"The Banquet, International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Shluchim" Dancing video courtesy Jewish Educational Media
The Anti-Semite’s Pointed Finger
Ruth R. Wisse is a professor of Yiddish and comparative literature at Harvard University and the author of, among many other books, Jews and Power (Schocken/Nextbook). The present article is based on a talk delivered in August at the Conference of the Yale Interdisciplinary Initiative for the Study of Anti-Semitism.
... Yet here is the paradox: the fiercer anti-Semitism grows, the more it forces a choice on liberals. The choice is between protecting the Jews and protecting the orthodox liberal belief in rational compromise, world peace, “getting to yes,” and all the rest. Protecting the Jews requires confronting hostility that is not subject to rational persuasion, does not obey the liberal version of the rule of law, does not abide by liberal ideas of fairness, and does not extend peace and goodwill to others. To side with Israel, therefore, leaves one exposed to the same hostility that assails the Jews—an uncomfortable position for individuals and governments alike. The dictates of self-interest persuade some to ignore aggression that presumably doesn’t concern them, and then to justify their callousness by holding Jews responsible for the aggression against them. Some Jews try to demonstrate their own innocence by dissociating themselves from those of their fellow Jews who are under attack.
The politics of anti-Semitism strikes again: blaming the Jews succeeds by persuading liberals that it is aimed only at the “culpable” Jews. By casting these Jews as aggressors, it invites liberals to join the attack on them, on behalf of the Jews’ alleged victims. It congratulates liberals for joining the anti-liberal side by persuading them that they stand with the weak against the strong . . .I have tried to show (a) that anti-Semitism cannot be arrested by any remedial action of the Jews; (b) that there are harmful consequences for pretending that concessions from Jews can stop the aggression against them; and (c) that anti-Semitism forces a choice between protection of the Jews and, under the guise of liberalism, complicity with their enemies. And though anti-Semitism is often compared to cancer, there is no comparable effort to finding a cure. The reason seems plain: where the carriers of an illness are also its casualties, they and their well-wishers have incentives to tackle the problem. But the carriers of anti-Semitism do not experience themselves as its apparent victims. At-risk Jews cannot halt the malignancy, because they are not itscarriers. And its carriers, the anti-Semites, will not seek a cure, because they don’t recognize its harm to them. Not until enlightened Arabs recognize that they, not the Jews, are its ultimate casualties will this political threat be contained.
What then? Some might argue that, even granting my thesis of a Zionist misdiagnosis, the scourge of anti-Semitism is so protean and so venerable that it can never be entirely expunged. They may have a point about the “entirely,” but I beg to differ about the realities of the present situation. A longstanding political attack has repeatedly called forth a defensive reaction of negotiation, accommodation, and no small amount of self-blame. This response has been shown to fail, and will go on failing with ever mountingconsequences.
To say that anti-Semitism persists and succeeds does not mean that anti-Semitism is politically invulnerable. Tactics in fighting anti-Semitism may and should vary. But what is required strategically, from Jews as from all decent human beings, is no more than what justice and truth and genuine liberalism demand: namely, to reject vigorously the role of defendant at the bar of world opinion and to instigate political, diplomatic, moral, and intellectual countersuits on every front. Read full story . . .
A history lesson for ashamed, 'progressive' Jews by Briton, Ray Cook
Jewish actor visits West Bank camp in quest for peace |
| Miriam Margolyes, who plays Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, with retired Palestinian farmer Said Ali Banat Hajarah. Photograph: Claudia Janke in The Guardian |
Yep, you read right. I’ve had to admit it. I can’t live a lie any longer. I’m deeply, deeply ashamed.
Ashamed of being Jewish? No way. I’m very proud to be Jewish and a member of the Jewish people.Ashamed of Israel? Wrong again. I’m proud of Israel’s achievements. I worry about its policies, sometimes; I’m concerned, sometimes about some of its actions and those of some of its citizens, but I could say the same for Britain and I’m still proud to be British.So why am I ashamed?I’ll tell you. I’m ashamed of Jews who say they are ashamed to be Jews or Jewish.I don’t hear Palestinians coming out to declare they are ashamed to be Palestinian and denounce suicide bombs or missiles.I don’t hear Arabs writing they are ashamed to be Arabs because of Al Qaeda or Sudan or Yemen.I don’t hear Muslims forming groups of shame because of what Sunni does to Shia, or 9/11, or 7/7, or Madrid, or Mumbai.I don’t know of any Ashamed Catholic groups forming because of the paedophilia apparently rife in Catholic clergy.In fact I know of no other group of people who so often announce their ashamedness to be who they are as Jews do.And you know what? It makes me ashamed. I’m an ashamed Jew who is ashamed of ashamed Jews. If that’s a paradox, so be it.And I’m not ashamed to declare my shame.Shame on me!
