“His campaign has attracted Jewish New Yorkers of all types,” wrote Jay Michaelson, a columnist at the Jewish newspaper The Forward. The rabbi who runs my son’s Hebrew school put Mamdani on his ballot, though he didn’t rank him first. And while Mamdani undoubtedly did best among left-leaning and largely secular Jews, he made a point of reaching out to others....
So it has been maddening to see people claim that Mamdani’s win was a victory for antisemitism.... Ultimately.... New York’s Democratic primary wasn’t about Israel....
The attacks on Mamdani during the primary were brutal, but now that he’s a national figure, those coming his way will be worse. His foes will try to leverage Jewish anxieties to smash the Democratic coalition.... But don’t forget that the vision of this city at the heart of Mamdani’s campaign — a city that embraces immigrants and hates autocrats, that’s at once earthy and cosmopolitan — is one that many Jews, myself included, find inspiring....
Earthy.
I was moved to unearth every "earthy" in the 21-year archive of this blog. They're all quotes of other people. I've never once used the word (except for one instance, now corrected, where I clearly meant to type "earthly" ("I didn't think you would be terribly sad to see that Robert Blake has left the earthy scene")).
***
So here goes — the 11 occurrences of "earthy" in this blog's archive. These are not presented in chronological order, but in the order that I think it might be helpful in grasping the connotations of the word:
1. "Dense and sweetly earthy, a spheroid that can grow to the size of a human head, with a mottled, brown-and-white surface and a buttery, yellow interior, the rutabaga looks like an overgrown turnip—which it is, sort of, at least on its mother’s side" — The New Yorker describes a rutabaga.2. "I feel like a farm has gone off in my nose. To write this I’m breathing through my mouth because if I try my nose I can’t concentrate on the screen: fresh emulsion paint, lemons, urban snow, something acrid, something earthy" — a man recovering his sense of smell.
4. "Olive oil infuses beautifully.... It’s very earthy" — said a woman The New Yorker called "The Martha Stewart of Marijuana Edibles."
5. "She could be virginal, ethereal, gossamer and fragile, or earthy, spicy and suggestive, and sometimes she managed to display all her skills at the same time" — the NYT, describing Deborah Kerr.
5. "She could be virginal, ethereal, gossamer and fragile, or earthy, spicy and suggestive, and sometimes she managed to display all her skills at the same time" — the NYT, describing Deborah Kerr.
6. "Kligman — who looked, it was written, like one of those 'earthy, voluptuous movie stars of the era, such as Elizabeth Taylor or Sophia Loren' — was played by Jennifer Connelly" — from the NYT obituary for Ruth Kligman.
7. "The pod looks like an earthy piece of art, but really it’s a biodegradable 'casket.' Once the burial pod is buried deep underground a tree seed or a young tree is placed directly above, and from one source of life sparks another" — a description of a biodegradable casket.
7. "The pod looks like an earthy piece of art, but really it’s a biodegradable 'casket.' Once the burial pod is buried deep underground a tree seed or a young tree is placed directly above, and from one source of life sparks another" — a description of a biodegradable casket.
8. "Obama gave long, discursive answers to questions on loaded topics like abortion and personal moral failings, while Mr. McCain stole the show with earthy anecdotes and humor" — a NYT description of the Saddleback Church forum.
9. "A more 'earthy' speaking style, with consideration of the phrasing used, is my ideal" — said a commenter I front-paged, speaking about "Trump's lack of polish."
10. "Pantone describes the ’70s palette consisting of 'Harvest Gold' and 'Rust.' In the 1970s, designers used these colors because they wanted to take viewers 'back down to earth—solid, earthy colors to ground us during shakey economic times'" — from a Bulwark article criticizing Kamala Harris campaign graphics.
11. "The earlier part of the twenty-tens saw an explosion of 'cabin porn' on Tumblr: a nostalgic, earthy aesthetic of Obama-era hipster Americana—all wool blankets and gas lanterns and flannel jackets—which, in hindsight, may have channelled a growing uneasiness about accelerating digitization" — a New Yorker writer describes CGI-rendered interiors.
