Kvetching About Ohr Somayach
By Daniel Treiman
Blogger David Kelsey (aka The Kvetcher) is no fan of Ohr Somayach, the Jerusalem-based ultra-Orthodox outreach organization. In post after post on his blog, the indefatigable Kelsey has kept up a steady drumbeat of criticism against Ohr Somayach, which he sees as a “fundie black hole of destruction of self” and has dubbed the “Dark Light.”
This week The Kvetcher has a series of guest posts from someone who used to study at Ohr Somayach’s Jerusalem yeshiva — and it doesn’t sound like a pleasant place.
For Kelsey’s complete Ohr Somayach coverage click here.
December 6, 2007, 5:01pm
Hanukkah Dichotomy: Miracles vs. Maccabees
By Daniel Treiman
As I noted earlier on this blog, atheist firebrand Christopher Hitchens finds Hanukkah wholly objectionable, whether it’s the miracle or the Maccabees’ Hasmonean dynasty. The JTA’s Ami Eden takes him to task for lumping the two aspects of the holiday together:
By emphasizing the miracle of the oil, the rabbis in the Talmud were essentially attempting to write the Hasmonean rulers that Hitchens so detests out of the story. Yes, the rabbis’ narrative is still an anti-Greek one, but even from Hitchens’ perspective, this shift in emphasis should be seen as progress.
Over on Jewcy, cartoonist par excellence, Eli Valley, and his iconoclastic collaborator, David Kelsey, offer their own comic take on Hanukkah, combining the acid assessment of Hitchens with Eden’s nuance.
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