Does Obama Hate Yiddish?
Four questions about today’s report on growing tensions over Obama’s disinvitation of his pastor from his presidential announcement. 1. Why did Ben Wallace-Wells’ superb and exciting description of said pastor in Rolling Stone freak out Obama’s people, as reported by The NYT? 2. Is it Pastor Wright’s black power, mainstream enough for Oprah, that’s the […]
Four questions about today’s report on growing tensions over Obama’s disinvitation of his pastor from his presidential announcement. 1. Why did Ben Wallace-Wells’ superb and exciting description of said pastor in Rolling Stone freak out Obama’s people, as reported by The NYT? 2. Is it Pastor Wright’s black power, mainstream enough for Oprah, that’s the problem, or — as Obama attempts to present himself as a faith-based Democrat — his prophetic-style left politics and queer-friendliness? 3. Why does Pastor Wright speak Yiddish? (He calls the sabbath not Shabbat, as do most observant Jews, but Shabbos, the Yiddish pronunciation. 4. Why can’t The NYT, derided by anti-Semites as the Jew York Times, buy the Standard Yiddish dictionary and spell shabes correctly?