I've got some suggestions!

One of my favorite books is The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India by Rodger Kamenetz. The book chronicles a journey by the first Jewish delegation to meet with the Dalai Lama. The rabbis involved come from different backgrounds. Some are more mystical than others, but each have important things to say. As a bonus, it's a thrilling adventure and you get to learn a little bit about Tibetan Buddhism. Also, Kamenetz is a beautiful writer.

Now, you mentioned "mysticism." So mysticism in Judaism often defaults to Kabbalah. Many Jews and Jewish denominations do not believe in Kabbalah. So keep that in mind. But of course, there are Jews who do believe in it. So certainly it should be discussed. Anyway, there's a lot of misinformation about Kabbalah out there, much of which spread by the Kabbalah Centre. Just as "Yoga" means something different to a Hindu and an American, so too does "Kabbalah" mean something different in Judaism than to an American. New-Age movements are inspired by ancient traditions, but it's best not to confuse them with the ancient traditions.

Anyway, much of Kabbalah derives from the Zohar. Daniel C. Matt is a wonderful scholar, and has a book with selections of the Zohar translated called Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment. He also has a book called The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism which presents translated primary sources to explain many concepts in Kabbalah. It's a pretty book, and a fun read. Also, here is a video of Daniel C. Matt speaking, just to give you a taste of who he is.

Daniel C. Matt's Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment has a forward by Rabbi Arthur Green. Green is a leader in Reconstructionist Judaism and Neo-Hasidism, and a scholar of Jewish mysticism. He has a book called Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition which outlines a liberal and panentheistic Judaism deriving from Hasidic Kabbalah. Green is a theologian while Matt is a scholar, so Green is presenting a cohesive spiritual view while Matt is simply presenting documents. Green's book is pretty short. I think some of his ideas are nice, but some of them didn't do anything for me. Maybe it's the kind of thing you'd like to check out.

Green's book is based on Hasidism which is a mystical Jewish movement which is derived from Lurianic Kabbalah. I have a few books on my reading list for Hasidism waiting to be read. Of what I've read, I greatly enjoyed Ellie Wiesel's Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of the Hasidic Masters. Wiesel's book is a collection of tales and descriptions of the different Hasidic leaders. Stories and the character of different leaders have been very important in Hasidism, so this is a good book to give you a feel of Hasidism. Many of the tales invoke a sense of ecstasy, love, and awe. There's also Martin Buber's Tales of the Hasidim, but I found it a little drier than Wiesel's book.

The Chabad is a well known Hasidic organization. Their website offers a lot of information on regular Jewish concepts, but they also have articles on a whole range of mysticism. Further, the Chabad also has a digital library with many books relevant to their Hasidic philosophy. Their website has a lot to offer, but I have some qualms about the Chabad and am wary to be overly reliant on them. Still, they're certainly a resource you should be aware of.

As /u/juden-shikker points out, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan is a great resource on meditation, Kabbalah, and mysticism. Further, Gershom Scholem is considered the father of academic study of Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism. Scholem has numerous books on a range of mystical topics in Judaism. Moshe Idel was a student of Scholem and in some ways a successor to him. Idel has published many works. Significantly, he has written on Abraham Abulafia and Prophetic Kabbalah (as opposed to Theosophical Kabbalah which is what most people saying, "Kabbalah," refer to). These authors would all serve as great resources for you.

If you're interested in more earth-based spirituality and feminist themes, Rabbi Jill Hammer has a website called Tel Shemesh devoted to these themes. She's also written a beautifully poetic book called The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons. For each day of the Jewish Year she quotes a verse from the Tanakh and a related quote from Midrash or Talmud. She then writes about the importance of that day in the Jewish Year or discusses a seasonally appropriate Jewish legend. It's interesting and beautifully written, however sometimes you have to take what she writes with a grain of salt. I also disagree with some of her sources. Still, though, she's a beautiful writer with something a little different to offer.

