A Personal Note<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (A short but concise biographical sketch of Richard Rothschild which appears below was published by his family following Richard’s passing in2023. I have added my own brief reference to Richard who was an exemplary human being in all respects.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 27, 2023 my good friend Richard Rothschild passed away at the age of 91. He was a proud and vigorous member of PAJU for more than 15 years. Richard was born in Germany in the midst of the rise of Nazism and the first stages of the persecution of German Jews. His family departed from Germany and lived briefly in the Netherlands before emigrating to the United States. Richard spent much of his youth there, eventually becoming a social activist and trade unionist.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He met Karen, his future wife, a British immigrant who had come to the United States as a foreign student, on an early morning picket line in New York City. Several years later, Richard and Karen moved to Canada, living in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Richard taught high school for many years, bought a hobby farm, and acquired his own milk cow, Boadicea. After his retirement, Richard, and family moved to Quebec, where Richard and Karen lived in Hudson.<\/em> I first came to know Richard following a phone call from him some 16 or 17 years ago when he told me that he had come across information about the Palestinian solidarity group, Palestinian and Jewish Unity and wanted to attend a meeting. I found him to be a very articulate man with a philosophical bent whose analysis of the situation in the Middle East spoke of a critique which went to the heart of the conceptual underpinning of Zionism which Richard characterized as ethnic ultra-nationalism and a blight on Jews collectively. The sharpness of his critique was unyielding.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n My wife Manon and I got to know Richard and Karen well and we had the privilege of spending afternoons together over the years talking about whatever subject might come up over some coffee or tea, afternoons I will always fondly remember. What always impressed me about Richard was his humility, his sense of justice, the depth of his probing intellect and his wry sense of humour.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard was committed to working on behalf of the principle of Palestinian rights. Moreover, he recognized that the cause of Palestinian rights was also the cause of Indigenous rights everywhere. He actively pursued his activism in Hudson where he sought to educate municipal counselors on the reality of Palestinian living conditions and the false notion of conflating the critique of Israel with antisemitism. Several years ago his physical health began to fail but not his analytical mind. He remained true to his convictions all his life. To his wife Karen and their family, we at PAJU offered our deepest sympathy for the loss of a husband and father. As for myself, I lost a noble friend.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n His philosophical essay, published here below posthumously, is unequivocal in its indictment of what Richard viewed as a racist ideological world-view espoused by Chabad writings. Richard\u2019s views on Chabad are his own, but given the nature of the predominance of the extreme-right religious elements who control the government of Israel and its genocidal campaign in Gaza, Richard Rothschild\u2019s probe into what he refers to as a collective \u201cpsychopathology\u201d which he sees as being inherent in Chabad doctrine is nevertheless relevant.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bruce Katz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n August 14, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Modern, ‘Moral,’ Reactionary Jewish Racism: Chabad’s Race Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n By Richard Rothschild<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t have 30 minutes, only have 30 seconds, here\u2019s a synopsis of this essay. Chabad is a worldwide Jewish sect. Q. What\u2019s the difference between Jewish and non-Jewish philosophy? A. Non-Jews teach, I am the master of my fate. Chabad Jews teach, \u2018We are fated to be your masters\u2019.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n How does God decide what\u2019s right and what\u2019s wrong? The question is not: Does God choose between right and wrong the ways we do? It is not the lifeboat quandary: Whose life should be sacrificed so that the others might survive. Not that with the caution that one healthy, young person on board is Black. or a Jew. The question is: How did God resolve to create \u2018wrong\u2019 in the first place? He is perfect and omnipotent; He could have created the world without evil in it. Indeed, it is argued that it is impossible for the Creator of everything we call \u2018existence\u2019 to have created evil. Yet evil exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How Does God Decide What\u2019s Right and What\u2019s Wrong? is the title of an answer to the question as to whether the \u2018wrong\u2019 of an act is its intrinsic quality, or whether wrongness is imposed on acts that \u201cdisplease\u201d God, or are acts \u201cthat God decided He doesn\u2019t want us to do\u201d. The given, right answer is the third. If you think you understand it, have a pretty good idea what these words mean (whether or not you agree with the answer), you\u2019ve been duped. If you\u2019re not Jewish, you\u2019re helpless in this fact. You\u2019re not one of \u201cus\u201d. If you are a Jew and don\u2019t get it, you can work at it and succeed. The trick\u2019s in an exclusive, biologically inherited, communication center uniting God and Jews. The explanation will have to wait. First, the ideological nucleus of the worldwide Jewish sect, Chabad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chabad teaches three fundamental theses\u2014 1) God created Jews and non-Jews with innate, invariant and immutable differences between them; 2) God promulgated the Noahide Laws that all Jews are obligated to obey and that authorize Jews to make sure that all non-Jews obey them as well; 3) God tasked the Jewish people (point 1 above) with His mission to create the conditions for \u2018true peace\u2019 from Israel and on out throughout the world. This obligation is summarized under the heading \u2018Preparing the ground for the Messiah\u2019. \u2018These thematic chapters are held together by the specialized concepts, Land and Law. Chabad is a halachic sect with land titles in its briefcase. The organization tells its story in its book-length bedrock document Tanya (at www.chabad.org<\/a>, where you\u2019ll find all my other references with a few signaled exceptions). Sounds preposterous? Outrageous? Just you wait and read, read with three questions in mind. Does Chabad\u2019s ideology harm, not merely is it likely to harm, non-Jewish minorities and majorities? Does it undermine the collective good of inclusiveness that is a fundamental attribute of decent societies? And, no less important, is it the best worldview that Judaism has to offer? Surely a few Jews, pretending to speak in the name of all Jews, do not speak in the name of all Jews, God forbid. With your help, please. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi wrote Tanya, the Chabad sect\u2019s Very Big Bang theory. In its first chapter (as Rabbi Yosef Wineberg elaborates its Likudai Amarim text), \u201cEvery Jew, whether righteous or wicked, possesses two souls\u201d of which one is \u201cthe side of creation that is the antithesis of holiness and purity\u201d and the second of which, \u201cin the case of the Jew . . . contains good that gives rise to positive natural traits . . . The souls of the nations of the world, however, emanate from the unclean kelipot which contain no good whatever.\u201d It does not give rise to positive natural traits. \u201c(A)ny good done by (non-Jews) is for selfish motives . . . the desire for self-glorification . . . and the like.\u201d Chapter 2 opens with, \u201cThe second, uniquely Jewish, soul is truly \u2018a part of God above\u2019 . . .\u201d A bit further on, \u201cThe fact . . . that this soul originates in the \u2018innermost aspect of Godliness\u2019\u201d follows from \u201cthe metaphor of blowing used to describe God\u2019s implanting the Jew\u2019s soul in his body.\u201d Grounding race in souls rather than in genes doesn\u2019t make race theory less pernicious. It merely makes it harder to navigate the unfamiliar terrain. Besides, souls are God\u2019s business, not ours. Don\u2019t you believe it. God doesn\u2019t tell stories. People do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An early word of disclaimer\u2014 I am not anti-Semitic by drawing attention to Jewish racism as articulated and promoted by a modern sect, founded in the maturity of the Age of Reason and expanded into a worldwide movement in the twentieth century. (There are earlier examples of Jewish racist sects in the history of the Jews.) I am not befuddled by arguments that religious freedom protects \u2018master race\u2019 racism when some rabbis write and teach it in religious rhetoric. And then I am not so blindly pro-Semitic<\/em> to believe that all of us Jews are utterly incapable of our own self-serving brand of racism, because, after all, we\u2019re Jews, the eternal victims. We Jews aren\u2019t as un<\/em>human as that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the very idea of Jewish racism will be met with disdain and dismay\u2014for very good reasons\u2014I\u2019ve quoted much detailed, self-incriminating testimony from Chabad leadership. I add a theoretical tool that simultaneously structures my accusation \u2014 it isn\u2019t a rant \u2014 and helps explain why Chabad\u2019s racism doesn\u2019t jump out at us as obvious at this time. The quick answer is, all of us think that we think with our minds. Chabad scholars teach that\u2019s the subjective way of non-Jews. It\u2019s not that non-Jews got it wrong, that with a little more education and insight they can correct their error. It is inherently impossible<\/em> for non-Jews to pass the test. Jews don\u2019t suffer that inherited disability. Put differently, \u201call of us\u201d as one humanity doesn\u2019t exist. To complicate matters, the word \u2018existence\u2019 is also under fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do we distinguish humans, molecules and mountains from beliefs, hopes and desires? John Searle asks the question and here\u2019s his answer: The first three are \u201cmind-independent\u201d. They do not owe their existence to anything anybody knows or believes. The other three are \u201cmind-dependent\u201d. They owe their existence to what goes on in our heads (John R. Searle, Making of the Social World, Oxford University Press, pp 16-17). Chabad\u2019s heads work differently. Not only do they not admit to \u2018human beings\u2019 being a single category of entity, they tell a long story that explains why it can\u2019t be so. You just read a soul-searching snippet from Tanya. What they can\u2019t escape is that their story (like everyone\u2019s) is a \u201cmind-dependent\u201d construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Searle distinguishes between perceptions, beliefs and memories on the one hand and desires and hopes on the other. Beliefs are (communicated in propositions that are) true or false. If false, drop or modify them to make beliefs fit the world. Desires are \u2018I want to do something; I intend to make some changes\u2019, as well as \u2018I want you to . . . ; I intend to make you make . . .\u2019 expressions. In these cases we try to change the world to fit our desires. Chabad\u2019s desires and intentions are signaled in the sect\u2019s second thesis, the Noahide laws, to which we\u2019ll come back. First, concentrate on the claim that Jews exist individually as \u2018I\u2019 and collectively as \u2018we\u2019 where these pronouns both highlight and conceal the categorical distinction Chabad asserts between Jews and non-Jews who also use \u2018I\u2019 and \u2018we\u2019 words. For Jews these pronouns don\u2019t have the qualitatively neutral reference that stretches across all language users. The collective we<\/em> Jews<\/em> know<\/em> who we<\/em> are, and we know<\/em> it is impossible for non-Jews to know that fact. Although they would do well to accept it. You will be reading that a Jew\u2019s \u201ccognitive faculties\u201d (distinguished from \u201ccognative-volitional\u201d (desire-intention) faculties, Searle, p.15) don\u2019t correspond with a non-Jew\u2019s. At the \u201cquintessential level\u201d Jews don\u2019t have minds of their own. Jewish God created Jews with \u201cgood that gives rise to positive natural traits.\u201d The \u201cgood\u201d includes His<\/em> \u201cknowledge\u201d such that Jews innately have the corresponding \u201cknowledge\u201d to fulfill God\u2019s design, whatever else goes on in their heads. As embodiments of His will, Jews make non-Jews comply with His intention for His occupation of the world. God makes the Law; Jews are His administrators. Chabad narrates its race theory seriously. You\u2019ll be reading more in their words in a minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How does the sect get away with it? \u201cIn addition to these two faculties [we adjust beliefs to fit reality and we (try to) adjust reality to fit desires], there is a third: imagination. The propositional content of imagination is not supposed to fit reality in the way that propositional contents in cognition and volition are supposed to fit, but which nonetheless functions crucially in creating social and institutional reality\u201d (ibid., p.15). Imagine your story. Convince enough people that your fiction, fantasy, is true and it becomes common knowledge, an \u2018everybody knows that\u2019 social reality. I\u2019m reading a story. Its publisher informs, \u201cReferences to real people, events, places, establishments and organizations are used fictionally.