I Could Be (So To Speak) "Jumping the Gun", But...

If you are who I think that you might be and you are just using a different operating system than last time (if you were and are indeed the same person), let me tell you some things:

1. I saw you today when I was walking back to Erickson, and I think that you may have seen and ignored me--good. I'd rather be ignored than persecuted by you. Besides, I deliberately went the opposite way.
2. I'm not afraid of you. I scared off my grandparents; I can scare you--and I'm not threatening you (or anyone else); I'm just stating a fact, and one that's evidenced by my grandparents being scared off. I watch my Feedjit stats, and that's how I found out that you may have been witch-hunting Messianic Jews. As far as I know, my grandparents haven't been back on this blog since I caught them spying on me--and now I've caught you. I don't think, if you are who I think that you might be, that this is the first incident, either. e.g.:     
   Baltimore, Maryland arrived on "The Nicole Factor".

   19:51:20 -- 1 day 5 hours ago
3. What in the heck do you want with Messianic Jews? Besides, you are--I'm not--the meshumad here. You don't even believe in a Messiah (but a Messianic Age without a Messiah involved), and you have the chutzpah to imply that you don't consider me Jewish and would kick me out of Hillel if Hillel weren't at UMBC and in the democracy that the United States is? By the way; get your facts straight: firstly, the United States is a republican democracy; and, secondly, both Tanakh and Maimonides codified the concept of Mashiach.
4. Given that you are Reconstructionist and work at UMBC, I expected (or at least hoped) that you'd be more tolerant--perhaps like Carol Harris-Shapiro. Bad me--I was wrong about you being tolerant.
5. I might be posturing a little bit, but turning the other cheek (as a Messianic Jewish Facebook friend pointed out) doesn't mean being a doormat--and my schtick is this: if you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone. As I stated, I'd rather be ignored than persecuted by you. As I've also stated in the past, I won't proselytize--so, frankly, leave me alone if I'm not bothering you (and I really am trying to watch my language here--I was thinking of a curse-word phrase that means the same thing as "leave me alone".).
6. Everything that I have said about what you said is true--so, you have no case against me, just to let you know (in case you're looking for lawsuit material here). Besides, if I wanted to, I could get a case against you together for your violation of my First Amendment rights--I chose to be in full disclosure about my Messianic Jewishness, and you implicitly persecuted me for being a Messianic Jew.

One more thing: your website lies. Next time, say "...except for Messianic Jews..." instead of the following:

The Interfaith Center? But I see myself as more culturally Jewish than religiously Jewish? Is there a place for me at Hillel?

Yes, and you are not alone. Studies show that many college students think of their Judaism as a culture and not as a religion. Avram Infeld, the former director of International Hillel, loves to remind students that "Judaism is not a religion,"; it is a family, a community, and entire culture. It was only after Emancipation in Europe that some Jews started thinking of Judaism as a "religion." Rabbi Moredecai M. Kaplan called Judaism an "evolving religious civilization," meaning that Judaism consists of people with traditions, art, music, language, land, bound together by a shared history, a shared destiny and a common quest for meaning.

Remind UMBC students that, unlike Carol Harris-Shapiro and other decent-enough human beings, you don't consider Hillel the place for Messianic Jews. The even-sadder part, by the way, is that my Non-Messianic and Non-Jewish (e.g., Mohammedan) peers who come to Hillel's Shabbat and who are under your leadership are (as far as I can tell and as I've experienced) more tolerant than you--I guess that I stupidly hoped for better from one in a leadership position, especially for better than people in his charge would have given. 

I'm still coming to Shabbat--you can't chase me away, and I'll leave you alone if you leave me alone. But don't come back to this blog unless you're not going to look for trouble--my grandparents learned the hard way when I caught them spying on me, and I hope that this entry affected you to learn the same lesson that they did in the same, hard way that they learned it. 

    

Baltimore, Maryland left via about.me from "The Nicole Factor"

23:24:12 -- 1 hour 22 mins ago

    

Baltimore, Maryland arrived from google.com on "The Nicole Factor" by searching for thenicolefactor.

23:23:55 -- 1 hour 23 mins ago