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Jackie Mason vs. Sarah Silverman
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More in The ShmoozeWith elections around the corner, the presidential campaigns have turned up the rhetorical heat. So have the Jewish comedians.
Early this month, Borscht Belt graduate Jackie Mason, a John McCain supporter, took on much younger comic Sarah Silverman, a Barack Obama fan, in a Web video that Mason released in conjunction with the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“What did he ever do in life that makes him desoive to be president?” Mason asks of Obama in the video, as klezmer music and a laugh track play in the background. “I didn’t vote for John Kerry. Does that mean I hate gentiles?”
Mason was attempting to refute a video recently made by Silverman, in which she suggests — mostly in terms too hilariously ribald to print here — that while many Jews may be “the most liberal, scrappy, civil-rightsy people there are,” Obama is now contending with racism among some older Jewish voters.
Silverman’s video was released as a promotion for The Great Schlep, a campaign to get the Jewish grandchildren of America to convince their bubbes and zaydes in Florida — land of swing-voting elders — to cast their ballots for Obama.
Presuming to tell people how to vote makes Silverman “a sick yenta,” according to Mason, who explains, gesticulating wildly, that you should vote for McCain “not because I said so,” but “because you think so!”
Mason’s point is undercut somewhat by the fact that he has posted dozens of election-related videos on his Web site that make his Republican leanings clear. In one video, he parodies sexualized odes to candidates, in the style of last year’s “Obama Girl” video, stripping off his jacket to the tune of “It’s Raining Men” and threatening to take off the rest of his clothes “if you don’t vote Republican.”
Indeed, this is not the first election season to feature Mason’s ambiguously comedic jeremiads against what he sees as Jewish political correctness. In 1989, he had to withdraw from Rudy Giuliani’s first New York mayoral campaign after telling The Village Voice that Jews were voting for the opposing candidate, David Dinkins, out of white liberal guilt and, in an interview with Newsweek, calling Dinkins “a fancy shvartze with a moustache.”
Comments
I love Jackie and find Sarah Silverman far from funny BUT and A BIG BUT it is--Sarah is right and Jackie is wrong. Obama is better for the Jews because he is better for America. And if there was something really wrong with Obama, wouldn't the Chicago Federation or the survivor community in Skokie have destroyed him before he left Chicago? On one hand we have Zedeye Methusela with a dime store gum cracking rifle-woman a heart beat away, and the other hand we have someone who carrys generations of dreams that we all share...It's time we take a chance by electing a person with the capcity to think, act, and unify--that is Barak Obama.
On character and judgment, Obama's long association with Wright, only repudiated under political pressure recently, made me vote against him in Illinois elections and would make me vote against him now. His tolerance of hate and racism will result in a dangerous Presidency for all of America, Jews included.
PS - From the Frum community in NY I hear that despite Jewish support, when Dinkins was Mayor it was "Jews fired, Blacks hired" and there is a fear/feeling that an Obama administration would do the same.
Inspired by this article, I watched Silverman's video on YouTube. It wasn't funny at all. I didn't laugh once. Actually, that isn't fair, because I skipped the final minute, I was so bored.
Yes, she did use a few dirty words, if you find that funny. If you do, you're probably about 12 years old.
But the worst part of the video is that it's incredibly, insultingly condescending. She presumes to instruct the elderly Jews of Florida on how they should vote, as if they were children and she was their parent. Isn't it possible that they know better than she does?
A plague on all your houses- vote for the doomed quixotic third party candidate of your choice!
votenader.org bobbarrr08.com baldwin08.com voteforjoe.com votebrianmoore.com
The deterioration of family values R2
Since World War 2 when women were encouraged to join the work force en mass, to replace the men who went to war and keep the economy and the war effort going.
There has been a trend where a mother was not home to take care of her children, monitor their behavior, help with the homework and discipline when and where necessary.
The advancement in technology has harmed family values. The Media and Television has totally destroyed any comprehension of values in our society.
The lack of discipline and total disregard for authority and respect is clear to anyone who has watched the past 50 years and seen our society’s values deteriorate.
One example alone is that 50 years ago a teacher was happy to go to school to teach, a teacher was respected and looked up-to, a teacher could discipline. Today teachers fear for their lives they are petrified by their students.
This scenario caries on to other social interactions of society today, and the situation is getting worse and worse every year.
You will notice that many families who come from other countries have a very strong family values, good education, respect and the children excel in their studies. That is because they have not had the chance to be influenced by our society.
The education of our children begins at home and continues in school – the parents and the school must take a proactive approach to teach our children values and respect.
In today’s society a teacher is not permitted to discipline a student, the teachers will be sued, not to mention that teachers fears for their safety.
Parents in today’s society are also restricted as to how to discipline their children; in many cases parents are getting sued. In many cases children would never dream of treating their parents with such disrespect 50 years ago. Today some parents are afraid of their own children.
Abuse has been and will be with society to eternity that does not give society the right to prohibit discipline; a few acts of abuse should not cause society to prohibit proper discipline.
