Comments on: Words Do Matter

By: Pauli Ojala

Pauli Ojala — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:11:52 +0000

http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Jew-Watch.htm
?

Statistics of the beneficial impact of Jewish population to the host country in terms of inventions, science and technology:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Indicator.html

By: Stop Labeling People "Ultra-Orthodox" | Cross-Currents

Stop Labeling People "Ultra-Orthodox" | Cross-Currents — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:56:55 +0000

[...] attack on the Chabad of Mumbai, one both different and more subtle than obfuscation of the terrorists’ identity as Islamic radicals and their Jewish victims as deliberate targets. What exercised the Jewish Week is that the news [...]

By: Sam

Sam — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:31:49 +0000

It’s great to know that there are other synagogues in Mumbai, and that one of us would seriously consider switching from the NY Times to the Wall Street Journal if they would have a sports page.

The deadly issue, however, is that the NY Times deliberately, day after day, sought to portray the attack by virulent anti-Semitic terrorists on innocent Jews at a visible Jewish symbol–the Chabad House, located in a national landmark called the Nariman House–as anything but deliberate. Even after evidence emerged that the Jews were tortured and not merely killed, including a visibly pregnant woman, this information was not passed along to the readers of the paper that claims to present all the news that’s fit to print.

Let us not get sidetracked, and let us realize that the views and opinions of millions of important people are shaped by how the Times covers stories. [That was true during WWII, and it is true in the Israeli-Arab conflict.] There is a good reason why the NY Times has not published the letters of those of us who caught this immediately and wrote in right away, and did not even address this issue in its Corrections section. There is method to their madness.

But, instead of focusing on the real danger such media represents, and how to counter such media bias, we can always return to the fact that there are other synagogues in Mumbai, and if only the WSJ had a sports page

By: Steve Brizel

Steve Brizel — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:19:10 +0000

Excellent column-The NY Times has a long, sorry and infamous record when it comes to issues such as its analysis of the Holocaust, maintaining common cause and swapping raw materials with such anti Zionists as Judah Magnes and imposing standards in its editorial page and news coverage on Israel that exist for no other country. This week’s Newsweek mentions that the WS Journal is retooling itself to surpass the NY Times as the paper of record. If the WSJ had a sports page, I would seriously consider switching to it.

By: mb

mb — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:11:33 +0000

Some of the Jews in Bombay have been there for over 2 millenia, and racially resemble the indiginous population and others are expatriate Iraquis, settling hundreds of years ago.
Again not wishing to detract from the horror at the Chabad House, the Chabad publicity machine has added to the myth that this was the only Jewish resource in Bombay, and the media have ignorantly bought into it.

By: YM

YM — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:07:41 +0000

I think that Mark Steyn was not using the phrase “Jewish center” to mean synagogue; I believe that the Chabad facility was comprehensive in a way that the other shul’s in Mumbai are not.

By: Ori

Ori — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:49:05 +0000

Charlie Hall: (And how could Mark Steyn write that there is only one Jewish center in Mumbai? Do the Indian Jews not count as members of Am Yisrael?)

Ori: Count for whom? For us, of course they are Jews. But it’s possible that from an ignorant gentile’s perspective they don’t really count, since they are further away from the stereotype.

I hope that this is the view of Pakistani jihadists. In that case, they might not attack Indian Jews.

By: Charlie Hall

Charlie Hall — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:19:50 +0000

#1 mb,

I was frustrated enough by the lack of coverage that I actually sent emails to some other frum internet sites to complain why they had not mentioned anything about the other nine synagogues, or the three Jewish schools, or the rest of the Jewish community of several thousand people in Mumbai (a community that has been in that part of India for two millenia). I’m glad that they were not attacked, but I never heard anything about them from the Jewish internet or other Jewish media sources until after the terrorist attacks were over.

(And how could Mark Steyn write that there is only one Jewish center in Mumbai? Do the Indian Jews not count as members of Am Yisrael?)

By: mb

mb — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:57:59 +0000

Not to detract from anything you have said, but there are at least 8 other synagogues in Bombay. For some reason this has barely been mentioned.