Comments on: We’re all Chabadniks now

By: Bookworm Room » Mumbai week at the Watcher’s

Bookworm Room » Mumbai week at the Watcher’s — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:27:22 +0000

[...] Fourth place with 2/3 point – Likelihood of Success – We

By: Watcher of Weasels » Winning Submissions: Fighting a Politically Correct War Against Terrorism

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:13:06 +0000

[...] Fourth place with 2/3 point – Likelihood of Success – We’re All Chabadniks Now [...]

By: Watcher of Weasels » Watching the Weasels

Watcher of Weasels » Watching the Weasels — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:40:27 +0000

[...] By: The Razor – Likelihood of Success – We’re All Chabadniks Now Share and [...]

By: Ron Coleman

Ron Coleman — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:11:29 +0000

Fern, I am not simplistic, but I am not going to pretend that I am feeling sorrow over the deaths of the Indian victims to the extent that I am about the Jewish victims, as I explained in the very beginning — and look, some people simply will not read or engage the words, they simply want to see what they want in order to make their own point. I don’t apologize for merely admitting what everyone knows is true: We care more about people who are closer to us, whether by nationality, cultural or religious affinity or blood.

Perhaps Xiodong experiences genuine heartrending pain every time an Israeli is blown up on a bus or an American soldier is picked off in Iraq, though. Maybe I’m wrong and humanity is more like him and less like me?

Even then it would really have little to do with the main point of what I wrote here.

By: Fern

Fern — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:54:20 +0000

Xioding–I’m missing your logic. How does expressing sorrow over the tragic death of one couple mean that Ron does not also feel similar sorrow over the deaths of the Indians (and non-Jewish Americans, Israelis and Brits) who also died in this terrorist attack? I don’t know Ron personally, but I am pretty sure he is not as simplistic as you are making him out to be. I am sure he is capable of feeling more than one emotion at a time.

People really can’t wrap their minds around a tragedy like this, and they look for a way to connect on a human level to try and comprehend what exactly just happened. Just because many Jews find such a connection to the Holtzbergs doesn’t mean that we don’t feel compassion for the other people involved.

It’s just like after 9/11, those of us who didn’t live in the areas directly attacked racked our brains for people we knew who did live in those areas so that we could somehow make a connection on a human level to what happened. For weeks conversations centered around a friend who knew someone who was in this building or who was on such and such plane. We couldn’t comprehend 3,000 people being murdered in one fell swoop, but we could comprehend the terror, horror, sorrow, etc that individuals felt. The big picture is often too horrible to understand and impossible for most people to identify with.

By: Fern

Fern — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:36:13 +0000

Ron–It’s too bad that you qualified your statement of solidarity with your dispute over some Chabadnik’s ideology. Otherwise, you expressed a nice sentiment here.

Thanks, Fern. I think it would have been far more “too bad” if I had pretended there was no such thing as reality or that I was either stupid or, I don’t know, brainwashed or something.

I opted for intellectual honesty, which I believed in this case would be particularly appropriate as a backdrop to my expression, not only of sympathy, but admiration. Too bad not everyone gets that.

I guess all of us will decide to utter a negative thought when we think it’s appropriate! — RDC

By: We’re all haredim now — The Kvetcher

We’re all haredim now — The Kvetcher — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:01:22 +0000

[...] today, we are all [...]

By: Brooklyn Rabbi And His Wife Victims In Mumbai |

Brooklyn Rabbi And His Wife Victims In Mumbai | — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:42:09 +0000

[...] Here is a good explanation of what Chabad House is, and what Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were doing for the Jewish community. [...]

By: mordechai850

mordechai850 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:20:05 +0000

I think Ron Coleman’s point was, to focus on one group that some of us can identify with NOT to the exclusion of the tragedy that affected everyone there in Mumbai. I don’t think his piece was exclusionary. For the antisemites that want to pretend that his piece was exclusionary, and ethnocentric to the disregard of fellow humans, you are doing what antisemites always do, disregarding logic, and creating arguments that are hastily pulled out of you know where, with a blatant disregard for the facts. That’s called Propoganda. And it’s the mark of a stupid person.

By: Leveraging terror « Likelihood of Success

Leveraging terror « Likelihood of Success — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:57:06 +0000

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