Reaching

Mona Charen's latest article takes the New York Times to task for presenting Sarah Silverman as a Jew and appreciating a somewhat shocking video she did. Sarah Silverman doing something shocking? Apparently their acceptance of Silverman as a Jew proves that the New York Times is "Jew-baiting."

Yeah it's a stretch, and Charen seems to know it. As she moves on in the article, she drops the New York Times angle, and focuses on the idea that secular Jews aren't really Jewish.

Judaism does command social justice of course -- just start with the prophets. But normative Judaism is not the Democratic Party at prayer. . . . Judaism demands that human beings worship God, not themselves.

It's a free country and secular Jews can believe and say whatever they like. But it is tiresome as well as false for them to parade their liberalism as the authentic expression of a great faith.

Unfortunately for Ms. Charen, to be a Jew isn't just to practice a certain religion; it's also an culture. And I think it's safe to say that it's a culture that Ms. Silverman sprang from.