791 American Rabbis sign petition against sellout to nuclear-armed Iran
791 (at least count) American rabbis - more than double the number who
signed a petition in favor - have signed a
petition against President Obama's sellout to a nuclear-armed Iran.
PLEASE SIGN ONLY IF YOU ARE AN ORDAINED RABBI —THANK YOU!
We, the undersigned rabbis, write
as a unified voice across religious denominations to express our
concerns with the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran.
For more than 20 months, our communities
have kept keen eyes on the nuclear negotiations overseas. As our
diplomats from Washington worked tirelessly to reach a peaceful
resolution to the Iranian nuclear challenge—we have hoped, and believed,
that a good deal was possible.
Unfortunately, that hope is not yet realized.
We have weighed the various implications
of supporting—or opposing—this agreement. Together, we are deeply
troubled by the proposed deal, and believe this agreement will harm the
short-term and long-term interests of both the United States and our
allies, particularly Israel.
Collectively, we feel we must do better.
If this agreement is implemented, Iran
will receive as much as 150 billion dollars, without any commitment to
changing its nefarious behavior.
The Iranian regime denies basic human
rights to its citizens, publicly calls for America’s downfall and
Israel’s annihilation, and openly denies the Holocaust. This dangerous
regime—the leading state sponsor of terrorism—could now be given the
financial freedom to sow even more violence throughout the world.
But what do we get in return?
Even after flooding Iran with an influx
of funds, this deal will not subject Iran to an airtight, comprehensive
inspections structure—granting the regime the means to violate the
agreement and develop a covert nuclear program.
The deal would also lift key arms
embargos, so that in eight years Iran will be given international
legitimacy to arm terror groups with conventional weapons and ballistic
missiles.
The agreement also entitles Iran to
develop advanced centrifuges after 10 years—all-but paving Iran’s path
to a nuclear weapons capability with virtually zero “breakout time.”
We fear the world we will leave our
children if this deal is approved. And we fear having to someday bear
the responsibility for Iran becoming wealthier, further empowered and
better equipped to produce nuclear bombs when we had the chance to stop
it.
For these reasons, we agree with the
assessments of leaders and experts in the United States, along with
virtually all Israeli voices across the political spectrum, that we can,
and must, do better.
We call upon our Senators and
Representatives to consider the dangers that this agreement poses to the
United States and our allies, and to vote in opposition to this deal.
Furthermore, we strongly support and heed
the call to action of many Jewish organizations to express our
collective opposition to this dangerous agreement.
At this historic moment, with so much at
stake, we have a critical responsibility to shape the world we pass on
to our children. With no less than the safety of future generations
hanging in the balance, we must insist on a better deal.
We hope and pray that God will assist us
in ushering in for the entire world a time promised by Isaiah (2:4) when
“nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they
engage in war anymore,” when peace will prevail. Until then, we simply
cannot afford to empower and enrich a regime that continues to lift its
sword without mercy towards so many who stand for good, freedom and
peace.
If you're an ordained rabbi and have not signed yet, you may add your name
here.
Labels: American Jews, Barack Hussein Obama, Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, nuclear weapons, rabbis
Chabad rabbi killed by Hamas mortar while delivering food to the IDF
From
here:
Approximately 1 hour ago, an Israeli man was killed after being hit by a mortar at the Erez Crossing.
The man was reportedly a Chabad Rabbi from Beit Aryeh delivering food to the soldiers of the IDF.
May God Comfort the mourners among all mourners for Zion and Jerusalem, and may they know of no more sorrow.
And May God Avenge his blood.
UPDATE 10:05 PM
More details
here. He may have been a Chabad volunteer and not a Chabad rabbi.
Labels: Erez crossing, Gaza, IDF, murder, Palestinian terrorism, rabbis
The Mossad's rabbi
Greetings from the Holy City of Jerusalem.
The Mossad has
hired a rabbi to deal with issues raised by its religious recruits who have increased in number over the past few years.
So many religious recruits have joined the Mossad in recent years
that the organization has hired an official rabbi to advise agents and
employees on a wide range of issues, a report said Monday.
Among the questions the rabbi deals with are those relating to
religious practices, keeping kosher, Sabbath observance, and other
matters that may require compromise or adjustment regarding Jewish Law
on the part of an agent during a mission.
