Leading Sefardi Haredi Rabbi Uses Hebrew "N" Word Slur To Attack Government

“If we’re talking about the sports budget, there is plenty of money to bring a few Cushim to play basketball, but when its a budget for synagogues or ritual baths, there’s nothing."

Rabbi David Yosef

The Times of Israel reports:

The son of a prominent rabbi used a racial slur Sunday to attack the government for not earmarking enough money for religious institutions.

“If we’re talking about the sports budget, there is plenty of money to bring a few Cushim to play basketball, but when its a budget for synagogues or ritual baths, there’s nothing,” Rabbi David Yosef said, employing a Hebrew epithet for black people that is considered by some to be the local equivalent of the “n-word.”

Yosef, the son of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, made his remarks at a ceremony marking the opening of an large new ritual bath, or mikvah, in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood.

David Yosef is the official rabbi of the mostly ultra-Orthodox neighborhood on the capital’s western edge.

During the ceremony, Yosef claimed that ultra-Orthodox “are class-D citizens, and don’t count anymore.”

“The yeshiva world is no longer a given. We are entering a very difficult period,” he told the crowd.

While highly critical of the Finance Ministry and its budget plans, Yosef had only praise for Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who was at the event.…

The secular Barkat has very carefully and deliberately sold out to haredim while attacking activists for women's rights and freedom of religion activists at almost every turn.

Barkat is up for re-election in October.

[Hat Tip: Rebitzman.]

Related articles

Sefardi Haredi Shas Party Appoints Convicted Felon As Party Head

Baruch Dayan HaEmet: Rabbi Yaakov Yosef

Female Member Of Knesset Receives "Death Threats" From Shas Supporters

Deri 'Redeemed His Deposit' To Become Shas Party Chairman, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Says

Drafting Haredim The Work Of Satan, Chief Rabbi Says

Comments

[jancsibacsi]

This guy exhibits the mentality of a 2 year old,tragically he is an example of many hareidim who think along the same line.

[Pizzazz]

With Respect,
Why do you say that it is the equivalent of the N word? I would think it would be similar to using the word "Black" to describe someone unnecessarily. While it clearly has a pejorative tone, my experiences here in America seem to indicate that it is a lower, perhaps minor form of racism. A bit implicit and not blatantly explicit. (I use the word minor not as a defense, rather as a reflection of the facts that implicit racism is much harder to be rid of.)

[Yosef ben Matitya]

kushi isn't really like nigger. it's the biblical term for black. the Pentateuch mentioned that moshe married a kushit women, and jeremiah wonders if a kushi can change his skin and a leopard it's spots. nothing sinister there.
honni soit qui mal y pense.
it's all in the eyes of the beholder.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

"During the ceremony, Yosef claimed that ultra-Orthodox 'are class-D citizens, and don't count anymore.'"

A culture of victimhood. It makes a Judaism look so enticing. A veritable Kiddush Hashem.

[adams]

Shmarya, I too think you are slighly incorrect here.

They would use something like 'Kushone' or maybe 'Frank or Frenkim' but that would be referring to Morrocans more, but you might make the case with it, certainly with Kushone.

Kushone, is close but I am not sure it is used so widely in the first place, so it lacks the obvious power of the N word.

He is probably in his way, overly upset at certain activities in Israel such as the basketball mania of Maccabi Tel Aviv, it's a relatively benighn putdown of seculars, however, I am glad to have read this news item.

[Rocky]

When the US has its own financial crisis, the rabbi will have a lot more to worry about. The days of Uncle Sam playing Uncle Sugar for Israel will soon come to an end. Life in Israel for people with no job skills will be grim indeed.

[Dave]

As a Sefardic person, I am deeply saddened by the stupid bigoted statements of these so-called rabbis.

[Rebitzman]

"Why do you say that it is the equivalent of the N word?"

"kushi isn't really like nigger."

This is predicable - and it is pathetic.

[Dov]

"kushi isn't really like nigger."

Kike isn't really like hymie".

Think that would fly? I don't.

[seymour]

When the US has its own financial crisis, the rabbi will have a lot more to worry about. The days of Uncle Sam playing Uncle Sugar for Israel will soon come to an end. Life in Israel for people with no job skills will be grim indeed.

