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July 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Duty to save gullible from themselves?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Islamists have the West just where they want us

JWisdom:: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 3: The Fully Loaded Human Being by Rabbi Dovid Gross

July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

JWisdom:: The Moses Method by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Nov. 15, 2007 / 5 Kislev 5768

How racial news became a new show biz

By Clarence Page


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Just as Don Imus gains a new show, Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman finds himself in danger of losing his.


That's just some of the latest news from what appears to be a vigorously growing arm of the entertainment industry, the racial etiquette beat.


Imus, as just about everyone on the planet knows, lost his CBS Radio and MSNBC simulcast earlier this year. He casually referred to Rutgers University's women's basketball team as "nappy headed hos." Months later, Citadel Broadcasting's radio outlet WABC New York has signed him up for a new show scheduled to debut on Dec. 3.


That's show biz. For shock jocks, an edgy, in-yo'-face brand of broadcasting that Imus helped to pioneer, getting fired from time to time only enhances one's street cred.


No so for the Dog. A&E suspended production on Chapman's popular "Dog the Bounty Hunter" pseudo-documentary series after his son Tucker sold an embarrassing tape of his dad on the telephone to the National Enquirer for cash. Ah, kids.


Chapman can be heard on the tape urging his son, Tucker, to end his relationship with his black girlfriend, Monique Shinnery. The professional bounty hunter can be heard referring to her as a "whore" and with the N-word accompanied by a modifying verb that is inappropriate for family newspapers.


With his TV future hanging in the balance, Dog embarked on what has now become a familiar ritual for Imus, Michael "Kramer" Richards, Doug "Greaseman" Tracht and other celebrities who find themselves in trouble for racial offenses: He contacted the Rev. Al Sharpton, whom celebrity spin doctors must have on speed-dial these days, right next to the Rev. Jesse Jackson.


Like other TV game shows, the game of "gotcha" to snare celebrities who say something offensive about women or minorities seems to be a growth industry. It is a peculiar sign of America's progress with race relations that today's racial news is so deeply dominated by issues that concern civil rights or racial justice less than they are arguments about etiquette.


This is an age, for example, in which Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware finds himself in the national doghouse for referring to his fellow Democratic hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, as "clean" and "articulate." The old etiquette might have let the remarks pass as naive condescension by someone who obviously meant well. With today's etiquette, Biden's campaign was viewed widely as sunk before it hardly set sail.


As Aldous Huxley wrote in "Brave New World Revisited," his non-fiction sequel to his classic futuristic novel, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are always on alert against tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions."


As a result, the social critic Neil Postman wrote in his 1985 book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death," we have allowed sports, the news, politics, religion and education become "congenial adjuncts" of the entertainment industry. Today we appear to have added race relations to that list.


As a result we take attention away from other urgent stories that unfortunately cannot be argued as easily or amusingly as Hollywood gossip can.


Compare, for example, the gravity of Dog the Bounty Hunter's vulgarities with that of another breaking news development: A major new study of some 2,300 families finds that, since the civil rights reforms of the 1960s, the nation's income gap between blacks and whites has grown.


According to the study, which was funded and managed by the Pew Charitable Trusts, incomes have increased over the past 30 years among both black and white families, mainly because more women are in the work force. But the increase was greater among whites. One reason for the growing gap: Incomes among black men have actually declined in the past three decades, when adjusted for inflation. They were offset only by gains among black women.


Whether you come at these findings from the political right, the left or the wobbly moderate middle, they call for serious discussion and, one hopes, action. Unfortunately the nation's airtime and talk time is more likely to be taken up with arguments about racial etiquette and which celebrity is the latest to break the rules.


I used to think Americans didn't talk enough about race. I now realize that Americans are delighted to talk about race, if it means they don't have to talk about class. Income inequality isn't as much fun. It's only more important.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

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