Whither Jewcy?
Hipster Judaica outfit and New York City entertainment collective Jewcy has fallen out with web services provider Koret Communications, resulting in the termination of a business relationship which had rebranded Koret’s popular Internet publication Jewsweek as a Jewcy product. When it launched just four months ago, the site was received with much fanfare in the Jewish blogosphere with some even suggesting the project could rival its print competitor Heeb magazine. However, as of this writing, the Jewcy.com domain is parked at Network Solutions and Jewsweek.com now carries the magazine’s previous title and headmast.
Though both parties claim it has no pertinence to their split, the breakup comes on the heels of a mini-controversy sparked by Koret Communications CEO and interim Jewcy editor-in-chief Reuven Koret involving the publication of an editorial by Koret to the Jewcy website which indicated a direct correlation between the recent tragedy in New Orleans and Israel’s evacuation of the Gaza Strip. In a moment of horrifying insouciance, the article, entitled “An Eye For An Eye,” states “Bush had his roadmap. Katrina had hers.”
Koret, who also publishes israelinsider and is the outsourced manager of the birthright israel website, regularly provides a platform for such incideniary views on his websites. A recent article on israelinsider by Nadia Matar, the leader of the right-wing faction Women In Green, advocated that — in the build-up to the disengagement — Gush Katif settlers should sabotage Israeli military vehicles. When readers took issue in the comment thread following the article, Koret personally defended Matar’s remarks. Koret has also provided Noam Federman, attributed as the leader of Kahanist movement in the West Bank town of Hebron, with a venue to promote his troubling views, despite Federman’s organization being listed as a terrorist group by the United States Department of Justice, as well as his own repeated arrests by the Israeli government for terror-related activites.
Koret defends these actions by claiming to provide an open forum for all views, peppering his site with moderate liberal viewpoints on occassion and thus maintaining a semblance of balance. To our inquiry Koret responded, “Jewsweek will continue to operate at Jewsweek.com with the same iconoclastic agenda it has always had, equally willing to knock down sacred cows right and left, welcoming well-written features and opinions on subjects of Jewish interest from — almost — every perspective.” Particularly that of radical right-wingers.
Asked for the organization’s stance towards Koret’s editorial, Jewcy co-founder Jon Steingart remarked, “We were shocked by the insensitivity of the piece and immediately demanded that he take it down.” Steingart claims he was unaware of Koret’s political leanings when the two partnered, and that Koret’s services were chosen due to his sterling reputation in the Jewish professional world. “We entered into business with Reuven Koret based on his good standing in the Jewish community, having created and managed websites for organizations like birthright israel. It was never our intention to have Jewcy used as an ideological platform.”
In the end, however, it was the Jewcy site itself which came down, and Koret’s piece remains the lead story on the now-resurrected Jewsweek. Steingart confirms that, “We have terminated our business relationship with Reuven Koret,” but, “for legal reasons, I cannot divulge more about that.”
Koret offers that “editorial content is not the main issue in dispute,” and that “redirecting the Jewcy.com domain to Network Solutions over the weekend was not my doing.” He adds, “I continue to hope that fences can be mended with my partners at Jewcy, and am actively working to that end.”
[Update] Read Reuven Koret’s response here.
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The editorials at Jewsweek are about 80% right wing likudnik leaning. It just appears to be an attempt to get more liberal leaners to read right wing columnists by including some celebrity journalism, and articles about sex.
Forget whether or not the writers on Jewsweek are Likudnik, what really matters is that they’re batshit crazy. I had to read “An Eye for an Eye” and “Katrina and Katif: some connections to consider” twice before I realized that they weren’t straightfaced satire (“The obvious: ‘Katrina’ sounds very similar to ‘Katif’.”). I may be no fan of Likud, but I think most Likudniks are at least a bit more politic about this sort of thing.
i liked it better when it was jewsweek. seems less flaky.
And so yet another Jewish entity is gobbled up by the extreme right, who represent only a tiny minority of Jews in any generation.
I sometimes wonder whether the rest of us should maybe secede from these frothing-at-the-mouth types who have increasingly come to define Jewishness, to the world, as yet another form of fundamentalist barbarian tribalism. Maybe call ourselves Mosaics, recalling both our greatest prophet and the notion of a *mosaic* in which diverse perspectives and approaches come together to form a harmonious whole, rather than a pitch-black monolith.
over the years Koret has allowed a number of right wing nutballs to publish on his sites
I don’t see what the big deal is here. Why is a site “gobbled up by the extreme right” if it publishes a few right wing pieces? Why can’t we tolerate anything that doesn’t subscribe to our views?
