I'm still trying to figure out what that part at the end about Ralph Lauren means. The clothes that are mostly associated with the Ivy League are mostly designed by Jewish designers, and therefore ... what?

The author of that op-ed has a somewhat "interesting" history with Judaism. He went to the Maimonedes School in Brookline, outside Boston, which is a Modern Orthodox school that puts a lot of emphasis on the interaction between traditional Jewish law and modern life. (One of my cousins went there from kindergarten through middle school.) Anyway, he went to his high school reunion with his non-Jewish fiancee. When a photo of this reunion was published in the school bulletin, he and his fiancee were not in it. (There seems to be some dispute about exactly how much of the picture was cropped out.) He took this and made it into a 10-page article in the NY Times Magazine about how Modern Orthodoxy can't really survive in the modern world.

The clothes that are mostly associated with the Ivy League are mostly designed by Jewish designers, and therefore ... what?

It's not racism if you like their race. Or, you know, if you like having members of that minority ethnicity make your clothes.

Here's the article about Modern Orthodoxy, if anyone's interested. [link]

Crossing everything for you, ita!

And happy birthday, Hec!

And happy birthday, Hec!

Thank you! I am now older than mummy dirt.

Considering that he spends several pages talking about how much he learned about Judaism and Jewish history, I'm not sure whether this is a mistake or if he just hoped no one would notice:

Since the birth of modern Orthodox Judaism in 19th-century Germany, a central goal of the movement has been to normalize the observance of traditional Jewish law — to make it possible to follow all 613 biblical commandments assiduously while still participating in the reality of the modern world. You must strive to be, as a poet of the time put it, “a Jew in the home and a man in the street.” Even as we students of the Maimonides School spent half of every school day immersed in what was unabashedly a medieval curriculum, our aim was to seem to outsiders — and to ourselves — like reasonable, mainstream people, not fanatics or cult members.

That quote in the middle of the paragraph is not about Modern Orthodoxy at all. It's about the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, who were more or less the forerunners of Reform Judaism.

It's not racism if you like their race. Or, you know, if you like having members of that minority ethnicity make your clothes.

Rich white Protestants have a long history of letting other people do stuff for us! Sometimes we even pay them!

Oh, speaking about a "we" that I've never actually been a part of, at one of the ancient greek sites on my trip, someone said something about our people or forebears, or something. I was like, Dude. I don't know about you, but my actual people were living in mud huts for thousands of years still, after these folks had plumbing!

Oh-- also I have to ask for kitty ~ma One of my mom's adopted kittens (little one) who were part of a FLV positive litter is declining rapidly. She feels guilty for not being a better kitty mama, even though she took on not health kittens to begin with. I am hopeful for either a healthy resolution to his problems, or a painless passing for the poor bebe! (this kitten was my favorite from the litter and used to cuddle with me as a wee bairn before my mom adopted him, so I am particularly sad)