And finally there's Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Jewish Renewal. Gosh, what can one even say about Rabbi Zalman and Jewish Renewal? Some love them, some hate them. For some they're purely a phenomenon of one generation which is on its way out. Who knows? Maybe some of his works and the Jewish Renewal organization will be of some value to you. Also, Rabbi Zalman is one of the rabbis who traveled to meet the Dalai Lama in the first book I mentioned.

For the past few months I've been doing a lot of study on Jewish mysticism. So that's why I'm so ready and willing to throw books at you. I have other books as well, but the ones I've listed here give a wide variety of different views in Jewish mysticism and spirituality. Plus, I found all these ones to be pretty fun reads. Hope this could help!

If you're looking for something a little more niche I could recommend Making Jews Modern by Stein. It's about the advent of Yiddish and Ladino media culture in late 19th-early 20th century Europe. There's also Lithuanian Yeshivas of the Nineteenth Century by Stampfer it's pretty academic and detailed but it's a really interesting read on the development of the modern yeshiva system. There's the multi-volume Polin Studies in Polish Jewry series which is really great and covers practically every topic there is on the subject. Most of them can be found on Amazon as well. The Litvaks by Levin is a great work that covers the extensive history of Lithuanian Jewry with particular focus on the 18th century onward. Also check out practically any of the books available in the Yiddish Book Center's online store.

For the history of medicine, you can't beat the Clio Medica series. They're focused primarily on the period 1600-1900, though, which is probably not what you're looking for. Each volume contains a series of essays which take on a theme from multiple angles (I'm particularly fond of "British Military and Naval Medicine, 1600-1830"). The wide variety of niche topics addressed, the depth to which the topics are analyzed (a 50ish page treatise on the historical development of the truss comes to mind), and the fact that the essays are largely written by authors in the Humanities rather than doctors make this series my go-to source for medical history. Furthermore, the extensive bibliographic information accompanying each essay makes further research pretty easy.

Moving backwards towards Classical medical sources, I'd say an interesting bridge source for you might be the writings of Paracelsus, alchemist and surgeon (really a good place to get a feel for the transition from occult/magical ritual medical practice to the science of medicine that began in the Renaissance). Keep in mind that Paracelsus is an alchemist and writes about his experiments in a very abstract philosophical manner- you'll have to do a lot of work to interpret what he's saying in order to see the themes of medical/chemical/scientific inquiry develop. I think of him more as a philosopher of science/medicine than an actual scientific/medical authority.

The medical historian John Scarborough has written pretty extensively on the subject of the history of medicine in the Classical Mediterranean. If you have access to JSTOR, there are several articles written by him available which you might look into ("Roman Pharmacy and the Eastern Drug Trade" treats with the interplay of Far/Near/Middle-Eastern medicine with Roman medicine, could be a good jumping-off point for further study). I've also heard good things about his Roman Medicine.

For Middle-Eastern and Near-Eastern medicine, if you don't want to flounder around the ritual medicine contained in the mystical texts such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, you're probably going to want to look into the medical documents found in the Cairo Genizah, a collection of fragmentary Jewish texts concerning a vast variety of subjects. If you don't know ancient Hebrew/Arabic/Aramaic and aren't studying at Cambridge (where the collection is stored) see if your librarian can get ahold of Medical and Para-medical Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections or Medical Prescriptions in the Cambridge Genizah Collections: Practical Medicine and Pharmacology in Medieval Egypt.

Hope this helps!

My time has come!!

Websites:

YiddishPop - http://yiddishpop.com Requires Flash. This is a great resource. You should use it.

Yiddish Word of the Week Tumblr Archive http://yiddishwordoftheweek.tumblr.com/archive

Both Der Arbeterring and YIVO offer (paid) online classes.

