Before you get frothy, the title is not mine. It belongs to Haaretz. The writer is one Josh Lambert.
The subtitle: “Brilliant actors like Larry David and Sarah Silverman are challenging America’s powerful religious, family-friendly culture and asserting their Jewishness by glorifying obscenity.”
Now I know there are many Jewish readers here, and that they run more on the Torah-believing side than the secular. I’d like to ask their opinion about Lambert’s piece.
Is it, as the subtitle declares, as asservation of secular Judaism to “glorify” obscenity? We can take it as read that it is not a claim to orthodox or conservative religious Judaism.
Before answering, let’s look deeper into the piece.
“In a tidy coincidence, two separate videos went viral last week, demonstrating that American Jews’ love affair with obscenity is still going strong. Sarah Silverman talks about being visited by Jesus Christ, who asks her to spread a message about women’s reproductive rights…” By “reproductive” Silverman means, of course, non-reproductive.
Lambert is claiming that “American Jews” have a “love affair with obscenity”. Is that so? Again, I take it he must mean Jews as a culture or race and not religion.
As far as I know, only Silverman has publicly called herself a “dirty Jew,” purring the words alluringly in her 2005 performance film “Jesus Is Magic,” but David’s gleeful, exuberant and inimitable spewing of obscenities suggests he might not exactly mind being thought of as a dirty Jew, either.
In my recently published book, “Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture,” I explain why, beginning in the late 19th century, American Jews have found the explicit representation of sex, and four-letter words, so very useful. The answers vary: Some Jews use obscenity to fight anti-Semitism, while others use it to rewrite traditional Jewish stories in a contemporary idiom.
How obscenity can “fight” and not cause “anti-Semitism” is anybody’s guess, but rewriting traditional stories in an obscene way can only be seen as blasphemous. No?
“If you watch cable television and listen to podcasts, you might think that there’s no longer any regulation of obscenity”, yet Lambert goes on to lament that there are still anti-obscenity laws on the books, particularly in broadcasting.
Lambert is unhappy that Democratic Senator James Exon of Nebraska, a Christian, sponsored the Communications Decency Act, which attempted to control obscenity on line. Lambert fails to tell readers the act was neutered by the ACLU.
What Lambert does remember is that “the senator introduced into the Congressional Record letters of support for his proposal from Evangelical groups like the Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council.” Well, and so he did. That organizations against smut should have something to say on the subject shouldn’t be surprising.
The contemporary Christian right has a much more complex and self-aware relationship with American Jews [now]…Today’s anti-porn organizations, even if funded by Christians, often seek out Jews to sit on their boards — though mostly they attract only very marginal rabbis and other Jewish crackpots.
I can’t tell if he means “marginal rabbis” or only those Jews against porn are “crackpots”. Can you?
Somehow Lambert isn’t pleased with deceased Justice Antonin Scalia, because Scalia said “small-town broadcasters…[with their] down-home local guests probably employ vulgarity less than big-city folks [and the] foul-mouthed glitterati from Hollywood.”
This is, of course, observationally true and known by everybody.
Scalia did not, of course, go so far as to suggest that the one demographic group most insistently associated both with American “big-city” life and with “Hollywood” — Jews — tend to speak more obscenely than other Americans. If he had wanted to, though, he could not have a better illustration of his hypothesis than Larry David and Sarah Silverman.
So Lambert thought he caught a whiff of “anti-Semitism”, but then he substantiated Scalia’s point with prime examples. He then says:
These Christian campaigns against obscenity…may help to explain why, in a media environment in which the representation of sex and the use of taboo language smacks increasingly of banality, brilliant performers like David and Silverman continue not only to assert their Jewishness emphatically, in virtually every one of their performances, but also to glory in and glorify the use of such language.
There it is again. Lambert equates (secular) Jewishness with obscenity. He closes with this.
Especially because the Christian right goes to such great lengths to demonstrate that Jews should not feel excluded from its initiatives — who loves Jews nowadays more than the Christian right, right? — identifying oneself as a “dirty Jew” in 21st-century America is one way to signal your opposition not just to the banalities of the market-driven family-friendly culture, but also to the nation’s most powerful socially, religiously and politically reactionary movement.
