This one is such a tempest in a teapot, and yet, the Google News count is 123 stories and growing. (Oh, and by the way, fuck you, Gawker, and your “we’re so cool that anti-Semitic jokes aren’t anti-Semitic” attitude.)
Some rabbis have figured out a way for observant Jews to get the new book on Shabbat:
In fact, according to a Jerusalem Orthodox rabbi who asked not to be named, if Harry is paid for before Shabbat, no Jews work in the store, and the store did not open specifically for Jews, then it is permissible to walk there on Shabbat and get the book.
They’re going to go to a shop in east Jerusalem:
Want to get your hands on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Jerusalem only hours after the worldwide release at midnight on Friday? You won’t find it in west Jerusalem, not even at Steimatsky’s.
Instead you will have to take a trip down Jerusalem’s Diagon Alley, otherwise known as Salah A-Din Street in the east of the city and visit Imad Muna, owner of Educational Books, who is opening his store four hours earlier than usual, at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning, to sell the last installment in the series. And Muna is willing to take pre-orders for those who do not handle money on Shabbat.
And this is simply an overblown story that I was ignoring, but looking at some of the annoying takes on it got me to post about it.
Reuters, of course, gets the runner-up prize in offensiveness, for these three paragraphs:
Harry Potter, the world’s most famous boy wizard, has fallen foul of Israel’s rabbis.
That was the lede. Here are the other two:
The Sabbath runs from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, during which pious Jews shun business dealings. While most Israelis are secular, the country’s shops generally close over the Sabbath out of convenience, a sense of tradition, or to avoid paying mandatory fines and overtime to staff.
[...] “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is the seventh and last adventure for the boy wizard created by author J.K. Rowling. Many religious Jews have tried to prevent their children from reading the books, citing its “pagan” content.
I haven’t said this lately, but I hate Reuters.
Funny, but you know what I haven’t seen published about the Harry Potter books? That many Christians refuse to let their children read the books due to its “pagan” content. And I personally know a family of religious Christians (Baptists, I think) whose children have not read the books and are forbidden to see the movie because it’s all about witchcraft. They are representative of a number of American Christians—probably larger numbers than religious Jews who don’t shop on Saturday—and yet, there are no articles about how Harry Potter is not read in that segment of society.
Say, while we’re at it, let’s compare the reaction of religious Jews with the reaction of Muslims who take offense at something that violates their religion. Here’s what Jews do:
Plans to launch the last instalment in the best-selling children’s book series in Israel over the Jewish Sabbath have drawn threats of legal action by a religious government minister.
Yes, that’s right. We use the laws. There will be no rioting, no book-burning, and no shop-smashing or bombing. Which, I suppose is why the media is so free with the insults about those silly religious Jews, who take offense about very public Sabbath violations in the Jewish state.
Hey, I’m not pretending that I’m as Shabbat-observant as I should be. But I’m not going to insult those Jews who are Sabbath-observant. I’m just not nearly as cool as Gawker. Or Reuters.
Who are schmucks.