Yep, you read right. I’ve had to admit it. I can’t live a lie any longer.
I’m deeply, deeply ashamed.
Ashamed of being Jewish? No way. I’m very proud to be Jewish and a member of the Jewish people.
I don’t see why Arabs or Muslims or Palestinians or Brits or Americans or Chinese or anyone else should be ashamed of what they are because of the actions of a few.
If I’m ashamed to be a Jew because I don’t like what Israel does that is a form of self-hating, it’s bigotry – by golly, its anti-Semitic. If I hate all of a group because of the actions of some, then I am a bigot. And if I am the target of my own bigotry then I’m a pretty sick bigot.
On the Andrew Marr program this morning on BBC 1, the eponymous Scottish interviewer had the (Jewish) actress Miriam Margolyes in the studio, reporting on a recent visit to Israel and the West Bank.
We see her approaching a young Palestinian woman and asking through an interpreter whether she can see where she lives. The woman, carrying a young child, takes her to a canvas tent.
Miriam is shocked and says ‘no-one should have to live like this’.
I absolutely agree with her. No-one in the West Bank should be living in a tent. So why are they? Miriam believes it’s because of the terrible Israelis who make her an ‘ashamed Jew’.
If I’m ashamed to be a Jew because I don’t like what Israel does that is a form of self-hating, it’s bigotry – by golly, its anti-Semitic. If I hate all of a group because of the actions of some, then I am a bigot. And if I am the target of my own bigotry then I’m a pretty sick bigot.
On the Andrew Marr program this morning on BBC 1, the eponymous Scottish interviewer had the (Jewish) actress Miriam Margolyes in the studio, reporting on a recent visit to Israel and the West Bank.
We see her approaching a young Palestinian woman and asking through an interpreter whether she can see where she lives. The woman, carrying a young child, takes her to a canvas tent.
Miriam is shocked and says ‘no-one should have to live like this’.
I absolutely agree with her. No-one in the West Bank should be living in a tent. So why are they? Miriam believes it’s because of the terrible Israelis who make her an ‘ashamed Jew’.
Neither she nor Marr question why this woman lives like this?
No-one asks why after 62 years a young woman whose grandparents left or were driven out of what is now Israel should be a refugee and have refugee status uniquely different from all other refugee groups in history.
Neither Margolyes or Marr wanted to mention or even wanted to entertain the idea that refugee camps, so-called, exist for one reason and one reason only: to deliberately perpetuate the victimhood of Palestinians and to preserve the idea, which Margolyes and other ashamed Jews have swallowed whole, that it is Israel who is responsible for these conditions.
Margolyes appears unaware that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live comfortably on the West Bank in normal housing. She seems unaware that despite the billions of dollars poured into the Palestinian economy, people are still allowed to live in tents and camps.
There is no need for it. Pakistanis are not living in tents three generations after their forbears fled India.
There are no refugee camps in Israel for the hundreds of thousands who were forced from their homes after 1948 from Egypt and Iraq and Syria and North Africa.
Marr asks ‘Do you think being a Jew gives you a different authority, ability to talk about [the Palestinian question]?’
‘The only authority I have is as a human being’, Margolyes replies. So far, so good.
Then she says that it should not make a difference being Jewish or not Jewish to be able to comment on the situation but then says, somewhat in contradiction that she is ‘embarrassed and ashamed’ (that word again) because ‘my “lot” is doing “it” to them’. She then says ‘that’s why I wanted to go there, to see for myself’. Fine. But it appears she had already made up her mind that ‘her lot’ where doing ‘it’ to ‘them’.
Marr asks for her reaction and she then puts on a faux Arab accent and says that some said ‘why do you come? You are a Jew. We hate you.’ And then in her own voice ‘And I totally understood why’. Yet, she doesn’t understand why at all.
She doesn’t understand that this hatred predates the Jewish state. She doesn’t understand the daily diet of anti-Semitism that is fed to Palestinians in schools, newspapers and on TV.
