By Ted Belman
While shopping this morning for Shabbat, I started a conversation with a young man who advised that he made aliya from France. He had visited my home town of Toronto many times and loved it. So why did he make aliya when many Jews in France opt for moving to Canada.
This was worthy of a conversation so we went for coffee.
Turns out that he has a PhD in the study of relations between Algerians and Frenchmen. He is also secular, gay, happily married and the father of two. One more thing. He is a strong Zionist who eschews nationalism. Go figure.
He advised that he had many Muslim friends who are great guys and who are not antisemetic. For this reason he is not prepared to treat Muslims differently from others even in Israel. He also mentioned that all the gays he knows and the Muslim women are all very pro Israel because they don’t want to live under Sharia law. So, I asked him about intersectionality. He acknowledged it but we didn’t delve deeper. And I thought that I was one of the few who knew what that word meant.
Needless to say, it was a very interesting conversation and it lasted for over an hour.
We pledged to meet again. My daughter, I’m sure would love to meet him with his family. My daughter also has two adopted children.
Ted, you bear an uncanny resemblance to actor Michael Kitchen:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT_VwV5O7XSc31F3wXnlcUob0gzTUHNVPiG7cKexG8FrtWJ5Six
Are you leading a double life?
Back on the subject: If you had asked me about “intersectionality”, I would have wondered what on earth you were talking about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality
In the old days, we had a name for it: “prejudice”. What the fellow seems like, to me, is simply an “individual”. They exist. I may even be one of them. Meanwhile, I know you’re a busy man — you’ll probably want to get on with your police duties:
http://www.foyleswar.com/
Shalom shalom 🙂
one swallow does not make for spring, and a few exceptions do not change the rule of what is typical or average. admittedly, however, you had an interesting encounter.
I hope his confusion clears without the usual remedy for “progressive liberals” back in Manhattan, i.e., a mugging or two.