Thursday, December 17, 2009

Not-so-instant replay

See comments.

11 Comments:

Blogger Shira Salamone said...

See next comment.

Sun Jan 17, 12:03:00 PM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Please keep going.

Sun Jan 17, 12:04:00 PM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Just a bit further.

Sun Jan 17, 12:04:00 PM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Please be patient.

Sun Jan 17, 12:04:00 PM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Just one more.

Sun Jan 17, 12:04:00 PM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Thank you for your patience. This is one of my (in)famous "hidden" posts, published in the comments section so that my co-workers would not only have to click, but also scroll, in order read it. I like to delude myself that I'm still an anonymous blogger at the office.

Note that this post was actually published on January 17, 2010, several days after the earthquake in Haiti.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Not-so-instant replay

You'd think that I would have learned from the *last* time I discussed contributions to disaster relief.

But no, I just had to open my big mouth again.

And the result sounded so much like the original disagreement that it was downright weird.

When I mentioned contributions for Haitian-earthquake rescue efforts to a co-worker, her immediate response was to ask whether Haitians were anti-Semitic.

So I did a nearly-word-for-word repetition of my original protest, which was that I wasn't going to punish children for the sins of their parents.

I then threw in a mention of "darchei shalom" ("paths of peace," which I think means that Jews need to be friendly to non-Jews if for no other reason that to encourage them to be friendly to us). And I commented that it would be "marit ayin," (it would look bad) if Jews didn't contribute. But her only reaction was that she wouldn't help those who hated her relatives.

Apparently, my rabbi and my co-worker have one thing in common--their only question is, "Is it good for the Jews." Even when saving lives is involved, nothing else seems to matter to either one of them.

Words fail me.

posted by Shira Salamone at 11:55 AM

Sun Jan 17, 12:37:00 PM 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The mind boggles.
There are things I don't like about Haitian attitudes, but to condemn old people and children and their parents and, heck, their pets, seems so trivial.
I'd hate to think that Jews could forget so quickly what happens when you condemn an entire race for what a few people may be like.

Sun Jan 17, 02:29:00 PM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Thank goodness this attitude doesn't represent that of most Jews. Every major Jewish organization from the Orthodox Union to the Union for Reform Judaism to the American Jewish World Service, and heaven knows how many others, has set up links to Haitian-earthquake relief funds. That's more in keeping with "pikuach nefesh," the Jewish mandate to be vigilant about preserving life.

Sun Jan 17, 06:06:00 PM 2010  
Anonymous Too Old to Jewschool Steve said...

R' Gil Student has an interesting related post. See http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2010/01/tehillim-for-haiti.html

Mon Jan 18, 07:08:00 AM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Steve, thanks for the URL. I like Rabbi Student's conclusion, but not the logic by which he arrived at it.

Mon Jan 18, 12:45:00 PM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Here’s my response to Rabbi Student.

Mon Jan 18, 03:26:00 PM 2010  

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