Yiddish online dictionary lookup: http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish/dictionary.cgi

1000 Most Common Yiddish Words (haven't checked this list, can't vouch for its full accuracy) https://1000mostcommonwords.com/1000-most-common-yiddish-words/

Yiddish.biz http://yiddish.biz/ - This is a decent beginner resources but the learning material does have a few errors in it, so be careful.

http://www.yiddishculture.org/basiclesson/html1.htm

Another online Yiddish dictionary: http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/

Mango Languages has a Yiddish course that should be free to access through your local library.

Books:

The (Updated) Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-English-Yiddish-Dictionary-Gitl-Schaechter-Viswanath/dp/0253022827/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=yiddish+dictionary&qid=1557276655&s=gateway&sr=8-4 Ever wonder how to say "e-mail" in Yiddish? How about "transgender"? It's all in here.

Born to Kvetch - Michael Wex https://www.amazon.com/Born-Kvetch-Yiddish-Language-Culture-ebook/dp/B003J4VE0O/ref=sr_1_1?crid=MI2RSWY63K7S&keywords=born+to+kvetch+by+michael+wex&qid=1557275929&s=gateway&sprefix=born+to+kvet%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-1 Wex is one of the greats in the field

Yiddish: An Introduction - Sheva Zucker https://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Introduction-Language-Literature-Culture/dp/1877909661/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sheva+zucker+yiddish&qid=1557275966&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spell

College Yiddish - Uriel Weinrich https://www.amazon.com/College-Yiddish-Introduction-Language-Culture/dp/0914512269/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=college+yiddish&qid=1557275955&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Podcasts:

Vaybertaytsh - a feminist Yiddish podcast http://www.vaybertaytsh.com/

The Yiddish Book Center's The Schmooze https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/the-shmooze

Music:

Yiddish Princess https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thlOVsY-2TM&list=PL2CqZe779Hv8HDTb9633P9d9Q7qPXGwr1

Daniel Kahn (has a huge collection of songs both solo and with his band, including this Yiddish cover of Hallelujah: https://youtu.be/XH1fERC_504 )

Amalia Rubin's performance of Der Rebbe Elimelech on a Mongolian TV talent show: https://youtu.be/ANVa-Jh1dMg

More if I think of any later.

EDIT BECAUSE I SOMEHOW FORGOT the online comedy duo YidLife Crisis, including the Greatest Episode Ever guest starring Mayim Bialik: https://youtu.be/A2QlWFSakaM

Not exactly, see below. The short answer is the ten commandments.

If you want a REALLY good primer on Jewish values, beliefs, and thoughts, take a look at the following:

Jewish Wisdom

Jewish Literacy

Jewish Values

A Code of Jewish Ethics

Chaim Halevi Donin's books

Between R. Telushkin and R. Donin you will get a very comprehensive intro to Judaism. I have personally read at least 6 of the 9 or so books posted here, and have found both to be exceptionally well written and informative. R. Telushkin is a personal favorite of mine, and I think he nails it every time, not only in terms of accuracy and quality of writing, but in making it actually enjoyable to read. Aka, when I sit down with one of his books, I will clear easily 600 to 800 pages a day.

Hope that helps!

Although there exists Judaism (the religion) and the Jewish people (the ethnic group descended from Israelites and Hebrews), the Jewish people are also often called an "ethnoreligious group" because their identity and history are seen as strongly interrelated with their religion (its contents and history). For example, Boyarin - Orthodox Jew and historian of religion - argues the following:

>Jewishness disrupts the very categories of identity, because it is not national, not genealogical, not religious, but all of these, in dialectical tension with one another.

The interrelation between the two and the term "Jew" is ancient. Per the Encyclopedia Judaica:

>After the destruction of Israel only Judah remained, and the term “Yehudi,” or “Jew,” then lost its specific connection with the Southern Kingdom. This is strikingly illustrated in Esther 2:5, 5:13, where Mordecai, although belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, is called a Yehudi. This term was also utilized at that time for the Jewish religion since it is related that, after Haman’s downfall, many from among the people of the land converted to Judaism (mityahadim, Esth.8:17). The term “Jew” connoted by this time a religious, political, and national entity, without differentiation between these categories.

