Yesterday, I posted about Tablet Mag’s vile, antisemitic article The Specifically Jewy Perviness of Harvey Weinstein, the title of which says it all really. I followed it up with a number of tweets, none of which elicited a response from Tablet, but Mark Oppenheimer, the author of the piece and Tablet’s editor at large (which explains how it got published to begin with) issued an “Apology.” And I deliberately place that word in inverted commas, because it is not much of an apology at all.
Yesterday I published a piece on Harvey Weinstein that many found offensive. The analysis I offered was hasty and ill-considered, especially in light of the even graver accusations that were published by the New Yorker this morning. I take this as a lesson in the importance of knowing as much as one can about a given story, and in taking the time to think and feel things completely through before opining. I apologize for not doing so in this case.
No, the piece was offensive to Jews, not just one that “many found offensive.” This sounds like those non-apologies where the person is not sorry for what they actually said, but just that you are offended by their words. Plus what possible “analysis” went into it, and how did any subsequent accusations against Weinstein make the piece even more offensive than it already was?
The wording, plus the fact Tablet have left the original article up on Tablet – where it can continue to be shared by antisemites like Richard Spencer – render this apology anything but one.
I am also very disappointed in Yair Rosenberg, Tablet’s self-professed “troller of Nazis,” who has remained silent throughout all of this, despite my attempts to even reach out to him privately. While I understand he is employed by Tablet, his persona, at least, is of someone who takes principled stands against antisemitism.
