The two big speakers at the recent General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in New Orleans were Vice-President Joe Biden, who told the crowd, as he has been telling Jewish crowds for years, that “I feel absolutely certain our support for Israel must continue forever.â€
America’s own reality star of &$*#! My Vice-President Says was then followed by the famously difficult David Simon, chronicler of American urban despair and creator of The Wire and New Orleans–based Treme. (Also: MacArthur “geniusâ€!) The most prominent member of his tribe to get a character in The Wire, which is based in Baltimore, is the greedy drug lawyer named Maury.
It appears that he spoke to a mostly empty room — apparently he was less of a draw than Biden — and he told the crowd of Jewish donors they spent too much time on their own causes and not much on the collapse of American cities. “This is a Holocaust in slow motion,†he told the crowd about what was happening mainly to urban black communities. He got almost zero response.
Surprising Element Of Opening GA Plenary Didn’t Come From Biden [Jewish Week]