Speaking to Ma'ariv, a Mossad source said that “there are many
religious people in the Mossad, and that number has grown quite a bit in
recent years. In the past, the IDF Chief Rabbi would advise agents, but
with the larger number of employees here the Mossad realized that it
needs its own rabbi.”
Besides rulings on personal obligations of Jewish law, the rabbi
discusses tactics and methods of operation with agents, in order to
reassure them that they are operating as closely to the ritual and
ethical mandates of Jewish law as possible. “There are many questions
beyond the ritual ones that crop up,” the official said.
The rabbi's identity is - you guessed it - top secret.
Labels: Mossad, rabbis
Obama tells the rabbis what to say, doesn't mention Iran
President Obama had a
conference call with about 1,000 rabbis on Friday in which he gave them New Year's greetings and reflected on the high holidays.
Obama in the call on Friday afternoon extended the greetings on behalf
of himself and the first lady for a sweet, happy and healthy New Year.
He noted that the Jewish High Holidays provide an opportunity for Jews
to reflect on the past year and recommit themselves to core values.
...
With the United States marking the 50th anniversary of
the March on Washington, Obama also noted the important role played by
American Jews in the civil rights movement.
The president also
discussed the upcoming enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act
and the renewed Israel-Palestinians peace talks.
Four major
rabbinical organizations hosted the call: the Central Conference of
American Rabbis (Reform); the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative); the
Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox); and the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical Association.
Okay folks, notice what's missing. No mention of Iran. No mention of possible danger to Israel as a result of Obama's possible attack on Syria. No mention of Egypt. The only thing that seems to interest him about this region is the 'peace talks.'
A rabbi in the Midwest tells me that the only rabbis supporting an attack on Syria are the politically conservative ones - Obama is getting very little support on Syria from his 'progressive' political base. That and Obama's ignoring Iran doesn't bode well for a future strike on that country's nuclear assets.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, chemical weapons, Iranian nuclear threat, rabbis, Rosh HaShanna, Syria
In defense of Rabbi Pruzansky
Despite the fact that we are preoccupied here in Israel with what's going on in Gaza, I wanted to take a minute to say a word on behalf of one of Israel's most articulate defenders, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, whose blog posts are always incisive and on point. Rabbi Pruzansky has come
under attack for
writing a blog post in which he essentially accused President Obama of buying the election. Here's my favorite part
(from the last link):
For Jews, mostly assimilated anyway and staunch Democrats, the
results demonstrate again that liberalism is their Torah. Almost 70%
voted for a president widely perceived by Israelis and most committed
Jews as hostile to Israel. They voted to secure Obama’s future at
America’s expense and at Israel’s expense – in effect, preferring Obama
to Netanyahu by a wide margin. A dangerous time is ahead. Under present
circumstances, it is inconceivable that the US will take any aggressive
action against Iran and will more likely thwart any Israeli initiative.
That Obama’s top aide Valerie Jarrett (i.e., Iranian-born Valerie
Jarrett) spent last week in Teheran is not a good sign. The US will
preach the importance of negotiations up until the production of the
first Iranian nuclear weapon – and then state that the world must learn
to live with this new reality. As Obama has committed himself to
abolishing America’s nuclear arsenal, it is more likely that that
unfortunate circumstance will occur than that he will succeed in
obstructing Iran’s plans.
Obama’s victory could weaken Netanyahu’s re-election prospects,
because Israelis live with an unreasonable – and somewhat pathetic –
fear of American opinion and realize that Obama despises Netanyahu. A
Likud defeat – or a diminution of its margin of victory – is more
probable now than yesterday. That would not be the worst thing.
Netanyahu, in fact, has never distinguished himself by having a strong
political or moral backbone, and would be the first to cave to the
American pressure to surrender more territory to the enemy and acquiesce
to a second (or third, if you count Jordan) Palestinian state. A new US
Secretary of State named John Kerry, for example (he of the Jewish
father) would not augur well. Netanyahu remains the best of markedly
poor alternatives. Thus, the likeliest outcome of the upcoming Israeli
elections is a center-left government that will force itself to make
more concessions and weaken Israel – an Oslo III.
But this election should be a wake-up call to Jews. There is no
permanent empire, nor is there is an enduring haven for Jews anywhere in
the exile. The most powerful empires in history all crumbled – from the
Greeks and the Romans to the British and the Soviets. None of the
collapses were easily foreseen, and yet they were predictable in
retrospect.
