Weekly Quiz 2022
Kanye
Kanye West, also known as Ye, has generated much controversy over his antisemitic remarks (among other things). As far back as 2013 he stated that Jews are more well-connected than Black people, giving them an unfair advantage. He also criticized Jared Kushner for his efforts to improve relations between Israel and Arab nations, saying that Kushner was driven by greed. And he stated that “I prefer my kids knew Hanukkah than Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering.” He has frequently referenced Jewish control of the media, including his recent response to rapper Sean Combs, who had asked Kanye not to continue wearing a White Lives Matter shirt. Kanye said, “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.” And last week, Kanye went to Mar-a-Lago to have lunch with Donald Trump, bringing with him Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist Holocaust denier. When Kanye recently tweeted that “I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” his Twitter account was restricted and the tweet was deleted. Following Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, Kanye returned to that platform with a tweet that read “Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked.” He followed that with what tweet?
Kanye West at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A. I asked Trump to be my VP. Changing my mind. Elon-you’re my guy.
B. Special thanks to Kyrie and Chapelle for taking the attention off of me.
C. Yes, America. I’m back. Thanks, Elon, for taking Twitter out of the hands of the Jewish media.
D. Wow. I brought a white supremacist to lunch with Trump. Is there nothing I can’t do?
E. Shalom : )
Mordecai Manuel Noah
The city of Buffalo, New York was buried under record snowfall this past week, with some areas receiving more than 6 feet of snow. The first Jew known to reside in the Buffalo area was Captain Mordecai Myers, who was stationed at the Williamsville cantonment during the War of 1812. The Jewish population grew through the 1800’s, with the first synagogue established in 1847. There are presently more than a dozen synagogues serving the Jewish population of approximately 12,000. The most famous member of the Jewish community was Mordecai Manuel Noah, who purchased land at Grand Island in the Niagara River to establish a Jewish homeland, one of the earliest Zionist endeavors. On September 2, 1825, Noah led a procession of Masons, militia members, municipal leaders, Seneca Chief Red Jacket, thousands of Christians, and a few Jews, to a ceremony at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church where he presented a cornerstone declaring “ARARAT, A City of Refuge for the Jews, Founded by Mordecai Manuel Noah in the month of Tizri 5586, Sept. 1825 and in the 50th Year of American Independence.” Noah called on every Jew in the world to be taxed “three sheckels of silver” to support the government of the Jewish Nation. His plan failed to attract any interest in the Jewish world, however, and the cornerstone now sits in the Buffalo Historical Society. Noah went on to great success in a very varied career–he served as a sheriff in New York, was a founder of New York University, wrote plays, was behind the establishment of New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital, published the Sunday Times and other newspapers, was a leader of the Tammany Hall political machine, and more. What else is Mordecai Manuel Noah known for?
Mordecai Manuel Noah is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A. Noah was one of the founders, in 1845, of Temple Emanu-El on the Lower East Side of New York. Though Noah was not an ordained rabbi, he served as the congregation’s religious leader for its first 5 years until the congregation expanded and hired its first rabbi, Leo Merzbacher, in 1850.
B. Noah was a prominent abolitionist, saying of slavery, “How can Americans be engaged in this traffic [the slave trade], men whose birthright is liberty, whose eminent peculiarity is freedom?”
C. Noah wrote a book entitled Ararat and the Jewish Enterprise, where he continued to advocate for a Jewish homeland despite the failure of his efforts on the island near Buffalo. His book was a primary inspiration to Theodor Herzl, who spoke about it in great detail at the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897.
D. Noah wrote critical reviews of the plays and performers at New York’s African Grove Theatre, a theater whose company and crew were all Black. Noah demeaned the actors in racist terms and questioned their intelligence, as evidenced by the following quote: “People of colour generally are very imitative, quick in their conceptions and rapid in execution; but it is in the lighter pursuits requiring no intensity of thought or depth of reflection.”
E. Noah established the first kosher slaughterhouse in Buffalo, which specialized in the kosher slaughtering of buffalo, and he owned a kosher deli specializing in kosher Buffalo wings.
Mort Klein
Donald Trump was honored last week by the ZOA, which bestowed upon him the prestigious Theodor Herzl Medal, an award that has previously been given to Lord Balfour, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, and Menachem Begin. ZOA’s announcement of the award, which is only rarely given out, noted Trump’s strong support of Israel, including the moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem, the cutting of funding to Palestinians, and the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. In his remarks, Trump said that the United States and Israel are “allies morally, culturally and spiritually and we always will be, at least if I have anything to do about it.” He also noted that “When you see all of the horrible things that have taken place with Biden and Barack Hussein Obama and then they get 75% of the [Jewish] vote. What the hell is going on here?” ZOA president Mort Klein spoke at the event, remarking that “The Torah promises that Israel is the Jewish homeland, and will always be the Jewish homeland. Unlike politicians, except President Trump, God keeps his promises.” In addition to this strange statement comparing God’s trustworthiness to Trump’s, what other noteworthy comments has Klein made in the past?
