Check out my latest piece in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles: “A Lesson for Jews in Gates’ Arrest?”
Hope you’re having an easy fast…
Check out my latest piece in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles: “A Lesson for Jews in Gates’ Arrest?”
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 
Well, congratulations. I always enjoy reading an article and saying, “I know the writer.”
I also loved seeing my byline in my HS newspaper, but you have gone into bigger leagues. I can't wait to see you in the Wall Street Journal one day.
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I'm curious to know what the African-American police officer had to say about the incident. Do you think he would be an objective voice for the case?
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RE: Asians and White couples being “less jarring” together
Asians have learned to assimilate to the point of not having an Asian Identity. We generally have internalized a dominant white culture and therefor are considered “honorary whites.” Many Asians are now choosing to rediscover their Asian roots and deciding not to cover anymore.
eg The Accidental Asian by Eric Lui
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Rabanit Hausman-
The Taanit wasn't bad. I tend to crash after breaking it however.
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aliza, this is the letter i wrote to the journal re your piece on gates, the jews etc.
ms. hausman,
i was very distressed to read your piece making a case for widespread racism in the observant jewish community. several cases of african american converts came to mind: ahuvah gray, author of 'my sister the jew” and other books is a former minister who experienced great support from the observant community. julius lester, author of 'lovesong', attests to a similar welcome. finally, i am aware of a number of synagogues that have welcomed orthodox african american converts. i'd give you the name, but i don't want to potentially disturb their community.
we all know that racism and prejudice in general is a human phenomenon. i wonder if you aren't making the mistake of pre-judging many in the orthodox world who may be either unaware or have limited contact with african americans, latinos, etc.
for myself, after years of working in both a large metropolitan jewish community and african american community i can attest that most observant jews are more than willing to do the mitzvah of 'loving the ger, loving the convert' as we are commanded in our torah.
i personally know of a afro-latina american woman in her 30s, a nurse, who has been wonderfully embraced by the very religious jewish community (read pico/robertson and la brea) of los angeles.
my concern, ms. hausman, is that your lenses may need significant adjusting. it seems that perhaps you need to re-study pirke avos about looking for the good in the other person. for decades, even centuries, american jews have been helpful to people of all backgrounds, particularly african americans. any true reading of the civil rights movement shows this.
unfortunately, your 'audience' for a case about racism finds listeners in a liberal/left jewish community who already have negative stereotypes about the orthodox.
if you are truly a ger-tzedeket, then you must, for the sake of am yisrael, seriously evaluate your point of view and your approach. lack of awareness, some stereotypes are one thing…but accusing an entire community of racism? this is not torah and this is simply not true.
sincerely,
ron davidson
los angeles
ps, i am also disturbed by your uninformed, uncritical view of obama, who, simply put, has surrounded himself with jew-haters for all of his adult life. he hates israel and is completely pro-arab.
as i said in my letter, i think you need to seriously re-evaluate your 'lenses'.
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Ron, as I wrote in the essay, my husband and I make very clear in our talks that the Jewish community is not made up of racists, all Jews are not racists, all non-Jews are not anti-Semitic.
I cannot change my experiences and I hope that by sharing them with people, it will change some of the racism in the community. In my article, I also stated that there was racism in the Dominican community. There is racism in every community.
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Ron, I think you seriously need to evaluate your lens.
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