***
In that light, what does it mean to credit Mamdani with a "vision of this city... that’s at once earthy and cosmopolitan" and that "many Jews... find inspiring"?
Posts
71 comments:
You can depend on Michelle Goldberg. Four stars for reliability.
When you can’t change the bad boy into someone who won’t hurt you, don’t come back to me asking for help.
This is just part of the progressive left death spiral. They are a violent rapacious pack of locusts and they are going to prove that their system of governance works.
Also note how 40% of the voting population of New York City is now foreign born. And they did not import the best. A lot of poor foreign people moved to New York City and are voting for rich people to pay their fair share.
A lot of people are going to die if this socialist hack takes power. It is easily predictable how this experiment turns out.
Everyone noticed that the story about the assassination 2 democrat senators disappeared from the news right? That is because it was a democrat assassin that was killing not democrat enough democrats.
Democrats in NYC are about to start eating themselves when they chase out all of the people they want to take money from. This is a violent and completely predictable pattern. They are takers and they take from anyone around them.
Maybe now, but six months after he's elected......
I suspect that many of the jews who support him have fallen into the liberal self-loathing trap. They are filled with so much guilt about colonialism or some such BS that they would go to the gas chambers willingly, saying they understand your rage.
“Hates Autocrats”
LOL
New York City...earthy like concrete.
Concrete has its earthy side, but you need a jackhammer.
Can New Yorkers tell the difference between a trowel and a jackhammer anymore?
Yes, he's reaching out. And choking every Jew he can get his hands on that is unarmed.
Shorter Goldberg:
"He might be an anti-semite but surely he doesn't mean for Jews like me to shuffle off to the ovens."
It's entirely possible for someone to be a socialist first and a Jew second. Though the best and the brightest are in the habit of calling this sort of thing "self-hating" when it's, say, a gay conservative, or a black one.
uh huh. That's always the line. Secular Leftist Jews who are not really Jewish at all.
"a city that embraces immigrants" As long as they vote right, i.e., left. And of course, "immigrants" include illegals, to be protected at all costs against ICE Nazis.
If you think that nobody can question Netanyahu except if they hate Jewish people, you should ask yourself why so many Jewish people resent other people claiming that what is being done in Gaza is being done in their name.
Obama hearts Mullahs.
"Computer! Give me a term that's likable yet hard to define. Something that seems down to earth, but is really a bunch of manipulative jibber-jabber. Tastes like warm brown chocolate." - K. Janeway
What is being done to Gaza - is all based on funding.
Don't question the funding... roots.
"Plenty of Jews Love Zohran Mamdani” sounds like the title of a song from a Southpark episode.
Jaq said...
If you think that nobody can question Netanyahu except if they hate Jewish people, you should ask yourself why so many Jewish people resent other people claiming that what is being done in Gaza is being done in their name.
The people of Gaza have earned their current situation. They do not deserve to be a tribe. They will be disbanded and absorbed by the surrounding tribes.
Jordan has killed an order of magnitude more Palestinians than Israel. Everyone in the area kills Palestinians.
There is only one reason to castigate Israel for killing Palestinians and ignore that everyone else in the region also kills Palestinians.
BTW, Netanyahu is only able to maintain power, as leader of a minority party, through dealmaking. Why doesn't a clear majority of Israelis support him?
"Plenty of Jews Love Zohran Mamdani.”
And in the end Winston loved Big Brother.
"a city that embraces immigrants"?
Meh. Given that half the city’s population wasn’t born in the USA, “embraces immigrants” is putting it lightly.
It’s more like, “spreads its legs and receives the onslaught”…
two jews, three opinions, the same is said of my people,
honestly you need to tighten your jackboot's laces better,
rabin sold out israel in the secret negotiations he had made with Arafat,
I guess 90 years since the Nazis rose to power in Germany is a long enough period of time for secular Jews to forget that the fact that they don’t think of themselves as being all that Jewish doesn’t mean the anti-semites won’t think of them as being every bit as much a Jew as the most hard core Lubavitcher.
