I found there to be a glaring contrast between two articles in the Oct. 4 edition of The CJN. The Perspectives piece, “A battle for the rabbinate, and for Israel’s soul,” which included an interview with Rabbi David Stav, complained about the narrow, partisan views of those who currently make up Israel’s religious establishment. Rabbi Stav’s fear is that unless the establishment is reformed, “Israeli society will splinter into pieces.” In the column, “Beware of tikkunism and tikkunistas,” by Gerald Steinberg complains about the Theodore Adorno Prize being awarded to Prof. Judith Butler by the city of Frankfurt. Butler’s criticisms of policies pursued by the Netanyahu government offend Steinberg. I grant that he is entitled to his opinion, just as Butler is entitled to hers. But Steinberg is doubly offended by the fact that Butler grounds her political criticisms in what she takes to be Jewish social values. Steinberg will have none of this. He accuses Butler of not knowing the first thing about Jewish values, which he goes on to define dogmatically. Apparently, either one agrees with Steinberg about what it means to be a Jew or one is not really a Jew. I conclude from this that the problem identified by Rabbi Stav is not restricted to the religious establishment. Narrowly partisan views of Jewish identify and Jewish values threaten to divide us against ourselves, in Israel, in Canada and around the world.
Stephen L. Newman
Toronto
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Israel critic speaks clearly
As an academic, I have come across the turgid writings of highly praised and esteemed feminist/post-modernist Prof. Judith Butler (“Beware of tikkunism and tikkunistas,” Oct. 4). In a highly critical review, titled The Professor of Parody, University of Chicago law professor Martha Nussbaum comments, “Butler is a very smart person. In public discussions she proves that she can speak clearly and has a quick grasp of what is said to her. Her written style, however, is ponderous and obscure” (The New Republic online, Feb. 22, 1999). Butler defends her notoriously opaque prose as an exercise in intellectual liberation and creative ambiguity. Yet, we get the full measure of her hypocrisy when we observe that when it comes to vilifying Israel and Zionism, she speaks in lucid, simple language – as she did most recently at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. It is as though there are no nuances or alternative ways of understanding Israel – there is only Butler’s uncharacteristically clear demonization of the Jewish state.
David Pariser
Montreal
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Video not cause of violence, murder
Regarding Bert Raphael’s letter, “Muslims need tolerance for criticism” (Oct. 4), it seems that once again the video Innocence of Muslims has been elevated to a causative role in the unleashing of riots, violence and murder in the Middle East. The tragic death of the American ambassador, Christopher Stevens, on Sept. 11, appears to have been the result of a well-planned and executed attack on the U.S. embassy in Bengazi, Libya. The video is little more than a red herring, just as the second intifadah was not caused by then-Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount in 2000. Raphael’s effort to seemingly lend a measure of equivalence between the riots in Egypt and elsewhere, and the video is disingenuous.
It is true that Jews do not behave in a murderous fashion when we are pilloried in the most vicious terms in the various media. But some Muslims regard any criticism of the Prophet Muhammad as unwelcome and a cause for violent reaction.
Jews, however, do not, as Raphael would suggest, follow “the teachings of their Christian brethren,” and turn “the other cheek.” (The full quote can be found in Matthew 5:39.) On the contrary, Christianity has followed the teachings of Judaism, where the origin of this quote can be found in Eicha/Lamentations (3:30): “Let one offer his cheek to his smiter, let him be filled with disgrace.” Jews no more follow Christianity than does the eruption in the Middle East follow the video, which had been around months in advance of Sept. 11.
A. H. Rubenstein
Toronto