Israel Matzav

Rabbi Shmuley tries to awaken American Jewry

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wonders why none of his neighbors in Englewood, New Jersey seem to care that they are living next door to the Libyan mission to the United Nations.

All of this makes me ask a simple question. How is it that Englewood, New Jersey, which has thousands of prominent Jewish residents and an estimated 700 orthodox Jewish families, simply accepts the presence of the Libyan mission to the UN in its midst?

I will not here recount my ongoing and fruitless effort to have our elected local and state officials in New Jersey challenge the presence of the Libyan mission, which refuses to pay a single dollar in taxes, even for their own police protection and trash removal, since the tale of the cowardly capitulation to the Libyans is something they justify with having launched a failed court challenge nearly thirty years ago. It seems odd that a state that lost 37 residents in the Lockerbie bombing would feel comfortable allowing the terrorist government who sponsored the attack – and today celebrates the terrorist who planted the bomb – safe haven within New Jersey borders.

I am, however, extremely puzzled at how committed Jews, who love and publicly support Israel, can allow an embassy which regularly defames and provokes the Jewish state, live peacefully in its community and immediately next-door to one of North America’s largest Jewish day schools, Moriah, without protest.

Is the job of combating all the evil libels directed against Israel from Libya solely the responsibility of Israel’s Jews? Do we in the American Jewish community have no role in combating Kaddafi’s attacks? Does loving Israel come down to simply sending a check once-a-year and marching in the Salute to Israel parade on Fifth Avenue, but never inconveniencing ourselves in our own communities?

Rabbi Boteach has a lot more hard questions for American Jewry. Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:42 AM