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What I’ve Been Up To Lately
- Remember kids, Twitter Torah experiment at 2:30PM EST: Collaborative discussion on Parshat Balak. Get in on it at #balak. 8 hrs ago
- RT @spagnoloacht Video of my Creative Commons Salon presentation on the Jewish Digital Narratives platform http://blip.tv/file/2305108/ 11 hrs ago
- Yes Men pull out of Jerusalem Film Fest http://su.pr/1uJUsU 12 hrs ago
- More updates...
Apollo Braun is a stupid effing racist
I hate to give this batshit crazy publicity whore any more attention than he’s already received, but the shirt above is my response to NYC-based Israeli designer Apollo Braun’s latest abomination (covered here in Metro).
Braun, aka Doron Braunshtein, who has created a line of $250 t-shirts which exhibit slogans such as “Obama = Hitler,” “Jews Against Obama,” and now, most recently, “Obama is My Slave,” claims,
The majority of the Jews – at least the ones that are proud of their religion and practice it – like me, don’t want to see Obama – a man who’s middle name is Hussein, and his family from his Kenyan father’s side is Muslim, as the leader of this great country. [Source]
If Braun insists on playing the “who’s a realer Jew” trump card, I’m going to have to point out that producing a cover of “Hava Nagilah” replete with a chorus of “fuck me fuck me fuck me,” posting photos of half-naked models to the Internet, having your shop open on Shabbos, and leading an openly gay lifestyle are actions hardly consistent with the principles of the Jewish religion. (No offense to the LGBT crowd, or half-naked models for that matter. My objection is not to obscenity, nudity, violating the Sabbath or being gay. It’s to calling yourself a proud, practicing, religious Jew, when Jewish ritual law itself would beg to differ.)
But who am I to insist that a Jew should identify, believe, or express themselves in any singular way? I am not, after all, Apollo Braun, who feels himself free to judge others’ Jewishness based upon political criteria.
Indeed, if Mr. Braun thinks he speaks for American Jews or Jewish New Yorkers as we relate to Barack Obama, he is sorely mistaken. Never mind that Braun, an Israeli interloper, is taking an egregious dump on the 90+ year commitment American Jews have made to the civil rights struggle, sullying the valiant efforts of those who risked life and limb to deliver freedom and equality unto their fellow Americans — black Americans. The fact is, even if it ends up the worst a Democratic candidate has ever done among Jewish voters, Obama will still take 60% of the Jewish vote. Ergo, he will win the Jewish majority.
Perhaps what Mr. Braun really meant is that as a Jewish nationalist, he believes that the Jewish people are locked in an eternal battle with the followers of Islam. In order to defend our country, our families and our own persons from the threat of violent extremism, we the Jewish people must discriminate against anyone of Muslim heritage, whether or not that’s socially acceptable or “politically correct.” This is because an individual who possesses even a single drop of Muslim blood in his or her veins could potentially be part of a nefarious plot to exterminate our people from the face of the Earth.
In other words, Mr. Braun is a despicable bigot and a paranoid fool — one who will do little to worsen Obama’s lot. Instead he is doing grave harm to the reputability and credibility of the Jewish community in Israel and America, affirming the worst impressions others have of Jews — and Zionists in particular — as being racist.
So here’s to you, douchebag, and your shonde for the goyim.
If you’d like to order one of these limited edition designer t-shirts which cost $150 less than Braun’s, retailing at only $100 a pop, please email me here. All proceeds will be donated to JStreet, Brit Tzedek V’Shalom, the New Israel Fund, and the Union of Progressive Zionists, each of which are working to demonstrate that the love of Israel can also be expressed through the love of humanity.
[Update] there’s a subtlety being lost here — so just to clarify: i’m not saying that braun’s views are the views of all zionists or that zionism=racism. what i’m saying is, shitheads like him making a big show of themselves are fodder for the public impression that zionists are racists. he makes himself evidence of the very depictions of zionism that the israel advocacy movement is working to counter, thereby effectively harming his own cause. the message on the t-shirt implies, “good job, schmuck!” — though i could certainly see how some would miss that.
why do you think it has anything to do with Zionism? Because, in a manner stereotypically-associated with Israelis, he lacks all sense of tact and appropriateness?
Holy shit I need to start selling T-shirts. $250 for an offensive slogan? Wow, just wow.
One can be gay and still lead a religious lifestyle. He/she faces ostracism and discrimination within the religious community, but it’s possible. (And even not that bad if you’re in one of the handful of accepting communities.)
And Mr. Braun is quite obviously a turd, a bigot and a list of even less nice adjectives but what else is new. I don’t know if I’m voting for Obama this November, but he’s definitely not a Muslim and contrary to what an alarmingly large number of Americans (~3 million) believe, he’s not Jewish either. He’s a Christian like every major Presidential candidate in US history.
Idiots.
That stunt has brought him attention and money, so I suppose to him, allegedly promoting awareness of inherit racist tendencies in the US, it’s a win-win situation. Wonder if he’ll ever sell T-shirts saying, “Apollo Brown poisoned your well.”…
Off-topic, Dan, your niece is a cutie.
I fail to see why your shirt design is offensive towards this idiot. “Apollo Braun is an opportunist asshole” might be more appropriate. He is living proof that Zionism is racism? Like he represents Israelis and Zionists everywhere? This shirt is retarded. But not as retarded as his shirts.
see comment appended to post
[...] out of you. Thanks to the internet, offensive fashion statements can be countered with equally inflammatory fashion statements, although this one is more [...]
[...] crazy publicity whore” and “a despicable bigot and a paranoid fool” in a turgidly written post about this story, he offers his own t-shirt (pictured above to the right) where he claims that Braun (who is [...]
shkoyach!
(except for the gay part)
i was pretty ashamed when i looked down on the subway street next to me and saw that horrendous picture– magen david and disgust… i crossed out slave and wrote hope… It seemed a pretty inflammatory headline, with reports of rising black-jewish tensions being what they may. And what of the part the designer was quoted as saying he did it just to make a splash more than any real atrocious subscription to what he printed… A most disheartening display of capitalist opportunism. no compassion for those buying and wearing these shirts though. you buy it you break it..
Dan, I love you, but I don’t think this guy proves that Zionism is racism. He is an idiot and probably a racist, just as Braun shouldn’t group all Black people together, I don’t think you should group all Israelis together, especially since this incident doesn’t seem to have anything to do with zionism or Israel.
margie, see the last graph: “i’m not saying that braun’s views are the views of all zionists or that zionism=racism.”
PROPS!
Zionism may not be racist in theory, but in practice, it’s certainly demonstrated itself as such. I’d take it a step further and call it anti-semitic as well. The only entity that has done greater damage to Am Yisrael overall is Germany a la 1940.
Also, this Braun is a degenerate piece of trash. I’m disgusted as a Jew, a homo, and an American.
shalom brother- i would suggest that if as your update insinuates you don’t hold all zionists are racists– you should change what you wrote on the shirt…namely “living proof that zionism=racism” avoiding the mistaken assumptions of people who read…
and more productively, isn’t there any way you can hack onto his website and make some kind of nasty nasty?
in this cold cold world…