Spiderman Vs. Kippaman

From the Times of Israel:

Marvel’s Spidey sense for copyright violations has stretched all the way to Jerusalem to ensnare a popular kippa maker in its web of lawsuits.
The comics publisher swung into action recently over the sale of products, notably skullcaps, featuring Spider-Man.
The company is suing the well-known Kippa Man shop for NIS 100,000 ($25,274) in damages because it sells a range of kippas featuring the red and blue superhero’s costume design and image, Maariv reported on Thursday.

A kippa is perhaps the most obvious sign of religious affiliation. As such one wonders how all those little boys (and hip American men) walking around with their Spiderman Kippot are now feeling, discovering that their head is adorned with an ongoing copyright violation?

Sidenote:
Given how widespread copyright violations are in Israel, I'm intrigued by why Marvel chose the tiny little store "Kippa Man" as their target.Though undoubtedly the best Kippah shop in Jerusalem (Full disclosure: I'm writing this with a "Kippa Man" Kippa on my head, though sadly without any superhero decoration) "Kippa Man" is two tiny stores that are little more than holes in the wall.

1938 Quote of the Day

In 1938, shortly after philosopher Martin Buber, formerly of the University of Frankfurt, came to Israel to teach at Hebrew University, a reporter asked how his Hebrew was. He replied: "Good, but not good enough to be obscure in."

Quoted in "The Post-Self-Destructivism of Judith Butler."

On Comparing Israel Policy To Nazism

David Hirsch:

BERLET: It seems that people who think of themselves as anti-racist and of some sort of progressive political bent have a hard time recognizing antisemitism, even if they recognize antisemitic statements they have a hard time seeing it in the same context of a broader global anti-racist struggle. Why do you think that is?

HIRSH: I think people are very good at recognizing some kinds of antisemitism. If it wears a Nazi uniform they understand it, if it’s right-wing they understand it, if it’s some sort of very simple worldview of racism and anti-racism. If it comes from the left and it comes from people who are anti-racist, then there’s often much more difficulty in recognizing and understanding what’s going on. There [are] many reasons for that.

One is that we think of antisemitism as being Nazism. Nazism was actually an unusual form of antisemitism; it was very clear, it allowed no exceptions; it allowed no escape for Jews. Most forms of antisemitism haven’t been like that., Christian antisemitism allowed people to convert to Christianity and therefore make themselves clean; also political antisemitism allowed Jews to put themselves on the right side of history. One of things we shouldn’t get too hung up on is the idea that antisemites are all like Adolph Hitler, because they’re not.

Professor Zimmerman demonstrates:

Rather, the heart of the matter is this: both cases, in 1938 and in 2012, involve heartlessness as to the fate of refugees. In both cases the refugees are stigmatized as "vermin" or "infiltrators." Both cases involve hairsplitting over the extent to which the lives of the refugees themselves are in danger. In October 1938, as now, the threat was not to the lives of German Jews but rather to their economic existence. It was only a few days later, after a member of one of the refugee families assassinated a German diplomat, that the resulting pogrom known as Kristallnacht took place, proving that there was indeed a danger to their lives.
One transgression leads to another. Germany and Poland could treat the unfortunate Jews who found themselves on the border in this manner because they had realized only a few months earlier, at the Evian Conference dealing with international aid to Jewish refugees from Germany, that other countries were indifferent to their fate. Hitler himself learned this lesson very well. Three months after the events of Zbaszyn he taunted the world: "If you care about the Jews so much, why are you not fighting over who will take them in?" Because he knew the answer, he pledged in that speech that the Jews would be destroyed in the next war.

 Can Israeli behavior toward refugees on the Egyptian border be accepted, given the memory of 1938 etched into our consciousness? In 2012, this the matriculation exam in history for Israelis. 

