Golden Calfer of the Year Award 5770 (2009): Richard Silverstein

    Today concluded Yom Kippur-The Day of Atonement in Israel and around the world.  Many people remember Yom Kippur for several historical events.  Firstly, the Yom Kippur War in 1973 marked the beginning of the war of attrition by Arabs against the State of Israel.  However, far fewer people know what happened on Yom Kippur 3321 years ago!  The Yom Kippur of 2449 was the day that Moses returned, the second time, from Mount Sinai*.  His delivery of the second set of tablets to the Jews signaled G-d's forgiveness of their sin of the golden calf.
    This year more or less concludes the first year of the Taming Korach blog.  Each year I hope to highlight one person-one of the mixed multitudes who has accidentally found his way into the Jewish nation.  The Golden Calfer of the Year is that special someone whose "membership" amongst the Jews tortures the rest of us.  After all, it was the incident of the golden calf that prevented the immortality of Israel**.
    It is no surprise to Taming's readership who this year's Golden Calfer of the Year Award goes to-Richard "The Dungeon Master" Silverstein."  Rich has the unique honor of having helped establish this site-a response to Jewish self-hatred and heresy.  I'd like to say thank you to the 5,000 new readers who have visited Taming Korach this year-to each of you a successful year.

Symbol of His Generation
    Why is Richard a shining example of the American Jewish "Baby Boomer" generation?  Rich tells us that he was an undergraduate in college in the 1970's.  He was and is affiliated with the American Conservative Movement.  He studied at Berkeley.  As his blog, Tikkun Olam indicates, he has a vision of "Judaism" that is more about social justice than about Torah.  So what's the difference?  Silverstein has posted numerous times through the years his (and his wife's) adventures to non-kosher restaurants.  About his wedding anniversary he wrote:

My wife discovered a wonderful new Seattle restaurant, Casuelita’s, which features Caribbean cuisine. She introduced me to it for our fifth wedding anniversary and it couldn’t have been a more wonderful anniversary present.

This non-kosher restaurant servers shrimp, pork, and all kinds of sea food (I called them).  Apparently Rich's Tikkun Olam ("Fixing The World" in Hebrew) doesn't extend to eating kosher or advertising kosher restaurants on his "Jewish" blog.  There are many Jews in his demographic who have similar habits-some are featured on my blog, but none are quite as hypocritical as Richard Silverstein.  He writes in a piece on the weekly Torah portion (Ekev):

It contains chilly admonitions to the Israelites about the curses that will befall them if they stray from the path God has chosen.

Well, do those admonitions not include eating non-kosher food and then recommending it around the world on a blog called "Tikkun Olam?"
    For those of you who have looked back on my initial argument's with him, it is readily apparent that Rich doesn't really understand Torah Judaism.  His version of Judaism is social justice, and only social justice.  What does "social justice Judaism" (Tikkun-keit) entail?  Here is Rich's feelings towards Orthodox Jews:

Also, I’ve felt profoundly alienated from Orthodox Jews because of their deep mistrust and intolerance of Jews who are less devout than they.

Let's examine this statement.  Rich is "alienated from Orthodox Jews."  This man has spent the past six or so years advertising non-kosher restaurants, persuading the world that Israel's presence in the West Bank is an "occupation," lashing out at Israeli settlers, condoning Arab violence against Jews, and trying to bring international condemnation upon Israel and his fellow Jews (among other transgressions).  Rich's following statement shows his utter contempt for Torah Jews and his mocking disobedience:

In another incident which would otherwise have been laughable had it not been so shocking, a small rump assembly of Orthodox rabbis excommunicated New Jewish Agenda members from Judaism because we supported gay and abortion rights. Afterward, I jokingly suggested that we start a Spinoza Society for those expelled from Judaism because of their beliefs. The motto I suggested: “Spinoza was right!”

    Richard Silverstein is a sad story from a sad generation.  There are those who realize that the only future of Jews who have replaced Judaism with the religion of social justice is Christianity.  These Jews have championed everyone's cause except their own.  Ironically they simply assimilate into the gentile world where they are finally silenced.  I dub Rich "The Dungeon Master" because he censors whatever information he doesn't like-particularly that which shows him to be a lying, conniving, treacherous, hateful, traitorous snake.  The connection between the social justice paganism that he and so many Jews of his generation advocate and Jewish assimilation into oblivion is a trend he refuses to recognize or even discuss.

Hatred Disguised As Harmony
    As the moderator of a blog that claims to "Make The World A Better Place," Richard Silverstein has a lot of venom to inject into his reader's psyche.  He is a small sample of what he has to say about his fellow Jews:

She’s the Chicken Little of university presidents.

