I'll take this opportunity to thank Eli for his article.

I also want to thank A. Birch Steen for being so frickin' funny.

To my mind, the Seattle Weekly these days has an impact factor of zero.

Hey my favorite hippie-heeb Goldie was all over it.

Didn't the Worship Guide '06 count for anything?

I also thank Eli Sanders for his excellent article. Of course, the Seattle Weekly beat him, with an almost identical article a few years back, you know, when SW was still worth reading. Anti-semitism in Seattle and Washington State is born and bred here. Regrettably, some of the those most interested in keeping its reporting out of the papers are prominent Jews, who have internalized the Seattle passive-aggressive avoidance emo and don't want to be seen to rock the boat. Seattle's clubs were only 'de-segregated' in the early 1990's; Seattle law firms were 'Jew' or 'non' until about 1987; and some of our public agencies remained Judenrein until, well Mark Sidran was elected City Attorney. Our Jewish community is politicaly diverse and culturally heterogeneous and that is something we can all relish (with a schmeer!).
Uncle Mike

All papers must be identical to the Stranger! Run the same stories! Print the same columns! Have the same editorial opinion! Target the same demographic! Otherwise, the others aren't worth reading! See? Josh is right!


Listen, the Stranger is best when it's focused on its reader and its city, not on its competition. Focus, Stranger, and keep the disdain inside, where it will fester, but will produce great writing.

I was about to say... The Seattle Weekly is not really a "Seattle" paper anymore. Fefer could have very well pitched a major story on the recent anti-Jew sentiments re: SeaTac's initial removal of silly little plastic trees. For all we know, he did. And the bosses above him give him the thumbs down. Or maybe not. It's New Times' decision, ultimately.

But oh that gold Santa and his ho's. I can't stop guffawing at that! It's Santa, but with BICHES! OMG!

I just gotta say, I'm sick of hearing about it. Ok, you're Jewish, get over it. Write about something else, bitch about something else. Devote your energy to something else.

I myself am a minority.

Hmm... Maybe you can get the JUF to publicly disclose how much Fefer contributes, while you're at it.

I was raised Catholic, and I know to stay the hell outta the way when the Jews start throwing the accusation of self-loathing at one another. It ain't pretty. See you after Christmas.

BB,

Don't really write it about it much at all. The fact that you think I do (compared to all the obsessive ink I spill on local politics) is kind of funny and weird.

But you bet I'm going to write about it when blatant anti-Semitism shows up.

But Josh, this is Seattle, where it's considered impolite to mention Judaism. I'm sure that's what's up with the Weekly; they think that "Jew" is an ethnic slur. The polite term is dead silence. It's driven not by anti-Semitism but the fear of being thought anti-Semitic.

I loved that article too. I'm an athiest, and don't have a great deal of sympathy for any religious people trying to get public places to display their symbols. But in a way that Rabbi was speaking up for All The Rest Of Us, who are indeed supposed to shut up and go away.

My favorite part:

"And please. Presumptuous editorials like the one in December 12's Seattle Times that said Christmas trees are simply "a symbol of winter, the holidays... for people of all faiths" totally miss—and unwittingly highlight—the whole point: A Christian holiday somehow defines winter for all of us? "

Whoohoo! Correct. THANK YOU. Great work.

These arguments on the internet take all the fun out of reading your paper.

Do wat is it you have against fun again?

Of course the non-militant wing of Atheism seems to be very pro-Christmas.

I suspect a direct corolation between "self important dickery" and "anti-Christmas tree sentiment".

Eli: I enjoyed the story, but I have a question.

Do you really feel isolated and misunderstood in the way your article indicated? Or is that just the "I am minority, woe is me" tone that is de regiuer in any writing on ethnicity in our era of identity politics?

I grew up on Mercer Island, a community one mile from Seattle in which you can't swing a cat without hitting a Jew. You work in an industry in which Judiasm is similiarly over-represented. Isn't it hard to maintain your sense of alientation in the face of so many cohorts?

