Sep 18, 2022·edited Sep 18, 2022Liked by Meghan Daum
At the risk of Chaya Leah and Yael taking out a restraining order on me, this episode had me rushing to resubscribe on substack. Always love hearing what these two have to say -- and we really have a lot of j-drama these days
The discussion of attractive reaffirmed my lesbianism for me. JFK Jr? I see how his objectively handsome but I never understood why people fawned over him so. Newsom too. Or maybe I’m just too Midwestern. If I were to date a guy, he’d have to be brawny like a farm boy, not metro, tan bedded with manicured nails. Just don’t see it. 😃
I’ve been a fan of both The Unspeakable and Ask a Jew for a while now and consider myself as having two solid feet in the heterodox community. But I must express frustration with Chaya Leah’s defense of the NYT article on the Hasidic schools. I have learned from you all to be critical about what I read in the NYT. But the fact that the students in these schools are not getting a basic education is a problem. Full stop. It makes me question your own narrative if you defend that. Please note that I’m writing as someone who is Jewish and who has spent part of my career focused on charter schools. In addition, in direct opposition to my more liberal friends, I have voiced support for school vouchers. Chaya Leah’s defense is that this is about freedom of religion. There are limits to what freedom of religion allows. We should all be able to agree that this fact from the article, based on objective school testing, is a problem and cannot stand under freedom of religion: Only nine schools in the state had less than 1 percent of students testing at grade level in 2019, the last year for which full data was available. All of them were Hasidic boys’ schools.
Even in the heterodox community, we have to be careful with our own narratives: we love to roll our eyes at the NYT but not every NYT article is just “feeding the narrative”. Sometimes good reporting is done.
Thank you for letting me air my grievance. I still am – and will continue to be – a fan.
What a great conversation. I learned a lot! You three have great chemistry. Meghan's "numbers on the arm" comment put me on the floor! Right on the line with your toes hanging over, girl. 😂
You are conflicted by the hotness of Mark Ruffalo but not by that of Paul Rudd??? Paul Rudd is what Mark Ruffalo be if he shaved and bathed regularly and didn't use that weird voice all the time.
The way I see it the rule is "If your mother is Jewish then you're Jewish... **as far as Judaism is concerned**."
It's a silly pet peeve of mine, but a group wanting to claim me (and I mean who wouldn't—I'm a delight) doesn't automatically mean that they get to.
I had some really wonderful interactions with Jewish life growing up, but fundamentally anything that ties ethnicity to religion just doesn't... feel like me I guess? Anyway, loving this episode so far and I can't wait to get to the end for all the tasty tyrants/delicious despots : )
On the subject of trolls like Libs of Tik Tok spreading hoaxes, the following exchange between employees was recently overheard at an upstate Lowe’s-
Older male employee- “So now they got these people who dress up like animals and call themselves ‘furries’ and the schools are putting out litter boxes for ‘em!”
Younger female employee- “They better not start that shit at my son’s school. I’ll pull him the fuck outta there!”
So there you go. Keeping it classy by the water cooler.
On the subject of Mark Ruffalo- Apparently jet fuel does melt steel. Sorry Mark!
Also- Would love to know the name of the Stalin podcast ChayaLeah referenced.
At the risk of Chaya Leah and Yael taking out a restraining order on me, this episode had me rushing to resubscribe on substack. Always love hearing what these two have to say -- and we really have a lot of j-drama these days
The discussion of attractive reaffirmed my lesbianism for me. JFK Jr? I see how his objectively handsome but I never understood why people fawned over him so. Newsom too. Or maybe I’m just too Midwestern. If I were to date a guy, he’d have to be brawny like a farm boy, not metro, tan bedded with manicured nails. Just don’t see it. 😃
I’ve been a fan of both The Unspeakable and Ask a Jew for a while now and consider myself as having two solid feet in the heterodox community. But I must express frustration with Chaya Leah’s defense of the NYT article on the Hasidic schools. I have learned from you all to be critical about what I read in the NYT. But the fact that the students in these schools are not getting a basic education is a problem. Full stop. It makes me question your own narrative if you defend that. Please note that I’m writing as someone who is Jewish and who has spent part of my career focused on charter schools. In addition, in direct opposition to my more liberal friends, I have voiced support for school vouchers. Chaya Leah’s defense is that this is about freedom of religion. There are limits to what freedom of religion allows. We should all be able to agree that this fact from the article, based on objective school testing, is a problem and cannot stand under freedom of religion: Only nine schools in the state had less than 1 percent of students testing at grade level in 2019, the last year for which full data was available. All of them were Hasidic boys’ schools.
Even in the heterodox community, we have to be careful with our own narratives: we love to roll our eyes at the NYT but not every NYT article is just “feeding the narrative”. Sometimes good reporting is done.
Thank you for letting me air my grievance. I still am – and will continue to be – a fan.
What a great conversation. I learned a lot! You three have great chemistry. Meghan's "numbers on the arm" comment put me on the floor! Right on the line with your toes hanging over, girl. 😂
Dearest Meghan,
From ChayaLeah's bio: "after attending university in New York"
Meghan, you know better: this is America where nobody "attends university". Instead, you " go to college".
For a minute, I thought I was reading Quillette.com
Cheers
(as an English co-worker would always tell me.)
You are conflicted by the hotness of Mark Ruffalo but not by that of Paul Rudd??? Paul Rudd is what Mark Ruffalo be if he shaved and bathed regularly and didn't use that weird voice all the time.
The way I see it the rule is "If your mother is Jewish then you're Jewish... **as far as Judaism is concerned**."
It's a silly pet peeve of mine, but a group wanting to claim me (and I mean who wouldn't—I'm a delight) doesn't automatically mean that they get to.
I had some really wonderful interactions with Jewish life growing up, but fundamentally anything that ties ethnicity to religion just doesn't... feel like me I guess? Anyway, loving this episode so far and I can't wait to get to the end for all the tasty tyrants/delicious despots : )
On the subject of trolls like Libs of Tik Tok spreading hoaxes, the following exchange between employees was recently overheard at an upstate Lowe’s-
Older male employee- “So now they got these people who dress up like animals and call themselves ‘furries’ and the schools are putting out litter boxes for ‘em!”
Younger female employee- “They better not start that shit at my son’s school. I’ll pull him the fuck outta there!”
So there you go. Keeping it classy by the water cooler.
On the subject of Mark Ruffalo- Apparently jet fuel does melt steel. Sorry Mark!
Also- Would love to know the name of the Stalin podcast ChayaLeah referenced.