Rachel Corrie, Political Tourist - Modern Crusader

Lee Smith explains:

Groups like the International Solidarity Movement, then, act as a sort of tour agency for a particular kind of Western adventurer, searching for a level of raw political engagement and ideological commitment that simply doesn’t exist in the United States. The obvious advantage that Israel offers is that, compared to the rest of the Middle East, it is relatively safe. Corrie herself implicitly acknowledged this fact when she walked into the middle of a war zone to mount a protest. No sensible person could similarly assume the mercies of, say, the Syrian regime were he to walk into the middle of that war zone to complain of government atrocities.

Branden O'neill adds:

Corrie’s cheerleaders – which includes actor Alan Rickman, who turned her writings into a hit play – seem unaware of how much their sanctification of Corrie echoes the old crusading Christian desire to save foreigners from wickedness. Corrie is treated as a uniquely good Westerner whose sole motivation was to “save” Palestinians, especially Palestinian children, from what Corrie herself described as Israel’s attempt to “erase” them. So one writer praises Corrie’s purity of soul, the fact that she eschewed “having a good time experimenting with drugs, booze and sex”, and even turned her back on her “Ivy League University”, in the name of travelling thousands of miles and “giving her life to save Palestinian homes and families”. Here, Corrie is turned into a kind of Christ-like figure, rejecting the shallow joys of Western privilege in favour of venturing into the desert to “give her life” for others.

On the Israel "Jungle" - Leopards in Israel

IDF cameras spot a tiger Leopard, wolf and some wild boars in Israel:




I was under the mistaken impression that there were no longer tigers leopards in Israel. However a quick search found this news piece [Hebrew]:




*edited to reflect my discovery that נמר is a leopard and not a tiger.

On The "Emunah" Jingle

The jingle above for Emunah (a Dati-Leumi women's movement) has been playing on the radio for the last few weeks. I'll admit that I really like it - though probably for all the wrong reasons. The music of the jingle is quite simply -old fashioned. For some reason the "old fashioned" nature of the jingle conveys very well the picture of Emunah as nice charming grandmothers. 

The Polish "Lucky Jew" Statuettes

I spotted this little statue on the desk of a co-worker. When I inquired to its origin he told me that he bought it in Poland, where they are sold as "lucky charms". In fact there are three types - the rabbi with a Talit, the Jew holding a coin, and this particular one the "Talmudist". They are each a charm for luck, wealth and wisdom respectively.

A search online revealed that they are known as "Zydki" - Jordie Gerson explains:

Today, Jewish figurines are as likely to be shaped by nostalgia as stereotypes. Some--like the ones I saw that October afternoon--still sport oversized noses and hold moneybags, but they are now mixed in with more marketable figurines that romanticize Poland's Jewish past.

Which may, ultimately, reflect the status of Judaism in contemporary Poland. Today, Jews and Poland's Jewish past are treated with a mixture of animus and nostalgia, awe and hostility, and the Holocaust tourism that helps support the Polish economy is both resented and revered. Like Jewish figurines, the real Jews who fill hotel rooms in Krakow and Warsaw occupy a place in the Polish imagination that straddles the line between actuality and fantasy, memory and the desire to forget.

Harav Motti Elon Remains An Unresolved Issue

During Shabbat I noticed that my neighborhood in Jerusalem was covered with flyers for upcoming weekly shiurim by Harav Motti Elon - former RZ star, and currently being charged with sexual misconduct. Even more surprising the same leaflets advertising his speeches were in some of the weekly Torah Pamphlets that are handed out in Shul. I can understand Harav Elon's own students and supporters trying to send a message by advertising his classes. However, I would have expected respectable RZ publications not to run such ads.

Harav Elon deserves to be considered "innocent until proven guilty". On the other hand, someone facing such allegations can not be serving as a spiritual mentor. Harav Elon can wait until the court hands down its verdict     before trying to reclaim his position as the RZ first Hassidic Master (אדמור)

Overheard At Shul..

This week's parsha כי תצא (should you go to war) should really be changed to כשתצא (When you go to war).