A while back Dan Savage challenged reporters to call Bullshit when it's being spewed. I'm calling Bullshit on this post, this story and the coverage given by The Stranger and Horsesass on this subject.

I'd say Journalists. However a journalist has a responsibility to remain objective, something that has never applied to the Strangers reporters.

This entire story snowballed not because Christmas trees were removed from the airport. Rather, when the good Rabbi threatened a lawsuit when he demanded an 8 foot menorah, including a lighting ceremony, next to the HOLIDAY Trees at the airport.

What did the Port do? They recognized what a whiny, litigious, prick this guy was and said, "let's avoid a lawsuit and just pull everything down, it's not worth it." This was a very Seattle response and under the circumstances, probably the safest way to play it.

These were the Holiday Trees that were lighted, removed, replaced, etc...

I wonder, would the Rabbi have taken offense had the airport agreed to have a "7 branched candelabrum" erected but opposed calling it a menorah? I'd place good money he would have been very vocal about this grammatical slight. Quite frankly, his indignation would have been appropriate. It's a disrespectful term and it slights a symbol that people with faith hold in the symbol.

Christians (no, not the holy rollers but just normal people in the middle of the road) and I am sure, all the other non-fanatic religious ( as well as non-fanatical political affiliations) could really care less about this subject. The whole war on Christmas subject is tired & worn out as is the Strangers New position of "look at what a proud Seattle Jew I am".

The term Christmas tree came into play on this subject when the media got involved, not the Port.

Fast forward past all the news stories, replacement of the tress, etc..

Last week on Up Front with Robert Mak (sp?). The pathetic remarks by Pastor Joe Fuiten, Josh has quoted were a rebuttal to David Goldstien's tirade. I'd love to see the full text of both of these conversations in print. I watched the show and thought both individuals were equally offensive.

I can see where they booked the pastor as a man of God, But David Goldstein? Give me a break, this guy speaks for the Jewish voice in Seattle?

I'd be surprised if David Goldstien even knew the location of a temple in Seattle.

Regardless, what is absolute bullshit, at no time were the tree's in question ever called Christmas trees. Attached is a link to the Seatac Holiday schedule

http://www.portseattle.org/about/publications/newsletters/Seatac/holiday06.htm

At no time is the term Christmas written anywhere.

So, Josh, David, Dan, etc....

What? The Weekly actually still has writers in Seattle? I thought pretty much all of their fill was written in NY now, no?

The Weekly jumped the shark a good 10 years ago. They have now entered the realm of complete irrelevance.

A good topic, but why does Josh need to make himself the hero of everything he writes?

Is it the small guy complex?

Re-write, get me an editor here, pronto!

Is it me, or is it a tad weird that discussion of a serious topic like this framed by the Stranger's nudie ads?

And Josh, take the hint: more facts, less Josh.

Hey Bullshit...

Um, I'm pretty sure I know the location of at least two synagogues in Seattle, considering I live a block away from them.

And I never claimed to speak for the Jewish community. The fact you would even suggest that anybody could speak for the Jewish community shows you how little you know about Judaism and the Jewish people.

Try reading Eli's piece. You might learn something.

Goldy...

Are you confusing the Nosh Away Deli with a temple?

Obviously you have very little knowledge of your own faith.

One who repesents the Jewish Community is called a Rabbi

From wikipedia:
The role of the rabbi in the last 200 years
In 19th century Germany and the United States, the duties of the rabbi became increasingly influenced by the duties of the Protestant Christian Minister, hence the title "pulpit rabbis". Sermons, pastoral counseling, representing the community to the outside, all increased in importance. Non-Orthodox rabbis, on a day-to-day business basis, now spend more time on these traditionally non-rabbinic functions than they do teaching, or answering questions on Jewish law and philosophy. Within the Modern Orthodox community, rabbis still mainly deal with teaching and questions of Jewish law, but are increasingly dealing with these same pastoral functions. Orthodox Judaism's National Council of Young Israel and Modern Orthodox Judaism's Rabbinical Council of America have set up supplemental pastoral training programs for their rabbis.