The definition of Jew it provides is halakhic, which is how "Jew" is historically determined:

>Halakhic Definition

>Both a child born of Jewish parents and a convert to Judaism are considered Jews, possessing both the sanctity of the Jewish people (Ex. 19:6) and the obligation to observe the commandments [...]

---

Regarding halakhah, Dorff explains:

>Halakhah, the word used to refer to Jewish law, comes from the Hebrew root meaning “to walk” or “to go”; this indicates that Jewish law prescribes a path through life, detailing what an individual should and should not do, according to divine commandments (∗mitzvot) as they have been interpreted and applied by legal scholars throughout the ages.

>Halakhah occupies a central place in Jewish identity. Although theological convictions define Jewish understandings of ∗God, humanity, the ∗environment, and the relationships among them, Judaism has never defined itself in terms of official creeds. Instead, the focus is on actions. At the same time, ∗Judaism, in general, and Jewish norms of conduct, in particular, are not defined exclusively by halakhah. Stories, proverbs, ∗prayers, ∗thought, history, and ethical and theological convictions all shape how Jews understand themselves and determine how they should act [...]

>Now that Jews are citizens of the countries in which they live, they are governed by the state in civil and criminal matters. This means that individual Jews must determine for themselves how much authority halakhah will have in other areas of their lives. This has led to great diversity in Jewish practice and in Jewish interpretations of the ongoing authority of halakhah. Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform ∗Judaisms differ on these issues, within denominations as well as with the other movements.

---

The question of who is a Jew is a big question. See also what Encyclopedia of Judaism compiled by Karesh and Hurvitz has to say:

>The term Jew was first used as a reference to anyone who came from ERETZ YISRAEL (the Land of Israel) during the first EXILE in BABYLONIA. Prior to the exile these people were referred to as Bnei Yisrael, Children of Israel, emphasizing the lineage to the PATRIARCHS. Since those who remained and returned after the first Exile descended mostly from the tribe of JUDAH, whose territory had abutted JERUSALEM, they came to be known as Jews (Neh 1:2). During the time of the Greeks and Romans, and the second Exile beginning in 70 C.E., those whose ancestors came from Eretz Yisrael became known as ioudaios, or Jews.

Regarding Jewish identity,

>The question of Jewish identity in the modern world is complex, involving not just a person’s religious beliefs and affiliation but also his or her cultural and national identity. As the modern world became more secular, so too did the Jews (see ACCOMODATION; ASSIMILATION; MODERNITY). ORTHODOX JUDAISM defines Jewish identity fairly simply: anyone who was born to a Jewish mother or who observes Jewish law (HALAKHAH) is Jewish. In this traditional realm, it is clear that a Jew is a person who participates in Jewish rituals and believes in the tenets of the Jewish tradition.

>Yet many people in the modern world think of themselves as Jews even though they reject the binding nature of Jewish law, as has occurred in REFORM JUDAISM and RECONSTRUCTIONIST JUDAISM, and even if they do not affiliate with any Jewish religious movement at all. The issue becomes one of group identification and self-identification: how people perceive themselves, and how the family, school, and Jewish community impact the development of a person’s identity as a child and
into adulthood.

>Orthodox and Conservative institutions only recognize a person as a Jew if he or she has a Jewish mother or has formally converted to Judaism. Reform Judaism considers a person a Jew even if only the father is Jewish and the person is raised as a Jew. This creates tensions between the movements regarding Jewish identity [...]

>Mordecai KAPLAN, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, defined Judaism not as a religion, but as a civilization, with its own land, language, laws, sanctions, art, and social structure. Kaplan felt that religion was but one aspect of Jewish identity, and the Jew in the modern world seems to agree, finding myriad ways to be Jewish inside and outside of religious life.

---

For illustration, according to the Pew Research Center,

>Nearly all Jews in the United States and Israel say they are proud to be Jewish, and large majorities in both countries say they feel a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people. But the two Jewish communities do not always agree about what it means to be Jewish, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of religion in Israel (compared with our 2013 survey of U.S. Jews) [...]

