After some 4 and a half years at the head of Jewschool, Mobius is resigning as editor in chief. According to his blog Orthodox Anarchist, Daniel is going to assume the position of Director of New Media for JTA. Jewschool is now in the hands of its editorial board.
Regrets over giving up control of Jewschool? Working for JTA?
But when Tahl Raz blurted it out at the Y on Sunday, Krucoff shouted “Sell out!†from the back row.
F-ck that noise, I say. I stole fire from the gods, and I got burned. At this point, giving up Jewschool doesn’t even feel like a sacrifice. It feels like a weight is being lifted.
Muffti guesses not. In any case, Ye’shaar Koach to Mobius on 4 plus years of interesting, compelling, challenging and intelligent posting and behatzlacha in your new endeavours. If you want to drop a goodbye comment on Mobius’ final Jewschool post as editor, go here.
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Mobius Moves On? Don’t I wish it. Here’s his latest rant:
israel engages in demographic warfare and ethnic cleansing; enacts segregationist policies that deprive non-jews of equal rights and equal protection under the law; uses violence against its own citizens (on the right and left); brokers arms deals with human rights abusers; trafficks in sex slaves, narcotics, and blood diamonds; deprives holocaust survivors of financial aid; refuses entry to refugees from genocide; denies the armenian genocide; tolerates violence against women and homosexuals; coddles christian fundamentalists; and is governed by criminals (including, notably, sex offenders).
http://jewschool.com/2007/09/06/age-israel-identification/#comment-255431
Can someone, anyone please explain to me how this complete and total idiot qualifies as a “top talent in Jewish journalism?” How can this man be the Director of Digital Media at the JTA, an organization funded by my donations to Federation? Why are you all silent about this?
Has the death watch started?
Oh well, I first had to google JCC and Y health club as I’m located 3,800 miles northeast of you and wasn’t too sure what you were referring to.
I’d still sponsor an Orlando Bloom look-alike contest in the frum communities. Any volunteers?
Hah! Sarah, took me a second to get that one. Ever since I changed my health club membership from the JCC to the Y I haven’t had any Lubavitchers spotting me in the weight room.
But they all got a little Paul Bunyan in them. Like our guy Minnesota Moishe:
http://www.ib.org/gifs/gonefishin.jpg
I like Ramon, too, though I’m a tad disappointed he hasn’t posted a topless pic to prove his stance that Lubavitchers can be nicely built as well 😉
My default setting is positive when it comes to people; do you mind? (BTW, Finland’s got a small population.) I’d still like my tombstone to say, “See if I care.”
Kinda funny, but I see some weird connection between this thread of comments and those following Rabbi Yonah’s Sherman Wine obit.
Mobius, gone but not undiscussed. I didn’t like commenting on Jewschool because too often all I wanted to write was “Una boca cerrado no entre mosca.” But for the most part he thought before he shot off his mouth.
In any case, it’s the mark of an interesting person when after they move on you tell them “We’ll miss ya. Good luck and good riddance.”
Is that all it takes to be on the list? I’m honored anyway – me and the entire population of Finland.
😉
ck’s on the list of people I like as they’ve never done me any harm as well 😉
Oh. Good. Grief.
I say let the man be. Best of luck, vaja con dios and all that.
Aaack, aaack, aaack….
That’s the sound of me choking on it.
*sigh*
JJ, there’s a German saying, “Wie man in den Wald hineinruft, so schallt es heraus.” (The English saying, “What goes around, comes around,” doesn’t quite convey the same idea. Literally translated it means, “The way you shout into the forest, such does it reverberate.”) As I said, I’ve never encountered any problems with him. I’ve observed that the overall tone on neither blog is consistently mature or calm, so blaming Dan / Mobius for that would be the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. (And don’t give me that, “But Mom, _he_ started it!”) And yes, controversy is what teaching and learning used to be about over here in the Old World; nowadays people are too inclined to just ruminate on dogmas as if they attended Evangelical Sunday schools.
Who is this mobius guy? And why is anyone supposed to care?
Sarah, there have been many who have been on the receiving end of Mobius’ wrath. For instance, he has called writers on this blog brownshirts – which makes me wonder about the gentle send off. Jewish teaching and learning is decidedly not about sparking controversy. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to your guns. But Mobius has had more than one giant meltdown where he inevitably casts himself as the blameless one and everyone else as hellions out to get him. He’s used his position as a bully pulpit and has acted the part both online and offline.
Of course the JTA hasn’t hired Mobius for his editorial stance. They didn’t hire him for his programing skills either. They hired him because of his ability to attract a young Jewish audience using new media tools. I am going to hope for the best, but I will continue to expect the worst. Mobius has always been a loose cannon and he is capable of just about anything. We’ll be watching and waiting for the crashing sounds emanating from 7th Ave.
His role in that “establishment” will be that of somebody applying his skills in new media; he clearly stated he won’t be a contributor as in writing for the JTA. I may add that I’ve disagreed with him more than once in the past, but have never ever received a nasty reply from his side. Fire can give you warmth and light, but it can also burn things. Dan / Mobius has sparked more than one controversy, and that is exactly what Jewish teaching and learning used to be like. I find it odd to say the least that he gets blamed for not giving in when arguing a point; nobody else would, but he was expected to. That’s hubris. BTW, for all I care, I’d give you my phone number or YIM screenname if you fancied contacting me.