I could be wrong, but I believe Jewsweek’s opinions section more or less depends on people sending stuff in. If 80% of the people sending stuff in are right wing, then that’s how the section is going to look.
I’m sick of people claiming they have an open mind and want to see diversity (and that other self-righteous shit that sounds good but no one really means) and then writing off anything that actually presents views they don’t see elsewhere.
What a bunch of posers and phonies.
The original post conflates israel insider and jewsweek – there is a reason for the two seperate websites. And in typical leftie fashion, it attacks people based on their political affiliation rather than for what they actually say.
Among the regular contributors to Israel Insider are respected political commentators such as Elyakim Ha’Etzni, Caroline Glick, and others.
This post and many of the comments reek of left/liberal intolerance. Sorry folks – it’s clear that a plurality of Israelis don’t agree with Meretz and Shinui. It’s equally clear than anyone who wants a real reading of the Israeli zeitgeist has to listen to people with beards and kippahs on their heads.
Get used to it.
I don’t see what the big deal is here. Why is a site “gobbled up by the extreme right” if it publishes a few right wing pieces? Why can’t we tolerate anything that doesn’t subscribe to our views?
i’m sorry tuna. next time an extremist advocates sabotaging israeli military vechicles, thereby endangering the lives of israeli soldiers, let alone wasting israeli and american tax dollars, i’ll turn the other way. because, you know, it’s wholly acceptable to advocate endangering the lives of israeli soldiers. that’s a viewpoint that should most certainly be tolerated.
and next time an islamic sheikh gives a sermon from the temple mount calling for the murder of jews and the destruction of israel, i’ll turn a blind eye and not give a fuck, because, you know, when noam federman directs the same vitriol towards palestinians from a jewish website funded in part by monies earned from major jewish philanthropies, it’s an acceptable and tolerable viewpoint.
just a quick question — what the fuck are you smoking?
I could be wrong, but I believe Jewsweek’s opinions section more or less depends on people sending stuff in. If 80% of the people sending stuff in are right wing, then that’s how the section is going to look.
except there’s such a thing as an editor. and when jewsweek was under ben cohen’s editorial control, it looked much more diverse than it has in the last four months.
I’m sick of people claiming they have an open mind and want to see diversity (and that other self-righteous shit that sounds good but no one really means) and then writing off anything that actually presents views they don’t see elsewhere.
we do see these views somewhere else: arutz sheva and the jewish press.
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The original post conflates israel insider and jewsweek – there is a reason for the two seperate websites. And in typical leftie fashion, it attacks people based on their political affiliation rather than for what they actually say.
jewsweek, israelinsider and birthright israel all constantly swap content. if you look at jewsweek currently, a vast amount of its content is pulled directly from israelinsider. reuven koret is a content provider. he sells back-ends with content feeds to jewish non-profits which he customizes with a front-end specific to that organization. they’re just different fronts for the same propaganda mill.
This post and many of the comments reek of left/liberal intolerance. Sorry folks – it’s clear that a plurality of Israelis don’t agree with Meretz and Shinui. It’s equally clear than anyone who wants a real reading of the Israeli zeitgeist has to listen to people with beards and kippahs on their heads.
that’s why the majority of israelis — who are secular and have glaring contempt for the religious minority — favored the pullout. because the datim are the zeitgeist. except they’re not. the religious use strong arm tactics to get their way as they freeload off israeli taxpayers, contributing little to none to the nation’s military and tax coffers, preventing religious pluralism (by forcing people to have orthodox weddings and preventing the erection of non-orthodox synagogues), and all the while decrying the government as nazis and holocaust perpetrators, as they embezzle tax money into religious schools and organizations.
you are so full of shit it’s surpising you can get a word out without feces dripping out of your mouth.
btw — ben-david, do i really need to refute koret’s katrina/katif piece and explain why it’s not only horribly mistaken in terms of presuming to know what hk”bh’s motivations are (other than the fact that our sages agree that everything he does comes from a place of deep love); and that further, it’s completely contrary to the klalim gedolim let alone a hefty number of halakhot to tapdance on the graves of the dead or to pour salt in the wounds of the suffering? and how does it look to have such a number of high-profile jewish commentors putting this meme out into the world? how does that reflect on us? you think it’s going to scare them into respecting the god of israel? or is it more likely to incite them to hatred of jews? it is a chilul hashem! and to suggest for a moment that such views should be taken seriously enough to refute — rather than flatly rejected — shows the hatred in your heart for your fellow man.
See, Mo? You just don’t want any real critical debate on this site. Keep telling commentators they are “so full of shit it’s surpising you can get a word out without feces dripping out of your mouth.” That’s a good example of sticking to the issues. Gee, why do things sometimes get out of control in the comments section of this site? But don’t worry about that. You obviously can’t help it.
