They just don’t make Jewish hippies like they used to.

Sadly, they do make leftists like they used to.

Thanks for filling in the blanks and giving us a fuller picture of the motivations behind this story. Your comment was honorable and brave.

I reported and composed a story on Aharit Hayamim after their performance at Jewlicious. I spent close to an hour outside the JCC drinking beer and smoking cigs with the guys, trying to get inside their head, waiting for them to slip up and say something radical. I had just finished a semester abroad at HUJ and I felt like I knew their type, I just had to lead them to water. The fact is, they were resilient about their views on peace and I could only fault them for being overly zealous about the Hebrew language and too harsh on those of us holding down the diaspora. I wanted to write the article that Josh wrote, wanted to out the hilltop youth extremists, but I just didn’t see it and I couldn’t report on what I did not see. Unlike Dan, however, I haven’t attended the music festival which bears their name in Bat Ayin. This is a distinguishing point and can only be refuted by someone who has attended the festival.

In the end, I would have preferred Josh leave my name off the article or allowed me to print my write-up simultaneously. But hindsight is 20-20.

Despite that, the way Dan was quoted in the article makes it seem as if he is talking about the band specifically when he is quoted as saying

“[Their] message is about a…neo-Zionist uprising against the state or secular Jews or against liberal politics in favor of religious nationalism, theocratism, and messianism,” says Sieradski. And yet, Sieradski doesn’t object to their appearances at major Jewish venues alongside American Jewish artists. “I may think their views are abhorrent,” he says, “but if I don’t engage them and I don’t share a stage with them, how can I ever hope to change their minds or confront them to question their own beliefs? I don’t support cultural boycotts. I would support financial boycotts against companies doing business in the West Bank, but I wouldn’t support an artistic boycott of a band that lives in the West Bank.”

one can’t help but think he is talking about the band. Maybe Dan was misquoted? It’s possible, but then he should say so. But I see Yehuda at least once a week. He has never expressed any kind of political opinion to me on or off the record. I went camping with Raphael the clarinetist and hung out with him a few times afterward. The current drummer has been to my house and we had a lechaim on Yom Ha’atzmaut. These guys all live in West Jerusalem, seem to have a relatively liberal lifestyle and do not remotely strike me as being in favor of a theocracy or as being against the state or secular Jews, many of whom are their friends and fans.

The description of the band in the article seemed so out of touch with reality that I simply had to write something about it. Was I a little harsh? No harsher than the implications made in the article. I mean secular Israelis perform at and attend the Bat Ayin Festival! It’s right there in the article quoted by asfdfffsa. The vibe is about unity – disparate elements of Israeli society learning from each other – one side offering spirituality, the other offering tolerance. That’s what it seems like to me – but no one asked me for a quote.

With respect to the Jewlicious festival, our focus isn’t hasbarah at all. Our focus is Jewish unity as proven by the diversity of our speakers and attendees.

As for Jewlicious itself, well, we is what we is. The thing I was always most interested in was the quality of the conversation as opposed to the actual posts themselves. From my perspective, our bloggers are meant to be thought provoking and conversation inspiring. As such the comments section is the most important part of the site – though we have been blessed with some wonderful writers. Could we be more diverse? Definitely! But I’m not about to invite Richard Silverstein to blog here! I’d add Dvorah Brous founder of Bustan to write for us in a heartbeat. Same with Journalist Lisa Goldman or Sheera Frenkel of The Times of London. Same with the Haim and Gershom over at SouthJerusalem.com. I don’t see eye to eye with of any those folks but their arguments are reasoned and informed and they are all nice very smart people.

With respect to froylein’s touching upon ideological orientations, all I can say is that the “right wing” “left wing” dichotomy is often times too simplistic. How did California vote for Obama AND pass Proposition 8? Like back when Chumbawumba was described as an anarchist band but their big hit “I Get Knocked Out” is beloved by drunken Frat boys and Soccer Hooligans!

Yeah so I’m a dick sometimes. But I do try to be fair. And I stand by what I wrote in this post – so I may have been harsh towards Dan, but frankly the article was wrong about the band and if Dan was misquoted, I invite him to say so and I will take back my characterizations. Yes, we are all to one extent or another ideologically motivated, so that wasn’t fair. But the designation quasi-expert is based on the notion that the band or the Festival are anti-State, anti-Secular and pro-Theocracy despite the fact that the band’s lyrics do not reflect that at all and the Festival has secular Israeli performers and attendees.

Yow. I wanted discourse and I sure got that!

Except there’s one little problem. There’s nothing in the band’s music or any of their statements that actually promotes anything described by Sieradski or Nathan-Kazis.

So you’re denying that Aharit Hayamim is associated with the “hilltop youth”? Or are you denying that it’s fair to call the kids setting up outposts on hilltops “some of the most extreme elements of the settler movement”?

israelnational...

Leuchter’s dream has always been to bring together two disparate forces among young-people in Israel. On the one hand there are the post-India residents of the coastal plain, living between music festivals such as Boombamela, Shantipi and Bereshit – where local and foreign music, culture and religions are showcased and a laid back ‘shanty’ atmosphere is created beside the Mediterranean or Sea of Galilee. On the other side, there are the young people born and raised in Judea and Samaria, who have broken out of the established communities and taken to the hilltops, establishing agricultural farms, shepherding and generally setting out toward their biblical roots, bringing guitars and drums with them on pilgrimages to Israel’s various holy sites and tombs in relation to the year’s cycle.

For an “apolitical” band Aharit Hayamim has accomplished more than most political bands can hope for–they’ve helped legitimize one of Israel’s worst political currents while making it possible for the people who put on their concerts to paint them as harmless hippies and their critics as hysterics. To put on a festival in Bat Ayin every year and present yourself as apolitical…

I think Tom would like you to visit him on his upcoming b’day.

As for me, I think my views are sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left. I take offense when somebody implies that my views are extreme. Tom just compared me to a fascist murderer which seems a bit over the top considering the discussion revolved around my suggestion that Israel should leave most of the West Bank. But if some of my views are right of center and some are left, that’s fine. I just don’t think of Jewlicious that way. I think of this place as a place where I can express my thoughts and have them challenged. In some ways I always wanted this place to be a celebration of all things Jewish, but there’s enough bad mixed with the good that of course that’s unrealistic.