Morton Klein by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
A. In support of rapper Ice Cube against charges of antisemitism, Klein tweeted, “I, Mort Klein, just had a 2 hour conversation with Ice Cube. We both grew up poor in Black hoods. Cube told me he thanked Jews for starting NAACP, many Black schools&fighting for Black civil rights.”
B. Commenting on the joyous style of celebration displayed by the Chassidic community, Klein referenced a family wedding he had attended, where the Chassidic guests danced with great exuberance, putting the rest of the celebrants to shame. “They were dancing up a storm, these guys. I thought they were black. Instead they’re just black-hat.”
C. In response to a reporter’s question about Klein’s stereotypical remark about Black people being good dancers, Klein defended himself to the reporter, saying “What are you, stupid? What are you, stupid? Each different peoples have different talents that everyone knows. And everyone knows that blacks are, on average, are better dancers than other people.”
D. Defending himself against charges that he has made racist remarks, Klein explained that “If one mentions a positive trait about an identifiable group it can never be called racism.” He then added, “I don’t even think about difference in colors. Except I recognize that whites cannot compete with blacks in basketball.”
E. In response to questions about his past comments which many have seen as insensitive at best and racist at worst, Klein stated, “What was I thinking? I’m ashamed of my past comments, I disavow them all, and I have some serious t’shuvah to undertake.”
Theater Controversy
Theater productions have led to criticism and protest from the Jewish community for centuries, going back at least to Shakespeare’s portrayal of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in The Merchant of Venice. But the Jewish contribution to the theater world has been significant, especially in musical theater, which has been dominated by such lyricists and composers as Oscar Hammerstein II, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerry Herman, Alan Menken, and Stephen Sondheim. And Fiddler on the Roof, the story of Tevye the milkman and his family’s and community’s attempts to maintain their Jewish ways in Czarist Russia is one of the most widely produced musical theater productions of all. Meanwhile, last year in London, the Royal Court Theatre apologized following criticism of their production of Rare Earth Mettle, a show about a billionaire who was attempting to monopolize the earth’s resources. The character’s original name was Hershel Fink, but after complaints that this was an antisemitic stereotype, the character’s name was changed to Henry Finn. And last month in London, The Icarus Theatre Collective canceled a planned production of a show because of criticism from the Jewish community. What was the controversy about?
Shylock (Twelve Characters from Shakespeare) is in the public domain, under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) via Wikimedia Commons
A. The Icarus Theatre Collective was preparing a version of West Side Story where instead of a romantic relationship between the Italian Tony and the Puerto Rican Maria, the ill-fated relationship would be between Leora, an Israeli girl, and a Palestinian boy, Asif. Though the producers of the show reached out to local Israeli and Palestinian community members for their input and support as they developed the show, a critical article appeared in a local Jewish newspaper which provoked protests, and that was followed by protests from the local Muslim community as well. Producers shelved the production out of fear for the safety of the actors and employees of the theater.
B. The company had planned to produce a version of Romeo and Juliet where the Montagues were Nazis, with Romeo being a member of the Hitler Youth Movement, while Juliet and the Capulets were part of the Jewish community. After much criticism the company apologized and canceled the production while noting that, unlike in the original production where the Montagues and the Capulets were “Two households, both alike in dignity,” their production would have shown the “Nazi” Montagues as the bad guys.
C. The company had planned to produce a version of Romeo and Juliet where Romeo would be portrayed as a member of the Hitler Youth Movement and Juliet was part of the Jewish community. The company was criticized because the casting notice did not specify that they were looking for a Jewish actress to play the Juliet part. The theater management canceled the production and issued an apology noting that the casting announcement was supposed to specify a preference for a Jewish actress, but that “Our casting director removed key information and we failed to notice.”
D. The producers announced plans to mount a new production of The Diary of Anne Frank where the people living in the attic were members of the Roma community rather than Jews. The theater's artistic director stated that “the Anne Frank story is ultimately a story about all of us who have fallen victim to hate. We hope to share that message by hearing from the Roma girl Analetta instead of the Jewish Anne.” However, protests arose within the Jewish community, with one rabbi arguing that “while the story of Roma persecution by the Nazis is an important one, it is not acceptable to replace the Jewish Holocaust story with this other narrative.” As a result the theater company canceled the production and instead produced the classic show The Glass Menagerie.
E. The theater group was in the process of staging a musical production of a show based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma. The new version took place in Germany in the 1930’s, rather than Oklahoma at the turn of the 20th century. One plot line changed the focus of the core community conflict, with a song’s revised lyrics stating “Oh the Nazis and the Hebrews should be friends.”