Evangelicals, the largest group on the Christian right, go out of their way to include and support Jews. This is true, as most know. But “dirty Jew[s]” rebel—and should, Lambert implies—against the “family-friendly culture” also beloved by Evangelicals.
If he is right, then shouldn’t the Christian right turn its back on secular Jews who on purpose and by design “glorify” in obscenity, blasphemy, porn, and other matters inimical to Christianity? Or would that only bring charges of “anti-Semitism”?
David’s and Silverman’s shtick has long since become ‘banal’. As for less family-friendly fare not being ‘market-driven’, it is as much to say, ‘they didn’t ask for it, but we gave it to them anyway.’—more forceful phrases suggest themselves.
What is it about Jewish profanity that makes it so endearing? Is it some sort of Cultural Marxist thing? Is any of this to be taken seriously?
Why would you believe the author of a piece with a subtitle that is wrong? Never heard of either one of these supposedly brilliant actors.
According to Wikipedia, David is mostly mentioned as a scriptwriter and producer, and the only acting mentioned is him playing himself.
Silvermans only claim to glory worth mentioning on wikipedia was some youtube video dissing her ex-boyfriend.
I have never understood the fascination of Evangelicals with Jews, unless they are the kind of evangelicals like Joel Osteen who preach “thou shalt prosper”. Even the term “Judeo-Christian” is bothersome. No one speaks of Judeo-Islam. Who is Judeo Christ?
Nate,
your admission to your lack of understanding may be due either to your ignorance of Judaism and Christianity, or a lack of capacity for even moderate reasoning ability. By your additional statements and question I’m not hopeful you will be able to understand the difference.
Putting your seemingly overt attempts at trolling Christians and Jews aside for the sake of others who may honestly have similar questions, “Christ” is the Koiné-English version of the Hebrew-English word “messiah”, or “anointed one,” a title, not a name, for a Hebrew king, priest or prophet. Specifically in it’s use in Christianity it refers to The (Jewish) Messiah of prophecy.
The “fascination” for Christians with Judaism, has been long overdue. Jewish Christians were nearly 100% of the early church, but around 200-300 A.D. gentile Christians were in the majority. Jewish traditions were largely disavowed by gentile christian leaders in the church. Much of the rich history and meaning of the jewish traditions that Jesus (Hebrew-English spelled “Yeshua”) from Nazareth participated in and taught was both ignored or lost in the gentile church. Perhaps due to the availability of the internet, but also due to the efforts of the current Jewish Christians that is now being reversed.
An animation studio, The Bible Project, offers multiple short videos highlighting the Christian philosophy, and biblical understanding of the TANAK (OT) and the New Testament from which you might gain much insight.
See
https://thebibleproject.com/explore/the-messiah/
for a video concerning The Messiah that even you might understand and enjoy.
I don’t know about the non religious Jews in Hollywood but the BBC takes something to beat.
It is the humour always rough and at someone’s expense which is so tiresome, too.
Still, if I had my way I’d ban the Urban dictionary. That’s far worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Ht1EAe-ds
Lenny Bruce and Joan Rivers balance them out quite well.
As a Jew, I’m more revolted by Peter Singer, Naomi Wolf and Noam Chomsky.
So basically, Gene, it sounds like you are saying that it’s an attempt to fundamentally change Christianity, via a claim that the Gentiles ‘screwed up’. “Christendom” has been replaced with “Judeo-Christian”. Tradition replaced by so-called ‘original’ meanings…
E. Michael Jones says Jews rebelled against Christ on the cross, and thereby became the enemies of divine order, perpetual “revolutionaries” (nihilists), the force behind every revolution in the world. Thus, “glorifying obscenity” is echt Jewish.
