RSS
Jewish men (and women) think about the Roman Empire all the time. We can’t avoid it.
(JTA) — How often do men think about the Roman Empire? It’s a question that’s been hard to avoid lately, after a woman on TikTok asked it of her husband and he answered immediately: “Every day.”
Since then, the hashtag #RomanEmpire has raked in millions of views across multiple social media platforms, with men admitting that, yes, they do think a lot about the Roman Empire. Some suggested it was the fascination with military conquest, others the appeal of gladiators (and the 2000 movie “Gladiator”) and still others a love of history. On the less savory side, some men seem drawn to the patriarchal nature of Roman society and the idea that Rome was the foundation of Western (read, “white”) civilization.
Like a lot of cultural phenomena that flow from the strange, turbid waters of TikTok, the question soon spread beyond social media. And also like a lot of what catches on there, it can be easy to dismiss the whole thing — along with its peculiar, gendered valances, its memes and counter-memes — as a brief, hot-burning fever of the terminally online.
Yet I have found myself pondering the question more than I would have expected. And the reason is that as with almost everything — at least in the eyes of Jews who are inclined to look, as I as a rabbi find myself to be — Jewish tradition has a lot to say about how often we should contemplate the world of caesars and praetorians.
Probably the most obvious reason why a good Jew thinks often about the Roman Empire is, of course, historical trauma. In one way or another we recall the destruction of the Second Temple at the hands of the Roman emperor Hadrian — a national and spiritual disaster of the highest order — at weddings and in daily prayer, on Tisha B’Av and on Yom Kippur. We leave symbols of the destruction on the walls of our homes. Its memory deforms a large swath of our summer, robbing us of music, swimming pools, haircuts and joy.
For the ancient sages, all of this is rooted in thinking about the Roman Empire. Their thoughts turned to the empire often, and their thoughts were dark. They equated pre- and post-Christian Rome with Esau, Isaac’s wayward son, and they equated Esau with all that was evil and through the power of the literature they left behind they ensured that generations of Jews would do the same.
But, on a very basic level, it’s also worth remembering that the ancient rabbis — the progenitors of the Mishnah and the Talmud upon whose visionary creativity all subsequent Jewish history and religious culture is based — were deeply enmeshed in ancient Roman society. Though not quite citizens, they were acculturated and literate. They incorporated Roman traditions into a variety of Jewish practices, including how we light Hanukkah lights and how we experience the seder.
Through a stroke of luck, history has preserved a marvelous epistolary exchange between the great Roman orator Cicero and his father. In a letter, Cicero informs his old man that he has decided to become a vegetarian. His father, in his response, tells Cicero that this simply won’t do because as a vegetarian he would not be able to eat from the sacrifices to Zeus and consequently everyone would think he was a Jew.
What is remarkable and important about this exchange is not his father’s Jew-hatred — the presence of casual antisemitism everywhere is wholly unremarkable, as every Jew knows — but rather that Cicero’s father’s admonition, even as it otherizes the Jews, belies the fact that the Jews of ancient Roman Palestine, the rabbis and their followers, appeared very Roman indeed. After all, if not for their bizarre abstention from eating Roman cult sacrifices, they looked just like Cicero! They were, to put it succinctly, toga- and sandal-wearing, lettuce-dipping, symposium-loving Romans.
So ironically, even as the main thrust of rabbinic tradition is starkly anti-Roman, the ancient rabbis were very much products of their times. They were about as Roman as I am American, which is to say almost but not quite and, in the end, it is the not-quite rather than the almost that is determinative.
My view of the Roman Empire is informed by a frothing admixture of resentment, fear and admiration, a strange, Jewish brew that I inherited from my ancient ancestors. So how often do I think about the Roman Empire? I think about the Roman Empire all the time.
—
The post Jewish men (and women) think about the Roman Empire all the time. We can’t avoid it. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Pick for Intel Chief, Dodges Press Questions on Controversial Assad Views
Former US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard attends a campaign rally of Donald Trump at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, Nov. 4, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, faced scrutiny on Monday over her sympathetic views toward Bashar al-Assad, scurrying away from a press gaggle on Capitol Hill after being asked for her views on the Syrian president’s removal from power.
Gabbard, a combat veteran and former US congresswoman from Hawaii, was meeting with senators tasked with voting whether to confirm or deny her nomination to be the country’s top intelligence official. When asked by journalists for her thoughts on the overthrow of the Assad regime, Gabbard glanced up, smiled, and quickly left the room.
Exiting her Senate meeting, however, Gabbard made a brief statement in which she mentioned Syria but not Assad.
“I want to address the issue that’s in the headlines right now: I stand in full support and wholeheartedly agree with the statements that President Trump has made over these last few days with regards to the developments in Syria,” Gabbard said on Monday.
Gabbard has previously been labeled an Assad “apologist” over her repeated refusals to forcefully condemn the Syrian government during the country’s civil war, which began in 2011. Assad has been accused of war crimes during his regime’s brutal crackdown on rebel forces, which ultimately prevailed in toppling him on Sunday. The long-time Syrian ruler was also an ally of Russia and Iran, allowing the latter to use Syrian territory to send weapons to terrorist proxies across the Middle East.