The American empire began to decline in 2007, and the deterioration
has been exacerbated in the last five years. This election only hastens
that decline. Society is permeated with sloth, greed, envy and
materialistic excess. It has lost its moorings and its moral
foundations. The takers outnumber the givers, and that will only
increase in years to come. Across the world, America under Bush was
feared but not respected. Under Obama, America is neither feared nor
respected. Radical Islam has had a banner four years under Obama, and
its prospects for future growth look excellent. The “Occupy” riots
across this country in the last two years were mere dress rehearsals for
what lies ahead – years of unrest sparked by the increasing discontent
of the unsuccessful who want to seize the fruits and the bounty of the
successful, and do not appreciate the slow pace of redistribution.
Two bright sides: Notwithstanding the election results, I arose this
morning, went to shul, davened and learned Torah afterwards. That is our
reality, and that trumps all other events. Our relationship with G-d
matters more than our relationship with any politician, R or D. And,
notwithstanding the problems in Israel, it is time for Jews to go home,
to Israel. We have about a decade, perhaps 15 years, to leave with
dignity and without stress. Thinking that it will always be because it
always was has been a repetitive and deadly Jewish mistake. America was
always the land from which “positive” aliya came – Jews leaving on their own, and not fleeing a dire situation. But that can also change. The increased aliya
in the last few years is partly attributable to young people
fleeing the high cost of Jewish living in America. Those costs will only
increase in the coming years. We should draw the appropriate
conclusions.
If this election proves one thing, it is that the Old America is gone. And, sad for the world, it is not coming back.
If you follow the other two links, you will discover that there is a petition in Rabbi Pruzansky's synagogue 'calling him to order' over his remarks. Well, Rabbi, I have been told that the great Rabbi Yisrael Salanter once said that if a synagogue is not threatening to fire its rabbi, then he is not a rabbi, and if they actually succeed then he is not a mentch. I gather that you are long past firing.
I wonder what offended the denizens of Teaneck more - the fact that the rabbi demolished the Democratic-voting Jews or the fact that he exhorted his congregants to make aliya.
Well, I hope that Rabbi Pruzansky will make aliya soon (without being fired). We need more clear-thinking people like him here.
Labels: rabbis
Rabbi for Romney writes to rabbis for Obama
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth-El, Edison, New Jersey, has written a letter to the mostly Conservative and Reform Rabbis for Obama urging them to
reconsider their support of the anti-Israel incumbent (Hat Tip:
MFS - The Other News).
"I write to you at this time of dire trouble for our country and for
Israel", begins the impassioned letter and goes on, "I cannot keep
silent any longer. The voices of my father and my mother, survivors of
Auschwitz and Buchenwald, compel me to speak out -- with zeal."
...
"Last week America was under attack. Our ambassador to Libya and
three other Americans were slaughtered by Muslim extremists. This was
not a spontaneous 'protest' against an admittedly stupid video. This was
an organized military assault, coordinated expressly for execution on
September 11.
"Likewise, the 'protests' in Cairo at the American embassy where
our flag was shredded and the black flaf of al-Qaeda was raised...
Reliable sources say the US was forewarned of both attacks -- probably
by Israel. But America's State Department ignored those warnings. Why?
"The Obama administration's reactions to these outrages was sadly
typical. The very next day, President. Obama incongruously flew off to
Las Vegas to raise funds. Lamentably, our government still apologizes
for that inane video; made by an Egyptian Coptic.
"Where is the leadership here? What has such ongoing appeasement
gotten us? President Obama once promised a 'reset' of America's
relationship with the Muslim world. But the reality has been far
different. The Islamic world holds us in greater contempt than ever,
seeing Obama's America as weak and incapable...."
As far as Israel and Obama's behavior towards its Prime Minister
are concerned, the rabbi did not mince words, writing, "...Obama's
policy toward Israel has been a disgrace from the start. It's as if his
goal is to disenfranchise himself -- and America -- from the Jewish
state..."
"The same signal comes from Obama's latest snub of Bibi Netanyahu
-- who was told that Obama did not have time to meet with him when the
Israeli Prime Minister arrived in America last week. Meanwhile, he found
time to regale on the David Letterman show and also had time to chit
chat with Barbara Walters and Whoopie Goldberg on the TV show the View.
