The Jewish Identity In New York City

If you are into a life into New York City, there is no escaping the Jewish identity. The Jewish people are an extremely important element of life in this city, and I will not have it any other way.

There are people who can just tell who is Jewish and who is not. I am not one of them. I look at some Jewish people, and I am like, you could be East European, you could be Jordanian. To me the looks are not obvious, last names don't help all that much, although I am getting a little bit better at it.

But then could you tell the difference between a Madhesi and a Pahadi? Or a Bihari and a Tamil? Your knowledge of the nonwestern peoples is way more scant than my knowledge of the western peoples. But then perhaps our knowledge of Africa is equally poor.

In the early 80s, I remember, Arafat would show up in India, and he would get treated like a head of state. The Palestinians are Third World, India is a leading Third World country. Back then it even claimed to lead the third pole in global politics, the so-called Non Aligned Movement.

My personal introduction to racism in America was part and parcel of my introduction to anti-Semitism. There was no mistaking it. I acquired an emotional knowledge that will last a lifetime.

The number one guy on my startup team, Adam, happens to be Jewish. I could not tell from his looks, or his last name. I once casually mentioned I lived in a Hasidic neighborhood, and how they are "this amazingly close-knit people." Adam has been a lifesaver to me. I don't know what I would have done without him. We are together going to do wonderful things.

He grew a slight beard over the Holidays, and I am like, you are beginning to look like my hero Larry Ellison. Ellison's bio Soft War is my mousepad.

Adam's cousin Micah once pointed at the TV and said, "Those are white people, we are not white people, we are Jewish!" I thought that was amusing. But then apparently there are people who are black and Jewish who go back thousands of years in the faith. I think that makes the Jewish people a very interesting people.

They are like the Newars of Kathmandu, they have an extremely rich culture. And I dig that. Collective identity is like accent, everyone's got one. It is just that some cultures are richer than others.

But then the Jewish people have a strand of pain that no other people can claim to have. The Holocaust was yesterday. I remember pain in my life from 20 years ago. For a people whose calendar goes back 5,000 years, something that happened half a century ago has got to feel like it was yesterday.

By now, that pain is primarily an emotional challenge. The wrong got done. Many people who did the wrong were brought to book. But by now there is mostly lingering pain. How do you deal with that pain? I don't know. I just know it has got to be there. I know it is there. I have witnessed it expressed.

All I know is the pain has to be processed. It can't be wished away. An extremely sophisticated state machinery systematically eliminated millions. There is no parallel to that in world history.

The Jewish people will never stop talking about the Holocaust, and that is the way it should be. The black people will not shut up on slavery and segregation and that is the way it should be. But then there is something else that is ongoing: Global Trafficking Of Women. I think that falls in a similar category.

I have limited knowledge of the Jewish identity. But I identify with the Jewish people as an underdog people. The Madhesi are an underdog people. The nonwhite are an underdog people.

NYC is a progressive city. I am all for getting along. We progressives will have our internal tussles, and we will compete on ideology and strategy, and we sure will compete on candidates. But overall we are one political religion: Progressive Political Religion: No Place For Superpowers. Even when we compete, we have to compete in a way that we don't lose sight of the big picture, of what we as a city mean to the rest of the country and the rest of the world.

But it can not be a false getting along where the only reason we seem to get along is because we refuse to tackle the hard social topics like race and gender. I am for pushing the edges of the envelope.



Formula For Permanent Peace In The Middle East

1. Israel is here to stay forever.
2. Create Palestine, a model democracy.
3. Democracy is right for every single country. All unelected heads of state must be deposed through mass movements.

Judaism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Judaism 101
Judaism - ReligionFacts
About Judaism



And here is Ann Coulter, of all people, saying Christians are "perfected Jews." That is like saying women are people who wish they were men but they are not.

Sexism, Physicalism: Coupled

I think at some level they go together. Women and men are different, but they are politically, socially equal. Equality is a political consciousness thing. You acquire it. It is a mental journey to it.

Women are different physically. The whole pro-choice movement has been women saying, this is my body, you don't get to have a say over it. I will make my choices.

But there are social implications. Physicalism can come into play. If you think someone is a leader just because he is taller, that is physicalism. It is an ideology just like racism and sexism and anti-Semitism.

Abject Poverty, Infant Mortality

While we talk historic wrongs, we also have to take a look at the ongoing wrongs of abject poverty and infant mortality, and what have you. There is concrete data on these ills. These are not vague concepts.

The Internet

That is what will bridge the gap between the so-called First World, and Third World.