"a city that embraces immigrants and hates autocrats, that’s at once earthy and cosmopolitan "
“Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here.”
― Woody Allen, Annie Hall
Sadly, Mark nailed it at 8:45.
Leftists will twist themselves into pretzels to convince each other that antisemitism is a right wing phenomenon and uniquely so. No Democrat can be credibly accused of it while the Republican can escape it.
Obviously earthy in the sense of being at home, of having a home, yet not bound to it like in a nationalist or nativist sense. She's dancing around the concept of "rootlessness" and the jewish diaspora. New York being a homeland for jews and inspiring because it's welcoming of the rootless and cosmopolitians who see the world as their homeland. A small world reflecting a larger one.
"Plenty...many" are weasel words. What she means is a dozen or two in her circle. Roughly a million Jews live in NYC. No doubt there are "many" who support Mamdani, but no doubt they are a tiny percentage, essentially a fringe. Cuomo carried the heavily Jewish (and leftist) Upper West Side, and won in the heavily Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn by landslides.
Earthy and cosmopolitan:
Earthy is working-class multi-culti. Storefront houses of worship, ethnic groceries, conducting most of your life outside. Spike Lee, Ray Romano. Fordham. CUNY.
Cosmopolitan is upperclass multi-culti. Conducting most of your life in limited-access venues. No worship. Whole Foods. Ironic appreciation of the old country and 1st-gen. Woody Allen. Lenny Bruce. Columbia.
The D's think they can hold these two groups together.
RR
JSM
But don’t forget that the vision of this city at the heart of Mamdani’s campaign — a city that embraces immigrants and hates autocrats, that’s at once earthy and cosmopolitan — is one that many Jews, myself included, find inspiring.... [My emphasis]
I get that Goldberg isn’t the sharpest tack in the bulletin board, but where has there ever been a socialist government that is not headed by an autocrat?
@Ambrose (10:02), +1
Essentially, the essence of what democracy means, as defined 2,400 years ago by Plato:
“Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.”
No, Kaka, as others I'm sure have pointed out, Mencken's definition is more apt: "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
But don’t forget that the vision of this city at the heart of Mamdani’s campaign — a city that embraces immigrants and hates autocrats, that’s at once earthy and cosmopolitan — is one that many Jews, myself included, find inspiring....
Sure, if you're a "Jew" in a purely left wing political sense, and not in any way a religious one
In another life, Michelle would have made a good kapo.
In that light, what does it mean to credit Mamdani with a "vision of this city... that’s at once earthy and cosmopolitan" and that "many Jews... find inspiring"?
It means hard-core left wing and anti-America (that's the "cosmopolitan" part).
Goldberg reliably continues her support for destabilization of the republic using this time the lure of secular Jewish liberalism. It is true that the NYC election is not just about Israel. It is also true that the conflict in Israel is not just about Israel. It is about worldwide jihad beginning with the annihilation of Israelis because they are Jews. New Yorkers, including Jewish Democrats supporting Mamadi, will likely get the “intifada” they deserve if he wins.
New Yorkers, including the the Jewish ones, voted for Obama, De Blasio, Hillary, Biden, and Harris. Do you see a trend there? The collective IQ of the city is on a ski slope, and they started half way down. The city is now incapable of electing someone who can reverse the decline. The efforts have shifted to covering it up, like reducing crime by just ignoring it and calling it something else, but fixing things is off the table. It reminds me of living in L.A. and watching once fun, family-filled parks and venues gradually and then suddenly descend into garbage filled, drug infested vagrant camps. Everybody watched, but nobody stopped it, and they voted for the same over and over. That's when you have to pack up and get out. Life is too short to live like that, especially at luxury prices.
"BTW, Netanyahu is only able to maintain power, as leader of a minority party, through dealmaking. Why doesn't a clear majority of Israelis support him?"
