Comments on: “Jewry of muscle”

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 03:31:12 +0000

Personally, I like the punch from “The Sun Also Rises”, though I wasn’t huge on the Jew’s entire role in the book.

By: phoebe

phoebe — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 02:31:27 +0000

And I’m not sure what makes punching back “assimilation,” unless it’s punching back while holding a gin and tonic in the other hand, wearing head-to-toe Lacoste. Is the only non-assimilated response a nebbishy, Woody Allen-esque sprint in the opposite direction?

By: phoebe

phoebe — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 02:24:56 +0000

Phoebe here, I’d just like to say that I am not my mother, even if we do sort of look alike!

By: Jewish Mother

Jewish Mother — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 17:03:29 +0000

If a BT may speak, Judaism is not pacifism and it is not ascetic. Neither is it hedonism. Judaism does not reject the world or the material, but engages the world in a way that makes the world, the material, holy, or holier, or elevates it.

So, if Truth with a capital T indicates that someone needs punching, to punch him is a Jewish duty, and is not assimilation at all. He can be punched if Justice requires it. And he can always be punched in self-defense, because to not punch him then would amount to suicide, and that’s not allowed in Judaism.

To be metaphoric, Jacob’s ladder ascended heavenward, but its bottom was anchored in the earth, the dirt, the mud, the material. The ladder connected the two, upper and lower.

OK, Phoebe, or Ellen Hymowitz?

But you should ask a rabbi.

By: Ellen Hymowitz

Ellen Hymowitz — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:19:45 +0000

The above comment was not from Phoebe. Not sure how that happened but it was definitely my own.

By: phoebe

phoebe — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:16:35 +0000

Isn’t punching back the ultimate assimilation?

By: Tom Morrissey

Tom Morrissey — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:20:57 +0000

Fitzgerald also cast Meyer Lansky (dubbed Meyer Wolfsheim) as the dark, criminal source of Jay Gatsby’s fortune, a rather conventional anti-Semitic trope.