Marr then asks a question which links the Holocaust to what he clearly believes is a given Israeli/Jewish paranoia.
He asks that, given Margolyes and her generation know what it’s like growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust, does she not realise that Israelis feel hemmed in and beleaguered by Iran, suicide bombs and missiles.
She admits her sympathy. She knows what anti-Semitism is. But ‘treating people the way the Israelis are treating the Palestinians is not making things better’. In other words, the blame for the situation is all on the Israeli side.
An then, lo and behold, the old ignorant trope comes out. ‘What people forget over there is that the Palestinians were not responsible for the Holocaust.’
Arghhh! I’m so ashamed. What the hell has the Holocaust got to do with the situation? Is she suggesting that Israel exists because of Holocaust guilt? Is she suggesting that the Palestinians are paying for the crimes of Europeans?
If so, she is ignorant of her own people’s history.
‘They (Muslims) were not the enemy at that time’, she says. But THEY WERE! The Mufti of Jerusalem was a friend of Hitler and organised Muslim Nazi brigades in Yugoslavia. He assured Hitler that he would solve the Jewish Question in Palestine.
No-one asks why after 62 years a young woman whose grandparents left or were driven out of what is now Israel should be a refugee and have refugee status uniquely different from all other refugee groups in history.
Neither Margolyes or Marr wanted to mention or even wanted to entertain the idea that refugee camps, so-called, exist for one reason and one reason only: to deliberately perpetuate the victimhood of Palestinians and to preserve the idea, which Margolyes and other ashamed Jews have swallowed whole, that it is Israel who is responsible for these conditions.
Margolyes appears unaware that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live comfortably on the West Bank in normal housing. She seems unaware that despite the billions of dollars poured into the Palestinian economy, people are still allowed to live in tents and camps.
There is no need for it. Pakistanis are not living in tents three generations after their forbears fled India.
There are no refugee camps in Israel for the hundreds of thousands who were forced from their homes after 1948 from Egypt and Iraq and Syria and North Africa.
Marr asks ‘Do you think being a Jew gives you a different authority, ability to talk about [the Palestinian question]?’
‘The only authority I have is as a human being’, Margolyes replies. So far, so good.
Then she says that it should not make a difference being Jewish or not Jewish to be able to comment on the situation but then says, somewhat in contradiction that she is ‘embarrassed and ashamed’ (that word again) because ‘my “lot” is doing “it” to them’. She then says ‘that’s why I wanted to go there, to see for myself’. Fine. But it appears she had already made up her mind that ‘her lot’ where doing ‘it’ to ‘them’.
Marr asks for her reaction and she then puts on a faux Arab accent and says that some said ‘why do you come? You are a Jew. We hate you.’ And then in her own voice ‘And I totally understood why’. Yet, she doesn’t understand why at all.
She doesn’t understand that this hatred predates the Jewish state. She doesn’t understand the daily diet of anti-Semitism that is fed to Palestinians in schools, newspapers and on TV.
Marr then asks a question which links the Holocaust to what he clearly believes is a given Israeli/Jewish paranoia.
He asks that, given Margolyes and her generation know what it’s like growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust, does she not realise that Israelis feel hemmed in and beleaguered by Iran, suicide bombs and missiles.
She admits her sympathy. She knows what anti-Semitism is. But ‘treating people the way the Israelis are treating the Palestinians is not making things better’. In other words, the blame for the situation is all on the Israeli side.
An then, lo and behold, the old ignorant trope comes out. ‘What people forget over there is that the Palestinians were not responsible for the Holocaust.’
Arghhh! I’m so ashamed. What the hell has the Holocaust got to do with the situation? Is she suggesting that Israel exists because of Holocaust guilt? Is she suggesting that the Palestinians are paying for the crimes of Europeans?
If so, she is ignorant of her own people’s history.
‘They (Muslims) were not the enemy at that time’, she says. But THEY WERE! The Mufti of Jerusalem was a friend of Hitler and organised Muslim Nazi brigades in Yugoslavia. He assured Hitler that he would solve the Jewish Question in Palestine.
Hamas and the PLO are the ideological progeny of the Muslim Brotherhood and its anti-Semitic policies.
Margolyes and other ashamed Jews need to educate themselves. I am sick of being ashamed of them.
