Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Did you hear the one about the 70 Lefty rabbis who walked into a bar?.....
Here's the punch line: "They all decided that safety lay in siding with the coming dominant political culture - Islam - and not by standing up for a fellow Jew, in this case, Charles Jacobs."
Dr Jacobs has been sounding the alarm about political Islam for years, allying himself with MOC (Muslims of Conscience) like Ahmed Mansour and courageously exposing and combating Taqiyya, the Islamic doctrine of dissembling in order to advance the faith.
A particularly adept practitioner of this doctrine is one Abdullah Farooq, Imam at the ISB mosque in Roxbury, the center which David Gordis, one of the signers of the letter attacking Charles Jacobs, helped dedicate under the watchful eyes of the Muslim American Society, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Imam Farooq once let slip a remark that he would be delighted to see Israel "disappear". As Solomonia has reported, Imam Farooq has also achieved notoriety by urging his followers to "grab the gun" in pursuing Jihad.
Moreover, representatives of the Saudi-funded mosque have stood by terrorists Aafia Siddiqi and Tarek Mehanna. Siddiqi was recently convicted of attempted murder of American soldiers and Mehanna was recently indicted in the plot to kill Americans at a shopping mall in Massachusetts.
Interfaith nonsense pervades the craven letter from the rabbis. Seeking to inaugurate a "different kind of politics", the letter will simply reinforce the pathetic "dhimmi" role of sycophantic Jews. Rabbi Gordis, past President of the near-bankrupt Hebrew College in Newton, MA is fond of decrying Jewish "triumphalism." If the supercessionist aims of political Islam are victorious, then Rabbi Gordis will certainly get his wish.
Most of the other delusional rabbis who signed the letter have no qualms at all in "othering" when it comes to their fellow Jews. "Settlers" and anyone else who criticizes their divinely-inspired notions of "social justice" are fair game for being labeled "the Other."
One of the signers of the letter, I recall, was instrumental in inviting an Arab representative of Neve Shalom, the "Oasis of Peace" colony in Israel which distinguishes itself by - among other "anti-triumphalist" exercises - lowering the Israeli flag on Israel Independence Day. The representative, speaking at the Jewish school, told the students and parents that he aspired to be a suicide bomber! The venue, needless to say, was a Reform Jewish school.
Ironic indeed, is the letter's twisting of the Shelach Lechah parsha into an attack against Dr. Jacobs for "spreading calumnies". Of course, the Torah portion's central theme is the delusional, paralyzing fear conveyed by the scouts who try to terrify their fellow Jews into giving up their quest for the promised land. The learned rabbis would be well advised to re-read the Torah portions dealing with Korach, Dathan and Aviram and the consequences of cowardice, delusion and treason.
Dr Jacobs has worked his entire life speaking truth to power by his pioneering work with the American Anti Slavery movement and now with Americans for Peace and Tolerance. The defamatory gibberish contained in the rabbis' letter reflects a defeatism reminiscent of the unconscionable cowardice of much of American Jewish leadership during the Holocaust.
[Crossposted from JStreetJive.]
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: "Othering", Rabbinic Style [Hillel].
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The name Charles Jacobs should be a familiar one to readers of this blog. Charles Jacobs, founder of The David Project, co-founder of the Boston branch of CAMERA and the American Anti-Slavery Group, and now Americans for Peace and Tolerance.... Read More
"The learned rabbis would be well advised to re-read the Torah portions dealing with Korach, Dathan and Aviram and the consequences of cowardice, delusion and treason."
Generally treason refers to betrayal against a sovereign nation. What do you mean using the term "treason"? Are these Rabbi's committing "treason" against Israel? I thought they were U.S. citizens. Or, do you suggest that they are committing "treason" against Judaism?
So very curious.
No, it's not treason against Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people, even though some of the insipid teachings of some of these rabbis, especially those in the self-styled, super-progressive post-/non-/trans-denominational camp border on apostasy.
The treason is against the US. The current administration is in denial. They can't bring themselves to use words like "radical Islam" when talking about jihadi terror attacks. Like ostriches, they have their heads in the sand about the Third Jihad. This is a war for the survival of the west.
The west's existential struggle is not just in shooting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are many fronts in our engagement with the "civilization" of clashes, some diplomatic, for now, in dealing with Iran. Others involve the deliberate undermining of western, liberal democracy though acceptance of Sharia. Having CAIR and MAS conduct "sensitivity training" is like putting the fox in charge of the hen-house. So far, BHO's admninistration is bending over backwards to appease these Muslim Brotherhood offshoots.
It's also treason against the Jewish people. Many of these "learned" "rabbis" (air-quotes around both terms) support BHO and J Street and are beside themselves with joy that BHO is trying to throw Israel, the Jewish national home, under the bus. The jihadis are smacking their lips: first the little Satan, then the great Satan.
Your question Nonny Mouse, betrays the commonly held but ignorant view that being Jewish is just a matter of religion. The assimilationist approach of classic Reform has been all too successful in their program of denying peoplehood and promoting some nonsense of Jewishness as just the religion of Mosaic ethical monotheism.
Thank you for the very thorough reply, Nappy. Perhaps you can enlighten me further. Not long ago at a dinner party I had a discussion with a local university professor of religious studies who told me that when one of my Jewish friends joined a Unitarian Church she was no longer Jewish, but Unitarian. I found this to be completely illogical as I was of the view that Judaism is a religion, whereas being Jewish refers to one's ethnic heritage (this prof. is a practicing Jew by the way), --and that changing one's religious practices in no way negates one's ethnic heritage or communal associations. Not so, according to the prof, who insisted that my friend could no longer call herself a Jew, and further argued, in contrast, that when one converts to Judaism, that conversion is not simply a religious conversion but one chooses to become a member of the Jewish community; joining the community of Unitarians was a disavowal of her Jewish heritage.
Now it would seem to me that the circumstances of one's birth, one's ethnicity - one's cultural heritage can not be negated by religious practices and that, as you said above, being Jewish is not simply a matter of religious practice. Can a Jew become a practicing member of a different religion or was this professor correct?