The New York Times is slated to run a story on a St. Paul blogger who specializes in airing dirty laundry about Jewish people and institutions.
I took a look at the Failed Messiah blog, and it's pretty damn scandalous. To the one, Rosenberg is covering stories we don't usualy hear in the United States. To the other, it's something of an overdose. For instance:
And on and on. Mostly, Rosenberg seems to simply grab and post articles from various news sources; he does, however, write some investigative stories himself. And while it's true, we don't hear much about these stories in the United States, I find myself wondering if it is fair to juxtapose service to community and obsession, and consider where one crosses from one to the other.
I would imagine Rosenberg is stacking up the hits today, as the NYT article is already posted online, but for a west-coast American accustomed to the idea that, historically, the Jews have had enough over the years, and conditioned by habit to disdain such muckraking—generally viewing such obsession as anti-Semitic—this is a mind-boggling heap of steaming scandal. This is the kind of thing that throws one's notions of political correctness off the pier for a good soaking.
Samuel Freedman notes, for the New York Times:
And I think back to the days when I first started posting at online fora. I encountered a Fortean site called Parascope, and their message boards were a prime posting ground for a number of anti-Semitic newsletters. I mean, truly insane world-dominance conspiracies and such. Those morons could only wish they could pack as much dirt as Shmarya Rosenberg.
But it's kind of hard to tell what I'm seeing: a service to the humanity in general and Judaism in particular (e.g., opposing corruption, hypocrisy, and oppression within Jewish communities) or a basic, personal vendetta by a man who feels forsaken by his own community.
I'll be doing some more reading at the site, but probably not today. I need to recover from my first go.
____________________
Notes:
Freedman, Samuel G. "A Jewish Blogger Who Thrives in Muck". The New York Times. January 9, 2010; page A17. NYTimes.com. January 8, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/us/09religion.html
Rosenberg, Shmarya. "Woman Sprays Haredi Man With Tear Gas In Bus Fracas". Failed Messiah. January 7, 2010. FailedMessiah.TypePad.com. January 8, 2010. http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...redi-man-with-tear-gas-in-bus-fracas-567.html
—————. "After Long Distance Exorcism On Skype Fails, Kabbalist Tries Face-To-Face Exorcism To Remove The 'Foreign Entity'". January 7, 2010. http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...xorcism-to-remove-the-foeeign-entity-567.html
—————. "Rabbi Busted After Making 1200 Obscene Phone Calls To Children". January 7, 2010. http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...1200-obscene-phone-calls-to-children-567.html
—————. "Chabad-Run European Rabbis Org Calls New Airport Security Scanners 'Immodest'". January 8, 2010. http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...w-airport-security-scanners-immodest-678.html
Decades ago on a characteristically arctic day here, a boy named Scott Rosenberg waited with his neighborhood pals as a certain Chevy Impala glided into view. It contained the city's archbishop, and the boys, all of them Roman Catholic except for Scott, pelted the car with snowballs.
The archbishop braked and emerged to chastise his assailants. To Scott, whom he correctly identified as Jewish, the prelate said simply, "You call your rabbi."
Consider this a parable or a metaphor or just a piquant coincidence. Consider it revealing that Shmarya Rosenberg, as Scott is now known, recalled the incident in a recent interview as one of his most enduring memories. Because, lo, these years later, Mr. Rosenberg has made his name and earned equal measures of admiration and opprobrium for lobbing the digital version of snowballs at a great many rabbis.
Blogging on the site FailedMessiah.com, Mr. Rosenberg, 51, has transmuted a combination of muckraking reporting and personal grudge into a must-read digest of the actual and alleged misdeeds of the ultra-Orthodox world. He has broken news about sexual misconduct, smear campaigns and dubious business practices conducted by or on behalf of stringently religious Jews.
Operating thousands of miles from the centers of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, waking at 3:30 a.m. and working a dozen hours at a stretch in an apartment cluttered with books, Mr. Rosenberg has had his scoops cited by The Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, PR Week and Gawker. The national Jewish newspaper The Forward listed him among the 50 most influential American Jews, and the hip, cheeky magazine Heeb put him in its top 100.
(Freedman)
The archbishop braked and emerged to chastise his assailants. To Scott, whom he correctly identified as Jewish, the prelate said simply, "You call your rabbi."
Consider this a parable or a metaphor or just a piquant coincidence. Consider it revealing that Shmarya Rosenberg, as Scott is now known, recalled the incident in a recent interview as one of his most enduring memories. Because, lo, these years later, Mr. Rosenberg has made his name and earned equal measures of admiration and opprobrium for lobbing the digital version of snowballs at a great many rabbis.
Blogging on the site FailedMessiah.com, Mr. Rosenberg, 51, has transmuted a combination of muckraking reporting and personal grudge into a must-read digest of the actual and alleged misdeeds of the ultra-Orthodox world. He has broken news about sexual misconduct, smear campaigns and dubious business practices conducted by or on behalf of stringently religious Jews.
Operating thousands of miles from the centers of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, waking at 3:30 a.m. and working a dozen hours at a stretch in an apartment cluttered with books, Mr. Rosenberg has had his scoops cited by The Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, PR Week and Gawker. The national Jewish newspaper The Forward listed him among the 50 most influential American Jews, and the hip, cheeky magazine Heeb put him in its top 100.