In 2017, Gabbard held a private meeting with Assad in Syria and refused to condemn him afterward, saying that it is “important that if we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we’ve got to be able to meet with anyone that we need to if there is a possibility that we can achieve peace.”
In 2019, while running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Gabbard appeared to again give Assad the benefit of the doubt, saying, “The evidence needs to be gathered and, as I have said before, if there is evidence that he has committed war crimes, he should be prosecuted as such.”
Gabbard has also made controversial comments on Russia, claiming that American and Western “hostility” motivated President Vladimir Putin to annex Crimea. She also repudiated attempts to sanction Russia, stating that “Russian people are a proud people and they don’t want the US and our allies trying to control them and their government.”
Nonetheless, Gabbard has also espoused pro-Israel views. In the year following Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, she has often defended the Jewish state’s defensive military operations in Gaza and accused pro-Palestinian protesters of being part of a “radical Islamist organization.” She has also criticized a UN resolution which would have called for a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terror group, stating that “we have to be realists about the threat that continues to exist for the people of Israel. So as long as Hamas is in power, the people of Israel will not be secure and cannot live in peace.”
The post Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Pick for Intel Chief, Dodges Press Questions on Controversial Assad Views first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Lawmakers Celebrate Assad’s Fall, Stress ‘Vigilance’ in Monitoring Next Steps in Syria
US Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, May 21, 2024. Photo: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US lawmakers have celebrated the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria but also cautioned that many of the rebel Islamist groups who helped to oust the longtime president could pose further threats to the United States and its allies in the Middle East.
Assad fled the capital of Damascus on Sunday as a coalition of rebel groups stormed the capital, ending his family’s five-decade rule. The deposed leader, who has been accused of war crimes for his crackdown on rebel forces since 2011, was a partner of Russia and allied with Iran, which for years has used Syrian territory to send weapons to its terrorist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
However, many Western observers have expressed concern that the leading Syrian rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is a group formerly allied with Al Qaeda and which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Turkey, and the UN.
Following Assad’s fall, US lawmakers were quick to call for both optimism and vigilance.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, posted on X/Twitter that he hopes for a “better future for the Syrian people” following the fall of Assad, but warned about the potential threat of the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) in the region.
“As we bid good riddance to Assad, and hope for a better future for the Syrian people, we must remain vigilant regarding the threat of ISIS and continue to support our partners the Syrian Kurds. This is not a time to let our guard down,” Van Hollen said.
On Sunday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the successful bombing of ISIS camps and fighters in central Syria, saying that the operation was carried out to “disrupt, degrade, and defeat” the terrorist group and prevent it from capitalizing on the fall of the Assad regime.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed optimism at the new “opportunity” that Assad’s departure represents. However, he added that Syria must adopt a democratic process to select its next leader.
“While it is a time for opportunity, it is also a potentially dangerous time for the region,” Risch said in a statement. “Moving forward, it is imperative the Syrian people choose their next government and Assad faces long-overdue justice for his war crimes.”
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, called for a “peaceful transition” of power in Syria and warned the country’s new leaders to “avoid the chaos that often follows the fall of a tyrant.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) stated that the US must remain “vigilant” in protecting its allies and citizens across the region.
“While it’s welcome news to see the humiliation of Russia and Iran and the end of Assad’s tyranny in Syria, we must be vigilant about protecting our citizens, interests, and allies in the region,” hewrote on X/Twitter. “Distrust but verify the intentions of anyone that might come to power.”
A US State Department spokesperson said on Monday that the Biden administration was seeking ways to engage with Syrian rebel groups and was reaching out to partners in the region such as Turkey to help launch informal diplomacy.
The post US Lawmakers Celebrate Assad’s Fall, Stress ‘Vigilance’ in Monitoring Next Steps in Syria first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
‘Antisemitic Intimidation’: Pro-Hamas Vandals Strike Jewish University of Michigan Official’s Home, Car
Vandalized car belonging to the wife of University of Michigan regents members Jordan Acker. Photo: Screenshot
Pro-Hamas activists at the University of Michigan vandalized the car and home of a Jewish member of the school’s board of regents early Monday morning.
“Divest. Free Palestine,” said the message the group graffitied on a Chevrolet Traverse owned by the wife of Jordan Acker, a Jewish lawyer who describes himself as a center-left Zionist and supporter of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Next to it the vandals spray-painted an inverted triangle, which has become a common symbol at pro-Hamas rallies. The Palestinian terrorist group, which rules Gaza, has used inverted red triangles in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets about to be attacked. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “the red triangle is now used to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence.”
Additionally, Acker confirmed with The Algemeiner on Tuesday, the protesters breached his property and threw what he believes were glass bottles filled with urine through his window.
