Shmuley Boteach, the naive genius who never learns
A typical US Jew, he keeps believing in these idols even when all betrayed him
One probably needs to be born in the US to understand Boteach’s name-dropping and the whole ego circus about worshipping celibates. In my native Dutch, we have different words for an idol who is an idolized person (idool), and an idol that is an inanimate or animal false god (afgod).
Rabbi Boteach embraces one amazing idol after the other, even when they drop him one after the other. So many examples I can name by heart:
● Michael Jackson. Did Boteach really think he was going to give up on molesting boys? Of course not. Why would he? Rejecting Boteach’s therapy ideas was so much easier. Probably until today, he never grasped that all his sweet ‘spiritual’ talk was just a cover of a serial child molester.
● Cory Booker. Boteach was so surprised to find an intelligent, ambitious, Afro-American willing to co-lead with him. But, of course, he dropped him. What was he gaining from being associated with Boteach?
● Christian leaders. Not to be confused with the average Christian, who is often idealistic, principled, and honest. Boteach converses with Christian leaders refusing to abandon proselytizing Jews. Somehow, he must reason that if he smiles enough at them, they won’t want to finish Hitler’s work.
● Donald Trump. A Gentile who would support Jews and Israel. All make-belief. He encouraged Neo-Nazis and Antisemitism. His ‘peace process’ was just to make money. His Jerusalem embassy move was just on paper. He curtailed Netanyahu no less than George Bush Jr. restricted Ariel Sharon. But he didn’t even recognize being betrayed when Trump dropped all civility and truthfulness and started to work to become the Sun King of the USA. He pleaded with the GOP to abandon its obsession with sex as if that would purify a party of reactionary robbers of the working class. He declared many reactionaries to hold Jewish values and awarded them.
● Dr. Oz. How wonderful a Muslim who wants the friendship of a Jew. Well, in fact, before Turkey started to glide toward a dictatorship, Turks were almost as Jew-friendly as Moroccan Muslims. But this one too betrayed his trust. He used Jewish money to try and get elected while denying the Turks their right to democracy and the Armenian genocide.
Why do all these celebrities drop him? You could say: Antisemitism. And you would be right. But they didn’t drop me. They could drop him because he’s naïve. Many Americans are naïve enough to vote for Trump. Many a Jew is naïve enough to believe in the charms of powerful Gentiles, only to be dropped when it suits them. There is nothing new under the sun.
A tree is known by its fruit. Only this tree has quite a variety of produce, so please don’t judge the trunk after one helping.
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