\u201d I\u2019m reading the U. S. Constitution. Some hominids count as \u201c2\/3 of a person,\u201d no more, no less. Both collections of words in print are parts of social reality. They differ in their respective contents. Dracula and Charles Darnay are fictitious characters. Are 2\/3rds of persons real persons for the fact the Constitution says so? It says no such thing. The founding document states, \u2018Each slave shall count as<\/em> the given fraction of a white\u2019. Trouble begins when individuals or groups of individuals believe, and try to get others to believe, that they themselves are<\/em> Dracula or Tom Jefferson, or that Blacks are not<\/em> fully human or that Jews really have<\/em> a generic exceptionality for evil or for good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDeclaration is peculiar in that it creates the very reality that it represents. . . . All of non-linguistic institutional reality is created by Declaration. Once you see the power of the Declaration to create an institutional reality of governments, universities, marriages, private property, money and all of the rest of it, you can see that social reality has a formal structure of the language used to create it\u201d (ibid. p 16). Convince enough people that everyone<\/em> has civil rights and you\u2019ve overthrown monarchy. Fail to so convince and you\u2019ve got authoritarianism and dictatorship. Convince enough people that Jews are a race apart and you\u2019ve created a racist society. Hitler did. Chabad\u2019s leaders also are in the business of declaring and convincing that Jews are a race apart. <\/strong>An unfounded, anti-Semitic insult? They want the Jewish nation to be the winners this time round. \u201cThe Jewish people have been backseat passengers for over two thousand years. Now it\u2019s our turn to own and drive the car\u201d (Chaim Charles Cohen, Jewish Democracy, www.israelinationalnews.com<\/a>, 12\/13\/2014).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s a distasteful example that, with regrets, vividly illustrates Searle\u2019s emphasis, that \u201cdeclarations create institutional realities.\u201d For a decade in recent history, \u2018death camps\u2019 were a social institution in Nazi Germany. There were official rules as to who was to \u201ccount\u201d as eligible for being exterminated, as well as further rules that created \u201creal powers\u201d for those who administered and executed the rules within the camps, rules laid down by those in governmental positions who created those killing-camps in the first place. Everything was in \u2018law and order,\u2019 duly authorized and legitimized. Being institutional reality, the death camps were accepted, easy to ignore, known about but not challenged. The \u2018declaration\u2019 that successfully set it off was the message that Jews are an existential danger to the German-\u201cAryan\u201d people, repeated from governmental and non-governmental sources and echoed in popular voices. Is it fair to say that in the Nazi period Jews were presented and generally acknowledged as a dangerous enemy<\/em> of Germany and Germans, although known to be unarmed and to have no violent intentions? Keep this question in mind, please. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me not be misunderstood or misinterpreted. You undoubtedly agree that rabbis have an authority granted by their positions in religious institutions in our liberal democratic societies. But you may reject my argument that there are Jews, rabbis, who endorse an ideology of a Jewish \u2018race\u2019. I am making an anti-Semitic slur by insinuating a resemblance between Jewish leaders and Hitler, you believe. That\u2019s why \u201cit is very hard to sell such a [Jewish] nationalistic perspective in the modern Western world\u201d for two reasons\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n One, fascism and communism have given collective people-hood a bad name. . . . Second, Western culture is dominated by an empirical materialism and a radical individualism, both of which make it very hard to accept the Jewish concept of people-hood\u201d<\/em> (op cit, Jewish Democracy. www.israelnationalnews. com<\/a> is the website of Arutz Sheva, a daily of Israeli religious right-wing organizations, including Chabad). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Will you object that \u2018fascism\u2019 isn\u2019t \u2018Nazism\u2019 and therefore not racist? I will not only remind you that the two often are used interchangeably. If you insist, I\u2019ll retort that, at the least, the call is for a Jewish \u201cnationalistic\u201d dictatorial society. Chabad\u2019s race theory does not share the same theoretical basis as did Hitler\u2019s. But it is more meticulously argued. And must we concede, without further inspection, that Hitlerian racism is the only possible one in town? As Cohen\u2019s second point indicates, Jews themselves have to overcome non-Jewish mentality to realize that, by God, we are a race apart with a this-world duty<\/em>. \u2018Jew\u2019 is not a one-way street, from Jew to Judaism to religion. There\u2019s a lane from Creation to Jew to people-hood to politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDeclarations create institutional realities.\u201d They are sentences whose semantic meanings (can) bring about social change. \u2018I pronounce the meeting adjourned\u2019, and for the reason that the speaker had been empowered according to the organization\u2019s rules, there\u2019s a new state of affairs in the hall: the meeting is adjourned. \u2018We, duly elected and so on, declare that Jews everywhere in the world are born citizens on landing at Tel Aviv\u201d. In consequence, the new state of affairs is that Palestinian Israelis are increasingly outnumbered and displaced. \u2018We, leaders of recognized religious political parties, declare this land is our God-given inheritance\u2019 and in consequence Palestinian Territory is Israel\u2019s Sudetenland<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Chabad has a formal structure conforming with the rules of the existing social reality. It\u2019s officially \u201cdeclared\u201d a legally recognized non-profit corporation. Its leaders use their authority within the organization and the corporation\u2019s legitimacy within society to influence the policies and rules of other structures that comprise the larger social reality. The existing institutional facts provide, distribute and deny powers to peoples who, imagining a \u2018better world\u2019 \u2014 i.e. one more to their liking \u2014 speak their mental attitudes into existing social institutions from and through which they try to reinforce, transform or eradicate aspects in our current social reality. Most frequently, most of us don\u2019t speak about it, taking our social reality for granted. (We grumble but rarely effectively engage in the structures of the system.) \u2018That\u2019s just the way it is\u2019 keeps things just the way they are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most Chabad congregants this side of Israel gain satisfaction from the organized internal friendliness and a feeling of protection from external anti-Semitism. I use \u201ccongregant\u201d to emphasize that Chabad is formally a \u2018religious\u2019 corporation and is considered exclusively as such by almost all of its members. Their attitude, unquestionably sincere and mistakenly limited to religious holidays and rites, keeps the road cleared for Chabad\u2019s sectarian mission<\/strong>. Religion necessarily is<\/em> politics<\/strong>: people exercising power to create and institutionalize legal rules that define what \u201ccounts\u201d as \u201creligion\u201d, and, while protecting their religion