“In the morning, I woke up to the sound of what appeared to be broken glass, and at first I thought one of my kids dropped a glass, but about 30 seconds later, the police rang the doorbell, and I came downstairs to find shattered glass all over our dining room and my wife’s car spray painted with pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas messages,” he said. “I was targeted because I am Jewish.”
The incident follows a semester of escalations by the pro-Hamas movement on the University of Michigan’s campus. In August, a group which calls itself the “Tahrir Coalition” roiled the campus with a demonstration aimed at sabotaging one of its biggest fall events. Some 45 students and non-students deluged the Diag section of campus for two hours, resulting in mass arrests by local law enforcement.
Weeks later, six people perpetrated a “Nazi like” assault on a Jewish student near the campus, kicking and spitting on him. Amid these developments, an anti-Zionist party which captured control of the student government during spring elections voted to defund student clubs, an ultimately unsuccessful measure its members hoped would force the university to boycott and divest from Israel.
More recently, the university, reportedly initiated disciplinary proceedings against one of its most outspoken and controversial anti-Israel groups, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), the result of which may be a suspension of up to four years.
Acker told The Algemeiner that he has tried to be a responsible and nuanced participant in the campus’ charged discussion about Israel and the future of the Palestinian people, conceding valid points to pro-Palestinian partisans for the sake of intellectual integrity and tempering polarization. However, doing so has not reduced the contempt anti-Zionists on campus harbor against him, and he believes they targeted his place of residence for seeing him as, above all, a Jew.
“I do believe that Palestinian rights are important, but I’m not willing to call for the destruction of Israel” Acker explained.
“I think they know there is nuance, but I don’t think they care. They’re focused on conformity with the idea that Israel should be driven into the sea, and as long as my answer is ‘absolutely not under any circumstances,’ they will continue to treat me as [an Itamar Ben-Gvir] supporter,” he added, referring to Israel’s far-right minister of national security.
Acker then noted that the vast majority of American Jews are to the left of the mainstream pro-Israel movement in America, which is largely supported by the Christian Evangelical community, and that the decision to protest — for example, outside reform “liberal” synagogues in his community — reveals that antisemitism is the primary motivation of most anti-Zionists.
“I had a conversation with a university professor who is deeply involved in this, and I asked him why his group did not protest at Evangelical churches. He looked at me kind of askew and asked, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, well look, there is no group in this country that is more empathetic and sympathetic to Palestinians and their rights than mainstream American Jewry,” Acker recounted. “The answer on this is pretty clear. There’s a substantial proportion of this protest movement, especially now, that is dedicated not to making Palestinian lives better but simply to harassing Jews.”
He continued, “There’s a group that protests outside a very liberal Ann Arbor synagogue every Saturday, without exception, and this has gone on for years. When I think about the people who attend a liberal synagogue, I know that they probably have very two-state solution, pro-Palestinian rights views. And yet, you know, they find the need to protest Jews on the holiest day of the week, right? It has nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with trying to make Jews feel uncomfortable in public spaces.”
The University of Michigan condemned the attack on Acker’s home and personal property as antisemitic in a statement published on its website on Tuesday.
“The vandalism of Regent Jordan Acker’s home early this morning is a clear act of antisemitic intimidation,” the statement read. “The University of Michigan condemns these criminal acts in the strongest possible terms. They are abhorrent, and, unfortunately, just the latest in a number of incidents where individuals have been harassed because of their work on behalf of the university. This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We call on our community to come together in solidarity and to firmly reject all forms of bigotry and violence.”
This is not the first time that pro-Hamas activists on college campuses have vandalized property in the name of anti-Zionism.
In September, at the University of British Columbia (UBC), a pro-Hamas group placed a shocking antisemitic display targeting Jews and law enforcement on the gate leading to the private residence of university president Benoit-Antoine Bacon. “Pigs off campus,” said the large banner which People’s University for Gaza at UBC (PUG) tacked to the property. Next to it, the group staked on the finials of the structure the severed head of a pig.
In October, when Jews around the world mourned on the anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, a Harvard University student group called on pro-Hamas activists to “Bring the war home” and proceeded to vandalize a campus administrative building. The group members, who described themselves as “anonymous,” later said in a statement, “We are committed to bringing the war home and answering the call to open up a new front here in the belly of the beast.”
Princeton University also saw a shocking vandalism for which an anonymous student group claimed responsibility in the same week. Targeting the building which houses the Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), it involved splattering red paint on the entrance door and graffitiing the perimeter of the building with the slogan “$4genocide.”
At Cornell University, in August, ant-Zionists vandalized an administrative building, graffitiing “Israel Bombs, Cornell pays” and “Blood is on your hands” on Day Hall. They also shattered the glazings of its front doors.
“We had to accept that the only way to make ourselves heard is by targeting the only thing the university administration really cares about: property,” the student culprits told the Cornell Daily Sun during an interview granted in exchange for a guarantee of anonymity.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Antisemitic Intimidation’: Pro-Hamas Vandals Strike Jewish University of Michigan Official’s Home, Car first appeared on Algemeiner.com.