Traditionally, rabbis have never been an intermediary between God and man. This idea was traditionally considered outside the bounds of Jewish theology.

You should consider changing the name of your sight to Jackass.org

Religion is the root of all our problems.
Religion will kill us all.
Kill all religion.

Maybe they'll mention the whole Jewish/SeaTac controversy in "Ask a Mexican."

I slightly disagree with you, Josh. Mark Fefer should have written on this whether he was Jewish or not. I don't feel like he has to "represent". It seems like it's personalizing it too much.

I don't care if Dan was Jewish or Catholic or nothing, this was a hot story on a particularly relevant topic (separation of church and state) as well as specific discrimination against Jews. I'm glad he (and your fellow writers/reporters devoted the paper to it, but not just because you or others are Jewish or not.

If writing about discrimination depends on the editors and writers being from a particular minority, then we are all screwed. Whitey should be writing and devoting space to these issues, too!

The point of your post was to shame Mark Fefer for not standing up for his tribe. I don't know how I feel about that (I understand it, but of course, my Seattle side winces), but I do know he's not the only one on the hook.

Kudos to the Seattle Weekly for not jumping aboard the "War on Christmas crazy train." Even more kudos to Eli for calling it what it was, and writing an entire piece about being jewish in Seattle without jumping aboard.

No kudos for Josh or Dan - when Bill O'Reilly said "Jump!", you both jumped.

By the way, Josh, Nina Shapiro and Rick Anderson are great reporters. You'd be lucky to have them on your team.

Not a fan of Rick's work. Way, way too shrill for me; too much drama.

"Not a fan of Rick's work. Way, way too shrill for me; too much drama."

To each his own, but "shrill"? Maybe I need to check out his back catalogue, but nothing I've read recently is even remotely "shrill".

In case you're simply misusing the term, just read anything by Erica Barnett - that will give you a pretty good idea what it means.

For Christ's sake, please pull your nose out of Dan Savage's ass.

Is there going to be a Ramadan issue of the Stranger? I see like 10x more Muslim-like folk around Seattle than Jewish-like folk, where's their due? Also, their food is way better (or is it anti-semitic to say that? (i sometimes wonder if anti-semitism is so prevalent because it has a name? why isn't it just called jewophobia a la homophobio or islamophobia or FRESHWHOLERABBITophobia, for example?))

http://www.amazon.com/Cloverdale-Fresh-Whole-Rabbit/dp/B00012182G/sr=8-2/qid=1166962064/ref=sr_1_2/104-5914324-7323124?ie=UTF8&s=gourmet-food

Is there some kind of secret axis treaty between Savage and Goldstein?

I quit going to that site because it offered so little, now I hear it mentioned here at Slog all the time.

A lot of people in this so called media age - have claim to fame over nothing they know anything about -- they just comment on EVERYTHING - sort of resident expert to the masses for money or just notice.

Regarding Jew and Christians and trees and menorahs -- I am secular and have no interest in any religion and give a shit who they are, what they believe, and how they are feeling badly treated when I ignore their silly drivel - theology and all the rest.

In a city that has few church goers, I don't know any, ck. the stats, I think that might be the problem for the Jew, the Mormon, the devout Catholic and the Devout Whatever/Whomever.

We don't much give a rats ass.

Do your thing and don't bore me with it.

And make sure the priest, rabbi, pastor, elder, overseer class --- make sure they are well paid and live in comfort. On your hard earned dollars.

Beyond the fantasy of it all - it is all a horrid scam for TONS and TONS of money, billions upon billions.

Not mine.

Goldstein, get off the "always me the expert bus", getting tiresome.

Your stuff on elections was great, other --not so.

wa2l8 - I doubt it, since The Stranger has deecared Muslims "backwards", and hate speech against them acceptable.