from external politics, give a protected social space from which religious leaders effect political decisions in their favor. In Canada, for example, the religion-politics duality is formally separated by State secularism laws. In Israel this religion-politics duality is intertwined: Israel recognizes itself as a Jewish and Democratic State. In Chabad\u2019s ideology political activity is the sole aim of God\u2019s Creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So much for theoretical criticism of Chabad\u2019s story-book account of the origin and qualities of the world\u2019s two and only two races (pp 1-2), and an argued reason why Jewish racism escapes us. But I haven\u2019t told you in detail the sect\u2019s story, in its words. I do that now, touching on some saddening real-world consequences, for non-Jews within easy reach of Jews, to dispel the dismissive thought you might have that, \u201cWell, it\u2019s only religion\u201d, or, \u201cJews have suffered the Holocaust\u201d, or, religious freedom is inviolable, or, \u201cJews don\u2019t do that kind of thing\u201d. To lighten the burden, I\u2019ve mixed in a handful of \u2018Why did the chicken cross the road\u2019 jokes explicitly and implicitly told by Chabad. For you who, like me, do not find the jokes funny, there\u2019s a practical suggestion at the end of the essay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n * * * <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who is not a Jew? Obviously everyone who does not profess or practice Judaism. This definition by religion or culture does not explain Chabad\u2019s claim that some non-Jews unwittingly are Jews and some practicing, even devout, Jews unknowingly are not \u2018real Jews\u2019, are not Jews at all. So, who is not a Jew? Modern answers include: everyone both of whose parents and at least three of four grandparents are not Jews; everyone whose veins do not carry Jewish blood; all who lack Jewish genes; all and only people who have a soul; only people who do not have two souls; only people to whom God is not directly connected in their bodily inside: no one identified by one or more of these markers is a Jew. Flip everything over and you have Jews. From the regrettable familiar to the disbelieving \u2018uh?\u2019, all these markers have this in common across humanity: they are innate, inextinguishable, unalterable, and sexually transmitted. But from this comprehensive list of race identifiers, ranging from the mythical and mystical, through religion, on up to the pseudo-scientific, and recently symbolized on armbands and tattoos with stars or swastikas (depending on which race you\u2019re in), how can we decide which is the vital race, which is its threat, non-Jews or Jews?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an outrageous question formulated to insult and denigrate Jews. As always. So I will reformulate it in the less familiar idiom used by the Chabad sect: Which is the \u2018good\u2019 race and which the \u2018evil\u2019? God created the existence<\/em> of Jews on the one hand and of the nations of the world (as non-Jews are often referred) on the other. How does He decide which race is \u2018good\u2019 and which is \u2018evil\u2019, given His purpose for creating existence in the first place? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stop right there. You\u2019ve already gone too far. Judaism and Christianity are two monotheistic religions. From the two Testaments one might argue that God was an evolutionist, from infant mythological beginnings of humans through Jewish adolescence to Christian adulthood. Or we can say that God is \u201cOne\u201d to some and \u201cThree Persons\u201d to others. Nowhere in the primary sources is there mention of different \u2018races\u2019 of humans, no less than that one human race is good and the other evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your objection is relevant. You are repeating a familiar story told in the language of religion as narrated in the Bible. Religion \u2014 by unspoken assumption \u2013 is a protected sanctuary. Is that so? You\u2019ve already read that \u2018religion\u2019 is whatever those with recognized powers declare \u201ccounts\u201d as religion. Watch the Chabad sect to see how Searle\u2019s theory works in action. Chabad leaders, occupying top positions in a respected worldwide religious organization, as well as in various secular corporations, governmental bodies, and civic associations in Israel and elsewhere, contribute an unfamiliar revision of Old Testament. It leap-frogs the Five Books of Moses and retells Creation its way. It trashes the religious question, \u201cWho is a Jew?\u201d replacing it with the anthropomorphic \u2018What<\/em> is a Jew?\u2019, and being a Jew, what his mission is. Is this assertion true or false? Start by opening How Does God Decide \u2026?, and then you decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. Which was the first Jew, Man or God? Tzvi Freeman takes the first quarter of his essay to make the point that God is not the Primal Cause of existence. He can\u2019t be, because He\u2019s Jewish! \u201cThe Jewish God cannot properly be called a \u2018Primal Cause\u2019.\u201d \u201cThe Jewish<\/em> God has free choice\u201d between causing and creating (emphasis added). Dear reader, can you already entertain the possibility that a Jewish God might have a bias in favor of creating a race of Jews a notch or twelve above non-Jews? Well, nothing compels God to create Jews as a superior race or as a race at all. Nothing compels God to create anything, neither time nor space, \u201cand similarly with the rules of logic, causality, geometry, and, yes, of ethics<\/em>\u201d (a bench-mark statement I\u2019ve italicized and to which we\u2019ll return).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet Jewish God so decided with unprecedented originality. Every type of existence, from electromagnetic radiation that makes things visible, from astrophysics to microbiology, through mathematics and systems of reasoning, up to the \u201cscience of conduct in human behavior\u201d (OED), as well as humans<\/em>\u2014 everything<\/em> that exists is run through with God-commanded laws and rules. (\u2018Everything\u2019 must include the rules of grammar, of biological evolution, of the history of mankind and social transformation, including the institution we call \u2018religion\u2019.) God had His reason: He implanted His laws in everything that exists in order to oppose and overcome their direct opposites, chaos and void. Do Chabad leaders have their reason for overlooking or censuring the distinction between mind-independent and mind-dependent existences? Between the natural and social domains? Between what humans are capable of and what are nature\u2019s brick walls? <\/p>\n\n\n\n OK, God created laws that make light, \u2018animal laws\u2019 that determine how animals function and \u2018people laws\u2019 that make us people into humans. But from what I observe, the Chabad sect teaches that human beings are not one uniform category but is a label for two disparate races. That means that Jews and non-Jews are created with different sets of laws, although we\u2019re all people, aren\u2019t we? How is that duality even conceivable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good