The Heretic

Though I am not a huge fan of David Simon’s TV series (my tastes are a little more mainstream), his criticisms of Jewish Federations are well founded. Having served on the board of my local federation and Jewish Day School for years, it was obvious to me that the goal of the federation was to compete in the Jewish “marketplace” for dollars and then spend those dollars along carefully crafted lines and politics in order to assure future dollars. An entire generation of “professional Jews” has grown up that makes its living off of Jewish philanthropy and they are not about to jeopardize that typically high income. The federations started out as a way to centralize Jewish fundraising but have devolved into just another group of shnorers at the door (or on the telephone). The most successful Jewish campaigns in recent years have been far more goal-oriented such as Taglit-Birthright or direct gifts to “Jewish” institutions such as nursing homes or synagogues. The reality is that the vast majority of Jewish philanthropy now does not go into the Jewish community and the portion going to Federation will drop significantly with each passing year and generation.

I, too, am a former Jewish communal professional and agree wholeheartedly that the major organizations have lost focus and now seem more concerned with survival than with tikkun olam.

I am troubled by Simon’s presumption and assumption that Jews in any fashion should be “…a light unto the nations.”

Jews are people, no better/no worse and no wiser/no more foolish than others.

Why should Simon or anyone give ourselves airs nor take on obligations which belong to everyone in the world?

Of course if organized Jewry is not doing its just share — which perhaps is all that Simon is saying — then I agree with him entirely.

But to do more? Why cant about “…a light unto the nations?” Why? Why such pride?

P.S. @David Sucher: the phrase “a light unto the nations” doesn’t originate with David Simon; it’s the prophet Isaiah’s coinage, and Jews have aspired to it for nearly 3000 years. You can take issue with it if you want, but in so doing you’re saying that you reject the ethical imperatives of being Jewish as it’s been understood since the origins of the religion and its people….

Nicely explained, M. Brukhes. But please don’t lump Simon in with venerable Jewish cultural icons like Gershwin and Dylan. Television shows loom large in the public consciousness while they’re on the air, but tend to be quickly forgotten, and for good reason. And that pomposity you describe may be characteristic of the prophets, but it’s also endemic to Hollywood, the unmistakeable stamp of which Simon bears, for all his preening.

And to fw: the Wire and Treme “endemic to Hollywod?” if only.

Cory, I was referring to Simon’s bloated opinion of himself, which informs the opinions the dispenses so freely in the article. (Not one of the Freedom Riders? Thanks for clearing that up, David). But so long as you’re discussing Hollywood, among the many strands of its history is a trailblazing concern for civil rights, so I wouldn’t be so dismissive.

Second, the at-best ambivalence he has toward Jews is gratuitous; nothing prevents him from exploring social issues in his work without casual racial slander.

Finally, it points up his responsibilities as someone with access to mass media that some of the children in the community he has chosen to depict have, to their knowledge, never had any encounters with Jews. What message will he be sending them in his work? Is it likely to help mend some of the bitter rifts alluded to in the article. I might have said ‘between blacks and Jews’, but as Denise has pointed out, that is not necessarily a valid distinction.

David Simon (no relation) demonstrates himself here to be utterly ignorant of Judaism, Jewish history and Jewish tradition; spectacularly solipsistic and grandiose in demanding that his fellow Jews become more authentically Jewish by emulating him and sharing his beliefs, opinions and priorities; and completely assimilated into his local Gentile milieu, while claiming deep ties to a Jewish identity that he has in reality thoroughly rejected.

In these respects, of course, he is following a rich and venerable vein of Jewish tradition, one that American Jews as a group seem to be particularly fond of embracing.

I was just driving around Rye, New York with my wife and family. The homes are spectacular, and evidently among the most expensive in the country (#3) according to a Coldwell Banker survey in 2010. Wikipedia has the average family income there at about $130,000, and lists a number of heads of investment banks as residents. I don’t know where you get an ethnic breakdown of incomes–not from tax or real estate info, certainly, but $180K is an off-the-wall average, which I don’t find credible. I’m glad other writers questioned it, and I’d like to know what Simon’s source is.

And let me explain that I believe that to take on such a mantle (special “ethical imperatives”) takes on the sin of pride. And if I believe that if one wants to take on such extra human responsibility, modesty should be the watchword.

(To Tablet editors — it would be nice if you could add an editing function to comments.)

We have a black president. I don’t want to hear about this anymore. BTW, I thought the wire was a great show.