>The notion that a person can be Jewish even without observing the Sabbath or believing in God may be tied to the idea held by many Jews that being Jewish is more about ancestry or culture than about religion. Indeed, a plurality of Jews in Israel (55%) and a majority in the U.S. (62%) say this is the case for them personally, although 23% in each country say their Jewish identity is about religion and ancestry/culture equally.

I have been reading this thread and can clearly tell you are incredibly biased and are confirmation biasing your way into absurd positions and conclusions that go against basic reason and established historical facts.

Before you start making assumptions about the actions of any governments please read this short introduction to International Relations, it costs just $1.80.

http://www.amazon.com/International-Relations-Introduction-M-Nicholson/dp/0814758223/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377495650&sr=1-12&keywords=Introduction+to+international+relations


People's naive idealism, when it comes to how governments "should" act, while good intentioned, are not based on any reality that will insure the security or quality of life of a country 20,40,60 years down the line.

If you actually care about not sounding like an ill informed idealist and you actually care about making sure America or your own country is acting just, you will read this introduction or any other introduction to International Relations. Then and only then can your good intentions be a force that actually make governments behave more ethically.

While I only have one B.S., I graduated with around 300 quarter credits (out of 180 required) since I took so many extra quantitative/science classes. Ended up being helpful for finding a job, too (my B.S. is in econ). We're in a somewhat similar boat there.

I don't know the specific study, but there is certainly evidence of birth in prehistoric populations. Probably not much that isn't either H. sapiens or H. neanderthalensis though, since remains before then are much more poorly preserved and hard to come by. But just based on morphology, it's obvious that there was enormous selective pressure on pelvis shape, and that's corroborated by bioarchaeological evidence showing maternal mortality.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7998600

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.1330490114/abstract

And some full articles

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/da8ctkzdwld8h8a,g0nhbi6oppog8i8/shared

I haven't read this in particular, but am reading another one of the author's edited volumes, and I'm sure this is a good summary of all evidence bearing on evolutoin and chilbirth

http://www.amazon.com/Reproductive-Evolution-Evolutionary-Foundations-Behavior/dp/0202306585/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407463274&sr=8-1&keywords=peter+ellison+ecology

I'm actually not all that read up on retinotopy and spatial cognition, although I'm taking a cogneuro seminar this autumn, so I won't have a choice soon.

Looking at bones isn't really all that much fun to me. I've done it, but lab monkey work is not my favorite. Although you've got to put in the time, secondary and tertiary research is far more theoretically interesting, because it can be so much broader in scope.

If you're getting an MBA, just get rich and fund a research center to do research on hybridization. It's definite in vogue. That's the kind of research that gets you to the front page of reddit, unlike boring spatial mapping of auditory perception. At least not without intense sensationalization: "Brain Imaging Study Proves Chimpanzees Prefer Classical Music over Jazz."

I spent a good part of the day reading Christine Hayes' "What's Divine About Divine Law?" It's a fascinating work on the conflict between the Greco-Roman and early rabbinical definitions of divine law.

Amazon: http://smile.amazon.com/Whats-Divine-about-Law-Perspectives/dp/069116519X/

You should definitely celebrate/participate in more holidays. It's important, enriching and community-binding. Besides the RJ site, My Jewish Learning is another great site to check out.

If you'd prefer books, there's Seasons Of Our Joy and The Jewish Way (not Reform).

You can always start celebrating more today, literally.

Right now I'm reading Unsettled, by Melvin Konner. I'm not sure how much cultural things count, but it's a thing I'm studying.

My last book before that was The Grammar of God by Aviya Kushner, which I found super interesting since I'm busy power-studying liturgical Hebrew.