Weirldy the muslims I know, despite being "backwards", are perfectly capable of enjoying the Christmas holidays without some kind of frothing at the mouth spazzy freak-out.

Bullshit... Rabbis are hired and fired by the congregation. Again, read Eli's piece before assuming that anybody speaks for the "Jewish community."

The Jewish community is comprised of two major ethnic groups who worship in Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox synagogues. Plus, there are a number of sects within these segmentations.

It is silly to assume that one person could speak both for a Reform-raised secular ashkenazi Jew like me, the sephardic conservative Jew down the street, and my Hassidic Rabbi neighbor next door. It just doesn't work that way.

Hey Josh, Eli, Goldy - great reporting. As a recovering Catholic (aren't most of us recovering something?) I, too, am greatly disturbed by the blatant anti-semitism. It wasn't so much the Port behavior (that was more assinine than disturbing to me) as much as it was the response/backlash.

However - a little hope. Was out with a big group of friends last night. It was a fairly ecletic group of bartenders, artists, blue collar workers (FROM THE PORT!), customer service gays and some political nerds. I start discussing the Port and the Rabbi and the bullshit accusation of the "lawsuit" with the other political nerds and lo and behold, the whole table is soon engaged. I would have thought, given the make up of the group, we'd have mixed viewpoints, some disagreement, debate, argument, ignornant generalizations. (I had assumed some of the folks weren't necessarily universalists when it came to religion). All were pretty pissed off at the Port, disgusted at the hatred and were pretty animated about the discussion. I know its fairly anecdotal. But I guess when I see ugliness rear its head and am somewhat shocked at human nature, it is at least a little reassuring to know I can also be equally shocked by the decency of people too.

“Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.�

Sydney J. Harris

No mention so far of the ugly and hard core homophobia of the Orth. Jews of the east coast and in Israel ...... whew, spewing vile hatred with no shame.

In Israel the big and long term effort including violence to stop a little gay pride event.

Eli, where is that piece? How the Jewish community stopped gay rights in new York for decades --- they are as wacked out as the Christian Fundies from Colorado and Utah ever were and are, about GLT Folks.

Oh, how rude Sammy - a reality check of real time, this era, enemies.

Sammy,

What you are saying is an absurd slander, i.e. that Jews are homophobic. It is true that many Orthodox Jews are homophobic, but in America Reformed Jews are a plurality, and they are the most gay-friendly minority apart from, well, gays themselves. Also, American Jews have never made stopping gay rights a priority in the same way as fundamentalist churches have. Even in Israel gays serve openly in the military and are treated a damned sight better than in certain neighboring countries.

m

I think I made is rather clear that I was referring to orthodox jews - yes - and the power of that slice of loud jewish voice to mess with gay people has been important in many cases - new york

above, you don't mention the spectacle around gay pride in israel.

among christians of all sorts there are some gay friendly pieces, the same for jews ... but james dobson is no worse than the mad dog rabbis of orthodox jewery

as far as israel's neighbors, another topic that has to do with muslims and their horrid treatment of open gay folk, ie. hangings and prison and murder

For a paper that is supposed to be professional and unbiased you sure spend a lot of your time bitching about the Seattle Weekly to the point where it actually turns off your readers. I don't know why I even bother reading your blog, it's turned into a rat race of pitty high school bull-shit. I expected a little bit more class, but with a paper that assumes amateur porn events are community building activities, what should I expect, really?

Furthermore I'd like to point out the fact that I find it sickening that you would write that Mark Fefer is Anti-Semitic that is slander and an outrage!

Any real reporter who has any common decency or understanding of morals or ethics in regards to journalism would never stoop to such a level.

The only reason why someone would do that would be out of fear and no-talent.

You make me sick, I thought The Stranger was a strong voice in our community, it appears I was wrong.

It seems that the Stranger is nothing more than a bunch of quivering school children that feel that they need to throw stones at their predecessors.

I guess I know where to go for my information now. I guess 30 years is better than 15. Good luck Stranger.

Happy Holidays.