As a local and regional leader of a major Jewish organization, I feel that it is important for all philanthropic organizations to state their missions clearly and to adhere to them faithfully. Fundraising dollars should not be diverted to outside interests. But, in the interest of tikkun olam, local Jewish organizations can and should sponsor events and programs that emphasize good deeds: food drives, clothing drives, meals for the less fortunate, volunteer at local school programs, co-sponsor health issue related programs that with organization dedicated to a particular issue.
It’s important for all us as individuals to assign our charitable giving to a broad range of charities that not only cover Jewish communities, Judaism, and Israel, but also address disadvantaged children, disasters, environment, health issues, etc.

The income disparity of $180,000 to $30,000 annually between Jewish households in the NOLA area and all households was in the Federated’s own GA reported information on their efforts to aid the Jewish community to NOLA. Get it? Those facts were offered by the Federated itself. As was the fact that at the time Simon made his speech, 90 percent of the Jewish community had returned to its homes in the NOLA area. Census figures for the enter area show that overall only 70 percent have returned. Those figures were also provided by the Federated at the time of the GA.

Interesting that when anyone criticizes the established norms or institutions of Jewish communal life, or civic life the only responses — based on these comments at least — is not to directly engage the substance of the critique, but to:

1) Quickly call the critic a liar and immediately deny any facts cited, even if those facts can be sourced to Jewish organizations themselves.
2) Resort to ad hominem arguments against the critic — he’s arrogant, self-important, is a Hollywood hack, has daddy issues, etc. Simon may be a sonofabitch. He probably kicks dogs and small children. He may even drink the blood of Jewish babies in secret. But proving such won’t mean much to refuting or countering the content of his critique. When criticism goes at the man and not his argument, it is usually because the critic is unprepared to address the argument itself directly.

Denial — and instantaneous denial at that — has become the natural state of American Jewry when it comes to any critique of its civic stances, its priorities, its charitable reach. This response in itself is telling for a people whose heritage was once moral iconoclasm and the tolerance and cultivation of dissent.

…moreover, it’s entirely characteristic of those who would cover themselves in the mantle of the prophet not only to depict their own achievements in outsized terms–’well, I’m not a Freedom Rider, but….’–but also to denigrate the moral stature and deeds of their peers to burnish that image of singular bravery and insight. And that tactic is so incredibly pervasive among Jewish, self-styled moral scolds.

So is the threat–if Jews don’t do so and so, then so and so is going to happen. In Peter Beinart’s case, we’re going to abandon Israel. In Simon’s case, ‘younger more secular Jews’ are going to abandon Judaism and ‘go right to the problem.’ First, ‘younger’? Compared to his dad, I guess. Second, the Jews abandoning Judaism will, I suppose, be the ones who aren’t currently working in education, medicine, government, and social work, for starters. Television executives, I guess.

Yeah, we ossified illiberal Jews, the ones who came out in force to support Obama in greater numbers than any other ethnic group, other than African-Americans, who as a group Obama himself has described as instrumental to his being elected. Apparently, we just don’t measure up to other religions, like Catholicism, according to Simon.

If you’re going to reproach us Jews, facts guy, why don’t you try something other than gale-force bloviation, and tell Simon to do the same.

If the statement “The income disparity of $180,000 to $30,000 annually between Jewish households in the NOLA area and all households was in the Federated’s own GA reported information on their efforts to aid the Jewish community to NOLA.” is true, then the Federated’s own GA made up this number out of thin air. None of my wife’s more than 70 relatives all over New Orleans were ever asked to supply information on their income to anybody other than the taxing authorities. And the taxing authorities never ask for people’s religious and ethnic background. The question therefore remains, where did the Federated’s own GA get this number?

Simon is being way too hard on Jewish organizations, whose resources are finite and who by their very nature should put the Jewish community first.

I contribute money to hunger organizations and to the Red Cross, in the hope that it will help alleviate suffering. Similarly, I give money to Jewish organizations in the hope that it will further Jewish interests.

To ask Jewish organizations to address a bottomless well of worldy despair is asking too much. Perhaps he should ask his Hollywood brethren (and their immeasurable resources) to pick up the banner instead?

The Wire is the best television show I have ever seen in my life. It is on par with Dickens but in a televised format. There is nothing like it, and unfortunately in the profit-driven world of massmarketed television there won’t be anything like it again. If you want to look at the underbelly of the American dream watch this show. It is brutally honest (which is why it never one a single critical award).

No he isn’t a civil-rights hero, but he’s a man who doesn’t give a crap about what anyone thinks and has decided to take the depressing story of a once great city and turn it into accesible and beautiful art. What he lacks in tact he has in moral clarity. Sounds like a Jew to me.

