#rabbi andy bachman

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Corey Walker

The author of a book on Jewish American identity enjoyed a sellout crowd at a rescheduled event after the original discussion was canceled over the presence of a Zionist panelist.  Joshua Leifer, author of Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, spoke alongside Rabbi Andy Bachman at the Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn on Monday. The original discussion, which was scheduled at Powerhouse Books in Brooklyn last Tuesday, was canceled at the last minute by an employee who did not want the bookstore to platform a “Zionist” rabbi.  During Monday’s discussion, Leifer lambasted the cancellation as both “wrong and antisemitic” as well as “the dumbest strategic thing you can do.” The bookstore’s owner, Daniel Power, later clarified in an interview that Powerhouse Books does not maintain an official ban on Zionist authors and that the employee acted on her own. He revealed that the employee responsible for canceling the event quit on her own accord before he could fire her.  The bookstore issued an apology soon after the incident, writing, “litmus tests as a precondition for participation in public life are wrong. Rejections of dialogue, debate, and nuance are wrong.” Despite the inconvenience, the backlash over the viral incident seems to have benefited Leifer. Roughly 300 people attended the rescheduled discussion, as opposed to the estimated two dozen that showed up for the original event. Leifer’s book currently holds the number one spot in the “History of Judaism” section on Amazon. “In large part, this sanctuary is filled because of what happened,” Bachman stated at the event.  Leifer, a political progressive and writer, has issued blistering criticisms of Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. He has called for a change in the “status quo” of Israeli policy and has encouraged the American Jewish community to reexamine its relationship with Israel.  In an essay published in The Atlantic, Leifer reflected on the decision to snub Bachman for being a Zionist, saying that it “exemplified the bind that many progressive American Jews face.” “We are caught between parts of an activist left demanding that we disavow our communities, even our families, as an entrance ticket, and a mainstream Jewish institutional world that has long marginalized critics of Israeli policy. Indeed, Jews who are committed to the flourishing of Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora, and who are also outraged by Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, feel like we have little room to maneuver,” Leifer wrote. “My experience last week was so demoralizing in part because such episodes make moving the mainstream Jewish community much harder,” Leifer added. “Every time a left-wing activist insists that the only way to truly participate in the fight for peace and justice is to support the dissolution of Israel, it reinforces the zero-sum (and morally repulsive) idea that opposing the status quo requires Israel’s destruction.” 

Leifer still doesn't get it. Jew-hatred, in the guise of Israel hatred has become part of the progressive canon. "Critics of Israeli policy" are lionized, not marginalized among progressive Jews.

[aiyiyichat]

Week 25

The Bots are alright I finally got the Bots to talk to each other as well as to the User and remember all the ongoing context. No easy feat! It took ASGI, WebSockets, and some creative workarounds, but it's GLORIOUS and HILARIOUS. Having a group chat with these two characters is a riot. It increases the delightfulness factor dramatically. This feature was a nightmare to implement (see previous entry), but so f*ckin worth it. Does it qualify as MVP (Minimum Viable Product)? No it does not, but I care more about Viable than Minimum. I'm also building this for myself and this an interaction I really wanted. Code Interpreter saves my life A few weeks ago ChatGPT introduced a feature called 'Code Interpreter' which allows me to upload a code file for GPT to analyze. This was a God send because my code has grown so complex that I can no longer paste all of it into a prompt without GPT complaining it is too long and refusing to answer my questions. This forced me to carefully inspect (and learn) the code GPT was writing for me so that I could issue questions and instructions. I am thankful to have been forced to learn this before the introduction of Code Interpreter, but now I can share multiple interlinked code files and ask GPT what the discrepancies are. Or upload a very long error/log and ask GPT to discern some subtle break that would've taken me days to tease out. I feel as if my timing with this project has been serendipitous (Kismet-y?). ChatGPT launched right when my contract at Yahoo was ending making AIYIYI Chat possible and giving me the courage to attempt it by myself. Then GPT-4 launched at exactly the moment I was starting work on the AI characters and I was miraculously in the first batch of developers granted API access. Then just as the codebase was growing too complex for me to wrangle, Code Interpreter was introduced. The GPT-4 API is still prohibitively expensive compared to GPT-3.5 Turbo, but at this rate I wouldn't be surprised if OpenAI dramatically reduced the price right as I'm ready to launch. This series of events reminds me of a midrash regarding Moses and the parting of the Red Sea: “We all think of the scene in The Ten Commandments movie with Charlton Heston, where Moses lifted up his rod, and the waters rolled back. But this midrash says that’s not how it happened. Moses lifted up his rod, and the sea did not part. The Egyptians were closing in, and the sea wasn’t moving. So a Hebrew named Nachshon just walked into the water. He waded up to his ankles, then his knees, then his waist, then his shoulders. And right when water was about to get up to his nostrils, the sea parted. The point is, sometimes miracles occur only when you jump in.” - Rabbi Andy Bachman An old friend shows support My buddy randomly called me this week to catch up and inquire about my progress. He's a big time music producer and I used to champion him when he was just starting out almost two decades ago. He says the tables have turned and my time is around the corner. I sure hope so. He's got an RIAA Diamond award (10 million albums sold). The real takeaway from our 3 hour conversation was that we are both happiest just working on our craft in solitude. Just vibing out, plugged into the collective superconscious. Success is the cherry on top, but the sundae, the fudge and the sprinkles is in the making of the thing. The journey. I'll take the cherry, but I don't need it to smile. There's other ways I could've burned through my savings, but this is the way that is bringing me the deepest creative satisfaction I've felt in many years. I've already gotten a return on my investment. 🥰