Did Jewcy Tell Arthur Waskow to Keep Quiet About the War?

Every so often, the Jewcy editors and a few beloved contributors carry on a deranged email correspondence. Some of these eventually wend their sinuous way into the lead space as gussied up features or dialogues. Sometimes we discuss other people's articles and how a) we should have scooped them, b) we should get them to write for us, c) we should ask for reprint rights.

The following is more along the lines of c), but one comment in Arthur Waskow's Nation piece, "Why the Silence?", about the muted Jewish antiwar movement, struck us as worthy of its own thread. Was Waskow talking about Jewcy in his reference to an "online Jewish magazine" that impolitely asked him to keep mums on the Iraq war?

On Sep 21, 2007, at 2:28 PM, Eli Valley wrote: Curious — any guesses as to which "Jewish online magazine" Waskow is referring to? Are there any besides Jewcy that call themselves "online magazines"? Jewsweek.com doesn't seem too update much.

"And in my e-mail I receive, from the editor of a Jewish online magazine, her response to my submission of an article she had commissioned me to write. She had asked me to address what the High Holy Days might say about America's predilection for violence, at home and overseas. But now she demands that I revise my article: "I can't have an article taking sides in the Iraqi conflict." (I refused to revise it.)"

On 9/21/07, Michael Weiss wrote: Not only did the Nation email me to offer us reprint rights for that piece, but they love my crazy neocon ways. It's not us, though. Waskow's only dealt with Joe, and out of all of us, Izzy would be the last person to tell him to shy away from criticizing the war, don't-cha-think? On 9/21/07, Izzy Grinspan wrote:

Yeah, definitely wasn't me. Not only wouldn't I have a problem with criticizing the (misguided) war, but can you imagine Jewcy asking someone not to take sides? On 9/21/07, Eli Valley wrote: I agree — of all places, Jewcy would be the place that would print any view on the war. So then what's he referring to? A blog maybe? On 9/21/07, Joey Kurtzman wrote: Michael mentioned it to me the other day, I didn't think much of it, I just figured it was some bullshit Jewish site out there. But you know what, I actually think there's a chance he's talking about me. If so, he'd have to be pretty confused, but here's what he'd be referring to:

The Waskow/Bronstein dialogue was conducted during Jewcy's pre-launch phase, during Israel's quasi-war with Hizbollah. Waskow opened his first e-mail with a protracted ramble about the events of the previous day, I think an IDF bombardment of West Beirut. Then he got started on the e-mail proper. In one of his later e-mails he denounced the Iraq War and explained that it's important to love peace, or some such insight from the Prophetic tradition. When we finally ran the dialogue several months later, I kept in his stuff about Iraq, which was obviously still ongoing, but cut the months-old news report about the long-finished Lebanon conflict. When I showed him the edits and asked whether there were any that he found intolerable. I had edited the shit out of some of his kaballah-influenced theological stuff, because it was, well, literally esoteric (Hey, that's neat) and ridiculous for a general publication. So I was expecting a fight over that. But instead he wrote back and said it was fine, but that he resented that I'd removed some of his comments about the Iraq war. I wrote back and said that I hadn't removed any comments about the Iraq war, only the stuff about Lebanon and only because it was dated. (You know what, I actually really do think he's talking about me.) He replied something right along the lines of "oh, okay, got it." So there was no editing out of anything about Iraq, and of course no demand that he not write about Iraq. But the guy's getting old, and he's a self-styled teller-of-dangerous-truths, so maybe he's just rejiggering what happened so that it fits into his self-narrative. Where would he get "she" from…maybe for the same reason Deepthroat was a chainsmoker but Mark Felt wasn't? Or he didn't remember my sex and "she" is his default pronoun? Or maybe he just assumed I was a she-male? On 9/21/07, Joey Kurtzman wrote: Check all that, just read his article, he's clearly not talking about me. I liked the idea of it, though, because the whole thing fit into my self-narrative as someone who catches people fitting events into their self-narratives. On 9/21/07, Joey Kurtzman wrote: I remember the time Arthur Waskow lied about my having refused to let him right about the Iraq war. God, that was fucking outrageous. Have I ever told you that story? On 9/21/07, Joey Kurtzman wrote: God, that was fucking performance art right there. People don't understand the idea of impromptu performance art, but I see openings for it everywhere. Okay, no more.

On 9/21/07, Eli Valley wrote:

More!!!

On 9/21/07, Eli Valley wrote:

…And for what it's worth, I've assumed you were a she-male since day one. You're not?