To those of you who see Simon as some corrupt pretentious Hollywood lackey, I can only shake my head at how incredibly off you are. A muckraker journalist turned muckraker television producer, Simon doesn’t suck up to the morally corrupt bozos in Hollywood. Why should he give contemporary Jewry a free-pass?

To fw: you seem to be fully in the fray on this discussion! I can only add to what others have already commented about the distinction between David Simon as a television producer (auteur) and the more canonical/venerable figures I equated him with in my first posting: although you’re correct that most television shows are ephemeral, disposable commodities, the great exception to this rule is Simon’s “The Wire.” It’s telling that the best realist novel of the 21st century is a television series, but there’s nothing else I’ve ever seen/read/experienced that better captures the social sweep and the political significance of private relationships than “The Wire.” It’s Tolstoy, Balzac, and Zola all-in-one, and all in contemporary Baltimore (where I happen to live…). As Simon himself says, nothing better has “captured the Dickensian element” of contemporary American culture….

Moreover, all the other figures I compared Simon with–Gershwin, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, etc–were also working with disposable, ephemeral popular mediums which they themselves, almost singlehandedly, transformed into enduring works of art. Simon has done the same with television drama. Mark my words!!

In response to “fact wise”, I repeat, the figure of 180,000 dollars family income in New Orleans. Is pure fiction. The Federation’s own newspaper in Greater New Orleans. In it’s March/11 edition gave the Jewish household income as being 120,000 dollars/yr.
The closest I could come to obtaining a figure of 180,000 dollars is by using the federal census figure for ONE specific ZIP code tract in New York City populated by the city’s wealthiest Jews. The average individual income for that ZIP code was 90,000 dollars/ yr. In 2006.
Mr, Simon has obviously just doubled the New York figure to make it a family figure and decided that it would apply to New Orleans as well.
So again, where did this supposed 180,000 New Orkeans figure come from when their own newspaper this year said 120,000, a far more reasonable HOUSEHOLD number.

Mr. Simon seems to have directed his ire at the wrong community. Jews do not need anyone to prove their bonafides as offering extraordinary support to the downtrodden and poor regardless of race or faith.
It is also well known that Jews set up their own ethnic charitable and service organizations primarily to help their fellow Jews improve their economic and social conditions since few non-Jews were available to offer any assistance.
Today there is a rich and influential black community growing rapidly in America who can use the experience of the Jewish community as a matrix for helping those of their race stuck in poverty and abandoned in urban ghettos.
It is to this community that Mr. Simon should direct his criticism instead of using a brickbat to insult his own ethnic compatriots. His political correctness is typical of people in the entertainment business and is often wrongheaded,inaccurate and disgustingly sanctimonious.

We do need editable comment fields or previews. In my previous comment the sentence:

“But for me the important question for Jews today is: do we channel that response towards separating ourselves from the suffering of others or towards caring and acting about all beings?”

should read: “But for me the important question for Jews today is: do we channel that response towards separating ourselves from the suffering of others or towards caring about and acting for the good all beings?

Let’s be clear about what David Simon said and didn’t say: his comments were about the Federations ONLY, not Jewish groups and Jewish people in general who, he rightly notes, do a lot of work in urban areas.

This IS about Federations, people, and the smug, insular, circle-jerks they have become. Anyone who has any passing familiarity with Jewish philanthropy knows this is clearly the case. To be sure, some Federations do good work and, of course, the primary goal of a Federation should be Jewish continuity…But, the amount of money that is raised and given annually to outdated, outmoded, and ineffective organizations, run by Jewish industry lifers, is simply stunning.

If, perhaps, Federations expanded their missions a bit on a day-to-day basis (not just after global disasters), perhaps they wouldn’t be losing young Jewish givers so rapidly. That, perhaps, if they made a conscious effort, to be fully part of their metropolitan areas on a consistent financial basis, that, in fact, they would raise MORE money from young Jews instead of being seen as out-of-touch bastions of old money…

Again, people, this is about Federations and organized Jewish philanthropy. Take a look at the first few comments. They know the deal….As do I.

Kaithxbai.

“You can hold back from the suffering of the world. It is your right and it is in accordance with your nature, but perhaps this holding back is the one suffering you could have avoided.”

Franz Kafka, quoted in “The Wire”

What would the great Jewish humanists such as Isaac Luria or Martin Buber think of our ethical heritage reading many of these comments. No longer tikkun olam. No longer fixing the world. Just selfishness and self-justification, with a dollop of self-righteousness thrown on top. There are many individual Jews who carry on the great traditions of philantrophy and tzadukeh in and outside of their community; there are many who extend themselves. And many more who see nothing beyond the tribal.

