Dear Stranger:

Are you antisemetic [sic] or just stupid?

WTF? Did you really schedule your School Board debate for the first night of Rosh Hashana? Yup, you did. You must figure that Jews don’t care about education. OK, you can go back to sleep now. Actually, I am hurt and disappointed. Every freaking calander [sic] has the Jewish High Holidays on it. And you guys claim to be hip, multicultural and “aware?” Ha.

Michael Blum

Dear Michael,

To answer your question: both. As a descendant from a huge Jewish family killed in the Holocaust—save for my grandmother and her sister, who was rescued from a concentration camp—and a Catholic mother, I exist in a synergy of guilt. Sin, sanctimony, circumstance, and virtually any suggestion of shortcoming only serves to resonate with my hereditary sense of inadequacy. This manifests in moments of grand stupidity and self-loathing, which, per my genes, must be a form of antisemitism. It’s a closed circuit of self-loathing!

In response to your astute observation—”You must figure that Jews don’t care about education”—when scheduling the event at Town Hall, we did know it was the first day of Rosh Hashana. Conspiring with colleagues Elijah Sanders and David Goldstein, we saw this as an inroad for our imminent War on Hanukkah, and we were redoubled in our chutzpah by the fact that September 28 was the best day for our newspaper’s schedule and for the venue.

Shana Tova!
Dom

36 replies on ““Are You Antisemetic or Just Stupid?””

  1. Dom, as a catholic mom/jewish dad combo myself, I would expect at least an email to the group if you are declaring war on the high holy days.

  9. I am personally offended by SLOG clearly ignoring the High Holy Talk Like A Pirate Day, one of the chief festivals of Pastafarianism.

    Arrr.

  16. Dear Michael Blum,

    You might actually have a point… if they were holding a debate about a private Jewish school. But since the debate is about PUBLIC schools, and that whole separation of church and state thing, then it doesn’t make any fucking difference what religious holiday might be taking place on the same night.

    Thanks for playing.

  17. “Semetic” sounds an unfortunate side effect at the 2010 International Nathan’s Famous Blowjob Races.

    Dan might have to weigh in on whether it’s thus ok to be antisemetic.

  18. You should have scheduled it during the day of Yom Kippur, so the sinful school board incumbents would have to sit for hours pleading to be written into the Book of Life for at least another year.

  20. @16 – Or it shouldn’t, anyway. I can imagine a scenario where racist Christians in charge deliberately schedule an important meeting for a day they know the Jewish community (see what I did there, soggydan? I’m not a racist any more!) would be observing an important holiday. But that’s not to say that’s even remotely what happened here, of course.

  29. @16: I eagerly await The Stranger’s gubernatorial debate on December 25.

    Dom: This new “war on commenters through public humiliation” is really fun. Keep up the solid work, Guilt Boy.

  31. Dear Dom, You are as stupid as you think you are cute. Rather than simply say you fucked up, you mention other Jews. As in, “Some of my best friends?”

    Michael Blum

  32. Blum, I think he also mentioned that he is, too. So, less like, ‘Some of my best friends’, and more like, ‘a number of us who helped plan this thing’. Moreover, I think he explained at the very end how it wasn’t a mistake, just the day which best suited the parties involved.

    It’s cool to see someone who almost completely misses the points being made call someone else stupid, though. Well done, sir.

  33. Well, Post. That someone would knowingly decide to exclude even the marginally observant two-times a year Jews from this event really speaks for itself.

    Michael Blum

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