A Male Feminist Arises, Quivers, Fires and Says, ‘What a Good Boy Am I’

Noting that he has encountered 4 physically ravishing but frustrated ladies of fading age in recent days, The Fellow opens his argument this way:

“I know too many beautiful, brilliant single Jewish women in their 30s and 40s.

“A slim, passionate Hollywood executive pushing 40 who simply, desperately, still seeks the elusive nice Jewish guy. A brilliant doctor with a runner’s body, who, at 44, still can’t find ‘the one.’ A writer who asks me to keep my eye out for any Israelis new to town because she figures she’s dated most of the native Jews. A marketing executive who has given up on finding the right Jewish man: ‘If it happens, it happens.’”

Although The Fellow has a deserved reputation for contorting himself into philosophical pretzels to draw attention to himself, from my reading of his work, this appears to be his authentically derived conviction.

Basis for His Shaky Thinking

The Fellow is, above all identities, a feminist. The hardheaded kind that professes, “Men are bad, women are doomed to be their victims.”

He belongs to the segment of political society whose first wakening thought each morning is, “I am a victim — and if not, how can I become one?”

In marrying a woman rabbi a few years ago, The Fellow clinched his liberal credentials, socially, politically and religiously. He may not have drawn a politically incorrect breath since he and the rabbi, a nice lady in her own right, wed.

Paying for Motherly Gaffes

I am convinced it never occurred to The Fellow that the women — likely by design — placed themselves in the supposedly untenable position they now complain about.

In the 1970s, their misguided mothers formed the first generation of American feminists who lived by the motto, “Men Bad, Women Victims.”

They taught their daughters the world had inherently wronged all non-men throughout history, that they could flip civilization upside down, that in a single bound they could catch and surpass men professionally, and then, if they felt like it, they could marry and have children. There always would be time.

Oops. The old girls miscalculated, by a bunch.

And now their daughters are receipting for the breezy arrogance of their mothers.

Insight? What Is That?

As for The Fellow, he displays not a lick of insight in his Jewish Journal essay, only a one-way weeping heart. His essay is amateurishly constructed around the long-ago discredited thesis of “Men Bad, Women Victims.”

With one swatch of his disappointingly incurious pen, The Fellow runs the gauntlet of political correctness. He sprints to his feel-good solution —Marry anybody you want, girls. Getting you pregnant trumps all considerations — by addressing the assessments of two rabbis. He knocks and mocks the first rabbi who says “Stay Jewish by following the tradition.” He finds encouragement in the second rabbi. As a modern rather than a traditional Jew, the second rabbi becomes a hero to The Fellow because he equivocates. You will find the answer you need if you consult enough rabbis, priests, imams, ministers.

Of Liberals and Monkeys

With this latest essay, The Fellow renews my conviction that standing on the sidelines, watching ultra-orthodox political liberals blindly twist themselves into sad positions, is more entertaining than going to the zoo to see monkeys inadvertently clowning around. The monkeys have an excuse.

The first fundamental error is that the weighty subject of intermarriage has been undertaken by a presumably well-intentioned but ill-qualified, let’s-all-feel-good person. Instead of activating his mind, being a liberal, he reaches for his heartstrings.

Precautions Against Extinction

In addition to being perhaps the oldest religion extant, Judaism is the smallest. Judaism is a religious tradition of laws. As an infitesimally tiny group of people, it has inveighed against dating, and thus marrying, non-Jews. I believe all religions do.

Judaism’s predicament as an undersized culture and religion is a permanent condition that dates from the biblical days of Abraham.

Standing Guard Against Converting Out

In the last 3300 years, Jews have been criticized, both from within and without, for being a stiff-necked people who jealously guard their insularity. Unlike many other religious traditions, only rarely and briefly has Judaism ever sanctioned proselytizing. The last time was 13 centuries ago by a sect that shortly vanished.

Never, though, has Judaism encouraged interdating, which, as any dumbbell will attest, leads to intermarriage and therefore divided, doomed families. You know, the “let-the- children-decide-for-themselves-when-they-are older” syndrome. No one who is serious about his religion intermarries. This is a plump thesis so philosophically pregnant that not even cyberspace has enough room to contain it.

In a sensible world, The Fellow’s opinions on serious topics usually would be meritless. However, as the editor of the only Jewish newspaper of consequence for thousands of miles, he holds one of the major communication forums in Los Angeles.

The Fellow Commands Their Attention

Throughout its 20-year history, The Jewish Journal has been scorned by religious Jews. However, it is regarded by media and by the greater world as a serious reflection of the pulse of the second largest Jewish community in America.

Never mind that for many committed Jews in Los Angeles, The Fellow and his colleagues at The Jewish Journal are regarded roughly in the way that Martin Luther has been seen by the Catholic Church for nearly 500 years.

What Do the Intermarried Care?

None of this prologue matters to the body of casual Jews who enthusiastically support the newspaper. Many of them, not incidentally, are intermarried themselves. Scandalously, marrying Christian girls has been the shushed-up rage among prominent Los Angeles Jewish activists for decades.

We are discussing the historically taboo subject of intermarriage this morning — normally an in-house debate — because it also should be of deep concern to religious persons of every stripe.

Another Jew’s religious beliefs normally would be of scant interest. The exception is when that Jew is in a position of wide influence and chooses to expectorate, impishly, upon the tradition.

I Am Embarrassed for Them

Surely it is humiliating for The Fellow’s wife, a rabbi, and his children, to read his suicidal conclusion:

“Yes, marry Jewish is the ideal. Dating Jewish is the ideal. But what our inability to find creative solutions gets us is a massive group of single women who are facing their 40s childless.”

Going to the Source

My friends, you remember what God said: “If it feels good, do it.” How do I know that? It is written on page 14 of The Fellow’s “Men Bad, Women Victims” handbook.