New York – Two days after a news story bashed a popular Chasidic singer for reportedly using a racial slur to describe President Barack Obama, controversy continues to rage about whether the statement in question was actually derogatory.
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The incident in question took place on December 29th, when singer Mordechai Werdyger, known more commonly to his fans as Mordechai Ben David, appeared in a Chanukah concert at Jerusalem’s Pais Arena. As Werdyger sang the final bars of his well known song Shir Hashalom which expresses a longing for peace, he used a dramatic pause in the music to express his thoughts on the latest United Nations resolution to condemn Israel, which was backed by President Obama.
“Do you know when there will be peace?” asked Werdyger. “In a few more weeks, when there will be a new president in the United States and the ‘kushi’ will go home.”
Werdyger’s comments were greeted by thunderous applause from the crowd, which numbered in the thousands.
A news story that appeared on JTA on January 3rd categorized Werdgyer’s use of the word “kushi” as a racial slur, prompting several other news outlets to run similar articles.
The premise of the JTA article, that the word “kushi” is a racial slur, is not necessarily accurate and may be viewed very differently in Israel and in America.
Addressing the topic on his blog, Israel’s chief archivist, Yaacov Lozowick, explained the biblically the word “kushi” appears to describe people with black skin and it first appears as the name of the eldest son of Cham, the son of Noach, and later in a discussion about Tzipora, the wife of Moshe, who is described as a “Kushis.”
According to Lozowick, the word “kushi” had no negative connotations at all as late as the 1970s but as American culture began shifting towards political correctness, some in Israel followed suit, while many others did not. The result is a climate where some might view the word as an ethnic slur while others might see it as nothing more than a simple description.
In its own discussion of whether the word “kushi” is considered derogatory in Israel, the Forward concludes that although usage of the word “does not necessarily stamp one as a bigot, it is increasingly frowned upon in educated circles.”
VIN News reached out to Werdyger who declined to comment on his statement.
Correction notice: In a previous version on this article VIN news reported that a high UN diplomat slammed Ben David, after future research VIN news was not able to verify if the Twitter account linked to Keith Michael Harper the United States ambassador to the United Nations is genuine.
Yes it was foolish of MBD, no matter what the REAL translation of KUSHI is, when a Yid in Israel wants to curse a Black skinned person he doesn’t think twice & shouts KUSHI, so can anyone translate this in real words?
“Im Hashem lo yishmor ir…..” There will not be peace in Israel until Moshiach comes. How can there be? This is an unfortunate statement. Please let’s not continue to discuss it here because it will only bring us bad press!
Its an old silly argument. When we refer to blacks as Schvartza in no way it means as derogatory. But in a political correct world we Jews especial must be extremely careful.
Having said, MBD if he is sincere and Ehrlich he should publicly in a serious way apologize to president Obama and to the American people. Otherwise he is putting Jews especial frum Jews in America in a very uncomfortable position.
Mordechai, dont let yourself get carried away by Zionistic nationalism and dont get swayed by right wing Boro Park Zionists not to apologize.
Kushi is the hebrew equivalent of Ni**er. It used to be acceptable to say, but is no longer. They are only slamming him because of racial slur though. If he would have said “…when the African American goes home” that would have been ok!
The right to free speech & political correctness gone mad!
Nothing doing here. Lets move on.
i must admit though that I was going to slam VIN for being like their secular mainstream counterparts in jumping to sensationalize and attack without paying any attention to detail but I see they haveat least been fairly balanced in their headline so, good on you for that and now lets get onto more important things, reporting and EMPAHSIZING (it’d be nice to see as many comments on a positive frum story as there are on the negatie ones) positive stories and positive things!
KEIN YIRBU!
His idiocy is Israeli chutzpa. Israel lives off the six millions Jews by getting for free and subsidized German made Delphin submarines. Maybe Israel should show issues of Stuermer magazine with caricatures of Yidden and of course SS denigrated Yidden then this idiot would have kept his mouth shut. Obama authorized the biggest military assistance program subsidized by goyishe American tax payers
He shouldn’t have said it, and he must apologize – not a way to behave!
MBD is a public figure performing a concert, he has different rules than the average joe – in the comfort of your own home and around your circle of friends you can say what you think (whether or not it’s PC), however there are ramifications for those who lead a public life especially at a crowded venue.
NOT OK!!
It’s really very simple – If you were in Israel and met a chayal of Ethiopian extraction, would you dare to use to his face the K word, N word or S Word??Nothing more to say – I rest my case
He should be as ashamed of himself.
הֲיַהֲפֹךְ כּוּשִׁי עוֹרוֹ, וְנָמֵר חֲבַרְבֻּרֹתָיו; גַּם-אַתֶּם תּוּכְלוּ לְהֵיטִיב, לִמֻּדֵי הָרֵעַ.
וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ–מַה-נַּעֲשָׂה יְקָר וּגְדוּלָּה לְמָרְדֳּכַי, עַל-זֶה; וַיֹּאמְרוּ נַעֲרֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ, מְשָׁרְתָיו, לֹא-נַעֲשָׂה עִמּוֹ, דָּבָר
MBD is an incredible man, performer, baal chessed, baal tzedakah and AMERICAN, who is not familiar with Israel’s politically correct Hebrew term or language. GET OVER IT, people!
I would hope that yidden have better things to do than to dissect MBD’s word usage. how about praising him for always performing in Israel, even during the times when most of us were too scared to go there?
and stop sticking up for obama, who just threw us all under the UN bus. I am sure he wasn’t calling us ‘ the people of Israel’ when he turned his farshtinkiner back us, eh??
I don’t recall Obama ever calling anyone a kike.
Obama is a kishi. He isn’t a shemi.
Political correctness had killed the normality of the world. Enough with people who have thin skin who crawl into the nearest corner whenever they hear a word that they don’t like.
You people really really really need to get a life exclamation point
I’m a huge fan of MBD but this was uncalled for. It’s not so much what he said, it’s in the context of what he said, it’s the implication of what he said that’s disturbing.
Yes, Obama has let Israel down, specifically most recently with UN vote abstention however, only recently he committed to give Israel a record 38 BILLION dollars in military aid
.
So, you need to weigh the good with the bad and not just arbitrarily denigrate a sitting president.
Would you call a chayal who originated in Ethiopia the K or S words? Of course you wouldn’t – they’re derogatory terms. You know it, I know it and the oilam knows it.
Of course it is racist. Anytime someone is identified in a mocking way by the color of their skin, it is racist. Had it been Clinton, would he have said “white guy”? Of course not, he would have had to use his name, title or a pejorative. Because Obama is black he can avoid using his name and simply say “kushi”. That my friends, is racist. Derogatory comments based purely on the color of their skin.
And, by the way, ‘shvartze’ is almost always used in a condescending way, thus being racist. I would suggest, that even if you say, “that shvartze was nice”, it’s racist, because you are implying that most are not.
If you say the word “shvartze”, ask yourself, why am I defining that person by his or her skin color?
My rule of thumb is, a person’s skin color should not be their identifying attribute. We believe in “chavid odom shenivro b’tzelem”, we need to start to live by it.
Get a life. Obama deserves a lot worse than being called Kushi. Please! He hates Israel and Jews. YM”SH
Kushi does not translate to Black it translates to African
It’s amazing how many snowflakes we have here. GET A LIFE CHILDREN!!!
Probably just the words of another song he plagiarized.