What is she saying now? Oh yes, the Israelis should understand and accept that they owe reparation to the Palestinians just like the Jews expect it from the Germans.
So she, perhaps unwittingly, makes a moral equivalence between the way Jews were treated in the Holocaust and the way Palestinians, who have been hell-bent on another Holocaust for 100 years and certainly 60, have been treated by the Israelis.
Who attacked Israel in 1967? Why was the PLO formed in 1964 before there was any ‘Occupation’?
The Israelis are behaving ”so cruelly’. Yes, sometimes all those with power over others behave cruelly. Maybe she should understand why Israelis might do so to Palestinians who want to kill them, and blow up their children on buses and in their beds. Why can she only see one side to this conflict?
Even Marr has to remind her about suicide attacks and rockets.
And then we get the real answer to Margolyes ashamedness. She is not a two-state solutionist.
She wants ‘those people to be back in their own villages, which is what they want.’
How ignorant is this. They just want to go back to their villages. But their villages are Haifa and Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and Eilat and Beersheva. Margolyes is clearly advocating the end of the Jewish state as a deluded one-stater who believes the Palestinians, who she admits hate the Jews, just want to go back peacefully to their homes.
How often do we see people in the media like Miriam Margolyes, Jews and non-Jews, well-meaning, decent people who just do not understand. They live in their cosy left-wing bubbles dreaming of world peace where all will be luvvies.
Sorry Miriam. You are a very nice woman and a wonderful actress, but you are a deluded Jew. Go read some history. Go read the PLO charter and the Hamas charter.
Don’t pose as a woman of peace when you clearly want a second Holocaust – because if you don’t, then you need to wake up out of your deluded lefty dreams, you and all the ashamed Jews.
Until you do so, I will continue to be an ashamed-of, ashamed-Jews Jew.
Black talk-radio host, Rev Jesse Lee Peterson urges Los Angelenos elect Lubavitch Rabbi Nahum Shifren to Calif. State Senate 26th District to benefit all
Radio talk-host Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson delivers a fascinating, loving endorsement for inner-city, civic-conditions reformer, orthodox Rabbi Nachum Shifren, for Calif's 26th Senate District from Los Angeles over Curren Price, the black liberal incumbent. Rev. Peterson urges voting for character, not color.
‘Fiddler on the Roof’ author, Joseph Stein, 98, dies from fall in NYC
October 26 (JTA) -- Joseph Stein, the Tony Award-winning writer of "Fiddler on the Roof," has died.
Stein died Sunday in Manhattan after fracturing his skull in a fall. He was 98.
Stein wrote more than a dozen Broadway musicals, but is best known for "Fiddler," which won nine Tony Awards in 1965, including Stein's "Best Author of a Musical."
He began his career in writing after meeting comedian and actor Zero Mostel, who played Tevya in the original Broadway production of "Fiddler," and writing him some material, according to The New York Times.
Stein also wrote "Enter Laughing," a comedy based on an autobiographical book by Carl Reiner about a Jewish boy who wants to become an actor, as well as "Zorba" and "Rags." He wrote screenplays for three shows including "Fiddler," and also wrote a handful of television projects.
Stein earned a degree in social work from Columbia University in 1937 and worked for a decade as a psychiatric social worker.
While most think first of Fiddler's score, by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, it was story and dialogue like this introduction of Perchik to Tevye and the Anatevka villagers which gave Fiddler's characters their flavor.
(Courtesy Helleri2)
Rabbi Meir Kahane's spiritual teachings - the authentic, "Jewish Idea" explored in Los Angeles at at 20-year yahrtzeit of his martyring
Jews in Los Angeles gathered to commemorate the 20th Yarhtzeit of the assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane (zecher tzadik v'kadosh l'brachah). In these 2 videos, Rabbi Moshe Parry delivers a treatise on Rav Kahane's Magnum Opus, "The Jewish Idea," which interprets Jewish liturgy into a philosophy for living.
Rabbi Aaron Parry, scholar and teacher, teaches about the Rabbi Meir Kahane we never knew - a Tzadik, an historic teacher and leader of the Jewish nation.
