Mayor Bloomberg Influences MR's Opinion of New York Jewry
New York City employs a certain radical imam who preaches hatred and anti-Semitism, engages in tirades about "Zionists", and gets paid by the city to minister to prisoners (a duty which he discharges by advocating certain stances of questionable patriotism). New York Mayor Bloomberg has recently jumped into action by very publicly not firing the lunatic - and has now explained his decision by linking it to his own Judaism:
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday insisted he was right not to fire an imam who works in the city jail system - invoking his Jewish heritage to explain the decision. In a meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain, the mayor said that since he's a Jew, "it may be easier for me to approach these situations with the Muslim community."
That, he said, is because his religion gives him a better perspective on what the imam said. "I was in a difficult position," said Bloomberg, "but I felt like I did the right thing." Last week, Bloomberg slapped Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil with a two-week unpaid suspension for delivering a speech in Arizona in which he referred to "Zionists of the media" and "terrorists" in the White House.
In our experience, being Jewish has also helped us approach issues of anti-Semitism with the Muslim community. And by "approach issues" we obviously mean "be targeted by".
You know, we've always been baffled by polls that show gigantic swaths of American Jews who fail to in any way identify their self-interest with the preservation of Israel or Jerusalem. We used to think that it was because of bad polling methodologies. Then we went to New York, and started to think that it's because these New York Jews have this special kind of Judaism (apparently grounded in some version of the Talmud that locates the Temple somewhere in the Lower East Side).
But now we're beginning to think that it might just be because they're total idiots.
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday insisted he was right not to fire an imam who works in the city jail system - invoking his Jewish heritage to explain the decision. In a meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain, the mayor said that since he's a Jew, "it may be easier for me to approach these situations with the Muslim community."
That, he said, is because his religion gives him a better perspective on what the imam said. "I was in a difficult position," said Bloomberg, "but I felt like I did the right thing." Last week, Bloomberg slapped Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil with a two-week unpaid suspension for delivering a speech in Arizona in which he referred to "Zionists of the media" and "terrorists" in the White House.
In our experience, being Jewish has also helped us approach issues of anti-Semitism with the Muslim community. And by "approach issues" we obviously mean "be targeted by".
You know, we've always been baffled by polls that show gigantic swaths of American Jews who fail to in any way identify their self-interest with the preservation of Israel or Jerusalem. We used to think that it was because of bad polling methodologies. Then we went to New York, and started to think that it's because these New York Jews have this special kind of Judaism (apparently grounded in some version of the Talmud that locates the Temple somewhere in the Lower East Side).
But now we're beginning to think that it might just be because they're total idiots.
