Strange article by Rabbi Daniel Lapin:

Daniel Lapin, if you do not know is a Jewish theocon, and has allied himself with the religious right, particularly those pre-millenial Protestant fundamentalists who support Israel. And like them he is a cultural critic.

Now, not every orthodox Christian is such a devout supporter of Israel, and in the past certain numbers of such Christians have been guilty of terrible anti-Semitism (as have individuals from many, many other groups). While I am NOT against constructive criticism of any social group or those within the group being constructively critical of their own, this article left me with a really bad taste in my mouth. While done under the auspices of Jewish constructive self-critiquing, it reads like an anti-Semitic screed, something that Joe Sobran would write. And this piece certainly could give fodder to those elements of anti-Semitism that have yet to be socially cleansed from society in general, and from orthodox Christian circles in particular.

He begins with a bizarre critique of a smash hit movie which, although I haven't seen, my parents tell me is hilarious. He can't even bring himself to name the title of the movie because of its innuendo: Meet the Fockers.

I was sorry to see Barbara Streisand involved in the flagrant defamation of Judaism found in this, her latest movie hit....In the new film to which I refer, she plays not a role, but a heinous caricature of a Jewess.

I am reluctant to name the movie on account of the implied vulgarity of its title. If you are reluctant to part with good money for the privilege of seeing the Jewish people being defamed, you should abstain from this movie. In spite of having several Jewish producers and several Jewish stars, this film's vile notions of Jews are not too different from those used by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

But who is being the propagandist here? The thesis of the article is that Jews are playing a serious role in debasing American (and Western) culture. Isn't that what Hitler and Goebbles claimed? It sounds like Lapin is saying that Hitler was partially right re: the Jews malign influence on German culture.

Lapin cites Mein Kampf:

This excerpt from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf shows how that evil megalomaniac roused his nation to hurl an avalanche of destruction at the Jewish people:

Was there any form of filth or profligacy, particularly in cultural life, without at least one Jew involved in it? What had to be reckoned heavily against the Jews in my eyes was when I became acquainted with their activity in the press, art, literature, and the theater….It sufficed to look at a billboard, to study the names behind the horrible trash they advertised….Is this why the Jews are called the “chosen people”? The fact that nine tenths of all literary filth, artistic trash, and theatrical idiocy can be set to the account of a people, constituting hardly one hundredth of all the country’s inhabitants, could simply not be talked away; it was the plain truth. (Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler, Chapter II)

But here is Lapin, in his own words:

The sad fact is that through Jewish actors, playwrights, and producers, the Berlin stage of Weimar Germany linked Jews and deviant sexuality in all its sordid manifestations just as surely as Broadway does today. Much of the filth in American entertainment today parallels that of Germany between the wars.

And:

You'd have to be a recent immigrant from Outer Mongolia not to know of the role that people with Jewish names play in the coarsening of our culture. Almost every American knows this. It is just that most gentiles are too polite to mention it.

Lapin's list of prominent Jews who are "coarsening our culture" include, besides Streisand and Hoffman, Howard Stern, Jerry Springer, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Woody Allen and Ron Jeremy (yes, that Ron Jeremy; he is relevant because of the supposed disproportionate Jewish influence in the porn industry, particularly Jewish male actors, like Jeremy).

In this article Lapin casts a stone at the Jews in the media for ethnically stereotyping other Jews. And in doing so portrays himself as a Jew victimized by the anti-Semitism of other Jews, like Woody Allen and Barbara Streisand. (For instance, he claims that Woody Allen "portray[s] Jews, not to mention rabbis, as loathsome liars, desperate psychotics, pathetic perverts, and ridiculously lecherous losers. If Woody Allen were not Jewish, surely every Jewish organization would have roundly denounced him.")

But he then uses that pose as a jumping off point to engage in some of the grossest ethnic stereotyping himself: He essentially accuses his fellow Jews of conspiring to subvert society with their filth.