The Jews are brilliant liars.God even warns us about them
MATTHEW 2:6 AND MICAH 5:2 A governor shall come out of BETHLEHEM..and RULE my people ISrael….This scripture is about Christianity…Christ REJECTED the Jews and their Luciferian religion..TEACHINGS OF THE ELDERS THAT MAKE THE LAWS OF GOD OF NO EFFECT..If you study Judaism.you will find its the total opposite of the 10 commandments of God. All things are acceptable in Judaism..especially if done to NON JEWS….(PEDOPHILLIA (sex after 8 is too late is the teaching of the Babylon Talmud..children 3-8 both sexes can be raped..)..MURDER..STEALING….HARASSAING MAKING THEIR LIVES MISERABLE..
==========================================
What does God have to say about the Jews?
BOOK OF TITUS 1:14….
PAY NO ATTENTION TO JEWISH FABLES (God warns you Jews are liars)
THEY SAY THEY KNOW GOD…
BUT DO NOT (God tells you Jews are NOT his people.).
TO ALL GOOD WORKS..(God warns you that Jews do bad things.
THEY ARE REPROBATE (doomed..Read the fate of the Jewish Edomites in the BOOK
OF OBADIAH..Look up JUDITH..mother of Edom..wife of
Esau and learn the truth..THE JEWS..ARE MODERN
DAY EDOM…Rabbi Stephen Wise also tells us this and
its recorded in the Jewish Encyclopedia..They KNOW
they are NOT the Israel of God.
BOOK OF AMOS…read it and learn that God is quite clear that the present system
was over AND NEVER WILL BE AGAIN…When God saysnever..he
meansNEVER…70 AD put akabash on the Edomite Jews
masquerading as Israel in the days of Christ..CHRIST TOLD
you exactly who they were…The children of GENESIS 3:15…
The term ‘beguiled’ was used a few times in the bible..BUT in
the two verses in both testaments…when referring to EVE..
beguiled meant a ‘sexual seduction”…iTS IMPORTANT TO USE
A STRONGS EXHASTIVE BIBLE CONCORDANCEA1611 KJV
VERSION when reading the bible..ON LINE concordances
seem to have been perverted..so beware of internet
concordances..We have no clue who runs those sites. From
what I see..its most likely Jews as the internet sites are quite
Jew friendly when it comes to Christiandom.
II THESS 2 warned us that Christiandom would be infiltrated
and perverted..and that many would not listen to truth..but only
the lies..and those Zionist Christians have been blinded by God.
GOD TOLD US THERE WOULD BE A GREAT FALLING AWAY
and today Christian Churches are filled with FALSE TEACHERS
AND FALSE PROPHETS.. and those standing in THE TEMPLE
of GOD as if he is GOD..are those Jewish Rabbis…Jewish fake
pastors we see in great numbers on TV and Radio..
THE JEWS RELIGION DEEMS JEWS AS GODS OF THE PLANET.
and non Jews as BEASTS..PUT HERE IN HUMAN FORM TO
SERVE THE JEW…Your income taxes go to Elite Jews…they
parasite off us us to sustain their lives…BUT THEY HAVE
BEEN CAUGHT ALL THROUGH OUT HISTORY doing such
and have been kicked out of over 100 nations..Many even today
are kicking out theJews..WW2 was about Europe and Germany
EXPELLING THE JEWS..The ALLIED NATIONS were all ran by
Jews..the REAL HOLOCAUST WAS OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE
whose armies were to put all the Jews of Europe and Germany
onto the ISLAND OF MADAGASCAR..and keep them there once
and for all ..for the safety of mankind…
READ BOOK OF AMOS (Israel is no more..and never will be again)
READ BOOKOF HEBREWS (Discusses the REMNANT OF JACOB)
READ BOOK OF GALATIANS..(especially chapt 3..The seed of Abraham is Christians)
READ BOOK OF OBADIAH (The Edomites still exist when Christ returns..and this
book reveals the fate of the Edomite Jews..(Those of the
Edomite (Canaanite Merchant spirit)
ALL WARS ARE JEWISH WARS..God even tells you this is so.
IS IS-A-HELL given to Jews by God? NOt at all.read this..