As to what I’m smoking, it is obviously not as good as the stuff you’ve got. If you want to say there are limits to what constitutes acceptable speech, that’s fine. I can accept that. I wouldn’t publish Nadia Matar’s piece calling for civil disobedience either. But the vast majority of stuff on Israel Insider, Jewsweek, Israel21c, ect…does not fall into any extreme.
Both sides have access. If they aren’t equal, that’s one thing, but I was reacting to the commentator above who said, “yet another Jewish entity is gobbled up by the extreme right.” It hasn’t. And Koret has the right to his opinion, even a stupid one as he displayed in the “Eye for an Eye” piece.
but I can see where the commentator could get that idea from your post. You seem much more interested in dismissing everything you don’t agree with as “extremist.” But you, and many left wingers, brand every right wing position as “extremist.” I don’t see what you mean by tolerance.
first of all, stop — for fuck’s sake — referring to me as a left-winger. i have no allegience to the left wing, and i certainly have no allegience to the right wing. frankly, i’m trying to ascertain the most authentically jewish, g-d minded position, and that’s one that is concerned with human suffering more than political allegiences.
secondly, my patience for people like ben-david has been worn thin to the bone. and considering this world is hanging by a thread right now, i’m not going to beat around the bush and buddy up to people who have absolutely no respect for me, my work, or my views, when they exhibit glaring contempt for all of the above in their remarks on a website that i labor over and pour my hard earned money into. under such circumstances, i couldn’t give less of a shit about being p.c. and coming across as “tolerant.” maybe that’s not how i felt a few months ago, maybe that’s not how i’ll feel in a few months, but for the moment, that’s where i’m at.
thirdly, i’m in favor of civil disobedience, and i was in favor of civil disobedience against the disengagement. however, for me, that does not include burning tires in the road, slashing people’s tires, smashing someone’s windshield, or cutting the breakline on someone’s jeep.
finally, i don’t have a problem with extremism. clearly, i’m an extremist. extremists are the only ones who get things done in this world — they’re the ones who make things move. however, it’s the direction these particular extremists are attempting to move things in that i oppose. when you’re trying to move things towards a biblical theocracy and the suppression or total elimination of minority civil rights, you can fuck right off. and i will fight you tooth and nail to prevent you from imposing your false impression of god on the people and the world around you.
one more thing — in terms of critical debate, take a look at ben-david’s remarks on the high holiday services thread below. tell me how calling us all spoiled children living off our parents’ credit cards is a valid critique lending itself towards honest, levelheaded discussion.
The left wing thing wasn’t meant to be an insult, though I can see how you would take it as one.
But look, as much as you have the right to define your own political affiliations, the views you express on this site lean left just about all the time.
You are often so critical of anything with any bit of right wing flavor and never say a word about any left wing crap, no matter how putrid, that shows up on this site.
So, if the shoe fits and you don’t like it, change it. Otherwise, for fuck’s sake, own your opinions.
this site leans left because the mainstream jewish press and blogosphere leans right. however, i do, often, criticize the left, both here on jewschool and on orthodox anarchist. (didn’t i just get my ass handed to me a couple of weeks ago for calling cindy sheehan an idiot for proclaiming the iraq war was for israel’s sake?) however, i would say the right leaves a lot more to be criticized.
Mobi –
1) Don’t know how to evaluate what you say about Koret communications. Who has final editorial control – obviously there must be some editing of the content feeds. Like I say, there is a reason for the different “front ends”. Which leads to…
2) What is the issue here? Subverting/undercutting the Jewsweek brand? The owner of the brand has to tend to that – and even established political journals have changed their stripes, why not a property as ephemeral as a website?
3) I don’t claim that the religious *are* the zeitgeist – but they are definitely a part of it. They are 1/3 of the population, and the religious zionists are emerging as the most prominent group articulating a modern rationale for Zionism in Israeli society (at least until the Likudniks get their groove back… if ever…).
The Israeli left and left-dominated media have continued to project the notion that these groups are marginal – projecting the myth that the “normal” Israeli is “secular” when in fact 70 percent of Israelis have profiles of belief and practice that would place them solidly in Orthodoxy and the traditional wing of Conservative Judaism by US standards.
Anyone wanting to get a real picture of things in Israel must listen to these voices – Shas, the Haredim, and the religious zionists. Rejecting anyone whose byline photo shows head covering is not the way to go – nor is branding every right-wing person of faith a “Kachnik”.
This is what I meant by “attacks people based on their political affiliation rather than for what they actually say” and “y’all will have to get used to listening to people with kippahs.” Really listening – respectfully, as one does to an equal.