Oh look! Balaam’s Donkey! He speaks! Context. Yes. shamirpower quoted from an article about offsets wherein the word apartheid was used in quotes. shamirpower then linked to another article by the same author wherein he derides the “Israel right or wrong” approach that he feels most Jewish diaspora institutions adopt when it comes to criticism of Israel. Clearly when we march in an Israel day parade, or participate in a Yom Ha’atzma’ut celebration at the local JCC, we aren’t just voicing our support for the mere right of the state of Israel to exist! We are also supporting government corruption, the expanding power of Haredim in the Israeli political sphere, the continued disenfranchisement of non-Jewish Israeli citizens, the mind numbing techno music that blasts from every corner of the country and every single solitary aspect of Israel’s existence. Those of us that refuse to introduce red herrings into the discourse are stupid. An enlightened critique of Israel requires, nay demands, apartheid analogies! It absolutely requires comparing Israeli security forces to Nazi stormtroopers! Only then can we properly discuss Israel.
Of course I am being facetious. But this is Mobius’ legacy: a delusional sense of self importance which did not allow for nuance or dissent and was often accompanied by some of the vilest, most paranoid and most self-righteous rhetoric ever produced in a medium not exactly known for its gentleness. I also couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t comment on the rest of what I wrote.
Sarah: Yes. I got the analogy. Sorry if I don’t see Mobius as a Promethean character. I always felt that likening oneself to a god was an act of extreme hubris. I am no more or no less anonymous than anyone else here. That ought to have no impact on the content of my speech. Everyone is free to celebrate Mobius’ legacy just as I am free to celebrate his inevitable drift into obscurity and to ridicule his new role deep in the bowels of the Jewish establishment.
Oddly enough, the more critical (or rather insulting than critical) a comment on Mobius / Dan is, the more likely its author is anonymous. BTW, Prometheus stole fire from the gods because the gods had denied mankind the benefits of the fire. Anybody of sufficient education will get the analogy.
You took the apartheid analogy from Shamir’s post, in which she quotes what is actually intended to be a humorous take on Israeli automobile traffic written by a passionately Zionist Israeli citizen who oversees a training program for Jewish educators?
Notice the word apartheid is in quotes? Perhaps that’s because Dr. Sinclair (whom I know quite well) is strongly opposed to that comparison?
Say what will will about Mobius, but at least he understands what he reads.
Looks like you have the potential of starting a legacy of stupidity all your own. Perhaps you could call it “Reading Without Context”.
The Orthodox Anarchist working for the JTA? The JTA is like as establishment as one can get, providing philanthropist-approved stories to all the Federation controlled papers in America. Krucoff may have been right – sell out!! Mobius’s retort that he had stolen fire from the gods however, is hilarious! Mobius as Prometheus? Wham, bam thank you Dan for coming down from Olympia and gracing us with the fire that you stole from Zeus! How poetic, how grotesquely pretentious! Or should I say prescient?
Prometheus was an immortal, a God. That part of the analogy fails as Mobius is hardly god-like from what I can tell. He was a shit disturber though, and he was punished for the deceit involved in the theft of fire by Zeus. Zeus chained him to the top of a mountain (new job?) and every day an eagle would pop by and eat his liver – but because Prometheus was immortal he would not die. He would just suffer while his liver regenerated itself – only to be eaten again the next day (the torture of a 9 to 5 existence?). Prometheus’ torture lasted 12 generations and while he was eventually freed by Heracles he pretty much never accomplished anything of note again (Dan’s future as a Jewish community professional?).
Good luck to the JTA, hiring Mobius was a
stupid and foolishbold and daring move. Mobius need not worry about the future of Jewschool as his legacy clearly lives on. Already shamirpower has made the Israel/Apartheid analogy, suggesting that those that use highway 443 make up for it by making a small donation to some worthy group like Peace Now. Given that highway 443 was closed to Arab traffic because of a number of terrorist incidents during the intifada, it might be a better idea to make such payments to victim of terror groups instead.Mobius’ stupid legacy is alive and well.
Mobius, I’m not sure if you’re reading this. You probably have many more imporant tasks to take care of. Just want you to know that although I did not always agree with your political perspective(s) I always appreciated Jewschool.
Also, while you probably disagree with me on a lot of issues, you were a major impetus (along with Jewlicious, of course) in starting my blog, The New Centrist:
http://newcentrist.wordpress.com
Obviously the JTA does not require drug tests as a condition of employment. That’s always good to know.
Od yishama bharei yehuda,
Chuppah for Mobi. 🙂
Are people pissed off that Mob is leaving Jewschool as ‘selling out’? Even though I think I disagree with most of what he has printed, the guy deserves to have a day job and move on in life. B’ezrat hashem, he’ll found new mazal with his new position, find a wife, settle down and make lots of proud Jewish bambinos.
I think the big news is the JTA hiring a Director of New Media after exploring blogs for the last year(ish.)
I’m sure after nearly 5 years at Jewschool, the change will be a blast for Mobius. Wish him well and hope other institutions follow JTA’s lead.
Eitan, Muffti leaves it, in the phrase of one of his favourite old professors, ‘deliciously ambiguous’. Muffti meant it in neither of the senses that you list, however 🙂
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
S.G. Tallentyre
Disagreeing with someone doesn’t instantly qualify that someone’s arguments as ‘garbage’. (The entire concept of academia bases on agreeing and disagreeing.)
“challenging and intelligent posting”
I can think of a few different ways to read this that make sense:
-It is “challenging to understand how an intelligent person (which he clearly is) could write the garbage he does.”
-In his erratic “challenging” of any and every Jewish establishment, basically on the grounds that they are establishments and therefore evil (the whole anarchist bit), except for a few pet cases of his own, along with his ‘Zionism’ it takes great “intelligence” to discover a semblance of ideological consistency in his writings.