If only Jack Abramoff had known the kid he beat up in high school was going to win a Pulitzer Prize and “out” him on This American Life (listen). Perhaps Jack might’ve done something a little more useful with his life than lie, cheat and steal in the halls of power. Maybe it would’ve scared him straight. Who knows.
The victim in this case was Jonathan Gold, who won the Prize for his amazing food writing for the L.A. Times and L.A. Weekly. I lived in L.A. for many years and can attest that Gold opened up the city’s ethnic food communities to me and helped me realize what an incredible multi-cultural mosaic L.A. was. He made the most obscure hole in the wall restaurants sound like culinary revelations–and many of them were. His Pulitzer was richly deserved. But his beatings at the hands of Jack Abramoff weren’t.
Though Gold doesn’t mention this, I presume they both attended Beverly Hills High School where I’m guessing these events transpired. Listening to Gold recount his humiliation at Abramoff’s hands and the latter’s pleasure in physical intimidation of his victims, you can literally see how he would become the adult he did. The child was father to the man:
Glass: Jonathan remembers him [Abramoff] as a glad-hander, someone who has lots of friends.
Gold: …A jock, he hung out in the weight room. He squatted something over 500 lbs. when he was in high school…He was the sort of person who would walk across the street to be unpleasant to somebody or in my most notable instance I was walking down the hall to history class and he hip-checked me–I was carrying my cello–and I went sailing down the stairs with my cello. You’d be surprised how many times a cello and its case can bounce. It was a lot of money in repairs.
He was laughing about it to his friends. I suspect he forgot about it five minutes later. I didn’t…
It’s [Abramoff’s downfall] just beautiful. It’s more than I could’ve wished for. Who wouldn’t feel satisfied that he was getting his comeuppance?
What I really love was Ira Glass’ note that they contacted Abramoff for his version of the events and the reply was:
This story is not true. Mr. Abramoff does not know Mr. Gold and has no idea why Mr. Gold would fabricate such a story. There is no point in commenting further on something that never happened.
To which I reply: if you had to choose whether to believe a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist telling you about an incident that mortified him from his past; or a convicted felon accused of lying, cheating and stealing–who would you believe??
I listen to This American Life via podcast. I was walking to the grocery store while listening to this episode on my iPod and almost fell over laughing at the part. People stared. It was awkward.
Abramoff’s teen history was interesting, but I am not sure it was an indication of the man he would become.
The mother of a schoolmate of mine was one class behind Woody Allen, and she claimed that he was a vicious bully in high school.
As I understand it, Abramoff become a true believe in college in the mystical sort of occult Zionism associated with Rav Kook. The Tendlers and Michael Medved are supposed to be this sort of Zionist.
Because Kookian Occult Zionist usually do not get a long very well with Zionist Neocons, no Neocons were involved in the Abramoff scandal.
I personally would like to understand how a person can become a Kookian Occult Zionist. Now maybe there is something in the bullying because Kookian Zionists are spiritual bullies, who sometimes express their violence physically, but few Kookian Zionists that I have known were bullies before they became involved with this sort of Occult Zionism.
RIchard – That’s a story for the ages. I think we all knew a Jack Abramoff in school. It truly is wonderful that he got his comeuppance, ideally it would have been a lot earlier, as you mention, and before a lot of people had to suffer because of his personality defects. As per Woody Allen being a bully, I don’t know. Mr. Martillo has a well known prejudice against ashkenazi Jews, so I’ll have to take his recitation of his mother-in-law’s claims with a grain of salt. After all, Allen attended an inter-faith summer camp, where he was savagely beaten by children of all races and creeds. As for my name, I too am a fan of Jonathan Gold’s writing and visited many of his haunts.
Cookian Occultist: I think you’ve given Joachim a bit of comeuppance with the author name you chose for yr comment. And yes, he does seem to have a fixation with us poor Ashkenazi Jews. We can’t seem to do anything right in his mind. I’m not sure what an “occult” ZIonist but my guess is that Joachim doesn’t like Kook’s interest in Jewish mystical thought & therefore calls him “occult.”
Just saw Richard’s opinion piece in the UK Guardian on the phenomenon of self-censorship when it comes to discussing Israel. Excellent–
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_silverstein/2007/10/land_of_the_free.html
(I’m sure self-censorship is happening, particularly in the media. After all, it’s the whole point of campaigns like CAMERA’s recent one against Christiane Amanpour–the show’s already been seen; the lobby is really just warning the next guy to stay away from anything too “controversial.” However, I think we do need to take it with a grain of salt when a college administrator says his decision “was not influenced by pressure groups”, or when pressure groups say they “did not attempt to influence a decision”. After all, they would say that, wouldn’t they?)
“where he was savagely beaten by children of all races and creeds”
I think I’m going to take this with a bigger grain of salt than anything Joachim has ever said. 🙂
It was not my mother-in-law but Sophie Kogan, who is the mother of Richard Kogan ( see http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E6DE1731F936A25755C0A9679C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fM%2fMa%2c%20Yo%2dYo ) who told me the story about Woody Allen.
Occult nationalism is a fairly standard term in Central and Eastern European political studies. Ethnic Ashkenazim are originally an Eastern European ethnic group and are often best understood by reference to that context. I could have used Chomsky’s term, which is “Kooks,” but the mystical religious transnational political elite among ethnic Ashkenazim consists several other groups in addition to the Kooks.
I do not have a prejudice against ethnic Ashkenazim. I enjoy ethnic Ashkenazi literature and culture, but a precise discussion of Zionist politics often requires reference to ethnic Ashkenazi politics either today in the USA or historically in Eastern Europe.
Using Zionist terminology, which improperly treats Jews as a single unitary ethnic group, confuses propaganda with facts and makes rational discussion of many issues completely impossible.
Anyway, as I remember Mrs. Kogan was suggesting that insecurity can lead to bullying behavior. Woody Allen was born in 1935 (real name Allen Stewart Königsberg). In the 1940s the Königsbergs would have had to look really hard and long to find an interracial interfaith summer camp.
“where he was savagely beaten by children of all races and creeds”
I think I’m going to take this with a bigger grain of salt than anything Joachim has ever said. 🙂
For those unversed in Woody Allen, it’s one of his famous stand up lines.
“In the 1940s the Königsbergs would have had to look really hard and long to find an interracial interfaith summer camp.”
That occured to me as well, Joachim. All part of the schtick, I imagine.
“In the 1940s the Königsbergs would have had to look really hard and long to find an interracial interfaith summer camp.”
That occured to me as well, Joachim. All part of the schtick, I imagine
Yes – That was part of the joke,