Mostly, that's what I study. Hebrew. I have an excellent teacher and we meet via phone on Wednesday nights to study for a few hours. I'm kind of proud to say that in six months time, I went from having zero knowledge to being able to read, pronounce, and understand the Four Questions (with vowels, but no transliteration). I mean, I know it's for kids, but the reason it's for kids is because it's a primer for learning...or...maybe the other way around...? Point is, I can read sentences, I can pronounce things decently, and I can even recognize a few unfamiliar words without vowels.

I'm reading from the Torah for the first time in June and feeling...okay about it.

>I am so fucking hungover dude and now I gotta read your wall of text bullshit at fucking 2 in the morning. Whiny cunt.

Nice start, 15 lines ain't a wall, only for you hominoidea.

>Ok, assuming your assertion is accurate and backed up (Race Realism tires me greatly),why does that literally matter for anything? At all?

It matters about virtually everything, as for wealth/education levels to criminality/birth out of wedlock, intelligence is a great predictor, which seems you don't have much. For pisa and timss for example the correlation is around 0.8.

>STUDIES SAY SO BUT I AIN'T GONNA LINK SHIT.

Since you can't search for shit, here goes:

Heritability IQ

Heritability IQ Wiki

Bell Curve

IQ and Global Inequality

A Study of Jewish Intelligence and Achievement

More about Jews

Blacks commit more violent crimes and poverty isn't correlated:

Truth about crime

A little bit of Harris

>'THESE ANIMALS ARE GONNA BREED AND WE GOTTA LEAVE THEM IN FILTH' That is what you said, dude. In fact, I would respect you more if you just came out and said it, or retracted your prior statement, not become a whiny cunt when someone treats you at the same level as your (repugnant) statements.

First world people aren't responsible for the chaos and irresponsibility by african adults. Africa had 200 million people at the start of 1900, now it's 1.216 billion and it's still sky rocketing. They need to become self-sustainable without european aid.

>That statement pisses me off, I've seen it kicked around ad nauseum, as if when people say that 'all men are born equal', they're like 'WELL ASCHTUALLY, WE ARE BIOLOGICALLY DIFFERENTTT'. No fuckwad, that's not what such a sentiment means. It means that, regardless, everybody should be treated with a baseline of respect and dignity. No more, no less.

Never said people needed to lose their natural rights, aid isn't a natural right.

>GUESS FUCKING WHY? IT AIN'T BECAUSE THEY'RE 'THE SUPERIOR INTELLECTUAL RACE', IT'S BECAUSE THOSE ARE FIRST WORLD CIVILIZATIONS WHO DON'T SHIT IN A TROUGH. That is why people get frustrated with you as an individual, because you're dense. Abjectly dense.

You need a smart population to maintain good institutions and have professions, which requires higher cognitive abilities.

>Refer to the above. But regardless, keeping them in poor conditions won't stop any suffering. I abjectly fail to see your amazing solution to this issue. 'IF WE KEEP THEM IN POVERTY, THEY'LL JUST DIE OUT OR SOMETHING'. Nope, they'll just continued to be impoverished and continue to have more dying kids. Good job.

Lack in food supply would force african parents to considerate their number of children and their capability to feed them, like any adult needs. Also, there is no duty to send aid and most of the aid is stolen by the african elite.

>Stop spreading bullshit. Abject bullshit.

The demographics of Africa only exploded because of european technology and aid, if that stabilises is another story, regardles, there is no duty to give aid.

>GUESS FUCKING WHY? IT AIN'T BECAUSE THEY'RE 'THE SUPERIOR INTELLECTUAL RACE', IT'S BECAUSE THOSE ARE FIRST WORLD CIVILIZATIONS WHO DON'T SHIT IN A TROUGH. That is why people get frustrated with you as an individual, because you're dense. Abjectly dense.

They have higher intelligence and intelligent people tend to have less children and invest more on them.

>I dislike your assertion that, because I share an ideology, we are somehow comparable. Or I should have 'x, y and z' beliefs. Eat a dick.

Because antinatalists rely on human nature and evolution to support their claims, but there will be always people like you in any political spectrum.


Cheers.








