Israel Matzav

'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?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:57 PM