Found Rabbi Lapin's article very interesting. While I haven't seen "The Fockers" I can agree where he is sick and tired of his religion is being denigrated by the Hollywood elite. Even more disturbing is when one's own community takes part in that denigration. I am a Catholic (of sorts) and even though I am not terribly active, it does bother me when one blatantly denigrates the religion I was raised in, although there is plenty that the Catholic Church can be criticized for. I have found recently that more and more conservative Jews are making their voices heard...and I think it's about time. Now is this conservatism emanating from a weariness of the left's attitude toward Israel or is it a genuine change in thinking (personally I think it's a combination of both)? I'll make a very politically incorrect statement. The Jewish community in the US has been very much in the forefront of not only liberal circles, but socialist and marxist ones as well. True, most of those marxist were not observant (oil and water don't mix), but it looks like politically conservative Jews have a big job on their hands battling those within their own community (and I don't envy you guys) Catholics as a group have never been known to be outrageously liberal. True, like Jews we were big supporters of the Democratic party when we thought that it represented the average working people...but our Church really kept us from ever being truly wedded to the left. Now we have a Church whose clergy is probably much more liberal than the average person in the pew, and when that clergy gets overly political most of us just plug up our ear drums. Thank you Rabbi Lapin for speaking your mind.
"The Jewish commnunity in the US has been very much in the forefront of not only liberal circles, but socialist and marxist ones as well."
Absolutely true, Dave. Secular Jews are the strength behind many organizations that conservatives are consistently fighting, e.g., the NAACP, the ACLU, Hollywood establishment, Ivy League, etc. And yet to say this some will call me an anti-semite.
Of course they do, but many like myself just avoid them. As for a movie made by hollywood being degrading to Jews, thats not hard to understand. I don't mind if the movie is going against political correctness, we need more of that, but (without seeing the movie) I suspect this is one of the "I can tell Jewish jokes because I'm Jewish" things. Which is politicall correctness.