Since I'm exhausted (no reason why - I slept plenty, didn't run around needlessly, nor did I overwork myself), I probably should not blog about this topic, as the very fine filter that stops me from saying things that I will really regret is not functioning right now. But for the last few weeks, I've been stewing over this, and I read yet another item fawning over the rabbi and rebbetzin (i.e. - rabbi's wife), and it just bothers me.
First, the disproportionate attention heaped on this couple makes me squirm. Every fucking picture of men with beards and peyot crying as if this were their unique tragedy makes me want to puke. Of the hundreds of people killed, the missionary Jews were a tiny percentage. Lots of people lost family members that day; the Lubavitcher community is not special in their grief. The very idea that Jews somehow merit more attention and sympathy because they were killed is partially why people fucking hate us in the first place. This close attention makes me cringe.
Plus, these people were missionaries. They were not angels sacrificing their lives to do good for others just for the sake of humanity. They were there to convert secular Jews into Hasidic ones; to save our souls. Just like any missionary, they did some good works along the way. I'm sure that it can be hard to find kosher food in a vegetarian city. Sigh.
I might add that the very tiny indigenous Jewish-Indian community had nearly no ties to the Chabad house. There are many reasons for this, and they all reflect poorly on Chabad House.
In order to become missionaries, the rabbi and rebbetzin left another child behind in Israel. Dying in a hospital. Dying from a rare genetic disorder that they already had a kid die from. And that makes me the angriest of all. I'm not saying that they deserved for anything bad to happen to them; they absolutely did not. But they sure as fuck don't deserve the accolades I've read about brave people out to do good in the world and help other people. They abandoned their own dying kid to convert others. Enough said.
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i thought it was sad, especially as their one child as good as saw his parents (& others present) murdered. no more, no less than anyone else who lost their lives in those tragic, needless events.
ReplyDeleteYou know what's sad? I can't even talk to my parents about this because you know my dad will just start ranting and raving about how this just proves the Jews are scapegoats and blah, blah, blah. It's really upsetting when you find yourself silent about world events, not because you want to be, but because to talk about it would open up a can of sandworms. (Those are the giant kind, by the way.)
ReplyDeleteThe Jews are usually scapegoats. The problem is that when we look at every situation and insist that we deserve special attention or praise or whatever.
ReplyDeleteI have to side with you on this one. One of my special cardinal sins is proselytization. I'm not a big fan of Mother Teresa, either, whose reputation as a selfless do-gooder masked her true intent, which was to convert people rather than help them (and glorify the purity of suffering or some such bullshit).
ReplyDeleteReally, though, this is a problem with the media, not the people themselves. I don't agree with what they did but it's not their actions that annoy me, but the glorification of them.
Exactly! The glorification is the grating part. And don't get me started on Mother T.... :)
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