NEHEMIAH 9:8, 20 – 24…
The Jews lie..The LAND PROMISES MADE TO ABRAHAM..and that his descendants would be numbered like the stars in heaven HAS ALREADY HAPPENED..
Most don’t read the bible..and let the FALSE TEACHERS teach them..
JESUS SAID..
“LET NO MAN BE YOUR TEACHER!”..
JEREMIAH 17:5
5This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
Wisdom come by only reading the bible..MYTHS AND JEWISH FABLES that have infiltrated our church..JUST AS IT DID THE HEBREW CHURCH..can only happen when the people don’t read the bible…but allow FALSE TEACHERS to teach them..which is prevelant in America today..
CHRIST SAID IN JOHN 4:21 NO LONGER WILL THE FATHER BE WORSHIPED IN JERUSALEM..
SO how can Jerusalem be a holy city? That is a lie…SO..WHAT DOES GOD SAY JERUSALEM TODAY IS?? God calls Jerusalem SODOM, EGYPT..AND BABYLON..and blames those who dwell there..to have started all the wars..
Notice the Book of Revelation says nothing about Jews or Edomites..but only mentions DEVILS AND VILE SPIRITS..Read this..FOR EYES THAT CAN SEE..AND EARS THAT CAN HEAR.
REVELATION
11:8….THE GREAT CITY..where our LORD was CRUCIFIED..SPIRITUALLY KNOWN as Sodom and Egypt
17:1..the WHORE RELIGION that rules the Kings of the Earth
17:18…the WHORE RELIGION that rules the Kingsof the Earth
18:10…THE GREAT CITY (where our Lord was crucified Rev 11;8) is BABYLON
18:2-3,…BABYLON is fallen..and become the HOME OF DEVILS AND VILE SPIRITS
18:23-24…those who through sorcery (witchcraft) deceived the nations…(24) those who murdered the prophets, the saints..AND ALL WHO WERE SLAIN UPON THE EARTH..
If you study history..you will find..ALL WARS ARE JEWISH WARS…so verse 24 seems to fit them perfectly..
NOT ALL JEWS wish to do this kind of evil..BUT JEWS ARE HELD CAPTIVE BY THEIR RABBIS…threatening them with exile from their own communities..and families…and other distasteful punishments..if they convert to Christianity…or LEAVE THE RABBI FLOCK
JEWISH RABBIS CANNOT INTERPRET THE BIBLE..although they have convinced somethat they are MASTERS OF THE SCRIPTURES..
BUT BUT BUT..WHAT ABOUT WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS? THE HOLY SPIRIT which by the way is MALE..not like the Jewish holy spirit which is the GODDESS SHEKINAH…which is totally non scriptural..
SEE…YOUTUBE OR BRO VIDS “Satan at the Wailing Wall” by..brother Nathanial Kapner..ex Jew….he has a video EXPOSING the JEWISH GODDESS SHEKINAH..AND THE MYTH OF THE “WAILING WALL’ which is all about sex with the goddess of the Jews…Also in this video..learn the REAL IDENTITY OF THE SO CALLED ANTI CHRIST MAN…another Jewish fable..that does NOT exist in scripture >.Christ told you there were MANY ANTI CHRISTS..
II JOHN 7-11 tells you exactly who ANTI CHRISTS ARE….They are NON BELIEVERS..ALL non believers are Anti Christs…so this ANTI CHRIST GLOBAL RULER MAN IS JUST ANOTHER BABYLON TALMUDIC KABBALIST JEWISH FABLE..and you should pay no attention to this nonsense designed to frighten Christians into thinkin that Jews have more power they they do…
GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN ME..THAT HE THAT IS IN THE (Jewish) WORLD.
No one on the planet..has the ability to interpret the bible..EXCEPT HOLY SPIRIT FILLED CHRISTIANS…and that does NOT include Christian Zionists…because if they had the Holy SPirit..they would know that the Jews are liars…and not the chosen of GOd..(Matthew 2:6…Christians are Gods chosen people..Its quite plain in scripture..