Tim, I get that you don't like Netanyahu but that quote above is nonsensical. There was no party that got a majority of the parliament not to mention a majority of the vote- any one of the party leaders in the last election would have had to form such a coalition to get power, including the people who actively oppose Likud and Netanyahu.
"Earthy" in this context is similar to "dirty" and "soiled".
Sometimes "earthy" just means dirty.
in re: Mark at 8:45. An old joke: the Nazis put two Jewish guys up against a wall, assemble a firing squad and give them both blindfolds. One guy throws his blindfold on the ground contemptuously and stands up straight, and the other turns to him and says “now, Isaac, don’t make trouble for us”
FW, I think our mental wifi hooked up there for a minute.
Oh, so Goldberg is "earthy"? I thought she was just so full of shit her eyes are brown. "Earthy", huh. Doesn't pass the smell test.
@bagoh20 Agreed!
I hate that "as a Jew" crap you get from people like Goldberg, but I have to say, as a Jew, that the stereotype about Jews all being smart is disproved by the Jews of New York who would vote for this smiling bigot.
Jews thought that Napoleon was the bee's knees when he tore down the wall of the ghettos. Their views later became more nuanced when they realized he did this to facilitate the impressment of their sons to die in his wars......I read Applebaum's book The Gulag. She writes of a Jewish herring merchant. His business was nationalized by the Bolshies, but he was somewhat mollified by the fact that his daughters were allowed to enroll in the university. He was further encouraged when the Bolshies allowed him to work as a manager in the state run herring industry. Then Stalin had him arrested and sent to the Gulag where he perished. Perhaps this last iteration of socialism is where he reached his fullest understanding of the system..... Goldberg has much yet to learn about Socialism.
This post is another classic example of Althouse missing an obvious point.
First, why edit the comment to eliminate the hates autocrats and loves immigrants part?
Second, how can you not get the earthy part. A standard definition of earthy is direct and uninhibited (the McCain sense, in your examples). That New Yorkers are earthy in this sense is practically a truism. Think, Mel Brooks, Ed Koch, Lenny Bruce, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Phillip Roth. Not to mention, in some ways, the Donald himself. Another way to think about it is down to earth--practical, get it done, honest. Think Michael Bloomberg, Fiorello LaGuardia, Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
I would say that, by and large, Jews have made far more significant contributions to the fields of physics and medicine than to economics. I'm appreciative of the contributions of Marx and Krugman, but they were no Einstein or Salk........The politics of most Jews are more likely to resemble Judge Kaufman than Abbie Hoffmann or Julius Rosenberg, but you're far more likely to read a piece supportive of Abbie or the Rosenbergs in the NYT than an appreciation of Judge Kaufman.
"I'm appreciative of the contributions of Marx and Krugman, but they were no Einstein or Salk."
Milton Friedman, Kenneth Arrow, Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, to name a few, might be to economics what Einstein and Salk were to physics and medicine, which is not to say that in absolute terms their contributions are of the same importance.
The biggest problem with the Jewish community is New York Jews. The rest of us just shake our heads at their terminal progressivism, even as the gun is pointed at their own heads.
Get on the train. Next stop: Penn Station.
His campaign has attracted Jewish New Yorkers of all types
Says a lot about the choices.
"Is one that many Jews, myself included, find inspiring...."
I'm sure that is what Golberg thinks women say about Lia Thomas... (eyeroll)
But one expect such sewage from a PoS hack like Golberg who thinks that parents should be arrested for not wanting their daughter raped by a boy pretending to be a girl.in Loudoun Schools ...
Unfortunately most Jews - presumably like Goldberg - do not observe the Torah. Most Jews have replaced Judaism with liberalism. As I understand it, most "Jews" in the reform movement are not even Jews as they have intermarried and are not halachically Jewish. These Jews are largely ignorant of Judaism and have divorced themselves from Judaism and sadly their grandchildren are unlikely to be Jewish through intermarriage though they will consider themselves Jews. Their worldview is liberalism not Judaism. Torah-observant Jews are nearly universally conservative.