>

> That’s a serious reach. And a bit of a pathetic one. Don’t accuse me of condoning or endorsing antisemitism because I’m not on the AIPAC train. So if you need clarity, here it is: you’re way off the fucking mark. And I do take that bullshit personally and seriously.

I literally laid out what she said and you said it wasn't a problem "when it comes to AIPAC". Don't blame me for what you said.

> Your apparent concern that I don’t support AIPAC or Israel’s government seems to have resulted in you missing that I’ve made stark differentiations between those and the people.

Literally no one is claiming you conflate the two. I'm pointing out that you're fine with trafficking in antisemitic tropes.

She could not have been referring to AIPAC "paying off" Congress, because AIPAC cannot make these payments as a matter of law. She used it as a stand-in for Jews.

> It’s not a “non answer”. It’s just an answer you don’t like. It would be the same as yelling “islamophobia” at people who disagree with CAIR, which I’m sure you would be able to figure out

If I said CAIR was paying off members of Congress to support Palestinians, it would be the same thing. I'd be using CAIR as a stand-in for Muslims, because CAIR literally cannot be making those payments. I'd be identifying them based on one thing: their Muslim identity.

That's bigotry.

>foreignpolicyjournal

1. You are now linking to a source (not to be confused with Foreign Policy) that hosts 9/11 truthers claiming the US perpetrated and/or covered up 9/11. The author you cite claims it's a problem to have dual citizenship (though not illegal, he assures us), and only singles out Jewish-Americans in his piece beyond the first paragraph. He's literally claiming Jewish-Americans could be loyal to Israel despite serving in the US Congress. That's the guy you're quoting. On a website run by a dude who himself thinks 9/11 was an inside job.
   
   
2. $3 million for annual lobbying is "considerable resources"? Does this dude know anything? The Open Society Policy Center, an anti-Israel and left-wing group run by George Soros, spent $31 million in 2018. If someone claimed that they "bought off" Ilhan Omar, I'd sure as fuck call them out too. What a stupid argument.
   
   
3. Directing funding to candidates is really not determinative of...anything. $14 million was donated nationwide along those lines in 2018. The top recipient was Bob Menendez, with just $546k in 2018. He spent over $13 million on his campaign in 2018. That means less than 5% of his money came from pro-Israel sources. You really think that's what convinced him of anything?
   
   >The Israel Lobby
   
   Oh good, more quoting antisemites to justify antisemitism!
   
   John Mearsheimer wrote a book defending and endorsing a Hitler apologist and Holocaust denier. Stephen Walt backed him up.
   
   He also endorsed Ron Unz, who runs a white supremacist website.
   
   Their book is riddled with factual errors, as historian Benny Morris (considered one of the best historians on the Arab-Israeli conflict out there) points out. They repeatedly cite Morris, who wrote:
   
   > Like many pro-Arab propagandists at work today, Mearsheimer and Walt often cite my own books, sometimes quoting directly from them, in apparent corroboration of their arguments. Yet their work is a travesty of the history that I have studied and written for the past two decades. Their work is riddled with shoddiness and defiled by mendacity.
   
   An entire book length response points out all of its errors.
   
   Every assertion made there has no factual information behind it, just claims.
   
   >The New Yorker
   
   AIPAC didn't have to "persuade" anyone. Congress opposed it because in 2011 Americans were about 4x as likely to support Israel as the Palestinians. 63% of Americans supported Israel, while only 17% supported the Palestinians. That's still the case today.
   
   Saying AIPAC bought off politicians is different from saying they convinced people, too. Stop conflating the two. For someone so particular about differentiations, you're really bad at answering anything I say without conflating things.
   
   > They lobby. It’s what they do. And yes, they use money just like other lobby groups. Yes, they’re powerful and yes they have a blatant agenda. If that’s inconvenient, then I’m not sure what to say. Sorry? Are you actually surprised that people who don’t like the Israeli governments actions against Gaza and Palestine would be critical of AIPAC? Or is it just easier to call them antisemitic because it’s an easy way to rationalize the disbelief that people wouldn’t support it?
   