When an individual or individuals utilize a vehicle to commit a crime cause the death of others, does society prohibit vehicles altogether, no, a vehicle is very important for our everyday life.
Well, the discipline of our children by parents and teachers is extremely important for our society and the preservation of humanity. It seems that our society is so busy chasing the dollar, fame and glory, that anything goes all values goes out the window. We should be an example of honesty, integrity and respect to our children.
Yehuda Draiman, Northridge, CA.
PS
Are Americans patriotic and proud enough to defend, protect and bring family values back to America? Is America ready to fight for honesty integrity and justice in our society, eliminate corruption and fraud, waste and self serving programs. Re-invigurate our economy and decrease our dependence on foreign economies and resources. Tell me and I will forget Show me and I may remember Involve me and I will understand. Chinese Proverb.
Protecting Family Values The family is the most basic unit of any society or nation. Without healthy, functioning families, a culture cannot survive.
God created marriage as the unity of one man and one woman. This has been both the legal and traditional understanding of a marriage – literally – for millennia, since Eden.
Sadly, many radical activist groups in the U.S. are attempting to twist the law to change the definition of marriage and the family to include same-sex "marriage," polygamy, polyamory, and other structures. These groups scoff at the idea that there is any fixed or known set of values or beliefs that is generally good for families or culture. We should fight against numerous attacks on marriage and family values, including efforts to: • Allow children unlimited access to pornography over the Internet in public libraries • Allow those engaging in homosexual behavior to have preference to adopt children and be foster parents • Allow those engaging in homosexual behavior to serve openly in the military • Expose children to explicit sex education materials contrary to parental approval • Deny parents the right to raise their children before God as they see fit
People should be judged by their own behaviour and qualities and not taken as representative of their groups of affiliation or origin. In selecting Mr. Mason as a spokesman, however, his political sponsors hardly indiate respect for the dignity and intelligence of the segment of Jewry for which he claims to speak
oy, jackie. that old-skool despicable "schvartze" talk is not doing our people any favors. veyizmir. if jews want to vote mccain -- out of such racism or out of perceived economic self-interest -- fine, but be honest about your reasons. obama is not bad for israel (see the "israelis for obama" video on youtube) and is a far better choice for the downtrodden our people USED to support and for the middle class.
I found the Silverman video incredibly offensive. She is an admitted ignoramus when it comes to things Jewish. If anything, she is turning Jews like myself off to Obama. She is a self-hating Jew of the worst type.
A lot of your younger viewers seem to be in self-deception mode. But, if they really want to vote for the Manchurian Cnadidate, who am I to tell them different?
Political views aside, Silverman can only dream of being 1/100th as funny and talented as Jackie Mason
A Jew for McCain is like mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich.
A Jew for McCain is like mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich.
Sarah Silverman is a "yenta"? Jackie Mason officially is a alter kaker!
Mason's —and by extension the GOP's— strategy of scaring old people about the "shvartse" accompanied by klezmer is insulting to black Americans and to Jewish Americans.
Silverman, otoh, appeals to elderly Jewish voters through what they care most about, their grandchildren. My mother-in-law died worrying that her grandsons would have to fight in Bush's war. If McCain is elected, there's a good chance her fears will come true.
P.S.: Good one, Lev-Aryeh! Yasher koakh!
P.P.S.: Who is Jay Draiman, and why is he blogging in the FORWARD's comment space?
Hey, I eat Pastrami with mayo, and I went to yeshiva.
Point that the conservatives on this forum are making (correctly), is both that Obama is NOT good for America, or Israel. Silverstein/Obama would have Israel give away Land for Nothing, "internationalize" US foreign policy to comply with the hundreds of UN resolutions against Israel, withdraw foreign aid, tolerate terror, end the Israeli racial profiling that has been proven time and again to be extremely EFFECTIVE, accept millions of Arabs into a country that they passively or actively are trying to destroy etc.
On America (and the Jews): Obama will take my tax money and make it much harder for me to send my kids to Jewish schools. He would then use that money to fund the state-sponsored brainwashing institutions that we call public schools that UNDERMINE core Jewish values like modesty, personal responsibility, the primacy of Torah, and the Chosenness of the Jewish people. Furthermore, he will raise my taxes, hurting Jewish small businesses, and use that money to pay the mortgages of lazy subprime homeowners, the healthcare of people who made bad decisions to have children, and the like.
Obama is NOT good for America, NOT good for Israel.
Obama is NOT good for the Jews.
New Yorker, I think you have proven Lev-Aryeh's point.
Fancy schmanty obama lovers. He is a skinny idi amin who embraces mandela philosophy and will tag as a zionist apartheid regime. Wait until he taps his columbia u. Puffs & toots his hymie town raps.
I will vote Democratically no matter whom the candidate is. Even if it were Farrakhan for pres and Ahmadinejad for vice pres, they would receive my vote. Jews are obligated to vote democratic-it is the 11th commandment. Any Jew who does otherwise probably isnt really Jewish