I'm not Orthodox. But I'm also a Jew from Westwood. I went to University High by UCLA. I once apparently met Arianna Huffington at a party. I know some people who I am close with who didn't like him. I didn't know him, he was my friend on facebook. The person who didn't like him didn't like me very much either and the other friend who had issues with him as well... so I think I was correct in never attacking him or listening to the stories of people who were reliable sources in other situations. I do admit there were things he posted that were really good, that I avoided posting because I knew it would piss off some people. I knew that he was big enough that I was lucky that I could claim he was a friend on facebook... but I have to be honest... people would tell me if I posted him I was promoting a really bad guy. I never saw any reason to believe he was a bad guy. His online persona I never disagreed with. I kind of feel that he is a hero for really fighting for Israel, but I have to be honest... he was murdered by words. The people at Think Progress and Media Matters turned him into a slur campaign when they were complaining about Israel Firsters. I was watching this on twitter. I felt troubled because I couldn't really defend him because of other people I knew who really hated him and were good in other ways. The online scene is really awful and some people who are 100% right in every way on their blogs are really horrendous individuals. Andrew obviously died not by natural causes, but it was death by MEDIA... it's almost like a Paddy Chayefsky film.
(Carl)Benny Weinthal has a tribute to Andrew Breitbart z"l, who passed away last week at the age of 43. (Hat Tip: All American Blogger).
Breitbart
not only carved out a new mixture of investigative journalism,
combining the mediums of video and the microblogging website Twitter
with huge scoops, he was slated to start a Big Jerusalem website to
fight the seemingly endless mainstream media distortions of the Jewish
state.
Adopted by a Jewish family in Los Angeles, Breitbart
equated the preservation of liberty and freedom in the US with
safeguarding liberties and security in the Jewish state. “Israel is in
the right” and “If Israel goes, so will America,” he said during a
lively speech last year at a meeting of Republican Jewish Coalition in
Beverly Hills.
In this speech, Breitbart said of Israelis: “I just
don’t understand how an inherently decent and free people could be the
bad guy... This doesn’t make sense to me...
I’m glad I’ve become a
journalist because I’d like to fight on behalf on the Israeli
people...I’ve been there. And the Israeli people, I adore and I love.”
I
asked Breitbart’s colleague Joel B. Pollak – editor- in-chief and
general counsel for Breitbart’s online media empire, which publishes the
websites Breitbart.com, Breitbart.tv, Big Government, Big Journalism,
Big Hollywood and Big Peace – to tell me about Breitbart and his
relationship with Israel and Judaism. He emailed me on Friday: “Andrew
only visited Israel once, a few years ago, but instantly fell in love
with the country and its people.”
“He was the best kind of Jew and
human being you could ever meet, one who created opportunities for
people in whom he saw a spark – which Maimonides called the highest form
of charity,” Pollak wrote. “He carried his faith as he carried all his
convictions: with a lighthearted touch but a deep commitment.”
...
Pollak
wrote about how that life and fire extended to Judaism: “Andrew was
proudly, and playfully, Jewish. In the last days of his life he wondered
openly about observing Shabbat, even as he continued to tease me about
not eating bacon and shrimp cocktails. More than once he burst into a
Hebrew school song or parts of his bar mitzva portion while working at
his desk across from mine – partly to amuse me and partly to entertain
himself.”
“He often told an amusing story about meeting Idan
Raichel [an Israeli singer-songwriter] in a restaurant where he had been
dining with fellow conservative bloggers, and how surprised and
inspired they were that the lanky, dreadlocked musician was an ardent
and natural patriot,” he said.
“Andrew rejected the knee-jerk
liberalism of the Jewish community in which he had been raised but never
felt distant from his fellow Jews, no matter what background, and two
of his closest colleagues were both Orthodox Jews whose levels of
observance both amused and intrigued him.”
“We had a common Jewish
kinship even though we lived our lives rather differently and I can say
confidently that I’ve never met a finer soul, Jewish or otherwise,”
Pollak continued.
Pollak, who ran for Congress in Illinois against J Street Jan Shakowsky
in 2010, is one of the Orthodox Jews. I don't know who the other one
is. I hope someone is making sure that Breitbart's kids get a Jewish
education and that someone is taking any sons to shul to say Kaddish.
Here's a video tribute to Breitbart. Let's go to the videotape
I'm not Orthodox. But I'm also a Jew from Westwood. I went to University High by UCLA. I once apparently met Arianna Huffington at a party. I know some people who I am close with who didn't like him. I didn't know him, he was my friend on facebook. The person who didn't like him didn't like me very much either and the other friend who had issues with him as well... so I think I was correct in never attacking him or listening to the stories of people who were reliable sources in other situations. I do admit there were things he posted that were really good, that I avoided posting because I knew it would piss off some people. I knew that he was big enough that I was lucky that I could claim he was a friend on facebook... but I have to be honest... people would tell me if I posted him I was promoting a really bad guy. I never saw any reason to believe he was a bad guy. His online persona I never disagreed with. I kind of feel that he is a hero for really fighting for Israel, but I have to be honest... he was murdered by words. The people at Think Progress and Media Matters turned him into a slur campaign when they were complaining about Israel Firsters. I was watching this on twitter. I felt troubled because I couldn't really defend him because of other people I knew who really hated him and were good in other ways. The online scene is really awful and some people who are 100% right in every way on their blogs are really horrendous individuals. Andrew obviously died not by natural causes, but it was death by MEDIA... it's almost like a Paddy Chayefsky film.