Jewish Rabbis DO NOT HAVE GODS HOLY SPIRIT..whom Christ called THE INTERPRETOR..
Jewish Rabbis do not have a Temple..and Levites as according to the OLD WITHERED AWAY COVENANT BETWEEN GOD AND MAN..
DANIEL 9:25..DOES NOT SAY THERE IS GOING TO BE A JEWISH TEMPLE..A JEWISH ANTI CHRIST MAN..(another JEwish Fable) or revived animal sacrifices, since God did not ordain them in the first place..That is a PAGAN practice …Just as Israel called for Kings like the pagans..they also practiced PAGAN SACRIFICE..The bible tells you all about this..BUT YOU FIRST MUST READ IT TO KNOW WHAT IT SAYS…insead of the Jewish Nancy Pelousi style of legislation passing where you must pass it before you can know what is in it..Yepp….shes a Jew..Too.
DANIEL 9:25
1)…..It was CHRIST WHO made the COVENANT WITH MANY..The NEW COVENANT between God and man..keeping in mind CHRIST IS GOD…..This verse has nothing to do with a JEWISH FABLE about an Anti Christ man called EIN SOF..(((See Bro Vids SATAN AT THE WAILING WALL..by Brother Kapner for more info on EIN SOF.))) It is CHRIST .who made the covenant with many..
2)….. It is CHRIST WHO stopped the ANIMAL SACRIFICES WHEN HE DIED ON THE CROSS…(There is no such thing of revived animal sacrifices..or a Temple to be built to sacrifice them in
3)…..There is no mention in the bible..that a TEMPLE is to be build in a land ALSO NOT MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE…CALLED ISRAEL…ANOTHER JEWISH FABLE.
God never gave land to a people who hate him..
THE GOD OF JUDAISM..IS LUCIFER
ExJew Henry Makow exposeshis ex religion.. the religion of the BABYLON TALMUD..in his piece called JEWS EVEN ASK IF LUCIFER IS THE GOD OF JUDAISM…check it out ..(Henry Makow-Save the Males)
TODAY..THERE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH DISHONESTY..FAKE NEWS…FAKE RELIGION POSING AS CHRISTIANITY..DISHONEST PEOPLE…NO MORALITY…ITS DISGUSTING..
THE ONLY WAY TO NAVIGATE THROUGH THIS WORLD..IS TO KNOW THE BIBLE..READ IT CONSTANTLY…as God communicates through this book..and tells you what you need to know
THE BIBLE…
THE OSHA HANDBOOK OF SAFETY FOR LIVING IN A FALLEN WORLD..
The MARK OF THE BEAST is not a mark…or a chip…ITS A RELIGION..IN YOUR MIND…
No where in the bible ..does it say the NEW WORLD ORDER will be successful and take over the world.
READ REVELATION 11:8, 17:1, 17:18, 18:10, 18:2-3, 18:23-24.
GOD DIDNOT LEAVE HIS PEOPLE HELPLESS AND NAKED..HE TOLD YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW..to be safe…Those who don’t bother to read THE WORD…are vulnerable..and like SHEEP BEING LED TO THE SLAUGHTER..
Tess: Why don’t I believe you’re for real?
Consider Evil and Good, moral versus natural Evil.
Moral versus good nature.
See Genesis first three chapters; (only short.)
By chapter three, first sin, chapter four, first murder! Chapter six it is written that God regretted the evil of the creation and thought to destroy it.
Old V NT:
Animal sacrifice, for example, circumscision, which I can’t spell, *given of no value by Jesus but considered neither here nor there although not to the poor little baby.
A lot of ancient medical rulings regarding hygiene and medical ‘treatment’. It all seems so cringeworthy but given the state of man’s knowledge they are understandable. Not always good ones. Just precautionary principle, safety and survival first. When mankind learns, so there is again a choice of good over evil. This is how I read it and lucky for you, it’s fresh in my mind.
Genesis chapter 8 21
“And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
22
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
…and with that in mind consider:
What are the contrasts between Old and New Testament.
What about evil? Who’s fault is it?