To his discredit, Obama also extended an open invitation to Egypt's
President Morsi."
He asks the Jewish religious leaders, "What are your excuses for
President Obama now?" and then sums up the dangers of current foreign
policy as he sees them:
"Silence did not work in the 1930s, when the looming evils of
Nazism could have been stopped in their tracks. Nor will it work today
when Islamists, who deny the Holocaust, threaten the destruction of
Israel and all the Jews and Christians therein.
"Why does the United States say nothing about the daily denigration of Jews and Christians by Imams worldwide?
"Why do we tolerate an American media that continues to play dumb when our real interests, and our very lives, are at stake?
"Why does America continue to send money (and excuse outstanding loans) to Morsi's Egypt?
" Why doesn't America compel Morsi to uphold the peace treaty
with Israel? To rein in Hamas? To act like a responsible, civil
government?
"And of utmost importance, why don't we rabbis come together and
insist that the Obama administration express -- in words and in deeds --
their unequivocal support for Israel during this most challenging of
times?
"I started "Rabbis for Romney" as a counterweight to 'Rabbis for
Obama,' he explains. "My message at first was not political, but the
situation has evolved -- or devolved -- into one where the danger to
Israel is more paramount than ever. Don't kid yourselves. We are
nearing the 11th hour," the letter ends.
Rabbis for Romney has a Facebook page that you can all like
here.
Labels: Campaign 2012, Mitt Romney, rabbis
Obama can't even make up a good lie to save face with Jews
Rafael Medoff publishes this
astounding account by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein (if I recall correctly, the rabbi who taught Bill Clinton to say "
Shalom,
Chaver" after the Rabin assassination) of President Obama's meeting with Orthodox Jewish leaders last week.
A few days before the poll came out, a delegation of Orthodox Jewish leaders met with the president at the White House. In a memo to his congregants this week, Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein of Manhattan’s Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue described the meeting.
“When asked about the perception that Israel is being pressed on the peace process more than are the Palestinians,” Rabbi Lookstein wrote, “the President indicated his belief that both sides need to compromise and that he has pressured both sides. However, in truth, he only cited pressure on the Israelis with respect to stopping settlement activity. He indicated that all of the United States assistance to Israel on security issues is problematic for the Palestinians, but, of course, that doesn’t constitute pressure on them to do anything. The one thing the Palestinians have to be pressured to do is to sit down at the table and negotiate without preconditions. The President has not done this and he avoided giving a clear response to the question of how he is specifically pressuring the Palestinians.”
Although the president and his advisers had plenty of time to prepare for the meeting, and even though the meeting was, as Rabbi Lookstein put it, “carefully scripted,” President Obama “avoided giving a clear response” regarding pressuring the Palestinians. One would think he would have come up with at least one example, even if it was more rhetorical than substantive, to soothe the concerns of the Jewish delegation. No such luck.
Rabbi Lookstein, the author of Were We Our Brothers’ Keepers?, an important book on American Jewry’s response to the Holocaust, has a keen sense of history. He recalled, in his memo, how some prominent Jews with access to President Franklin Roosevelt hesitated “to ask the hard questions or raise the tough issues.”
In December 1942, after the US had verified that mass murder of Europe’s Jews was underway, Jewish leaders were granted half an hour with the president. He spent the first 23 minutes telling jokes and commenting on other subjects. Then FDR spoke in generalities about the Nazi genocide for a few moments. And then – one participant later wrote – he “pushed some secret button, and his adjutant appeared in the room” to usher the Jewish leaders out.
In his diary, Roosevelt’s vice president, Henry Wallace, wrote about an incident in March 1944, in which FDR met with Jewish leaders and “caused [them] to believe that he was in complete accord with them...” The very next day, Roosevelt boasted to his cabinet that he had told the Jewish leaders “where to get off” and had warned them that their agitation for Zionism was “going to be responsible for the killing of a hundred thousand people.” “Enraged Arabs” would retaliate by attacking Americans in the Middle East, FDR claimed.
“The President certainly is a waterman,” Wallace wrote. “He looks one direction and rows the other with the utmost skill.”
