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Thursday, August 20, 2009

'God' tells the Rabbis what to discuss in their High Holiday sermons

A couple of my favorite bloggers were livid on Wednesday because President Obama had a conference call conversation with about 1000 rabbis in which he made the outrageous statement that "we are God's partners in matters of life and death." Perhaps they would be even angrier if they knew what the conference call was about. Rick Richman fills in the details.
Yesterday, President Obama participated in a conference call with about 1,000 rabbis in anticipation of the High Holy Days next month—and the sermons the rabbis will give. The purpose of the call was, apparently, to urge the rabbis to support ObamaCare, or something like it, from the pulpit.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times writes that the call was left off the Obama schedule—an interesting note, she writes, on “Obama White House selective transparency.” [Where have we seen that before? CiJ] Jodi Kantor of the New York Times cites a participant’s tweet that the president told the rabbis “I am going to need your help.”

The call was a joint effort of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), the Rabbinical Assembly, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, coordinated by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. The URJ invitation read, in part, as follows:
This year, the debate over health care reform dominates public discourse, and the conference call will explore the Jewish textual and historical imperative for universal, affordable health care.

We are pleased to announce that President Barack Obama will participate in a High Holy Day conference call exclusively for rabbis. . . .

This call can provide valuable information when you decide to preach on this issue whether on the High Holy Days, during the August 28-30 national health care sermon weekend (more info at FaithforHealth.org), or whenever is appropriate for you.

A rabbinic student who received the URJ invitation and participated in the call sent me an e-mail about it that read, in part:

President Obama spoke for about 20 minutes, then got off the call and we listened to three other rabbis who had prepared discussions about “helpful” Torah and Talmud texts, and how to craft a “non-political” (that is, pro-Democratic Party but wouldn’t be able to get into legal trouble) sermon. . . .

• Pres Obama urged us explicitly to discuss healthcare reform in our high holiday sermons. He said repeatedly, “I need your help in getting this information across.” My personal feeling is that it is an abuse of the pulpit to propagate a specific political agenda in that venue. . . .

• The issue was always framed as: we need to care about healthcare reform. And too many people don’t care about it. Our job as rabbis is, apparently, to urge people to care about it.

Read the whole thing.

Frankly, I find the whole thing offensive, and I am pleased to see that (apparently) no Orthodox Rabbis participated (apparently not even Rahm Emanuel's rabbi). The High Holidays aren't supposed to be political.

I also checked out the Faith for Health web site mentioned above, and it is, if anything, even more offensive. The home page discusses "40 days for Health Reform." Well, the High Holiday season, which goes into warmups tonight, the first day of the Jewish month of Elul ends - you guessed it - 40 days from now with Yom Kippur. It also features a 40-minute radio presentation on health care reform. There is a list of organizations that sponsor Faith for Health here. One of the groups involved is the Islamic Society of North America.
According to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, ISNA "is a radical group hiding under a false veneer of moderation"; "convenes annual conferences where Islamist militants have been given a platform to incite violence and promote hatred" (for instance, al Qaeda supporter and PLO official Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi was invited to speak at an ISNA conference); has held fundraisers for terrorists (after Hamas leader Mousa Marzook was arrested and eventually deported in 1997, ISNA raised money for his defense); has condemned the U.S. government's post-9/11 seizure of Hamas' and Palestinian Islamic Jihad's financial assets; and publishes a bi-monthly magazine, Islamic Horizons, that "often champions militant Islamist doctrine."

Adds Emerson: "I think ISNA has been an umbrella, also a promoter of groups that have been involved in terrorism. I am not going to accuse the ISNA of being directly involved in terrorism. I will say ISNA has sponsored extremists, racists, people who call for Jihad against the United States."
Just whom you want telling your rabbi what to say on Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur, isn't it?

6 Comments:

At 8:07 PM, Blogger Andre (Canada) said...

I am more and more convinced every day that apart from Orthodox Jews, the vast majority of US Jews are self-hating.
For these rabbis to even consider getting onto such a call with Obama is so offensive that it is beyond belief. Have they perhaps bought into this whole Obama Messiah thing?
One has to wonder.
What a bunch of unmitigated losers.

 
At 8:13 PM, Blogger Stuart said...

Interesting - my Rav (Chabad) gave a dvar torah about this issue this past shabbat. Not to discuss specific govt proposals but to discuss community support for the poor.

He brought up the issue of tzedaka and the admonition that one should judge the level of giving in the context of the standard of living to which the recipient is accustomed. I took that to mean that it was essential that the govt not cause health benefits to decline (as would be the case under Obamacare), but it could also be read to suggest that there is an obligation for the COMMUNITY to see to it that everyone that needs care gets it.

 
At 8:25 PM, Blogger Red Tulips said...

This is so disgusting, it beggars belief.

The fact that 1,000 'rabbis' took part in this farce is beyond contempt.

All I can say is...no words.

My dad is a member of a reform 'temple,' and I just informed him of this.

 
At 8:58 PM, Blogger NormanF said...

For a long time Reform Judaism has been little more than the Jewish public relations arm of the Democratic Party. There is little if anything authentically Jewish about their pronouncements. There's the joke Reform Jews regard liberalism, lox and bagels as the movement's Torah. And there's truth to it here.

 
At 10:35 PM, Blogger Ashan said...

Love that Gateway! I was one of those angry and offended folks who posted a comment on that blog, albeit under a different name. Of course Dear Leader purposely chose receptive leftwing, out in N-space "rabbis". What other rabbis would listen to him?

 
At 12:26 PM, Blogger Steven said...

Maybe he thinks it is acceptable because he spent so much time in that political church, and I also know many mosques are political too. I hardly ever hear politics in my synagogue.

 

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