point. Chabad acknowledges that \u2018humans\u2019 is one single thing, different from everything else. God created all people in His image and everything else He created not in His image. From this fact, everything \u2014 cosmos, Earth, Jews, non-Jews, sheep, shale, shoals, Corona virus (?), everything \u201cdown to each blade of grass\u201d\u2014 is uniformly \u201csacred\u201d. Yes, Jews are sacred but not super-sacred. They\u2019re sacred plus another, crucial bit more. But let that wait and continue with Freeman\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the onset of the world\u2019s creation, God beheld the deeds of the righteous and the deeds of the wicked. . . . \u2018And the world was chaos and void\u2019 (Genesis 1:2)\u2014these are the deeds of the wicked. \u2018And God said: Let there be light\u2019 (ibid, verse 3)\u2014these are the deeds of the righteous. But I still do not know which one of them God desires\u2026 Then when it says \u2018And God saw the light, that it is good\u2019 (verse 4), I know that He desires the deeds of the righteous, and does not desire the deeds of the wicked.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Freeman is citing this revision of Genesis from an ancient Midrash. (Chabad rabbis have a predilection for unearthing truths \u201cbehind\u201d the O.T.) He cites Beishit Rabbah to elucidate \u201cthe question of why there is evil in the world\u201d. Our dilemma is: Given that God is perfect and omnipotent and has free choice, why and how does evil exist? Freeman\u2019s answer, \u201cGod chose to hate . . . After all you can\u2019t hate something that doesn\u2019t exist. So evil exists in order for God to despise it.\u201d Freeman could have spared us his joke. \u201cThe righteous\u201d and \u201cthe wicked\u201d were present before \u201cthe onset\u201d, two groups of angels, one sitting at the right, the other at the left hand of God. Turning His head from side to side, He saw the forerunner of a two-races solution. Jewish God was free to choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n M. M. Schneerson peers into God\u2019s \u201cDivine consciousness\u201d before God had created Time. Like Freeman, the Chabad sect\u2019s most recent Chief Rabbi assembles a story by skipping Bible\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two things precede God\u2019s creation of the world: Torah and Israel. Still I do not know which preceded which. But when the Torah states, \u2018Speak to the children of Israel \u2026\u2019, \u2018Command the children of Israel\u2026\u2019, and so on, I know that Israel precedes all.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Untangling it for us, Schneerson confirms \u201cSo the concepts of \u2018Israel\u2019 and \u2018Torah\u2019 both precede a concept of a \u2018world\u2019 in the Creator\u2019s mind.\u201d So here is \u2018Israel,\u2019 the Jews, as a distinct category of human beings, if not the only humans, in His mind during those pre-days. But which first, Jew or Torah? Guiding us through a vertical thought-maze of \u201crevealed\u201d and \u201chidden\u201d planes, Schneerson takes us to Chabad\u2019s fundamental avowal of Jews as race, reaching behind the Jewish soul\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a quintessential level, there exists a third connection, the \u2018direct\u2019 connection between God and His people which precedes the very concept of Torah . . . On this level it is the Torah that \u2018needs\u2019 the Jew to evoke God\u2019s desire . . .The essence of the Jew, as it is rooted within the essence of God, is indeed one with its Source. But then it \u2018descends\u2019 to become part of the created existence, assuming a distinct identity as a soul and then as a human being. <\/em>(What Makes a Jew \u2018Jewish\u2019?, based on Schneerson\u2019s teachings.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jews being innately one with the Creator of universal Law settled, Eliezer Shemtov leaps from Deuteronomy to Talmud to a quote by Rashdi to give us a concise dissertation on constitutive laws, the \u201cfacts\u201d of the matter, which are\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n The laws of the Torah are as (or more) objective and inalterable as the laws of nature. The same way one cannot alter the laws of gravity . . . one cannot alter the laws of the Torah. The Torah student and sage looks . . . to <\/em>discover the Divine structure that is inherent in the universe and life<\/em>\u201d (On Intermarriage).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. What\u2019s the difference between Christian God and Jewish God? A. Christian God is in Three Persons while Jewish God is in 15 million Jews. What is \u201cthe Divine structure inherent\u201d in every Jew? \u201cThe distinguishing element of the Jew is the Neshamah (soul) that every Jew possesses. The soul of the Jew is different than the soul of the non-Jew. They have different potentials, characteristics and needs.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, non-Jews also have souls, but here\u2019s the big diff. They have \u2018animal\u2019 souls (Nefesh); Jews have \u2018animal\u2019 souls as well. We\u2019re all humans, aren\u2019t we? But Jews have that additional second God-soul (Neshamah); non-Jews do not. Not all of us are walking, talking Gods on Earth, are we? The Neshamah is \u201ctruly \u2018a part of God above\u2019\u201d (What is a Soul (Neshamah)?). <\/p>\n\n\n\n How did Neshamah get inside Jews? For us, soul is a mind thing while breath is a lung thing. For Chabad, \u2018nemesh\u2019 is a union of \u2018soul and breath\u2019. God created Man by exhaling His Word on Day 6. First emerged non-Jews; towards the end of the day, nearly out of breath, the Jews. But by then His breath was contaminated with traces of Godly phlegm, throat and lung which infected the Jews. Whence two human races all in one indivisible Divine utterance. To Chabad\u2019s credit, it does not indulge in abstract speculation. It connects the causal dots to prove the origin of the Jewish race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All too mythical for you? Chabadniks are strict empiricists in their racial way. From the vantage of \u201cthe Divine structure in every Jew,\u201d the rabbis rewrite biological taxonomy. All humans share the \u20187 animal appetites\u2019 soul (Nemesh). The monopolized Jewish soul (Neshamah) consists in Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom. Using their KUW, Chabad leaders discover only Nemesh in non-Jews. Therefore they classify non-Jews down among the other animals, though not less \u201csacred\u201d for that. From the fact that they discover both Nemesh and Neshamah in Jews, they classify Jews up in a category shared with God, uniquely \u201choly\u201d for that. Schneerson uses the phrase \u201centirely different species\u201d to label Jews. \u201cDifferent species\u201d connotes a new biological discovery. \u201cEntirely different [from all other worldly] species\u201d entails Jews are off the biological, taxonomic table. (See The Sefirot for details on the 7 + 3 attributes. \u201cHoly\u201d vs. \u201csacred\u201d are Schneerson\u2019s file cards.