Jaq said...
If you think that nobody can question Netanyahu except if they hate Jewish people, you should ask yourself why so many Jewish people resent other people claiming that what is being done in Gaza is being done in their name.
6/27/25, 9:07 AM
...
It's because they gave up Judaism a long time ago. Many in fact are not even Jewish bec of intermarriage but "feel" Jewish. Torah-observant Jews and those that feel attached to Judaism and the Jewish state are supportive of Israel defending itself and trying to stop those who would murder innocents.
Jaq said...
BTW, Netanyahu is only able to maintain power, as leader of a minority party, through dealmaking. Why doesn't a clear majority of Israelis support him?
6/27/25, 9:19 AM
...
Israel is a parliamentary system. There are a bunch of right wing, a bunch of left wing, a bunch of russian, a bunch of secular, a bunch of arab parties. Nearly no one wins a majority. That's how parliamentary systems work. It's been like this forever.
William said...
Jews thought that Napoleon was the bee's knees when he tore down the wall of the ghettos. Their views later became more nuanced when they realized he did this to facilitate the impressment of their sons to die in his wars......I read Applebaum's book The Gulag. She writes of a Jewish herring merchant. His business was nationalized by the Bolshies, but he was somewhat mollified by the fact that his daughters were allowed to enroll in the university. He was further encouraged when the Bolshies allowed him to work as a manager in the state run herring industry. Then Stalin had him arrested and sent to the Gulag where he perished. Perhaps this last iteration of socialism is where he reached his fullest understanding of the system..... Goldberg has much yet to learn about Socialism.
6/27/25, 11:27 AM
...
If I understand correctly I believe the chassidic rebbes were not encouraged by - maybe Napoleon or the French revolution - Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. The reason was that while they opened society up for Jews it was at the expense of removing G-d. I could be mixing this up with the communist revolution. The rabbis said that while having some equality and the boot removed from their necks would be beneficial, at least when the gentiles believed in G-d they would still have some humanity. When they removed the centrality of G-d from their lives there would be no limit to their cruelty.
History proved them to be correct.
Michelle Goldberg is a Democrat writing to other Democrats (mostly), so no surprise that she's trying to put lipstick on this pig. Viewed from the outside, the Dems had a choice among the Thug, the Crook, the Fool and What’s-His Name (Jim Walden, a sensible guy who has no chance). The Crook and What’s-His Name decided not to participate in the primary, and in their wisdom the voters chose the Fool. The Fool wants to (i) end all advanced and enriched programs in the public schools (Equity in Dem-speak means mediocrity uber alles since superior performance is always surefire proof of white (or Asian) supremacy); (ii) ‘free’ childcare with the worker paid at NYC teacher levels of compensation (‘free’ meaning, in Dem-speak. someone else pays); (iii) sending social workers not cops to ‘defuse’ confrontations involving combative nut-jobs (that will work out well); (iv) housing the ‘homeless’ in the subways (as if there weren’t enough crazies below ground already); (v) opening gov’t run grocery stores (another idea that's bound to work out well); (vi) higher taxes (because, of course …); (vii) a rent freeze (because then lots of builders will want to expand the housing supply for the fun of losing more money); (viii) raise the minimum wage to $30/hr (because in Dem-land raising costs on small businesses is bound to result in lower prices); and (ix) making NYC the Trans-y Sanctuary City par excellence, with NYC-subsidized gender change surgery for all (words just fail on this bit of insanity). And all of this, says the Fool, will solve the affordability crisis in NYC. Okey-dokey.
With that as his platform, perhaps it’s just as well to skip over the jihad-y intifada stuff in embarrassed silence. But let’s not be entirely silent. As Abe Greenwald at Commentary has noted, his father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a Columbia anthropology professor who teaches anti-colonialism studies and has led teach-ins at the Columbia tentifada. Apple, meet tree. As Abe explains, the son, a/k/a the Fool, is a textbook anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist, anti-white, America-hating, Israel-hating, “globalize the intifada” man of the radical left.
