This one is such a tempest in a teapot, and yet, the Google News count is 123 stories and growing. (Oh, and by the way, fuck you, Gawker, and your “we’re so cool that anti-Semitic jokes aren’t anti-Semitic” attitude.)
Some rabbis have figured out a way for observant Jews to get the new book on Shabbat:
In fact, according to a Jerusalem Orthodox rabbi who asked not to be named, if Harry is paid for before Shabbat, no Jews work in the store, and the store did not open specifically for Jews, then it is permissible to walk there on Shabbat and get the book.
They’re going to go to a shop in east Jerusalem:
Want to get your hands on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Jerusalem only hours after the worldwide release at midnight on Friday? You won’t find it in west Jerusalem, not even at Steimatsky’s.
Instead you will have to take a trip down Jerusalem’s Diagon Alley, otherwise known as Salah A-Din Street in the east of the city and visit Imad Muna, owner of Educational Books, who is opening his store four hours earlier than usual, at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning, to sell the last installment in the series. And Muna is willing to take pre-orders for those who do not handle money on Shabbat.
And this is simply an overblown story that I was ignoring, but looking at some of the annoying takes on it got me to post about it.
Reuters, of course, gets the runner-up prize in offensiveness, for these three paragraphs:
Harry Potter, the world’s most famous boy wizard, has fallen foul of Israel’s rabbis.
That was the lede. Here are the other two:
The Sabbath runs from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, during which pious Jews shun business dealings. While most Israelis are secular, the country’s shops generally close over the Sabbath out of convenience, a sense of tradition, or to avoid paying mandatory fines and overtime to staff.
[…] “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is the seventh and last adventure for the boy wizard created by author J.K. Rowling. Many religious Jews have tried to prevent their children from reading the books, citing its “pagan” content.
I haven’t said this lately, but I hate Reuters.
Funny, but you know what I haven’t seen published about the Harry Potter books? That many Christians refuse to let their children read the books due to its “pagan” content. And I personally know a family of religious Christians (Baptists, I think) whose children have not read the books and are forbidden to see the movie because it’s all about witchcraft. They are representative of a number of American Christians—probably larger numbers than religious Jews who don’t shop on Saturday—and yet, there are no articles about how Harry Potter is not read in that segment of society.
Say, while we’re at it, let’s compare the reaction of religious Jews with the reaction of Muslims who take offense at something that violates their religion. Here’s what Jews do:
Plans to launch the last instalment in the best-selling children’s book series in Israel over the Jewish Sabbath have drawn threats of legal action by a religious government minister.
Yes, that’s right. We use the laws. There will be no rioting, no book-burning, and no shop-smashing or bombing. Which, I suppose is why the media is so free with the insults about those silly religious Jews, who take offense about very public Sabbath violations in the Jewish state.
Hey, I’m not pretending that I’m as Shabbat-observant as I should be. But I’m not going to insult those Jews who are Sabbath-observant. I’m just not nearly as cool as Gawker. Or Reuters.
Who are schmucks.
Hazak! By the way, is there an eruv around J’lem that includes the east (Arab) part of the city?
I just checked out ‘Gawker’; you’re right, they’re schmucks! I wanted to leave a comment, something like ‘pig, pig, pig…’
and sign it ‘oinker’, but the requirement to open a logon to that site is beneath me.
The segment of Christians who forbid their kids to read Potter is rather small. Often they are the same people who take an absolutist view of the Genesis creation narrative. While I respect their beliefs, I don’t really understand them, because to OBJECT to witchcraft, you first have to believe that it EXISTS, which I can’t call rational.
I see that they attract people who have no understanding of anything. I find it sad that people would make fun of those who do not treat a children’s book as more important than one of the Ten Commandments (actually the 613 mitzvos). They may have said something cute by accident in a link to what Gawker claims is the absolutely last paragraph in the book. It could be, it fits with his Juvenile sense of “humor” .
(Don’t worry no spoilers)
We here in Georgia have had plenty of news coverage…of a fundamentalist Christian woman in Gwinnett County who sued to keep the Potter books out of the school libraries. She lost…and public opinion ran strongly against her.
This is indeed a tempest in a teapot.
I’m Baptist. My children haven’t seen Harry Potter books or movies.
John M: Why is belief in “witchcraft” – which is mentioned in the Bible – irrational if I believe in G-d, Heaven, Angels, and Satan? Or are you saying all religion is irrational? And how do you know they are the same people who take an absolutist view of Genesis are the same ones who forbid their kids to read Potter? Or that the segment is rather small? (Argumentem ad populem…)
As a devout Christian, I respect Meryl’s faith, and I fail to see how your remarks are any different than the anti-Semetic ones of others?
Robert
How about that. A segment of the Jewish population objects to Harry Potter for “pagan” content?
So I suppose book burnings are going to be next…oh wait. Sorry. I have yet to hear of Jewish groups in this country going to that extreme.
Actually, I have noticed that the people who object the most about those of us who keep kosher or observe the Shabbat ( such as people who pretend to be indignant that their children will not eat nonkosher food) arwe usually those who refuse to admit to themselves that they feel guilty for not doing so.
The phrase “doth protest too much” comes to mind. I think that if they were honest with themselves, they would admit that they feel they should be doing the same thing.
Elisson, that’s actually a completely different topic. The woman sued to make other people—not necessarily of her religion—conform to her religious beliefs.
The story quoted above is about religious Jews objecting to less religious Jews for breaking their own religious laws. (And Israeli law, if I’m not mistaken.)
The closest you could come to that story would be finding profiles of religious Christians refusing to allow their children to buy the Potter books or see the movies. But I haven’t seen those stories in newspapers yet, and I don’t think I will. Nor will you find many of Muslims objecting to Harry Potter. You have to dig deeply on Google News to find any at all—except for the brouhaha about Israel’s religious Jews getting upset that Jewish bookstores are opening on Shabbat especially for the Potter book.
I went to news.google.com, typed in ‘+”Harry Potter” +Christians +witchcraft’ and got 168 hits. Hit counts aren’t everything, but, really. (For what it’s worth, ‘+”Harry Potter” +Muslims’ only got 29 hits.)
But Maryl overlooks the main reason the Israeli story got prominence: a government minister is vowing to enforce a law that compels strict Sabbatarianism. Laws like that in America are mostly a thing of the past.
(By the way, I hated the Gawker item and didn’t think much of the Reuters headline either.)