Posted by: Rocky | May 12, 2013 at 08:01 PM

and no more section 8 ans all other programs they take here too many times not deserving

[Luke]

The sad part is he has no idea how inappropriate his behavior is..

Luke.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

"kushi isn't really like nigger."

Maybe it's more akin to 'darkie'.

All I know is that once I went on date with a Sephardic woman from Netanya and truly, for benign reasons I said the word 'kushim'. Well, she got real upset that I said it in public -- in Brooklyn.

I'm not convinced that this is such a benign word.

[R. Wisler]

There's plenty of sefardi money. All he has to do is go to Deal, NJ and ask the filthy old criminal Saul Kassin to launder a few million for him.

[ergoproxy]

Typical double standard play write. If it was a goyim using a derogatory word against him or any Jew, then you will not cease to hear from certain organizations and individuals demanding an apology, the person to get fired from his job, boycotts, etc.

[Bas Melech]

In the context the Rabbi used "kushi" it didn't mean nigger.

The equivalent of nigger is "kushi bamba".

[Rebitzman]

Cushi at one time at one time DID simply mean dark skinned person, but the term ver the years absolutely has taken on the same connotation as "nigger" - and this fact (in spite of the silly attempts by apologists here to say otherwise) has been recognized by Israeli society - and the Israeli legal system.

According to the Israeli courts:

"The term "Cushi" is considered, by the Israeli society as a whole, to be a Pejorative term and an insult, usually meant to defame a person for his dark-skinned color, and to mark him as an "exceptional", and as an inferior person to a lighter-skinned individual. It is a racist slur, meant to humiliate and degrade the receiver, solely because he belongs to the Falasha ethnic group. This accordingly falls into the fourth alternative category of the definition of "Defamation" in provision 1 of the law (an expression meant to "defame a person for his race, descent, religion, residence or sexual orientation").

[Roan]

The word kushi was used in Hebrew for many years without racist connotations, there are many Hebrew children songs with the word kushi, I remember one from my school:
"פעם הייתי בתימן, שם ראיתי כושי קטן, והוא יהיה לרותי חתן!"

or a 50 years old song by Yafa Yarkoni about a dog named Kushi

It will takes years until the the use of the word is completely unacceptable.

The American parallel is word like Oriental, years ago it was normal to refer to Asians and Pacific Islander as Oriental but now it less common and in few years it would be unacceptable.

This it not to say that David Yosef in not a racist, it just another insight to Shmarya all too often hyperboles.

Bring it On.

[Jake]

"מהודו עד כוש ״.

I suppose anyone owning megilat Esther is a racist bigot.

[NeverFrum]

It really does not matter the level of racism that this work implies. A normal person would have phrased his complaint in a way that conveys the message that the government would rather fund sporting events than religious institutions or something of that nature. Because he is likely a bigot, he had to turn his message into a racial issue - this is the real problem (and that he is a public figure saying things like this); it does not matter what word he actually used.

[Batsheva]

Nobody can say anything anymore without the politically correct force police ready to arrest them.

[Batsheva]

'Force' should have read 'thought.'

[steven k]

Cushi, mean a person from Ethiopia, (The land of Cush,i believe)in Modern Hebrew it simply means black person, it does not mean the "n" word

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

Cushi, also spelled Kushi (כושי)

In 2007 a judge of the Israeli Supreme Court stated that the term "Cushi" is considered, by the Israeli society as a whole, to be a pejorative term and an insult, usually meant to defame a person for his dark-skinned color, and to mark him as an "exceptional", and as an inferior person to a lighter-skinned individual.

It is a racist slur, meant to humiliate and degrade the receiver, solely because he belongs to the Falasha ethnic group. Therefore, the court found against a bus driver who used the term in addressing a black-skinned passenger.

Avi Tzaguy v. Inga Avi Avshalom (2007).

[Winston Smith in ILSOC]

In spite of the original meaning of the world Kush, etc...the way that it is used in the Hariedi world is the same as the N word.
Insofar a Synagogues, Mikvah's,etc and govt funding or the lack thereof...it is not the govt's business to fund them in the first place. If they want a new one or upgrade an existing one, then let them raise money privately and do it.

[Phil]

Let's try an exercise.