American Jews in the 1940s had no way to know President Roosevelt’s true feelings on these issues, and Jewish leaders were reluctant to speak up. “Thank God, we live in a very different world today,” Rabbi Lookstein wrote this week. Today’s Jewish leaders are much more willing than their predecessors to ask the president the difficult questions that need to be asked.
I disagree with Rabbi Lookstein's conclusions, although I find his account compelling and believable.
Most Jewish leaders - and certainly most non-Orthodox Jewish leaders - are not willing to ask President Obama the hard questions. Many Jewish leaders who are willing to ask hard questions are not willing to draw the proper conclusions from the lack of a reasonable answer to them. If the rabbis and lay leaders were asking the hard questions and drawing the proper conclusions, there would be an advertisement in every major American newspaper signed by hundreds of rabbis urging their congregants to vote for Mitt Romney. But there is no such advertisement. There is not even such an advertisement signed by Orthodox rabbis alone, and so many of their congregants will go to the polls and blindly vote for Obama again.
There is no Rabbi Moshe Feinstein to
go to the White House and protest, and even if Rav Moshe were alive today, there would be even fewer rabbis that would accompany him than did in 1943.
Obama has read the American Jewish community correctly. It is weak and sycophantic. It lacks the backbone to stand up for itself or for its brethren elsewhere. Instead, it is trying to convince itself that four more years of Obama would not be such a bad thing, because after all 'we can't vote for a Mormon.' 'A Muslim, okay, but a Mormon?'
Our rabbis tell us in the tractates of Sotah and Sanhedrin that each generation gets the leadership it deserves, and the
leadership of the generation just preceding the Messiah is the weakest of all.
The Talmud in both Sotah and Sanhedrin says that in the times leading up to the Messiah's arrival, the generation's face will be like that of a dog. The (real) rabbis explain that when one walks a dog, the dog seems to run ahead, but constantly turns around to make sure that the 'master' is following. So is the dog leading the 'master' or is the 'master' leading the dog? In reality, the 'master' is leading the dog, even though the dog gives the illusion that the opposite is the case. The dog symbolizes the Jewish communal leadership; the 'master' symbolizes the Jewish public at large.
God save us all.
UPDATE TUESDAY 6:17 PMWelcome
Power Line readers.
Labels: American Jewish leadership, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Holocaust, rabbis
Let the rabbis discuss Torah
I'm sitting in an airport terminal in an unnamed European city (no, not Istanbul) and they've just announced that my flight is an hour late, so if my battery holds out (no place to plug in) you may get more than you thought today.
The Obama administration has turned the political sermon into an art form, and last week's conference call with 900 rabbis, which was designed to give 'guidance' on what to discuss this year, was the third year in a row that Obama has 'suggested' topics for rabbis.
Tevi Troy doesn't like it and I agree with him.
Political sermonizing is a mistake for many reasons. First, the Holy Days are supposed to bring forth a universal message about the unity of the Jewish people, the importance of our shared religious tradition, and the need to rededicate ourselves to observance of the Torah in the year to come.
Then there's the risk of alienating part of the congregation. Even if you know that 70%-80% of your synagogue votes one way—and public opinion polls suggest that this may be the case in Conservative and Reform synagogues—why risk alienating the other 20%-30%? In many (or most) communities, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the only time certain congregants set foot in synagogue that year. Why risk driving them away with a message that could offend?
Furthermore, while it may appear easy to find support for left-wing political positions in the Torah and rabbinical sources, the truth is that the Jewish tradition doesn't give much guidance on the optimum level of marginal tax rates, Medicare restructuring, or food-stamp funding. To claim otherwise is to give false guidance.
The passages read aloud on the High Holidays each year are filled with the most important problems of the human condition, including Jonah's attempt to shirk his responsibilities, Hannah's desperate plea for a child, and God's testing of Abraham's faith with the binding of Isaac. All of these stories still resonate today, and skillful speakers can use them to guide congregants.
The mandate of religious leaders is to convey to their communities spiritual encouragement and the wisdom of the ages. For the other stuff, there's cable news.
And blogs.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, rabbis, Rosh HaShanna
(Jewishly) value-free rabbis?
Here's an excerpt from a
deeply disturbing but important article by Daniel Gordis at Commentary.