So, Dems (here's looking at you Michelle): Beware what you wish for and what you are now likely to get, because the Fool will, along with AOC, become the new face of the Dem party. As one wit (Ruy Texiera) commented, try selling that in Ohio or Pennsylvania or Wisconsin.
Don't you wonder how the political system of the greatest nation on Earth ends up with choices like the Democrats throw up? Obviously dumb, corrupt, incompetent, and even mentally broken people. That's what their system picks out of millions of Democrats across this country. It makes them look bad. You would think they would not let that happen. Biden and Harris were the least competent candidates out of all their primary choices 2020 thru 2024, yet that's who we got. NY is the same. I can't believe that damaged Cuomo and this nut job are the best they can find out of millions of Democrats, and then people like Goldberg are left trying to defend them. What is wrong with that system?
I just can't see "earthy" as applying to 21st century secular Jews who live in NYC and I don't think they're cosmopolitan either. Perhaps she meant "down-to-earth" like a plumber yet able to read Joan Didion but those are 20th century culture complexes. I don't see either as applying to 21st century NYC Jews. They seem to me to soar into the stratosphere with bizarre theoretical formations that allow them to become "allies" of Muslim antisemites who express a wish to kill 7 million Jews in Israel and to oust all Jews in America from universities and positions of power within the Dem party. I'm sure there is or will be word for what Michelle Goldberg and others are doing but I am speechless. I thought of "sonder commando" but that isn't really right - there's no compulsion.
Note how the MSM played an inoffensive clip of one of his rap videos but carefully avoided the ones that attacked the existence of Jews, so it was a ha-ha moment instead of a "kill the Jews" moment.
These people need their own circle of hell. No teleprompters, eternally broadcasting.
When you're vulgar and crude you label your self as "earthy". It sounds better.
I suppose it comes from "earthy peasants". So, its rather an odd thing to say about New Yorkers given they live their lives in a concrete jungle.
Anyway, if you look at the Demographics more Jews voted for Mandingo that Cuomo. In fact the only demographic that went for Cuomo was blacks 80-20. No doubt they'll all go 90-10 for Adams in the General.
In Ye olden days, when Jews were trying to present themselves as "100 percent American", anyone calling them "cosmopolitians" was denounced as an antisemite. Now, it seems Jews consider a badge of superiority.
From Insult to Compliment in only a few years.
Minority Groups - not just Jews - always try to present their vices as virtues or minimize them. The Irish were thought of as a bunch of violent drunks - so that got transformed into the Irish being fun loving leprachuns who just like to have a good time, dontchaknow, unlike those prissy uptight Protestants. And Top O' the mornin' to ye.
BTW, I've had plenty of drinks with plenty of Irishmen, and I've never met one that was "fun loving" and liked a "donnybrook". They were more likely to become mean drunks.
Final Comment. Some people can pull off profane and earthy, and some cant. In fact most cant. I once met an intelligent women who swore like a sailor, and somehow it didn't bother me. Probably because it was a deliberate attempt to shock but rather something she just did. And also because she was so attractive in every other way.
I once read about a Jewish Communist who was proud his mother threw her menstrual pads at the FBI agents as they drove away. I guess that was "earthy" and not "Disgusting".
First, rutabagas are yummy. Very under appreciated vegetable.
“But don’t forget that the vision of this city at the heart of Mamdani’s campaign — a city that embraces immigrants and hates autocrats, that’s at once earthy and cosmopolitan — is one that many Jews, myself included, find inspiring....”
I hope the city gets to live its dream. It will provide an object lesson for the rest of the country, much like San Francisco. And since Mamdani isn’t native-born, he won’t be able to do much damage outside NYC.
Did Michelle Goldberg not notice that her logic would also allow Trump to argue that it’s “maddening” for people to call him racist when many black and brown people have supported him?
It's always Jews with RCOCean. What did you think about the concert? Big fan of Bobbie Vylan?
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