It still doesn’t happen when the speaker is from certain political camps. And left/liberals who can’t rise to the challenge of actually listening to the Effie Eitams and Elyakim Ha’Etznis are going to find themselves increasingly blindsided by reality.
We need more Jews that are right-wing because the liberal left Jews allowed disengagement to occur giving a major reward to terrorists while uprooting some of the most wholesome Jews ever from Jewish land.
“so full of shit it’s surpising you can get a word out without feces dripping out of your mouth.”
Once again the comment section of Jewschool devolves into playground for intellectual facism. If you’re not in agreement with the management, be prepared for public flogging and flaming courtesy of The Leader.
Koret may publish right wing diatribes, but at least he doesn’t allow, or for that matter lead the charge, for using his webzine to verbally assault and insult readers and commentors alike.
oh frigging please … if i was being an “intellectual fascist” i would have banned and deleted ben-david the first time he pissed me off — which is the first time he posted — or any subsequent time thereafter. he is free to speak his mind, and i am free to shout back — especially when he says absolutely abhorrent and retarded things.
If you delented and banned them, it would only change the severity of facism toyed with herein. And read carefuly- I didn’t point the f-word direfctly at you Mobius… I said it becomes a playground, the sort where bullying, “shouting” and childish king of the hill games render any serious debate or dialogue pointless and too painful to actually read. That it often comes from the site’s founder at the least makes you seem more small minded than you are, undermining the high ground of your arguement, and at worst tears at the moral moorings of this project. It it a forum for ideas or a back alley brawl? I suppose that’s the sort of anarchy you embrace, and in the end its your site, but having been on the receiving end, I think such behavior does more to hurt your cause than any position, no matter how radical, ever could.
Shmavis, look again, you wrote
{Koret may publish right wing diatribes, but at least he doesn’t allow, or for that matter lead the charge, for using his webzine to verbally assault and insult readers and commentors alike.}
You don’t know what you are talking about. Go and read the talkbacks at Israel Insider , they are all Jewish Nazi’s, lusting for blood. Shalom
Way to go Jewcy, get rid of flakes like Reuven Koret. Bring in a saner editor.
I think we’ve made all made a big mistake focusing on Israel as anything to do with our Jewish identity. Israel (for me) is something very separate from being Jewish. Anyone who thinks leaving Galut/Exile and going to Israel is going to bring them any kind of personal redemption is (in my opinion) seriously deluded. Israel is in a deeper Exile than the rest of the world. The Divine Presence does not rest in the ‘holy land’ but in the holy people! Judaism is about it’s about deep inner peace and love for our brothers, sisters and fellow human beings. Extremism is ‘Tohu’ it is destructive – however personally fulfilling, an authentic Jewish path is the middle path. Israel is a land of extremism, that’s why you’ve been attracted to it, Mobius, but it is a land it ‘devourers it’s inhabitance’. Judaism in Israel is extremist Judaism and Left, Right & ‘Middle’ lean to the extreme, it is Avoida Zara, Idol Worship. It brings out the worst in people; the hate, the stress and the adrenalin will eat you up. Unless we find redemption within us, unless we can walk the middle path, unless we can ‘make here the land of Israel’, i.e. become holy people, see the divine in ourselves and in the rest of the world, the Land of Israel will be ‘holy’ only in name.
I really think that anyone at all concerned with what the torah says about anything to do with israel knows tht it belongs to the jews. but it gets taken away when they don’t deserve it. so being one and peaceful and loving each other comes first. of course from a jewish perspective, “peaceful” includes extremists and heated arguments. that’s jewish. giving land away to second generation jordanians who’ve somehow tripped over the great idea to name themselves after your property so they can claim a “legitimate” right to it is not. especially when there are ten times as many of them as you, and they all could care less if you were all dead. it’s like a basement full of dobermans with one little chihuahua trying to keep from getting eaten. it’s a very intelligient chihuahua, but i digress. we all need to love each other. but don’t say israel isn’t jewish, or jewish isn’t israel. to quote some jewish authorities in europe before the second world war “Germany is our homeland, Berlin our jerusalem…” how silly to think the jews would ever be back in israel. hahaha. what goofs, those sily jews.
When right-wingers like Rav Ovadia Yosef try to relate Hurricane Katrina to the Gaza withdrawal, it’s a no-no, but when the left-wing ANSWER compares the Iraq war to the Katrina floods as evidence of “Bush’s racism,” it’s ok? Jew-school simply hates right-wingers, plain and simple.
Has anyone noticed that not a single person has commented on *any* of the articles on Koret’s revamped Jewsweek in weeks? Maybe this is a sign that almost no one is visiting? I must not gloat, I must not gloat…ah the hell with it. Jewsweek is finished. Long live Jewcy!