   I'm sorry, are you surprised that people using antisemitic stereotypes you're trying to paper over are disliked and criticized, like Ilhan Omar is?
   
   Are you upset that Americans support Israel because they don't like the Palestinian policy of paying salaries to terrorists for rewards for killing Jews?
   
   Do you really think it's fine to claim that the only reason America supports Israel in Congress is because AIPAC "pays off" politicians, instead of because Americans support Israel, which they see as an ally?
   
   Stop trying to find ways to excuse antisemitism by relying on the words of 9/11 truthers, antisemites, and apologists for Holocaust deniers. Jesus.

I'm just gunna jump in here and provide a summary of this absolute gem of a video. Rollo speaks with a conservative Rabbi in an effort to anchor his belief that his white Anglo Christian Masculinity is somehow biblically grounded.

Instead the Rabbi tells him that unlike Greek/Roman/Christian masculintity which is focused on the material/body, Jewish masculintity is focused on the intellect and spirit. In otherwords they are diametrically opposed. This very important point is glossed if not completely ignored.

However this last point is very important for the men here at Red Pill. Jewish women were so jealous at being exuded from the deeper parts of religious study that they ran off and started their own religion called: Feminism.

No sense of humour? What about freedom of expression?
My Grandparents didn't go through the holocaust for you to tell me what I can and can't find funny, /u/flyonthewall. I recommend you do some research on the role of humour for Jews during and after the holocaust.
For example this paper by Yad V'ashem (Israel's central holocaust memorial) http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/conference/2004/55.pdf
or this book by Steve Lipman: http://www.amazon.com/Laughter-Hell-Humor-During-Holocaust/dp/1568211120
I hope you realise that telling a Jew not to tell holocaust jokes is about as offensive as you walking up to an African American and telling them that they can't use the N word.

Please read Norman Finkelstein's book Holocaust Industry!!! He is the most prominent living scholar on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Raul Hilberg endorsed Dr. Finkelstein's book "with specific regard" for showing that the money claimed to be owed by Swiss banks to Holocaust survivors was greatly exaggerated. Our unwavering support of Israel's defenses is a racket. The Holocaust Industry is a racket! Do not think I am saying the holocaust didn't happen. There is a major difference. Despite being endorsed by the preeminent scholar on the conflict, Dr. Finkelstein was defamed because of his unrelenting commitment to the truth.

I highly recommend everyone familiarizes themselves with Norman Finkelstein's work if you're interested in the Israel-Palestine conflict!

Further viewing :)

I read this book by Howard Sachar in a course I took in college, though it covers the era immediately preceding the foundations of the modern state of Israel. It seemed pretty fair to me, but then I grew up in an evangelical Christian household where Israel could do no wrong. He also wrote a book about the modern state. While I haven't read it, it does look promising.

This looks like another good one and probably has a better mix of Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. Pricey, though :(.

If you want a good 10,000-foot view of it all the way to modern Judaism I would recommend one of these if you are interested in learning more:

1. Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice
   by Michael Satlow
   
2. A Short History of the Jewish People: From Legendary Times to Modern Statehood Paperback by Raymond P. Scheindlin
   
   Satlow also has a good podcast called "From Israelite to Jew" you can listen to for a decent, and brief overview, his book is really the follow-up to that.
   

Also - does anyone know if this is good?

This is a good book

A code of Jewish Ethics, Volume 1 and 2 by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Jewish-Ethics-Shall-Holy/dp/1400048354

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Jewish-Ethics-Neighbor-Yourself/dp/1400048362/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Thoughts on this book?

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Jewish-Ethics-Volume-Shall/dp/1400048354

Its estimated that 30% of American Buddhists are Jewish. That's even mentioned in the book cited in that story, A Jew in the Lotus.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/2520948

The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India (Plus) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061367397/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1Dq7AbCDA7Q4T