Comment from senior non-Jewish cleric outside Israel

1. "But they've always got money in the budget to bring in the kikes." Anti-Semitic.

2. "But they've always got money to bring in the Jews." Equally Anti-Semitic.

Racist apologists above can play with semantics all they like. It's the context that matters.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Think that would fly? I don't.
Posted by: Dov | May 12, 2013 at 08:13 PM

Dov,
then don't. you must be maintaining that moshe and yirmiyah were being bigots.
the problem starts with Times of Israel not by FM.
The problem then continues with those North Americans commenting here, being often poor in foreign tongues and cultures yet being sure they know better than natives of the language. Of the whole lot, only Phil above ( May 13, 2013 at 04:50 AM ) has a point.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

R. Wisler | May 12, 2013 at 08:58 PM

what is the connection to this posting?
you would be so much more credible if u stuck to your own kin of uber-thieves, weasler. lansky, adelson, madoff & the whole lot of large and petty thieves of the Chassidic variety.

[Rebitzman]

@Batsheva

Where the heck does the article use the word "arrest"?

[Yochanan Lavie]

It is disingenuous to say that "Cushi" isn't pejorative because in the bible it's merely descriptive. Everyone knows that words acquire connotations over the years, and that neutral words can become offensive over time. For example, at one point the word "Juif" was offensive in France and the polite term was "Israelite." (I don't know if that's still the case).

Furthermore, anyone with more than a middle school education knows that Modern Hebrew is not equivalent to Biblical Hebrew any more than Elizabethan English is the same as contemporary English.

And in old dictionaries, "to jew someone down" meant to cheat them. Is that not offensive simply because it's in the dictionary?

[Phil]

Thanks, Yosef.

I am a fluent Ivrit speaker who lived in Israel for 15 years. Anybody with an ounce of knowledge or sensitivity to racism uses the word "shechorim" for blacks. It's the Hebrew equivalent for African-American.

To take the point a bit further, kushim is the Hebrew equivalent for schwartzers and quite frankly, I've yet to hear either of those words used in anything but a racist context by Jews.

I'm sure that someone is going to claim here that the latter word is merely yiddish for blacks. Maybe in Williamsburg but not among English-speaking Jews. A bit like southerners using negro, cos it's Spanish. Riiiight....

[Jeff]

Nobody can say anything anymore without the politically correct force police ready to arrest them.

Posted by: Batsheva | May 13, 2013 at 01:01 AM
______________________________________________

Uh huh. If a liberal rabbi had said, "There's no money for the Reform movement, but there's plenty for those penguins", I rather think you wouldn't be complaining about political correctness

[Batsheva]

Jeff, I really wouldn't care if a Reform Rabbi said the above. It doesn't affect me and I don't take it personally. In the great scheme of things there are more important thnigs to worry about. I'm not over sensitive to this kind of thing and don't like the crying racism approach. Everybody is racist or prejudice in way or another, whether spoken or unspoken, it's just human nature.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Yochanan Lavie | May 13, 2013 at 06:59 AM

sometimes the word itself is neutral.
'black' too is not a bad word.
it's the description of choice the blacks themselves want us to use.
describing it as pejorative is naturally disingenuous.
nevertheless, it's all in the context a term is used.
no different than shvartzes.
can we blame somebody for merely saying black in yiddish?
no, except when delivered in a nasty context.
say a couple of Yiddish speakers describing people in their presence in Yiddish -so they will not understand- as shvartze chayes. (black animals).

shvartze chayes was often used in Israel to describe sefardim behind their back and among Yiddish speakers. it probably is still being used, though to a lesser extent. to say that the isolated adjective shvartze is pejorative,is disingenuous.
naturally, in some contexts it is.

similarly, calling a tiger a chayyah, is very proper. describing however a person as an animal -chaya- isn't.

[MM]

Oh, please. The very fact he used a word pertaining to color, whether polite, neutral or pejorative, is enough to indict him for bigotry. If his point is that there is money to subsidize sports teams, but not mikvehs, then he could have said exactly that. If he thought it was necessary to point out payments to the players, then he could have used the Hebrew equivalent of players, men, people, or guys without any reference to race or color. I would presume that basketball players in Israel come from a variety of backgrounds. No matter what the semantic history of kush is, here we have an indisputable racial slur.