Dan Simon, you personal attack on David Simon is despicable, as is your use of overblown verbiage. As a former Federation professional, I left Jewish communal work when I saw the balance of my Federation’s concern tip heavily in favor of parochialism and insularity. Today, synagogues and smaller Jewish agencies carry on with demonstrating the best in Jewish values. Federations have become mostly a shell organization, consumed with raising money, while providing very little moral leadership or courage in addressing important social and economic issues that weigh on most Jews, as well as non-Jews.

This in effect is saying: “Take up the White Man’s burden…”. Do you have any idea how patronising this is?

Of course Jews donate to causes that cover human rights, homelessness, Katrina’s aftermath, civil rights, women’s rights, Darfur, Democratic and Republican parties, hunger here and abroad, and even animal rights.

I don’t have much money, but I spread out what I have to many different organizations and causes. The money I donate to Jewish causes, I want to be used for that purpose because practically no one except Jews cares about Jewish issues. Non-Jews talk about Jews and Israel—they don’t finance our charities.

Many people, including Jews, care about world issues.

I’m heartened to see recent comments supporting Simon’s challenge to the Federations. I too have had experience in that world, in a Jewish arts organization that has sometimes been funded by a JFed. It’s clearly time for some deep reflection on the mission(s) and practices of these complex institutions and their relationship to all the communities they’re involved with, within and outside the Jewish ones, which themselves are much more diverse than is sometimes understood.

Funny. Coming from a non-American background, if my Jewish community was giving lots of money to non-Jewish causes, it would cause an uproar among the Jews. And rightly so. Nobody helps the Jews but the Jews. Let the goyim help themselves, they are only 7 billions of them.
We really have other things to do than helping the people that all the world is already helping.

To Bennett–you call it ethnocentrism, I call it self-respect.

If you think the Jewish community in New Orleans needs more help than the Black community or that it does not matter, because Jews should only be concerned about the welfare of other Jews, shame on you.

I have alot more in common with broad minded non-Jews than narrow minded Jews.

Thankfully we progressive Jews can support organizations like the Jewish Funds for Justice and the American Jewish World Service that take the humanistic approach.

@ Forest “If the Jews don’t defend themselves no one else will do it for them.” Ever hear of Raoul Wallenberg, or other “Righteous Gentiles?” Having produced theatre and radio on the subject of Black-Jewish relations in the US, I know something of the long and complex history involved. For now, I’ll just say, check out Dr. Cornel West for an example of an African-American public intellectual who is able to be critical of the current Israeli government and its atavistic, short-sighted, destructive policies while still defending the Jewish State and respecting and admiring Jewish tradition, spirituality and social engagement.

The planet is far too small these days to hold to a fortress mentality. No people is ever going to be secure from threats of racism, aggressive nationalism and violence unless *all* people are.

Dear Bennett,

“I have alot more in common with broad minded non-Jews than narrow minded Jews.”

Yes you are so enlighted and superior. We all know how the only thing that really interest the liberals is to feel morally right and superior to other “bad” “narrow-minded” people. You don’t care about the reality, just your feelings.

The thing is, the Jews are a small persecuted and hated people with a lot of problems. I think it is morally wrong to go help other people when your own people have problems. Help your people first and also other people but later and /or with more limited means. If not, well, you can claim all you want you are a Jew but your acts prove you are not.

Have you spent any time in West Baltimore lately? Or in East St. Louis? Or North Philadelphia.

If indeed, the black community hasn’t asked any outside community for any help, it surely hasn’t managed on its own, with its own resources, to address the horror show of those left behind in America’s inner cities, utterly divorced as they are from the American economy, from the national political discussion and from their fellow Americans. The black middle class has walked away from the urban poor with as much speed and indifference as the rest of the country.

If Simon or others argue that those with more should address themselves to those with less in this society, how does that differ from any empathetic or charitable impulse. Simon is saying that the Jewish mind and Jewish humanism call for charity not only to Jews, but to those in the most need. Tikkun olam, or “fix the world” as he references. Why do you assume that he thinks Jews owe blacks — as a matter of race — anything. He’s not arguing that race requires empathy. Poverty does. And economic neglect does. And a rate of violence unseen in any other developed nation. And a rate of incarceration unseen in any other nation on the face of the globe.

Why do you reduce basic empathy and an argument for charity to race? The poor in America’s cities — where the rate of violence, unemployment, undereducation and incarceration is profound — are more often black and brown. That’s not the point. The point is they are poor and isolated and that a society is judged on how they address their most vulnerable and desperate citizens.

This isn’t about race. It’s about class. It’s about affluence and poverty and the ideal of a shared national future. Get past the simplicity of race, or religion.

