The other day, the Helena Independent Record published a syndicated column by Mona Charen, titled "Jews are Useful Idiots."
The thrust of the column was a criticism of recent political positions taken by the Union for Reform Judaism. While I may have more to say on the movements stands later, that column went really beyond the pale. It decried Reform Judaism as a movement, and categorized its members as "arrogant," "obtuse," "pompous," "chumps" and "leftists."
I have never read Charen before. However, I don't like being called a useful idiot. I would ask the IR to stop publishing this columnist. Replace her with someone with the same political ideology, but hopefully with someone who will paint with a much narrower brush.
In any case, I would like to thank a few people for attracting attention to this column. The first is Rabbi Allen Secher, for writing a very reasoned response, which was published in today's IR. The second is David Sirota, who has been organizing a response to this column among the Jewish Communities in Montana. The third is Matt Singer, who wrote about the issue this morning.
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2 comments:
I actual enjoy Charen's writing, although I did not read the piece you are referring to here. I would disagree that any media outlet should be pressured to drop a columnist because I don't like him or her. A local attorney recently argued that Thomas Sowell should be dropped by the Tribune, and I really enjoy Sowell.
The "useful idiots" moniker is a reference to her book by the same name.
By the way, I believe she's a Jewish woman.
She is most definitely Jewish. She was reacting to the overwhelming Liberal political sensibilities of American Jews which blind them to the very real dangers facing Americans and Jews alike.
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