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sect\u2019s circular reasoning is blatant. Illogical as it is to us, not so for Chabad. Human error is possible: it\u2019s our subjective, emotional undoing. But \u201cGod created the rules of logic,\u201d Freeman speaking his bench-mark sentence, from which it is impossible<\/em> for there be anything \u201cobjectively\u201d illogical. \u2018Logic\u2019 simply is<\/em>, as mind-independent as gravity. Jews are born with non-human mind KUW to be able to claim the truth of this mind- independent assertion!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eleizer Shemtov, recharged with KUW, explains it is \u201cnot only prohibited for a Jew to marry a non-Jewess, it is impossible<\/em> for a Jew to marry a non-Jewess.\u201d He is not talking about the State of Israel where no instance is authorized to perform the ceremony of \u2018intermarriage\u2019 and where nonetheless \u2018intermarriage\u2019 is recognized as legitimate when the happy couple returns from Cyprus. This current Israeli practice of guarding the impossibility of intermarriage on its turf is similar to the impossibility 2\/3rds of persons. Everyone knows it\u2019s phony. In both cases verbal manipulation screens reality: Lifelong intermarriages exist; 100% whole black people exist. Shemtov\u2019s \u2018impossibility\u2019 is of a different order. \u201cIt is clear that we are not dealing here with racial discrimination which is borne of a personal and subjective attitude that the Jew has vis-\u00e0-vis the gentile. What we are talking about is an objective, Divine command . . . more objective and inalterable than the laws of nature<\/em>\u201d (On Intermarriage, emphasis added). God created Law to defeat void. Therefore intermarriage is void<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Chabad cosmology intermarriage is objectively \u2014<\/em> not politically \u2014 impossible everywhere in the world. As an Assertion, this claim is clearly false. What do some Jews with power in existing institutions in many parts of the world try to do about it? Change the world by changing Assertion to Declaration. Declare the Jewish nation is God\u2019s physical emissary often enough and eventually the nation, with political clout, actualizes God\u2019s will on Earth<\/strong>. In time there will be no free, sovereign territory anywhere in the world where anyone will have the authority to perform the rite. Political impossibility will have caught up with \u201cobjective\u201d impossibility. And intermarriage is only one example of interracial<\/em> relations in general. The Jewish nation has its plate full. Reader, don\u2019t despair. I once did, therefore now I write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you see the reflections of C. C. Cohen\u2019s \u2018Western culture\u2019s materialism and individualism\u2019 that block the clear view of \u201cpeople-hood\u201d (Cohen\u2019s synonym for \u2018the Jewish people\u2019 and \u2018nation\u2019)? We can grant Jews, and not only Jews, indulge in \u201cracial discrimination which is borne of a personal and subjective attitude.\u201d That\u2019s not the racism Chabad leaders \u201cdeal with\u201d. Chabad\u2019s racism is not mind-dependent \u201cattitude\u201d but mind-independent, non-social, objective existence. I use Shemtov\u2019s Intermarriage to make two points: i) to illustrate a Chabad central thesis, that all<\/em> Jewish<\/em> social<\/em> institutions<\/em> are constituted of God-made laws no less than natural phenomena, and ii) that Chabad leaders and emissaries communicate this thesis without drawing attention to the significance of meaning of its spiel: \u201cWe use meaning (semantics) to create reality that goes beyond the meaning\u201d (op. cit. Searle, p.65). Chabad is very much in the business of reshaping reality to its racist vision, wherever it can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As mentioned perhaps too often, the sect is deeply halachic<\/em> in story-telling. For Chabad all \u2018laws\u2019 are one, all of which are external to human making and influence<\/em>. Imagine taking the \u2018rules\u2019 out of thermodynamics, out of molecular biology, out of geological formation; imagine taking the rules out of social constructs: algebra, marriage, morality, the liberal \u2018rule of law\u2019, baseball and pinochle, Jews and non-Jews, and whatcha got? A mess or less. In Chabad cosmology all<\/em> Creation consists entirely in Divinely<\/em> existential constitutive laws. No human attitude, belief, experience and powers can touch those laws. Religious<\/em> beliefs, etc. might conceal or misinterpret them. Don\u2019t allow religion to stand in your way. Jewish God makes no distinction between the laws of physics and the laws of baseball and the laws of Torah and the laws of what a Jew is and the laws of what a non-Jew is. For Him, all existence is His one big game, His Creation to defeat \u201cchaos and void\u201d. \u2018Games\u2019 is the only game Jewish God plays. Shemtov\u2019s pitch for Team Chabad is that there are no<\/em> man-made laws and rules that amount to \u201cmore than a formality,\u201d that are more than \u201csubjective,\u201d more than illusion. That\u2019s Jewish God speaking through the voice of Chabad\u2019s leaders, and vice versa, at the high risk of sounding psychopathological.<\/p>\n\n\n\n * * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n Up to this point I\u2019ve concentrated on the origin of two disparate human species as narrated by Chabad\u2019s founder and carried forward by subsequent rabbis. Now we turn to race relations. I won\u2019t keep you in suspense. It is impossible<\/em> for the interrelationship to be of mutual benefit. It is impossible<\/em> for the racial relations to reach a point of mutual acceptance, of conciliation, of \u201creal peace\u201d. The impossibility, as you\u2019ve read, is not due to lack of will or bad faith on either side. It\u2019s explained by \u201cthe laws of the Torah that are as (or more) objective and unalterable than the laws of nature.\u201d<\/strong> The impossibility of \u201creal peace\u201d (until and unless) is explained by God\u2019s reason for having created Land\u2014 the Earth as His resting place, and the Jewish people to prepare His room at the inn. For an overview, open a text less than one page short for three reasons. It emphasizes the central role of politics in Chabad ideology. It is straightforward in expressing the intention to impose Jewish domination wherever practicable. It testifies to extreme irrationality if the leadership sincerely believes Jews have no alternative. If they don\u2019t really believe it, they should be ashamed of the damage they do to Judaism as an inclusive religion. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ve already read that the sect denies the validity of the distinction between natural and social laws. So reminded, let\u2019s turn to The Land of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGod has enabled the Jewish people to live as sovereigns in . . . the land promised to the Jews by God\u201d is the single-sentence opening paragraph. \u2018It describes \u201creality\u201d\u2019 is an explicit claim about this religious assertion. Let\u2019s examine it through the \u2018reality\u2019 lens. A \u201cpromise\u201d was made by God to \u201cthe Jewish people\u201d to transfer ownership of a large piece of undescribed real estate to them<\/strong>, by contract or gift, either with no conditions or with reserves. The only thing we are told about the content of the promise is i) \u2018the Jewish people\u2019 have the right to occupy the land, and ii) they have the right to sovereignty in it. (No mention as to whether the land promised is vacant.) We know who made the promise but to whom, exactly, was the promise made? \u2018The Jewish people\u2019 has no address and no authorized spokesperson. Who got the original title to the deed? How was it transferred to hundreds of unborn future generations of Jews? These are \u2018reality\u2019 questions, ours, not Chabad\u2019s. It\u2019s \u2018reality\u2019 is \u201cGod promised\u201d, \u201cGod enabled\u201d. In any event, Exodus tells a more violent story about the manner in which Jews occupied the land they claimed, after the fact, God had promised. Let\u2019s leave the unfathomable at that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast-forward 4,000 years. \u201cThis reality places a special burden and privilege upon Israel\u2019s citizens and its government, (namely) to preserve the Jewish integrity of the country<\/strong>\u201d is the first sentence of the second paragraph. It does not speak of costs and benefits. A useful analytical tool is a square matrix with \u2018citizens\u2019 and \u2018government\u2019 on one axis and \u2018special burden\u2019 and \u2018special privilege\u2019 on the other. Israel\u2019s both \u2018government\u2019 and its \u2018citizens\u2019 have both \u2018special burden\u2019 and \u2018special privileges\u2019. To get you started\u2014 Among the world\u2019s 300+ states, Israel is entitled to a special status because its government, that speaks for the country in international affairs, enjoys what no other national government has. As regards domestic policy, in comparison to whom do the citizens have privilege? Obviously residents of Israel who are not Israeli. But this answer overlooks the fact of Chabad\u2019s Jewish racial exceptionalism and the \u201cspecial burden\u201d that comes with it. It necessarily follows from God\u2019s promise that only the Jewish citizens are meant for privilege<\/strong>, not Palestinian Israelis. \u2018Privilege\u2019 for some simply means exclusion of others.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The second paragraph in The Land . . . continues, \u201c(Israel\u2019s) education system must be founded on . . . Jewish tradition so that its citizens grow to be proud keepers of their Jewish heritage.\u201d \u201cTradition and heritage\u201d are broad terms. Is the story of the exclusively Jewish second soul Jewish tradition and heritage au complet<\/em> or a specifically identifiable narration of Jewish mysticism told by particular Jewish sects? The fact that all Chabad\u2019s internet texts end with, \u201cCopyright, all rights reserved. (You must) comply with Chabad.org\u2019s copyright policy\u201d is sufficient to show that Chabad corporate leaders don\u2019t buy the idea that \u201ctradition and heritage\u201d alone are sufficient to protect the sect\u2019s racist ideology. You want to copyright a tradition or a heritage? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The theme of the two-sentenced third paragraph is that Israel\u2019s foreign affairs \u201cmust proudly assert Jewish pride\u201d\u2014 one of Schneerson\u2019s visible contribution to the sect\u2019s program. I\u2019ll quote the fourth paragraph of The Land of Israel\u2019, about Israel\u2019s peace and safety, a bit further on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n C. C. Cohen has something to tell us about Israeli citizens and Jewish education. He argues that \u201ca government whose guiding principle is the liberal ideal of Israel as a \u2018state of all its citizens\u2019 is almost literally burying Zionism and raising the white flag.\u201d You probably thought that liberal ideals, yours, are the only ideals in town. You\u2019ve just been told you\u2019re a born anti-Semite.<\/strong> The non-Jews\u2019 \u201cpolitical-social philosophy contends that mankind cannot know a set of metaphysical or philosophical Absolute Truths that would objectively determine laws of morality.\u201d \u201cDiametrically opposed to (liberal philosophy), we hold that man (Jews) can only fulfill and redeem his life if he . . . attaches himself in a committed manner to . . . an Absolute law of morality . . .\u201d \u201cOnly an Israeli state that pro-actively promotes the Jewish character and Jewish development of our country will survive and flourish in an international environment . . .\u201d (Chaim C. Cohen, The Issue of Equality, israelnationalnews.com, 8\/22\/2018). You can\u2019t sidestep \u201cAbsolute Truths\u201d and \u201cAbsolute morality\u201d any more than you can jump over a tall building in a single bound without some propulsion equipment strapped on your back. On that discouraging note, back to Chabad\u2019s texts with \u201cAbsolute morality\u201d up and running to direct and enforce Jewish sovereignty in the Land. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n * * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chabad\u2019s soulological anthropoidology elucidated, let\u2019s examine the impact of the Absolute Truth of Divine law on the possibilities of and limits to relations between the two races. Q. Why did God create non-Jews? A. To give God a choice between losers and His Chosen<\/strong>. Q. Why did God create Jews? A. Since God can do no wrong He needed a reliable people to do the dirty work for Him. Tzvi Freeman tells these not tongue-in-cheek jokes in his Who Is a Jew? God cuts several deals with Jews. He supplies land (\u201cwith boundaries that are quite large and have yet to be fulfilled\u201d), circumcision (\u201cJewish women are considered to be \u2018born as circumcised\u2019\u201d), and a guarantee that the land would belong to Jews in perpetuity, even when they are in exile<\/strong>. In exchange, Jews unquestioningly obey the commands of Torah. Torah is commandments and through it assigns the tasks to be performed. \u201cWhen your Creator assigns you a mission in life, the mission is who you are.\u201d \u201cThere is nothing left of the Jew other than (God\u2019s) choice and (His) mission\u201d \u201cso that eventually the entire world would be united under a single, just and caring God.\u201d And He is Jewish! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Freeman warns that \u201cChosenness is deeply misunderstood.\u201d He\u2019s warning us away from misunderstanding Genesis and Exodus, that there\u2019s God, there are Jews, there are the non-Jews, and Jews are His choice. The \u201ceternal (land) holding\u201d covenant was \u201cno longer just a word, but an obligation and a physical sign in the human body for all generations,\u201d \u201cfus(ing) both parties in an unbreakable bond,\u201d\u2014 covenants embedded in the DNA of every Jew so to speak<\/strong>. The covenants are not in someone\u2019s body because he\u2019s a Jew; rather, a person\u2019s a Jew because the covenants are in his body. Every Jew\u2019s body is a \u201cphysical sign . . . fusing Jew and God,\u201d combining Torah, covenants, and God-assigned missions in the \u201cessence\u201d of Jews. That\u2019s who a Jew is. Under this conception, Jewish God is neither in Mind nor in Heart, and although He\u2019s transcendent, He\u2019s simultaneously embodied in the persons of Jews, His physical presence and eternal custodians of holy land. Is any part of God\u2019s Earth less or more holy or divine than any other? And all those non-Jews\u2014 are they squatters? trespassers? beggars? thieves?