#Liel Liebowitz

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

It feels a bit on the nose that Tablet Magazine has pulled the plug on Unorthodox and replaced it with "Oops, all Liel Liebowitz!" Kinda feels like a metaphor for the political transformation of Tablet itself (and to a lesser extent, to the American Jewish community in a way that we don't like to think about)

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

I do find it rather telling that they replaced their tentpole podcast that deliberately tried to represent the wide swath of American Jewry with The Liel Liebowitz Show where every week he’ll interview another right wing crank that no one in either American or Israeli discourse takes seriously.

On the other hand at the same time they did launch a podcast about the Reform movement that includes just the bare minimum of “the Reform movement is a one way ticket to American Jews not being Jews anymore” and even includes actual Reform rabbis explaining why that belief is 1) hooey and 2) insulting! And the intro episode was even introduced by Liel, who was remarkably respectful for a man I personally wrote into the podcast at least twice to call out for Reform/Conservative-punching (and once for saying that evangelical Christians were better Jews than Reform Jews).

So yeah, it really is a mixed bag.

I’ve started following Tablet again this past year, even though they piss me off half the time and are really starting to flog that gross line of WE’RE THE REAL JEWS NOT LIKE THOSE BABY WHINING LIBERAL ONES WHO WANT TO DIVIDE US under the banner of, um, “””” unifying “”””” and protecting Jews. But every time I get mad, I think of you calling them “hydroxycurious” and laugh. That really helps. Thanks 😊

I still skim Tablet regularly, but I'm often reluctant to cite it in mixed company. You really have to be careful when linking to them, being absolutely sure there's no awkward snarling about wokeness or matter-of-fact assertion that the climate has always been changing so just get used to it you pussy.

But they do have some really top-notch thoughtful - usually disturbing - articles in their portfolio. The ones I come back to the most are below:

Matti Friedman reveals how the AP and other mainstream outlets hide Palestinian terrorism and cast Israel as the only real actor in the conflict.

When advertising for college "voluntourists," Palestinians admit they live normal and safe lives, and that so does everyone who doesn't physically attack a soldier.

The weakness and decline of American Jewish communal life will make it easier for mainstream politics to abandon us (written in 2019 and heartbreakingly prophetic).

The mass purge of Jews from the artistic, educational, and creative sectors.

[jewish-education]

I realized that I hadn’t shared one of my favorite contemporary (and non-fiction) Jewish stories.

[writer-at-the-table]

The history of human civilization has been one continuous quest to be closer to a bathroom.

Liel Liebowitz, “episode 241: All Together Now,” Unorthodox podcast, time code 04:58

[chicago-geniza]

oh no my m*m just sent me the terrible horrible no-good very bad liel liebowitz tablet op-ed saying it "expressed where [she was] politically" i'm going to jump off a sixty-storey building & land in a dumpster

[dadyomi]

Daf Yomi Week 86: Gotta Break A Few Eggs

Shabbat Shalom and welcome! I read this passage and asked myself, which did we argue about first, the chicken or the egg?

Often, as with the above where we can joke about two Jews, three opinions, it seems as though there’s an astonishing cultural continuity to Judaism despite there being an equally astonishing breadth of belief. But sometimes I wonder if reading Talmud doesn’t skew my approach to modern Judaism. I don’t always agree with the conclusions the Talmud comes to about certain things, which I think is normal for a person and a document encountering each other across thousands of years, but also...

Well, there’s been a bit of a tempest this week over an essay in Tablet magazine by Liel Liebowitz, who I often disagree with but also like to listen to on podcasts. The basic gist of the essay was that it is not only unethical to bar unvaccinated/mask-non-compliant Jews from High Holiday services but also flies in the faith of the most basic of Jewish tenets and is a threat to future Judaism. I read it and was a little “Sure, Jan” about it and moved on, but since its publication there have been a number of response pieces by Rabbis essentially asking, “You want we should what now?” 

So it’s been top of mind, and the more I think about it the more I return to Talmud, including sections we haven’t even read yet which give explicit advice regarding plagues (”gather your feet” in Bava Kama 60, which also quotes Isaiah 26:20, “hide yourself for a little moment, until the anger has passed by.”) It’s not even necessary to go to Talmud, of course; when the death of the firstborn was visited on Egypt, Moses stayed the hell home. But I also think of the way Talmud speaks of people who are diseased, who should be separated out from society and, although treated, may not return until a certain amount of time has passed. And I don’t always agree with the rulings of the Rabbis, because the sick and disabled deserve acceptance, equity, and aid -- but also we each have a duty not to unduly endanger our community. Which isn’t something Torah or Talmud needed to teach me, but nonetheless Talmud is where I now go to hear the wisdom of my elders. 

Perhaps it’s because I don’t see much depth of thought or earnestness of argument in public discourse these days. The Twitter Zinger is tough for people to resist, and it feels like in many places the ability to be convinced by strong arguments is seen as a sign of moral weakness. It’s tough to respect someone whose basic philosophy is that you are a subhuman, and I don’t engage with a lot of assholes for that reason, but one reason I think I continue reading Daf Yomi is that there is a yearning for measured consideration and debate which I often can’t fulfill elsewhere. And I’m not sure what that means for my own lived Judaism, that so much of it is at least informed if not influenced by it. 

I suppose I’m a little short on dad jokes today, but I’m long on love for Talmud and the opportunity for meditation it provides, if nothing else. 

300 weeks exactly to go! I hope everyone is getting excited about the Days of Awe despite the plague. Also get vaccinated if you can, take care of yourself if you can’t, and if you just flat out won’t get the jab then go ahead and a) unfollow me and b) have a long hard think about how Rabban Gamliel would take that news.

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

One of the things that simultaneously amuses and annoys me about the professed opinions of Liel Liebowitz, cohost of the "Unorthodox" podcast and contributor to Tablet, is that his whole "Judaism is about belief over practice, Bible study over community" thing is some of the most Protestant mishegas I have ever heard.

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

I was just about to say that I like Liel Liebowitz the most when he’s being a turbo nerd in such a way as he can’t talk about his politics

How to build a kosher eruv in Animal Crossing.

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

I would also take Liel Liebowitz a lot more seriously as an authority on Judaism if his assertions were not based entirely on the statement that Judaism is or should be a religion of belief rather than practice, which however you may feel about has not really much basis in actual halacha or rabbinical opinion, at least as far as I know

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

Trust Liel Liebowitz to congratulate people for supposedly proving the exact opposite of what they were trying to prove.

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

Why am I not surprised that Liel Liebowitz's solution to Labor's woes can essentially boil down to "join Likud."

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

They also produce good podcasts, although the mildly right-wing, mildly condescending to non-Orthodox Jews, but still sensible enough Liel Liebowitz who’s on Unorthodox is so unlike the Liel Liebowitz who writes articles for them that I’m not totally convinced that they aren’t different people

When did the Forward turn into “repost everything from JTA, add some editorials and a paywall”?    

Also, why do Mosaic Magazine, Fathom Journal, and Sapir Journal exist at all instead of just being Commentary?  Tablet could have been part of that mass too until it went Q-anon / hydroxycurious.