Twice on Yom Ha-Zikaron, once in the evening and once again in the morning, the country’s air raid sirens sound. On sidewalks, pedestrians come to a halt and stand at attention, and even on highways, cars slow and stop; drivers and passengers alike step out of their vehicles and stand in silence until the wail of the siren abates. For two minutes each time, the state of Israel surrenders itself to the grip of utter silence and immobility. During that quiet, one feels a sense of belonging, a palpable sense of gratitude and unstated loyalty that simply defies description.
I mused on this fact as I read a recent message sent to students at the interdenominational rabbinical school at Boston’s Hebrew College, asking them to prepare themselves for Yom Ha-Zikaron by musing on the following paragraph: “For Yom Ha-Zikaron, our kavanah [intention] is to open up our communal remembrance to include losses on all sides of the conflict in Israel/Palestine. In this spirit, our framing question for Yom Ha-Zikaron is this: On this day, what do you remember and for whom do you grieve?”
It is the rare e-mail that leaves me speechless. Here, at a reputable institution training future rabbis who will shape a generation of American Jews and their attitudes to Israel, the parties were treated with equal weight and honor in the run-up to Yom Ha-Zikaron. What the students were essentially being asked was whether the losses on Israel’s side touched them any more deeply than the losses on the side of Israel’s enemies.
That is a stunning question. Obviously, there are innocent victims on the other side of any conflict. Such is the horrific nature of war. American troops killed many thousands of innocent Germans, Japanese, and others during World War II. But could one even begin to imagine President Franklin Delano Roosevelt saying to Americans, while the Second World War was raging and young American men were clawing and dying their way across Europe and the Far East, that Memorial Day ought to be devoted in part to remembering those among enemy populations who died at our hands? There is, perhaps, a place for such memories. That time is when the conflict has abated, when weapons are set aside, when healing has begun. That time did not arrive during FDR’s lifetime, and it has not yet come to Israel.
I wrote to the dean who had written this paragraph, a friend from whom I’ve learned a great deal over the years and whose commitment to Israel and Zionism is sincere. The response was immediate: “It could be that we got this one wrong, I’m not sure yet. The only thing I’m sure of is that we are trying to engage with these issues and with each other with greater openness, courage, and respect than I think has been possible in most other corners of the Jewish community here.”
The heartbreaking point was this: in the case of these rabbinical students, there is not an instinct that should be innate—the instinct to protect their own people first, or to mourn our losses first. Their instinct, instead, is to “engage.” But “engagement” is a value-free endeavor. It means setting instinctive dispositions utterly aside. And that is precisely what this emerging generation of American Jewish leaders believes it ought to do.
Why, after all, would a genuine supporter of Israel ask students to think about Yom Ha-Zikaron in such a fashion? Probably because without such an accommodation, the dean might have had to deal with a small but vocal minority of students who would be incensed at the overly particularist, Zionist, nationalist nature of Yom Ha-Zikaron, at the narrowness of a day devoted to mourning our own dead and not the dead of our enemies.
...
The final difference between these young Jewish leaders and those who preceded them is perhaps the most disturbing. This new tone in discussions about Israel is so “fair,” so “balanced,” so “even-handed” that what is entirely gone is an instinct of belonging—the visceral sense on the part of these students that they are part of a people, that the blood and the losses that were required to create the state of Israel is their blood and their loss.
...
What too many of these students do not understand is that the Jewish tradition makes a bold claim—the claim that we learn caring, and we learn love, from that which is closest to us. To love all of humanity equally is ultimately to love no one. To care about one’s enemies as much as one cares about oneself is to be no one. There needs to be priority and specificity in devotion and loyalty. Without them, we can stand for nothing. And without instinctive loyalty to the Jewish people, Jewry itself cannot survive.
...
What to do with that lexicon is a matter on which reasonable minds can differ. Israelis differ on those questions, and American Jews (and others) can, and should, as well. But when we have reached the point at which future rabbis can insist on boycotting prayer shawls made by Jews in Israel and yet are permitted to remain rabbis-in-training, something has gone horribly awry. When rabbinical students love Israel and care about Ramallah in the same way, the particularism that has been the hallmark of every functioning Jewish community in history has begun to erode. When PLO posters advocating the death of Jews are no reason not to drink a beer and sing “Happy Birthday” in that bar, we have produced a generation of future leaders whose instincts are simply not the instincts that have any chance of preserving Jewish life.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Daniel Gordis, rabbis