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. Why did God create non-Jews? A. To give Jews a population on whom to enforce the Noahide Laws.<\/strong> The second and third cornerstones in Chabad\u2019s doctrine are the Noahide Laws and their real-world consequences. \u201cJews who are asked what their attitude toward their non-Jewish friends should be can be shown a complete formulation for non-Jewish integrity and well-being, which can be applied wherever they live.\u201d The \u201ccomplete formulation\u201d is the Seven Noahide Laws. This political policy law, in one wording, reads, \u201cCarry out justice\u2014an imperative to pursue and enforce social justice, and a prohibition of any miscarriage of justice.\u201d The Mitzvot of Non-Jews interprets this basic law like this; read it carefully and thoroughly for it does not speak in tongues\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our sages state, \u2018War comes to the world through the delay of justice, the perversion of justice, and the teaching of Torah not in accordance with Jewish law.\u2019 When both Jews and non-Jews can learn Torah without distortion of its Jewish legal meaning, true peace becomes possible. This includes recognition of the principle that Jews can be judged only according to Torah law, no matter where in the world, and that non-Jews in Eretz Yisrael [Greater Israel] are considered according to the Seven Noahide Laws by the Jews there, with no sovereign jurisdiction of their own.<\/strong> <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n On reading this, you will recall from an earlier discussion that \u201csovereign jurisdiction\u201d for non-Jews in \u201cthe Land of Israel\u201d is objectively \u201cimpossible\u201d. Non-Jews may insist on having equal political and social status with Jews. If and as long as they do, \u201ctrue peace\u201d remains \u201cimpossible\u201d. Not because Jews are a mean-spirited bunch, but because Jews are \u201cfusions\u201d of man and God<\/strong>. Non-Jews are not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Universal Morality baptizes Noahide Law \u2018universal morality\u2019. The objective moral law states, \u201cMaintain justice. Justice is God\u2019s business, but we are given the charge to lay down necessary laws and enforce them whenever we can\u201d<\/em> (emphasis added). God provides the principle; Jews transcribe His legislation; Jews enforce the laws, non-Jews are the hapless subjects. Can non-Jews expect justice under the law of \u201cthe just and caring\u201d Jewish God? His laws are interpreted by us Jews according to their \u201cJewish legal meaning\u201d. We cannot disobey God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are some model, moral Jewish laws? \u201cIf we see an idolater drowning we should not help him. If we see that his life is in danger, we should not save him . . . To whom do the above apply? To gentiles.\u201d (Author’s insert: In the U.S. \u201cthe drowning rate for African Americans is 40% higher than that for whites and Hispanics\u201d (Katy Guest quoting Splash!<\/u> by Howard Means in The Guardian Weekly<\/em>, July 3, 2020.<\/strong> That\u2019s their<\/em> racism and it is evil.) To continue with Jewish legalism, \u201cIt is forbidden to offer medical treatment to an idolater [a gentile] even when offered a wage. If, however, one fears that ill feelings will be aroused, one may treat them for a wage, but not free.\u201d<\/strong> \u201cIt is forbidden to sell (gentiles) homes and fields in Greater Israel <\/strong>(though) one may rent them homes provided that a neighborhood (of gentiles) is not established. . . Even then it is not permitted to rent them homes for use as their dwelling.\u201d (Take a gander at the functioning of the racist Jewish National Fund and you see just how this discrimination in land and housing is applied<\/strong>). Put politically, segregation, expulsion and, by implication, internment of \u2018the nations of the world\u2019 are mandated by Divine command; and although gas chambers are strictly forbidden, Jews are prohibited from interfering with God\u2019s will, His killing non-Jews by natural causes with Jewish doctors commanded to stand aside. If she had been Jewish, she would not have died; she\u2019d be well and alive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I just made a provocative statement about Jews intentionally causing preventable deaths, but it expresses a sad truth about Chabad\u2019s racism that reminds me of a different racism. I was born in Germany in 1932. Provoked, I am provocative<\/strong>. The source for the perverse lawfulness<\/em> of Jewish racial dominion is Maimonides\u2019 Mishneh Torah, Avodat Kochavim \u2013 Chapter Ten, the quotations slightly abbreviated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richard was deeply committed to social causes and the ideals of justice and equality. While in the United States he was active in grassroots trade union organising , the Reform Democrats in New York City and in the civil rights and the anti-Vietnam war movements. In Nova Scotia, he was involved in the Nova Scotia Teachers Union. In Quebec, he was involved with PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity) and the Rigaud food bank. With his wife, he travelled to Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico in 1995, and he always remembered his brief meeting with Bishop Samuel Ruiz in San Cristobal de Las Casas.<\/em>
Possessed of a sharp and analytical mind and a love of logic and philosophical debate, Richard was modest and humble with a wry sense of humour. A voracious reader of many genres, Richard enjoyed many things, from philosopher Ted Honderich to fiction by Jonathan Coe, Kazuo Ishiguro, and John Mortimer, as well as the New York Review of Books, to name but a few. CBC radio and classical music, particularly string quartets and opera, were part of Richard\u2019s daily life. He also had a strong appreciation of art.<\/em>
Throughout his life, Richard gave steadfast support to his family in all circumstances. Great animal lovers, Richard and family shared their lives with very many animal friends over the years, most recently cats, and especially Little O, a feline television enthusiast with a sweet tooth. Richard enjoyed making puns and silly jokes. In recent years, he wrote poetry for the family, creating a new family Christmas tradition of \u201cpick a poem\u201d. His favourite things included walking in the woods, sipping morning coffee, delighting in birds in the back yard, wandering city streets, conversing intensely about the most fundamental questions, rummaging in used book shops, second-hand stores, and yard sales, collecting another \u201cnew\u201d Christmas tree ornament every year, admiring artisan works at the fair trade Pure Art shop and savouring cassoulet, hearty soups, Furley\u2019s sourdough bread and lemon pie.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n