’s path to justice, and while I make it a habit not to criticize others' religions, hearing the Pope—THIS POPE—push his vision of the Middle East the moment he landed at Ben Gurion made me even more grouchy than my usually grouchy Monday-morning self—and that, my friends, is pretty grouchy.

Here's what I know about Benedict XVI in general. He is a:

• Proud enemy of Modernity, which he terms "a dictatorship of relativism"
  
• Vociferous critic of using condoms to fight AIDS in Africa
  
• Homophobe, who declares discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation "not unjust" 
  
• Outspoken opponent of Muslim Turkey's entrance into what he calls a "Christian" European Union 
  
• Anti-Muslim ideologue, who challenged an audience to, "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached"
  
• Neo-colonialist who justifies the conquest of South America as fulfilling the indigenous population's "silent longing" for Christianity and who argues "the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture" 
  

Benedict's record on matters specifically involving Jews is no better. Ignoring his compulsory Hitler youth membership and service in the Nazi army, from which he deserted, he has:

• Allowed the reintroduction of a version of the Good Friday prayer that calls for Jews to "recognize Jesus Christ, the Savior of all men"—a version previously sidelined by Vatican II and rejected by John Paul II 
  
• Supported advancing the process of beatifying (making a saint of) Pope Pius XII, who outside of conservative Catholic circles is berated for having failed to speak out during and after the Holocaust
  
• Readmitted to the Church excommunicated Shoah denier Bishop Richard Williamson
  

Here's the nub. Israel can only fulfill the dreams of the both old-school religious Zionism and Herzl's political Zionism by ending occupation and withdrawing largely to her pre-1967 borders. It is the right thing to do, ethically, demographically, and (yes) militarily. But we don't need to be told to do it by the reactionary leader of the religio-political organization that practically birthed antisemitism, waged violent wars against both Islam and Judaism throughout the Middle Ages, and colonized much of the world in Jesus' name. Benedict, you clean your house; I'll worry about mine. 

Are independent congregations the future for liberal Jewish America?

Another relevant blog at jewschool. In Is the Economy Killing Off the Rabbinate?, Kol Ra'ash Gadol rejects Marilyn Henry's assertion in the Jerusalem Post—a hawkish rag that's no advocate of Diaspora life—that progressive Judaism in America (period!) might wither on the vine. Contra Henry, he (?) argues convincingly that not only are the Reform, Conservative, and non-denominational liberal seminaries not dying, but that the ongoing emergence of independent post-denominational congregations breathes new life—and new ways of being jewish—into our communal lungs.

And the beat goes on...and on

A sad corollary—more evidence, per se—to yesterday's "Of interest?": One Man’s Harrowing Path from Abuse to Survival. Makes me fightin' mad.

Post-Geographic Judaism

An on-point blog from Y-Love at jewschool. At root: using social media is the way to build a virtual community (and to plan a physical one too) for the disaffected. Now that's what I'm blogging about.