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Notes -
Mayor Mamdani Bends the Knee - and the Problem with Left-Wing Antisemitism
According to Mamdani the initiative entails "investing millions in Jewish cultural centers and nonprofits" as well as bussing students to the Museum of Jewish Heritage. The high-level details are available in the report.
NYC already hosts two dedicated Holocaust Museums and 6 memorials, but the plan also "calls on the federal government to support Holocaust educational centers and museums in New York City, and to continue to support the large number of Holocaust survivors in NYC through existing federal programs. Additionally, the Mamdani administration supports federal legislative efforts to increase Holocaust educational programming." The plan also pledges $2 million capital investment in the design and construction of the Queens Holocaust Memorial.
The plan also includes a $2.5 capital investment in the Center for New Jewish Culture, a Jewish-dedicated private space. The plan also pledges additional NYPD resources for Jewish neighborhoods.
One of the fascinating aspects of this announcement is that it cites and then wildly misinterprets a passage from the Talmud:
The standard print versions of the Talmud, which Jews actually study, specify "mi-Yisrael" or the soul of a Jew. And this gets to the heart of the problem of left-wing antisemitism, especially with notorious left-wing commentators like Hasan Piker. They always denounce antisemitism in their diatribe against Israel. When in fact the right-Wing antisemites are correct that this is not only a problem with Israel, it is actually a problem with the way Jews politically and culturally organize in the United States. It leads to wildly inappropriate and disparate treatment of Jews in which they get all sorts of public funding and support for their dedicated spaces, combined with unlimited cultural veneration and educational propaganda.
This puts the left-wing antisemites in an impossible position, they are unwilling to admit that it's not just an Israel problem or a Netanyahu problem. The game they are trying to play is impossible, and trying to split those hairs just makes them get immediately bulldozed and subjugated in trying to defend themselves from the accusation of antisemitism.
If you're like me you've encountered Jews who were absolutely certain that Mamdani was going to bring Sharia to NYC and expel the Jews or something. Instead we just even more Jewish special treatment and taxpayer-financed privileges from the left-wing Israel critics who are completely in denial of the actual problem.
Huh, you're correct. It's right here, Sanhedrin 37a:
I have to admit that this is a pretty weird verse to cite. It's not particularly relevent to anything mentioned in the announcement. Seems like a plausible dogwhistle.
I get the sense that Mamdani has "cracked the code" so to speak of American politics. Helicopter money isn't enough. The politician must create a salient connection between himself, his political project, and the benefit to the people in the mind of the voter. Giving away 70,000 Met Opera tickets by lottery is, by any rational standard, retarded, but it will be more effective politically than subsidizing ticket prices or opera supply costs could ever be.
I disagree. The spectacle alone increased interest in opera, probably getting ~12mil views online across platforms. The lottery artificially makes opera appear more desirable, thus increasing interest further. So if opera is socially beneficial, a 70k ticket lottery is beneficial. And I’d say opera is socially beneficial for two reasons: (1) the selected emotions are higher and more pristine, (2) it trains delayed gratification and focus because there are only a few good moments of musicality and plot interest. How else can you train someone’s attention on one long point of focus for 4.5 hours today? You have a captive audience.
I mean, there's a reason that Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde is performed as a standalone piece. It's because the 4 hours in between is a waste of time.
I do hope that some intrepid young reporter asks Mamdani if he prefers Wagner to Mendelssohn. I wonder how many articles The Free Press could milk out of that.
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