This is the Intro to Yuri Slezkine’s “The Jewish Century”

I just found it to be a compelling observation.

The Modern Age is the Jewish Age, and the twentieth century, in particular is the Jewish Century.  Modernization is about everyone becoming urban, mobile, literate, articulate, intellectually intricate, physically fastidious, and occupationally flexible.  It is about learning how to cultivate people and symbols, not fields and herds.  It is about pursuing wealth for the sake of learning, learning for the sake of wealth, and both wealth and learning for their own sake.  It is about transforming peasants and princes into merchants and priests, replacing inherited privilege with acquired prestige, and dismantling social estates for the benefit of individuals, nuclear families, and book-reading tribes (nations).  Modernization, in other words is about everyone becoming Jewish.

Some peasants and princes have done better than others, but no one is better at being Jewish than the Jews themselves.  In the age of capital, they are the most creative entrepreneurs; in the age of alienation, they are the most experienced exiles; and in the age of expertise, they are the most proficient professionals.  Some of the oldest Jewish specialties-commerce, law, medicine, textual interpretation, and cultural medication-have become the most fundamental (and the most Jewish) of all modern pursuits.  It is by being exemplary ancients that the Jews have become model moderns.

The principal religion of the Modern Age is nationalism, a faith that represents the new society as the old community and allows newly urbanized princes and peasants to feel at home abroad.  Every state must be a tribe; every tribe must have a state.  Every land is promised, every language Adamic, every capital Jerusalem, and every people chosen (and ancient).  The Age of Nationalism, in other words, is about every nation becoming Jewish.

In nineteenth-century Europe (the birthplace of the Age of Nationalism), the greatest exception was Jews themselves.  The most successful of all modern tribes, they were also the most vulnerable.  The greatest beneficiaries of the Age of Capitalism, they would become the greatest victims of the Age of Nationalism.  More desperate than any other European nation for state protection, they were the least likely to receive it because no European nation-state could possibly claim to be the embodiment of the Jewish nation.  Most European nation-states, in other words, contained citizens who combined spectacular success with irredeemable tribal foreignness.  The Jewish age was also the Age of anti-Semitism.

“Despite their secularism, Jews may be the most religious ethnic group in the world. The problem is that their religion is rarely Judaism; rather it is every  ”ism” of the left. .. It is therefore usually as hard to shake a liberal Jew’s belief in the Left and in the Democratic Party as it is to shake an evangelical Christian’s belief in Christianity.  The big difference, however, is that the Christian believer acknowledges his Christianity is a belief, whereas a believer in liberalism views his belief as entirely the product of rational inquiry.”

Dennis Prager as quoted in Why Are Jews Liberals? By Norman Podhoretz

HKO comments: Poderhoretz makes a grand attempt to explain why Jews are Liberal. Most of the book deals with their history that both made them sympathetic to the downtrodden and in direct conflict with the conservatism of the established orders. But that explanation still left Podhoretz wondering why they were so reluctant to acknowledge the development of increasing anti-Semitism on the left and greater sympathy and support for Israel on the right. Even when Jews acknowledge the drifts toward anti-Semitism on the left they remain resistant to acknowledge the changes in the right that have become more accepting of the Jews and more outright supportive of the State of Israel.

A17 year old Orthodox Jewish boy was ‘wrapping tefillin’ on a flight from New York to Louisville. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia because the pilot was concerned about some strange boxes that a passenger was strapping to his arm and his head. Read the news story here.

Tefillin are also known as phylacteries and are ritual prayer objects. The origin  is ancient from Deuteronomy, “”And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a frontlet between your eyes.”

The text inside the two boxes of Tefillin is hand-written by a scribe, and consists of the four sets of biblical verses in which Tefillin are commanded (Exodus 13:1-10, 11-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21). The text inside the Tefillin is hand-written and hand-crafted. A set of Tefillin is relatively expensive, and a well-made pair costs several hundred dollars.  (Info from Jewish Virtual Library)

The boxes are held in place on the arm and on the forehead with leather straps wrapped in a specific ritual manner. It must look strange to a non Jew, especially on a domestic flight.

This is a ritual that only the more observant and orthodox Jews regularly observe, and most of them either ‘wrap tefillin in private or in the synagogue or temple. This is not such a common custom that even an educated non Jew would expect to see on a plane.  It is certainly understandable that one unfamiliar with this unique ritual would have seen this as unusual and been alarmed.

The passenger meant no harm and was released.  On my first trip to Israel on El Al there were a handful of orthodox Jews in the back of the plane with tefillin and prayer books praying at sun up, when the ritual prayers wearing the tefillin are said. This young Jew was doing the same.

The funniest line to me in the play The Annual Putnam County  Spelling Bee was when the word ‘phylacteries’ was given. When asked to use the word in a sentence the word caller said, “Michael, put down those phylacteries, we’re Episcopalians.”

Now you have one less fear when you fly.  Perhaps my fellow Yids should consider how their practice can affect other flyers in the paranoid age we live in. I would encourage participants to inform the attendant in advance.

In a footnote in his new book “Saving Israel” author Daniel Gordis notes why he uses the word “Shoah” as opposed to the more common “Holocaust.”

In Hebrew “Shoah” means “calamity”. “Holocaust” is an English word that means “burnt offering” or “sacrifice of God”. The Jews of Europe were not sacrificed, they were murdered; there is big difference.

It seems Jews take their words seriously.

The local federation hosted Micah Halpern this evening at the Cox Theatre.  He is an authority on Iran and their nuclear effort.

A few random yet relevant points.

There are 3,000 FBI agents. None of them have passed the test to speak or understand Persian, the language of Iran.  Only a few dozen can speak Arabic. Translation is jobbed off to Israel.  We must job to a third party to translate the language of our biggest security threat.

The Iranians know us far far better than we know them. See above. They are much better at playing the international chess game than we are.

The Iranians have more Phd’s per capita that any country besides the US, Israel and maybe India.  Most are educated in European universities.

Natan Sharansky is a world class champion chess player, and keeps a continuous game with Kasperov.

Unlike Iraq in 1981 with a single nuclear plant above ground, Iran has at least 38 sites and many below ground.

Iran has a space program and has developed rockets to propel satellites into space. This same rocket technology can carry nuclear warheads and their satellites are critical to guide their rockets to assure accuracy. Their space program is not subject to inspection by the nuclear verification agencies.  Other components of their program sucha as triggers are also exempt.

We have no power over Iran. If we are to have any influence it must come though a third party, most likely China, which has a $100 billion dollar oil deal with them. Unfortunately we have been and are bungling our Chinese diplomatic realtionship.  We need a strong relationship with China to have any influence over Iran.

Iran’s diplomatic relationship with Venezuela is based totally on a common hatred of the U.S.

Iran will likely succeed in developing their nuclear weapons.

Read Micah  Halpern at The Micah Report . (now on recommended sites)