Comments on: In it for the Money: Chosen People

By: Alan Goldsmith

Alan Goldsmith — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 11:47:06 +0000

Using someone like writer like Alison Weir, and her hate-fill, discredited ‘non-fiction’ book cited here would be laughable if this topic wasn’t so serious. I suggest anyone reading @9, if they have the slightest moment of taking this comment seriously, to follow up on Ms. Weir, her background and her critics to get some reality based informaton instead.

By: Henry Herskovitz

Henry Herskovitz — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 17:35:57 +0000

Although Mr. Nelson doesn’t ask WHY Jews were hated by the German state prior to WWII, he’d have a more complete story and a better understanding of Anti-semitism if he did. Here’s just one example summarized for us by Alison Weir in her book, “Against Our Better Judgment; The secret history of how the U.S. was used to create Israel.”

Jewish Zionists were instumental in getting the US into WWI on “…Britain’s side as part of a deal to gain British support for their colonization of Palestine .” She quotes secretary of the World Zionist Organization Samuel Landman, who explained that it was “Jewish help that brought the U.S.A. into the war on the side of the Allies,” thus causing the defeat of Germany.

Landman went on to write that this had “rankled” in Germany ever since and “contributed in no small measure to the prominence which anti-Semitism occupies in the Nazi programme.” [Landman wrote his article in 1936].

“They just know that Jews are for hating.”? Puh-lease!

It would benefit Mr. Nelson and the entire Jewish community if they would learn the real history of anti-Semitism and stop parading around emotional claims of “blood libel”. Then they could get on to doing something about it.

By: Alan Goldsmith

Alan Goldsmith — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 16:47:47 +0000

“I remember, though, how taken aback I was to go through those thick doors, find myself being security checked by a perfectly polite and helpful but no-nonsense person at the reception window, all while being watched carefully by the very no-nonsense guy with the gun. How sad that this is necessary in Ann Arbor.”

At first I thought you were talking about trying to see the hanging glass artwork at the new Justice Center.

By: Lyn Davidge

Lyn Davidge — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:42 +0000

Thank you for telling us, David. Your friends are right. We of the 86% do need to be reminded and educated. With all due respect to Mr. Ben-Baruch, it’s important for us to know what it feels like — even to just one individual — to be one of 2, or 13, or whatever out of 100.

I had the pleasure a few years ago of being invited as the entertainment for a senior group that was meeting at JCC. I’m a storyteller, and I had a great time. I remember, though, how taken aback I was to go through those thick doors, find myself being security checked by a perfectly polite and helpful but no-nonsense person at the reception window, all while being watched carefully by the very no-nonsense guy with the gun. How sad that this is necessary in Ann Arbor.

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:44:15 +0000

@5: Is that true? The message of the Byron Katie video I linked to in #2 is that reality is kinder than our confused beliefs. David referred in his piece to what “God knows”. I’ve learned that I *don’t* know, and so I’ve been spared. It helps me to not scare myself or others around me (like my kids).

By: Mary Stevenson

Mary Stevenson — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:57:45 +0000

Now you all know how Palestinians feel only worse – all of them, all the time.

By: Benjamin Ben-Baruch

Benjamin Ben-Baruch — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 23:25:27 +0000

Sorry. Autocorrect can be a nuisance. I typed “disempowered”. Autocorrect changed it to “disembodied”.

By: Benjamin Ben-Baruch

Benjamin Ben-Baruch — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 19:14:07 +0000

Let me suggest a different interpretation of this fear mongering and presentation of antisemitism out of proportion. For some Jews, Jewish identity includes defining ourselves as disembodied and victims of antisemitism. This identity is important to the ways in which we justify our support if Israel which, by our definition, is weak and vulnerable and has to take steps to protect itself from a hostile world.

I, too, grew up in Detroit and the moved to Ann Arbor. But the home I grew up in was a Zionist home which explicitly rejected this notion of Jews being weak and disembodied and of Israel being, by definition, a state that would always be weak and vulnenable. What that Zionist movement was about was empowering Jews. We have become a relatively empowered people. All people should be relatively empowered. Palestinians should become relatively empowered, too. But this is unlikely to happen as long as Jews keep identifying themselves as victims who are justified in abusing power we refuse to recognize that we have.

I find Nelson’S fear mongering objectionable on many levels.

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 18:43:16 +0000

Another perspective: [link]

By: Laura Sky Brown

Laura Sky Brown — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:32:04 +0000

Brilliant explication of an essential issue. Keep talking about this.