Pre-Passover Blood Libels In New York Times And New York Post
This week, not one but two viciously anti-semitic articles were written in two major New York based news outlets. I heard about the New York Times article first, from Newsweek deputy opinion editor, Batya Ungar-Sargon. Her tweet summed up the article perfectly:
Who needs the Daily Stormer when you’ve got the New York Times? An Orthodox Jew helps free more than 4,000 Black men from prison. NYT: A LOOSE ALLIANCE OF ORTHODOX JEWS USED THEIR MONEY TO UNDERMINE JUSTICE AND PUPPET MASTER THE PRESIDENT.
Then, in the New York Post, the writer was sure that Manhattan’s low Covid rate right now must be due to the fact that there are no large “congregations” of Hasidic Jews there, as opposed to Brooklyn and Queens. As if no one else helped spread this virus over the last year other than Hasidic Jews. (P.S. There are no large “Hasidic congregations” in Queens – not that we’d expect a writer who paints with such a broad brush to actually care to learn the differences between different Jewish groups.)
While one could be outraged with such blatantly anti-semitic articles being penned in an age when we are supposed to be all about “diversity” and “celebrating” minorities, trash like this actually puts a smile on my face.
A Makom member asked me yesterday, “Do you really believe that he 10 plagues in Egypt happened?”
I told him that I do, but I can’t actually relate to larger than life miraculous events the occurred over 3000 years ago. See, the thing is – I wasn’t actually there at the beginning of the Passover story – the parts about Abraham setting himself apart by establishing a relationship with one God and the Jewish people going down to Egypt and being miraculously rescued with a “mighty hand” and an “outstretched arm.”
What can I relate to instead is a part later in the Hagadah which says, “v’he sh’amda” – “in every generation our enemies rise up against us to destroy us, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, saves us from their hand.”
When the rabbis wrote those words thousands of years ago, they could not have known for sure that in later generations Jews would continue to defy the regular rules of society, always being more hated than everyone else and then miraculously recovering from that unfair hate. And yet in generation after generation, this teaching held up.
The rabbis couldn’t have known that the world would progress to a state of being so committed to sensitivity around minorities that people would suffer serious ramifications for saying something offensive about one, but that rule would somehow not apply to Jews.
It’s because one part of this ancient Haggadah is verifiable from my own experiences and knowledge of history, that it is not such a leap for me to believe the other parts of it are also true. So thank you New York Times and New York Post for your garbage antisemitic takes on my people. Next year in Jerusalem!
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Wow. Those articles are unbelievable!! The NY Times – expected. The New York Post can’t realize the difference between white collar Manhattanites who can work remotely and the blue collar people here in Queens who can’t? My husband got sick (and brought it home to the family) at his WAREHOUSE job (essential worker) not some large “hassidic” funeral that they keep referring back to to prove Jews Are Bad. And every single community has had lapses in judgement in the past few months – white, Jew, black, brown. But blame the Jew. Vehi She’amdah indeed.
But by writing that it was ‘expected’ of the NYT and not so for the NYP, u are falling into a rabbit hole yourself of reading the byline first, or the name of the publication first and then, why read at all? SO basically- unfair comment.
In my opinion the fact that at a time when there is a tolerance and sensitivity for all minorities except for jews makes a lot of sense. Other minorities have lots of issues but they believe that they are no different than other people who might not treat them with respect. The black people were treated as slaves for a long time, the change in the way white people treat them was a slow process that started 200 years ago. It started with a few black people who stood up and said, we are people just like you. The black people had a leader, martin luther king junior who fighted hatred with love. He said the only way to fight hatred is with love. Eventually one day jews will be treated as everyone, but they first need to believe that they can be treated as everyone. As long as they continue believing that they will always be hated, that is what will happen.
Thanks for your comment, Baila. But believing that hatred of Jews is part of exile does not mean that we believe everyone will be an antisemite. It means that some antisemites will always exist in exile but most people should do the right thing.
This is just so classic. Not much to add, just blame the victim. Oh, and maybe when women stop wearing such sexy clothes, they won’t get raped (in case I wasn’t clear).
Yes the NYT is terribly biased, but Weinstein, Esformes, Weiss were guilty and got out through their connections and dirty money. Massive chilul Hashem. To release Weiss and Weinstein was especially egregious. Stop the apologetics, Josephs.
Thanks for your comment, Jon, but let me clarify something. I believe guilty people should get in trouble and getting reported on. What I don’t like is the framing of this Orthodox Jewish cabal puppet mastering the president. No other minority is treated like this.