Okay, it's embarrassing to admit, but at least twice a year I spend a half-hour Googling myself. Everyone does it, right? You want to know who's talking about you. It's like hiding in the cubbie hole in grade school while the popular kids whisper nearby.

Now and then I find a reference to myself that really delights me, as I did today. From last year comes this mention from Think-Israel
by Judah Tzoref, who writes:

Why talk about non-Jewish anti-Semites while the world is plagued with Jewish maggots that practice the most virulent type of anti-Semitism, to name a few:

ALEC DUBRO mediaguide@igc.org
GERALD KAUFMAN cootesn@parliament.uk British Parliament Member
CLEMENT LEIBOVITZ cleibovi@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca
MICHAEL LERNER community@tikkun.org
GIDEON LEVY levy@haaretz.co.il
TANYA REINHART reinhart@post.tau.ac.il
ISRAEL SHAMIR ContactUs@MediaMonitors.net
HENRY SIEGMAN hsiegman@cfr.org
NORMAN SOLOMON mediabeat@igc.apc.org
LIZ SPIKOL lspikol@philadelphiaweekly.com

Such colourful assortment of fringe ideologues has been pestering the Jewish nation from the dawn of its existence. They must have some esoteric function, they can be harmful at times, but eventually they drop behind and dissolve into the limbo of the insignificant.

This is the result of one article I wrote many years ago about the situation in the Middle East. I was critical of Israel, and as a result, half the Jewish world completely hates me. But I don't care. Judaism is greatly important to me, as is the fate of Israel. As an American Jew, I'll speak out when I feel it's necessary and I won't mince words. Go on and call me a maggot if you like, Judah. It only makes you look small.

[Image by a student in a class of second graders at Clow Elementary School in Napersville, Ill.]