...despite their deranged attitudes toward some of their fellow Jews

Israel never faces any consequences for its odious behavior or policies (like building this reprehensible fence)

Along with increasing successes of the BDS movement and other anti-Occupation activism, Israel’s impunity will end.

I quote long passages from the piece simply because of its undeniable power and the chilling message it presents to anyone who cherishes or values what the State of Israel might stand for if it ever lived up to its original promise to be a ‘light unto the nations.’

Because a brutal, callous and inhumane leader (as Netanyahu was and Sharon is) will show the worst face of Zionism.

If Barack Obama doesn’t maintain the same iron resolve and determination in pursuing his Middle East agenda, then all will be lost.  We must win against these evil people.  If we don’t, then Israel will eventually cease to exist as it currently does.

While it is true that I do not admire many Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law and practice (I am a Conservative Jew by practice), my grudge with such Jews lies in their political beliefs much more than in their religious ones.

Thus, Leviev has become the first financial victim of the BDS movement: the first Israeli company to suffer a substantial hit.  No doubt, he will not be the last.  This puts other Israeli companies which profit from the Occupation on notice that they are vulnerable.

Israel is now the cause of Jew hatred

my favorite quote is:

Why didn’t the good rabbi just close up shop and admit Judaism was irrelevant?

    What causes a person to spend years plotting against his fellow Jews?  Certainly his upbringing in the Conservative Movement has much to do with it.  I recently overheard a "Conservative Rabbi" speaking to a small group of people in Jerusalem as we waited for Shabbat dinner.  He was rattling on about his negative feeling towards the Orthodox establishment:  how they don't accept his "converts," how most Orthodox Jews, in his view, don't care about Jewish law, and how it bothers him that liberal Orthodox Rabbis don't have more authority in the Israeli bureaucracy.  These comments, along with his half-cocked understanding of the Torah, gave me a glimpse into how the conservative movement is "preparing its minnows for manhood."  Some of those minnows become angry confused sharks who spend their life's efforts trying to incriminate other Jews for loving (and following) their own tradition.  In that sense, Rich's teachers, among whom are Joel Roth of the Jewish Theological Seminary, are to blame for creating so many anti-Israel anti-Torah golems in a generation that has lost its connection with its religious heritage. 

Identity Crisis?
    After having sifted through some of Rich's "work," one common theme arose.  Rich's search for social justice, his self-described alienation from Orthodox Judaism, his obsessive liberalism, and his pluralism-and-any-cost politics together with the following statements he has made over the years has made me wonder if Richard Silverstein's war against the world's "right wing" isn't simply an internal war-an identity crisis manifesting itself as a leftist hate blog:

The Palmach boys were beautiful, young and pure.

Because of my alienation, I am somewhat impatient with the slow pace of acceptance of homosexuals within the Conservative movement.

Their sexuality is as loving, as committed and as meaningful as the sexuality of heterosexuals and therefore such homosexuality should be seen in an entirely different light than cultic sex.

You know nothing about homosexuality,...

I don't claim to know where Rich's heart lies, but the statements above along with his disdain for the Torah world and everything it represents certainly provides a clue. 

Conclusions
    It is especially in these past few weeks, and certainly throughout the year that a Jew takes an accounting of the soul.***  If there is someone who has encountered this blog and felt that I have given an unfair critique, I would certainly like to hear from you.  One of the only examples of this kind of accounting I have heared from Rich is:

Is the only way of being a Jew making aliya and studying in a yeshiva?

This shows the resentment and bewilderment of liberal Diaspora Jews towards Israel and Orthodoxy.  It is it Israel's fault for being Israel?  Is it the Torah Jew's fault for struggling with G-d?  Silverstein hasn't spent enough time struggling with himself.  In the following quote, again from his own blog, Richard slings the mud:

Really, Tom, is this the best you can do? It seems that long ago he started phoning it in and this story is a prime example: smug, self-serving, simplistic.

Smug, self-serving, simplistic are self-defining words for the Golden Calfer of the Year.  A one-dimensional virtual demagogue, Richard Silverstein has a single mode-that of a secular European Diaspora Jew.  He understands neither Torah Judaism nor non-Ashkenazi (Sephardic or Mizrachi) Jews.  He doesn't understand the Arabs he claims to champion because they have no idea what "social justice" is, nor would they care if you could manage to explain it to them.  Let's hope this one-note piped piper runs out of breath before he lures more naive people into his vengeful war against Jewish Israel.
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*Rashi Exodus 18:13
**Bavli Avodah Zarah 5a
***חשבון נפש