(Freedman)
I took a look at the Failed Messiah blog, and it's pretty damn scandalous. To the one, Rosenberg is covering stories we don't usualy hear in the United States. To the other, it's something of an overdose. For instance:
• "Woman Sprays Haredi Man With Tear Gas In Bus Fracas" — She refused to sit in the back of a segregated bus.
• "After Long Distance Exorcism On Skype Fails, Kabbalist Tries Face-To-Face Exorcism To Remove The 'Foreign Entity'" — In truth, I can't recall ever hearing of a Jewish exorcism, aside from Bible stories. Indeed, the only one I can think of is when Jesus put Legion into a pig. But beyond all that, I'm having some difficulty countenancing the idea of an exorcism performed over Skype.
• "Rabbi Busted After Making 1200 Obscene Phone Calls To Children" — Apparently this was part of his study of child sexual assault; at least, so says the rabbi in question.
• "Chabad-Run European Rabbis Org Calls New Airport Security Scanners 'Immodest'" — The claim is that airport-security body scanners would violate these women's rights.
• "After Long Distance Exorcism On Skype Fails, Kabbalist Tries Face-To-Face Exorcism To Remove The 'Foreign Entity'" — In truth, I can't recall ever hearing of a Jewish exorcism, aside from Bible stories. Indeed, the only one I can think of is when Jesus put Legion into a pig. But beyond all that, I'm having some difficulty countenancing the idea of an exorcism performed over Skype.
• "Rabbi Busted After Making 1200 Obscene Phone Calls To Children" — Apparently this was part of his study of child sexual assault; at least, so says the rabbi in question.
• "Chabad-Run European Rabbis Org Calls New Airport Security Scanners 'Immodest'" — The claim is that airport-security body scanners would violate these women's rights.
And on and on. Mostly, Rosenberg seems to simply grab and post articles from various news sources; he does, however, write some investigative stories himself. And while it's true, we don't hear much about these stories in the United States, I find myself wondering if it is fair to juxtapose service to community and obsession, and consider where one crosses from one to the other.
I would imagine Rosenberg is stacking up the hits today, as the NYT article is already posted online, but for a west-coast American accustomed to the idea that, historically, the Jews have had enough over the years, and conditioned by habit to disdain such muckraking—generally viewing such obsession as anti-Semitic—this is a mind-boggling heap of steaming scandal. This is the kind of thing that throws one's notions of political correctness off the pier for a good soaking.
Samuel Freedman notes, for the New York Times:
In his righteous wrath, though, Mr. Rosenberg has also overstepped. He disparaged the journalistic integrity of Sue Fishkoff, the author of an acclaimed book about the Chabad movement, by referring to her as a "kadesha" — a term from Genesis that means a temple prostitute. After she objected, he posted an apology.
Chabad leaders declined to speak on the record about Mr. Rosenberg, but in general, they say that he has exaggerated the degree of messianism in the movement and that he is driven to settle scores. But they acknowledge that he has gotten some embarrassing things right.
"Shmarya often reminds me of journalism in the old days — when editors would sometimes go at one another physically in the street," Jonathan D. Sarna, a historian of American Jewry at Brandeis University with expertise in Jewish journalism, wrote in an e-mail message. "I know that he is fiercely hated in some Orthodox circles, but he has had many a scoop, and is certainly THE destination for those who want dirt about Orthodoxy exposed to the world."
Chabad leaders declined to speak on the record about Mr. Rosenberg, but in general, they say that he has exaggerated the degree of messianism in the movement and that he is driven to settle scores. But they acknowledge that he has gotten some embarrassing things right.
"Shmarya often reminds me of journalism in the old days — when editors would sometimes go at one another physically in the street," Jonathan D. Sarna, a historian of American Jewry at Brandeis University with expertise in Jewish journalism, wrote in an e-mail message. "I know that he is fiercely hated in some Orthodox circles, but he has had many a scoop, and is certainly THE destination for those who want dirt about Orthodoxy exposed to the world."
And I think back to the days when I first started posting at online fora. I encountered a Fortean site called Parascope, and their message boards were a prime posting ground for a number of anti-Semitic newsletters. I mean, truly insane world-dominance conspiracies and such. Those morons could only wish they could pack as much dirt as Shmarya Rosenberg.
But it's kind of hard to tell what I'm seeing: a service to the humanity in general and Judaism in particular (e.g., opposing corruption, hypocrisy, and oppression within Jewish communities) or a basic, personal vendetta by a man who feels forsaken by his own community.
I'll be doing some more reading at the site, but probably not today. I need to recover from my first go.
____________________
Notes:
Freedman, Samuel G. "A Jewish Blogger Who Thrives in Muck". The New York Times. January 9, 2010; page A17. NYTimes.com. January 8, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/us/09religion.html
Rosenberg, Shmarya. "Woman Sprays Haredi Man With Tear Gas In Bus Fracas". Failed Messiah. January 7, 2010. FailedMessiah.TypePad.com. January 8, 2010. http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...redi-man-with-tear-gas-in-bus-fracas-567.html
—————. "After Long Distance Exorcism On Skype Fails, Kabbalist Tries Face-To-Face Exorcism To Remove The 'Foreign Entity'". January 7, 2010. http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...xorcism-to-remove-the-foeeign-entity-567.html
—————. "Rabbi Busted After Making 1200 Obscene Phone Calls To Children". January 7, 2010. http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...1200-obscene-phone-calls-to-children-567.html
—————. "Chabad-Run European Rabbis Org Calls New Airport Security Scanners 'Immodest'". January 8, 2010. http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...w-airport-security-scanners-immodest-678.html