13 Million

I just learned there are 13 million Jews on the planet. That is about how many Madhesis there are on the planet. Jesus was a Jew. Buddha was a Madhesi.

Folks, we got something going on. We got common ground.

In The News

Obama Camp Says Clinton Nomination "Highly Unlikely" U.S. News & World Report Clinton would "have to win Ohio, Texas and virtually all other remaining primaries by roughly 2-to-1 margins over Obama ....... the Clinton campaign in response "argued Obama won't have the support of enough delegates and superdelegates to sew up the nomination before the party's August convention either." ...... "Clinton should be within 25 delegates of Obama after March 4 ..... Clinton's advisers "acknowledged that it would be difficult for her to catch up in the race for pledged delegates even if she succeeded in winning Ohio and Texas in three weeks and Pennsylvania in April." ....... the campaign "has something of a shellshocked feel." ...... "her supporters are watching the streak with mounting unease."
Clinton leading Obama in Ohio, Pennsylvania: poll Reuters leads him 55 percent to 34 percent among likely Democratic primary voters in Ohio
Hezbollah Leader Vows Revenge on Israel New York Times
Obama steps out in front Detroit Free Press she threw down this challenge: "Tell him to meet me in Texas. We're ready." ..... Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, which together represent 64% of remaining delegates. ...... David Wilhelm, who managed Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, endorsed Obama on Wednesday. "It's time for superdelegates to begin ratifying the choice of Democratic primary voters," he said. ..... Wilhelm, an Ohio venture capitalist and himself a superdelegate
The phenomenon which is Barack Obama Jamaica Observer having won 21 primaries and caucuses, to her 10 ...... Obama could not have won that many primaries and caucuses without the solid support of white Americans ..... Obama is being compared with names like John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson in respect of his charisma and oratorical skills. ...... Of course, whichever candidate or party wins, Jamaica will continue to enjoy its historically close relationship with the United States.
Obama's Mighty Numbers Forbes she is starting to lose her base. ..... In Virginia and Maryland, Obama outperformed Clinton among women, seniors (those over 60), and voters with annual incomes below $50,000, three groups that helped Clinton to her most significant primary wins in New York and California. Another group that supported Clinton on Feb. 5 but appears to be moving towards Obama is white voters; who preferred Obama by 5 percentage points in Maryland and were split 50-50 in Virginia. The Illinois senator also had more support among union households on Tuesday. ...... his lead balloons to nearly 700,000.
Clinton renews calls for Fla., Mich. delegates to count Atlanta Journal Constitution
Clinton Team Seeks to Calm Turmoil Wall Street Journal the campaign has something of a shellshocked feel, as staffers privately chew over a blowup last week where internal frictions flared into the open. ...... "Your ad doesn't work," strategist Mark Penn yelled at ad-maker Mandy Grunwald. "The execution is all wrong," he said ..... "Oh, it's always the ad, never the message," Ms. Grunwald fired back, say the operatives. The clash got so heated that political director Guy Cecil left the room, saying, "I'm out of here." ...... she launched her first negative ad, airing one in Wisconsin that criticized Barack Obama for not agreeing to debate before that state's primary. ..... McCain dumped his campaign managers last summer when his candidacy seemed to be tanking. Now he is the strong Republican front-runner. ..... The campaign projects it will raise around $20 million this month. ....... Ms. Solis Doyle recently returned home after two months on the road to find a family accustomed to her absence, she told colleagues. When her 6-year-old son cried out one night recently, he rebuffed his mom, saying, "I want Daddy." Ms. Solis Doyle flew out of the room in tears and told her husband: "Joey doesn't want me. S- this campaign, I'm quitting." ...... Ms. Solis Doyle told reporters: "This is my decision, my choice, my timing....There was no pressure." ........ Another idea from the campaign: Host several private events -- at supporters' apartments all located in a single Manhattan high-rise -- in one night, so Mrs. Clinton can appear simply by riding the elevator. ...... Williams began putting in place new processes to make decisions more quickly.
Clinton Reshuffles Online Team Washington Post

Obama a Hit in Japanese Town The Associated Press this port town on Japan's snowy west coast ...... Obama the town is nuts about Obama the man..... The mayor, Toshio Murakami, sent Obama a letter a year ago with a gift of lacquerware chopsticks, a DVD introducing the city, and a guidebook, but no one knows if the package arrived because they never received a response. ..... The 30-member support group plans to put on headbands and T-shirts with portraits of Obama to watch the results on television together, said Fujiwara. They plan to sell Obama sweets and chopsticks — once they get clearance from the candidate.

RI's Lincoln Chafee endorses Barack Obama Baltimore Sun

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