8 Ways to Avoid Ministry Burnout
Why Fellowship is Crucial to Your Faith
God Will Fight for You!
17 Ways to Empower Yourself
20 Ways to Bless Others
10 Negative Labels You Need to Remove
Going Coo-Coo for Coconut Oil
5 Ways to Stay Healthy This Summer
6 Steps to Healing Yourself
Christian Artists Who Offer Hope
7 Inspiring Lessons You Can Learn from Tom Hanks
10 Ways to Bring Summer Inside
10 Steps to Discipline
The 7 Habits of Stress-Free People
7 Secrets to Finding Fulfilling Work
10 Steps to Calmer Parenting
10 Questions to Ask Before Getting into a New Relationship
Headlines from a variety of entertainment, business and news sources are announcing the cancelation of Charlie Sheen’s long-running television program; Two and a Half Men. The reason why? A crazy rant delivered by the abusive and often drunk or high actor, on the Alex Jones Radio show. But wait, there’s more.
The same articles suggest that Sheen is an anti-Semite, or at least guilty of including anti-Semitic slurs in his insane radio rant. What did he say? Nothing, other than referring to the show’s creator and Sheen nemesis, Chuck Lorre, by the Hebrew name, Chaim Levine. Hardly evidence of Jew-hatred.
For starters, Lorre’s name at birth was in fact, Levine! And while I do not know his Hebrew name, or even if he has one, Chaim could well be the chosen Hebrew parallel for Charles or Chuck. As my great-grandparents would have said, “we should be so lucky to live in a world where using someone’s Hebrew name counts as anti-Semitism.” In other words, in a world in which there is genuine hatred of Jews, labeling Sheen’s words, anti-Semitic, is probably absurd and certainly a gross over-statement.
If anything, Sheen feels that he was personally attacked – that his integrity was called into question, so he called out the integrity of his so-called attacker by attacking Lorre’s decision to change his name. It was a stupid move on Sheen’s part because there is no evidence that a change in name represents a lack of integrity. And if it does, then Sheen should be speaking with his father, Martin Sheen, who changed his name from Esetvez.
Name changes, especially in the past, were not about a lack of integrity, there were about overcoming ethnic bias. If anything, the need to change one’s name represents a flaw in the culture, not the one making the name change.
I suspect that the executives at both CBS and Warner Brothers who labeled Sheen’s remarks as anti-Semitic, did so because it gave them a sense of being on the moral high ground when they pulled the plug on the show. It helped them to avoid explaining why years of public drunkenness and continued mistreatment of women were, apparently, not sufficient reasons to cancel the show.
While we should all feel good about living in a culture where charges like “anti-Semitic,” “racist” and “homophobic” are taken with increasing seriousness, that increasing seriousness also creates new levels of obligation regarding tossing such charges about too loosely. In fact, doing so will ultimately create a counter-trend in which those same charges will come to have little or no value at all. Think “the boy who cried wolf.’
-
Advertisement
-
click here to see all of our uplifting newsletters» Subscribe
About Windows & Doors
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. Listed as one of the nation’s 50 most influential rabbis in Newsweek, and a regular commentator on Court TV, he is the creator of the popular series, Building Bridges, airing on Bridges TV, and the co-host of the weekly radio show, Hirschfield and Kula. More About Brad
IntelligentTalkRadio.com
clal.org
-
Advertisement
posted February 28, 2011 at 11:38 pm
now everywhere on TV the Jewish owned media is reporting negatively about charlie sheen, trying to make him out to be a crazy nut….they are afraid he might start making comments about how the Jews control Hollywood and are mainly allowing other Jews to become famous…the Jewish owned republican agenda is trying to figure out how to clean up the mess in Wisconsin…republican voters are now agreeing with the unions…the Jewish owned media will fix the problem by attacking Obama, accusing Obama of having nothing to do with the unions…the media will use their Jewish controlled polls to trick people into believing what ever the Jews want them to believe….the wealthy who control America and the white house, have total control of media and will spread only propaganda that will benefit the wealthy…walker now wishes he would have never messed with the not rich, seems the not rich is not as ignorant and brainwashed as the Jewish owned republican agenda thought…
posted March 1, 2011 at 11:14 am
The last sentence in this article is what I’ve been saying for some time. Accusation of “ism” should be the excuse or reason of last excuse. One should seek any other true or reasonable reasons for the statement and if nothing else is possible. It is then that “ism” may be investigated for possible cause. By jumping to it as the excuse of first resort makes the “ism” charge weak and that is when the truly prejudice will come to power.
However, mistreatment of women should never be encouraged, condoned, or ignored. We are the group that has long received the most hatred and denigration. It has never ended, and yes, that includes America.
Interestingly, though, when men do mistreat women, alternatives to just hating women are considered for the cause. “He was drunk”, “He had money problems”… and so on.
posted March 1, 2011 at 9:03 pm
tonite on american idol… the guys sing…most of the guys are jewish…jews are getting special treatment at getting breaks and chances of being famous… hollywood is owned by the jews…the jews really dont like the non jews…religion is evil
posted March 7, 2011 at 10:42 am
Charlie Sheen’s mother is Joan Templeton- who is Jewish.
So, halachically, Sheen is himself Jewish.
By using Levine’s Hebrew name, he was just one landsman ragging on another!
What is anti-Semitic about that?
posted March 7, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Charlie Sheen is a messed up drug addict who needs help. He also claimed to be from Mars, so anything he says is just the drugs talking.What a pity that someone who is so lucky or blessed or both to be able to earn the amount of money that he made, can’t appreciate his good fortune , and use some of that money to help others.
posted March 7, 2011 at 11:30 pm
nancy…the jewish side of god will always bless with money…two and a half men is about a Jewish family…turn on your TV and start counting all the jews you see…the jews must be a very talent race or the non jew actors are being discriminated against…
posted March 8, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Romanscapegoat,
All we Jews have gotten together and agreed that from now on we will just ignore you as you and what you say are not worth noticing so I will no longer be resonding to you. My last words to you will be: SEEK HELP!
posted May 19, 2013 at 11:23 am
Most actors ,singers etc are not jewish
one in every few hundred producers are jewish
so cut the crap , just because 2-3 of the guys who own the media channels in the u.s are jews doesn’t let them control the hundreds of non jewish ones
I love how everyone keeps saying that , the arab countries control the oil , they are not jews
why doesn’t anyone go around blaming them for controlling the world ?
because they are not jewish
so much jew hate around here some of you are just ignorant