Jerry Bloom tells how Rav Kahane changed his life:
Heshy Rosenwasser's first-hand experience learned that Rav. Kahane led by example:
The young generation was represented by Moti Cohen, who tells of how Kahane's ideas are still growing throughout Israel:
25th Israel Film Festival opens in Los Angeles with surprises from Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Ryan Kavanaugh
Also honored were actor Richard Dreyfuss (introduced by UCLA Hillel's Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller), "Avatar" producer, Jon Landau (introduced by Fox Film CEO, James Gianopulos), and Nu Image / Millenium Films' Israeli-American CEO Avi Lerner ("The Expendables") who was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Lerner was introduced by actor, Sylvester Stallone. Actor Dolph Lundgren also appeared in support of Mr. Lerner.
Israeli Consul General Jacob Dayan called upon the Hollywood film community to break the drought since "Exodus" and convey more of Israel's history through movies.
Celebrating its 25th year, the Israel Film Festival’s mission is to showcase the finest new Israeli films. The film festival encompasses over 30 titles and runs through November 4 in Los Angeles. The schedule can be found at Israel Film Festival.com
Calif Gov candidate Meg Whitman confers with "Start-Up Nation" co-author Dan Senor; She pledges to Iranian-Jewish "30 Years After" confab she'll speak-up for Israel's rights to exist and self-defense
California's Republican gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman, shares her familiarity with Israel from managing eBay's business. "Start-Up Nation" co-author, Dan Senor, interviews Ms. Whitman at "30 Years Later," Iranian-Jewish-American civic-affairs conference, on 10/10/10. Ms. Whitman professes her commitment to Israel's right to exist and Israel's right to defend herself- and she would use her position as Governor of California to promote those positions.
Kadima Knesset Member Yoel Hasson speaks to Iranian-Jewish group 30 Years Later in L.A.
Kadima Party Member of Knesset Yoel Hasson speaks in Los Angeles, courtesy of Iranian-Jewish civic association, 30 Years Later.
Complete length 1 hr. 34 minutes, but you may view it in whatever length of time you wish.
Complete length 1 hr. 34 minutes, but you may view it in whatever length of time you wish.
Pro-freedom congressional candidate, Bob Kunst (I-FL20) campaigns for Jewish voters seeking to clean-up Obama's Islamism-appeasing administration, starting with South Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL 20) on Nov 2nd
Florida Congressional candidate, Bob Kunst (I), discusses how voters can help him to reverse the global instability and economic slide created through the Obama Administration's weak, Jihadism-appeasing foreign and domestic policies.
Mr. Kunst, who is Jewish, expresses his opposition to Jewish social and poltical organizations contradicting Judeo-Christian precepts about guardianship of the Land of Israel to appease the Obama Administration, which empowers Islamist imperialists, like Wahabism from Saudi Arabia, or Iran, in their quest to assert Muslim influence over Israel and America. This trend is avoidable, Mr. Kunst says, by patriots supporting and voting for Mr. Kunst to unseat the Obama Adminstration's anti-Zionism facilitator from south Florida's 20th District, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, on Tuesday, November 2nd.
Are you eligible to vote in Florida's patchworked 20th District?
Mr. Kunst, who is Jewish, expresses his opposition to Jewish social and poltical organizations contradicting Judeo-Christian precepts about guardianship of the Land of Israel to appease the Obama Administration, which empowers Islamist imperialists, like Wahabism from Saudi Arabia, or Iran, in their quest to assert Muslim influence over Israel and America. This trend is avoidable, Mr. Kunst says, by patriots supporting and voting for Mr. Kunst to unseat the Obama Adminstration's anti-Zionism facilitator from south Florida's 20th District, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, on Tuesday, November 2nd.
Are you eligible to vote in Florida's patchworked 20th District?
Black activists allege dirty-pool in minorities' racism-mongering against critics of Obama or support for Calif State Sen candidate, orthodox Rabbi Nahum Shifren over black, liberal incumbent
Veteran U.S. Army Officer James Spence discusses why he feels that minority voters should elect Orthodox urban-activist Rabbi Nahum Shifren to better serve voters in L.A.'s 26th Senate District over Rabbi Shifren's black, liberal opponent, Curren Price. Mr. Spence calls to overcome the pigmentation politics mentality which keeps minorities from electing better public-servant candidates.
Lesley Jordan, an African-American conservative, argues to elicit support for Calif. State Senate Republican Candidate from L.A., Nahum Shifren- a white urban-activist running in a large minority district (26th) against an incumbent black liberal. Black-conservative Les Jordan exposes blacks' playing of racial politics against whites to derail criticism of Obama's Administration - despite what he feels is Obama's betrayal of blacks and whites to benefit alien Hispanics.