Don’t you just love commentary threads!
To my alter ego, why does the black community, as opposed to any other, need special help from Jews or anyone else? My own famliy was quite happy to get out of the South, and then the ghetto as soon as possible. Were my Grands supossed to sacrifice themselves to some fantasy of racial solidarity? And how far does that go? Am I now to give up the life I have here to find some way to end the war in the Congo for the same reason? Maybe Bob Marley would have written a song on the subject. However, I “reduced” the argument to one of race because that was the basis of the argument, and I didn’t want “my beloved brothers and sisters” to mistake me for some Jackson city honky redneck. And if we’re talking about “class”, why hang the Holocaust label on race, that’s just shifting to the other foot.
No, I’ve never been to the neighborhoods mentioned by Corey, but I have been to their equivalents in NYC, even working and living in them over various times in my life. To my eye the amount and result of volunterism for the people’s fate was palpable. And to me that smarmy phrase of Brother West’s is just part of his flow. Some other things I mentioned seem to have just been passed over. Hmmmm….

There is no doubt that organized Jewry has moved away from supporting progressive social justice. We were the leaders of the civil rights movement, organized labor, the feminist revolution. Today, we may be involved in good causes, but as individuals and not as Jews. The JCPA (the social action arm of the Federation system) did not even take a stand on the Wisconsin union battle. The AJC, the oldest human and civil rights organization, that used to be a the forefront of progressive change was silent on the healthcare debate. The question is: WHY? We still vote liberal. Why have we lost our activist impulses? Could it be that the Orthodox community has dominated more and more of our institutional leadership and they are usually less interested in gun control, separation of church and state, reproductive freedom, etc.? Just a thought….

So now “liberal” = “Marxist”? This thread has really devolved into ignorant name-calling. To say as does benj that “the more a Jew is close (sic) to his (sic) tradition and culture…” implies that Jewish tradition and culture is monolithic and homogenous. Truth is there are Jewish traditions of authoritarianism and others of democratic and progressive communitarianism.; of secularism and theocracy; of radical antinomian “heresy” and rigid hierarchy. When it comes to politics, esthetics, languages and belief systems, you name it, we got it. My bubbie was a proud Jewish socialist from Odessa who saw no difference between the oppressive tsarist regime that fomented the pogroms that nearly killed her and the oppressive Soviet ones that followed. In America, she campaigned for Eugene Debs and homesteaded in Wyoming. She was as close to her particular Jewish tradition and culture as any Hasid might be to his. The wonder of being a Jew in the 21st century CE is the unprecedented access we have to the inexhaustibly rich, multiple varieties of Jewishness. The “fact” is that Jewish identity is not confined to belief in any religious dogma, nor, since the 19th c. has it depended on Halakhic observance. Many American Jews like me were raised in a tradition of secular Jewish progressivism whose roots are found in the Yiddish awakening in mid-19th c. E. Europe. I’d not argue that this is the only Jewish tradition or that neo-con Jews or orthodox Mizrachi Jews or secular Israelis or Falashas or even Karaites are any less Jewish because they identify as Jews in very different ways than I do. We are a crazy tapestry that’s been woven from the threads of our uncountable historical experiences. Moreover, it’s a work in progress. The weaving continues.
You name it

Just to let you know, Jews have secret meetings where we tell our children not to shoot each other.

And African Americans are always saying, ” I wish more Jews would come to my house and tell me how to live”.

Thank you Theodore! There’s a nearly forgotten history of pre-nationalistic cultural Zionism (I wish I knew more about it myself) that thinkers like Martin Buber were part of. As far as I know, they were among the early 20th C. immigrants to the Land, believed in sharing it with other residents and had no interest in replicating what they saw as problematic in the concept of the modern nation-state. Cultural isolation was not one of their values. Maybe their story is due for retelling.

I find this whole discussion fascinating. I, too, am African American. I worked one summer at the Anti-Defamation League – plenty of nice folks who work there. I was always struck, however, that they never spoke up about causes for non-Jews. (It doesn’t cost any money to say, “Hey, that sucks!”) And I have always been equally disappointed that Black organizations never came to the defense of Jews. I mean, where is Al Sharpton when issues of anti-Semitism pop up? I am deeply Christian (not evangelical, however) and I do believe in the God of Abraham. And I’d like to think that Jewish community (and every community, for that matter) can do more to help other children of God.

I am impressed with the sheer brilliance of David Simon (and some of you people as well). I hope these types of dialogues help elevate the type of relationships we have with one another. I think David Simon made an interesting point about how his Holocaust reference does more to unite than divide. As a gentile, I definitely endorse that statement.

God be with you all.