Thursday, July 21, 2005

The closing of the Jewish mind continues...

Mississippi Fred's found a quote in a new book of Torah scholarship, a book from the hand of one Rabbi Aharon Yisroel Kahan, which proclaims a ban upon the "venomous writing" and "distorted attitudes" of "shallow minded" writers like "Ash, Bialik, Buber, Singer, Weisel and Leon Uris, to mention a few."

Set aside the fact that no one who understands Bialick or Buber or Weisel could ever call their work"shallow minded."

Set aside the fact, that there are no ideas present - distorted, venomous, or otherwise - in the works of Leon Uris.

Set aside the fact that the odds Rabbi Aharon Yisroel Kahan has read any of the authors he's so recklessly banned are exactly one in 100 million.

Set it all aside, and still this is scandelous. When did the "people of the book" become so terrified of words and ideas?

Names he missed
Amichai
Roth
Bellow
Potok
Agnon
Scholem
Godol Hador
Mis-Nagid
Marx
Peretz
And we might as well throw in Yehudah Halevi, while we're at it. Love poems, you know.