Les Jordan, America's Black Shield activist and blog-moderator, absolves non-black critics of Pres. Obama (and the Congressional Black Caucus) from fear of guilt of racism in this fascinating, in-depth discussion. Mr. Jordan reveals unethical black-racism against whites and blacks dissatisfied with Obama as president. He exposes the Nation of Islam as a mafia and asks uncomfortable questions about their ties with Obama.
Lesley Jordan, an African-American conservative, argues to elicit support for Calif. State Senate Republican Candidate from L.A., Nahum Shifren- a white urban-activist running in a large minority district (26th) against an incumbent black liberal. Black-conservative Les Jordan exposes blacks' playing of racial politics against whites to derail criticism of Obama's Administration - despite what he feels is Obama's betrayal of blacks and whites to benefit alien Hispanics.
Les Jordan, America's Black Shield activist and blog-moderator, absolves non-black critics of Pres. Obama (and the Congressional Black Caucus) from fear of guilt of racism in this fascinating, in-depth discussion. Mr. Jordan reveals unethical black-racism against whites and blacks dissatisfied with Obama as president. He exposes the Nation of Islam as a mafia and asks uncomfortable questions about their ties with Obama.
Yom Kippur-like repentance before final sealing at Sukkot-ending, Hoshana Rabbah
Hoshana Rabbah is known as the day of the final sealing of judgment, which began on Rosh Hashanah.
JooTube's 3rd annual, video glimpse inside the pious (Carlebach) Happy Minyan of L.A.- worshipping and celebrating Hoshana Rabah the finale of Sukkot.
The Orthodox Union explains this under-recognized holiday:
Hoshana Rabbah is the seventh and last day of Sukkot, which is the day before Shmini Atzeres. Named for the fact that more hoshanot are said on this day than all the previous days of the festival. On Hoshana Rabbah the beating of the aravah, willow branch, is performed. Although Hoshana Rabbah was not accorded any different status by the Torah than the other days of Chol Hamoed, the Jewish people have observe many customs on this day and have invested it with a solemn character. For example, the white parochet, curtain on the ark, in shul remains up until after Hoshana Rabbah.
In the morning services of Hoshanna Rabbah, following Musaf (and some places after hallel) the hoshanot are said as written in the prayerbook, the congregation marches around the bima seven times, after which comes the beating of the aravah, willow branch. The aravahs are beaten against the floor five times. No blessing is recited over the beating of the aravah since it was merely a custom.
Hoshana Rabbah is known as the day of the final sealing of judgment, which began on Rosh Hashannah. During the festival of Sukkot the world is judged for water and for the blessings of the fruit and crops. The seventh day of the festival is the final sealing and since human life depends on water, Hoshanna Rabbah is somewhat similar to Yom Kippur. Hence there are additional prayers and quests for repentance as on Yom Kippur.
JooTube's 3rd annual, video glimpse inside the pious (Carlebach) Happy Minyan of L.A.- worshipping and celebrating Hoshana Rabah the finale of Sukkot.
The Orthodox Union explains this under-recognized holiday:
Hoshana Rabbah is the seventh and last day of Sukkot, which is the day before Shmini Atzeres. Named for the fact that more hoshanot are said on this day than all the previous days of the festival. On Hoshana Rabbah the beating of the aravah, willow branch, is performed. Although Hoshana Rabbah was not accorded any different status by the Torah than the other days of Chol Hamoed, the Jewish people have observe many customs on this day and have invested it with a solemn character. For example, the white parochet, curtain on the ark, in shul remains up until after Hoshana Rabbah.
In the morning services of Hoshanna Rabbah, following Musaf (and some places after hallel) the hoshanot are said as written in the prayerbook, the congregation marches around the bima seven times, after which comes the beating of the aravah, willow branch. The aravahs are beaten against the floor five times. No blessing is recited over the beating of the aravah since it was merely a custom.
Hoshana Rabbah is known as the day of the final sealing of judgment, which began on Rosh Hashannah. During the festival of Sukkot the world is judged for water and for the blessings of the fruit and crops. The seventh day of the festival is the final sealing and since human life depends on water, Hoshanna Rabbah is somewhat similar to Yom Kippur. Hence there are additional prayers and quests for repentance as on Yom Kippur.
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