JRT's reader Gerry Writing:
Forget the Muslim rioters who attacked the synagogues in France, forget those who harass and assault Jewish students on college campuses, forget Iran's president who called for wiping Israel off the map. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, thinks they are conservative religious activists, calling them "zealots" who claim a "monopoly on God" while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler's.
Richard Baehr says that a “comparison to Nazis… is the kind of cheapening of the uniqueness of the Holocaust that normally gets one in trouble with the Anti-Defamation League and its President Abraham Foxman. One reason that Abe Foxman did not find any time to suggest he had a problem with Yoffie’s assault on the Christian right, was that he also was engaged in an attack on the Christian Right.” Foxman warned of efforts to “Christianize America”. According to Don Feder he “has located the real threat to Jews in a group of church ladies who want to erect a Nativity scene in the public park at Christmas…The ADL has been transformed from an organization working to combat anti-Semitism to just another leftist group bent on severing America from its religious roots”.
Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family told the Forward, "If you keep bullying your friends, pretty soon you won't have any…"
ADL’s assault on Christians “is classic Foxman: fund raising by fearmongering," Jeff Ballabon, founder and president of the Center for Jewish Values, said. "It's repugnant from the standpoint of Jewish values and indefensible from the point of view of Jewish interests. Around the world, Islamic fundamentalism has Jews in fear for their lives and the only significant friends and allies those Jews have are American Christians. So, of course, Foxman attacks our friends …[for wanting] religious freedoms in their own country.”
David Klinghoffer on NRO explains that ADL’s “fundraising needs are substantial…. $52 million in yearly expenses, including Foxman's $412,000 salary…don't dismiss the Marxist insight that money can shape consciousness.”
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, an Orthodox Rabbi in Seattle says “Not too many people care for Jews these days. Europe… Moslem countries…much of Africa and most of Russia feel the same way. Hate the Jews…[yet here Foxman] goes again defaming the only people left on the face of the planet who actually love Jews…
Leaving aside the fascinating analysis of the pathology that makes a Jew alienate our best and only friends, maybe the attack itself needs to be refuted.
Is it possible that possibly the threat [conservative Christians] legitimately pose to secular liberalism [is what] really bothers the ADL? If so, why pose as a Jewish organization? It would be more honest to identify as an activist arm of the Democratic Party.
…To me anti-Christian outbursts are incomprehensible and I am sure they jeopardize the future of Jews in America and ultimately, Jews everywhere… Does Jewish survival lie with a fervent secularism that ceaselessly snaps at the heels of Christian America or does it lie …with those people who stand firm for the values God imparted to the Jews at the foot of Mount Sinai just over three thousand years ago.
Don Feder on World Net Daily says that in declaring war on conservative Christians, the ADL is not only “attacking the best friends Israel and the Jewish people have, he's also repudiating Torah-based morality”.
“Is keeping ‘one nation under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance Christianizing America? Is maintaining the traditional definition of marriage (you know, the one found in that Jewish book, Genesis) Christianizing America? Is public display of the Ten Commandments Christianizing America?
Imagine the chutzpah of those notorious Christianizers – Jefferson and Adams – making God the focal point of the Declaration of Independence…For the Founding Fathers (those Christian zealots), God was the basis for self-government…Would Foxman feel safer walking the streets of Biloxi, Miss., or one of those towns around Paris illuminated by the glow of burning Citroens?”
Might Jewry’s enemies really be those who pillory Israel’s friends?
Background links:
posted by: jrtelegraph
If one made the rounds of the temples and synagogues in the greater Boston area one would be exposed to the usual Oslo-like version of the supposed benefits of disengagement. If one were lucky one would come across a speaker like Yoram Ettinger or Kenneth Levin, author of the “Oslo Syndrome” setting people straight.
Then once in a great while, a person discovers institutions like the Christian Renewal Church, the Iglesia Pentecostal Nazaret and the Kaleo Christian Center who unabashedly express their love and support for Israel. How refreshing!
Rabbi Lee Levin of Temple Shalom in Salem, MA had no problem hosting “the Christian Right” in the euphoric, “Comfort My People: Jews and Christians Standing together for Israel”. Larry Grodman, President, American Friends of LIBI and Allison Shapira, acting Israeli Vice-Consul had no problem joining these Christians in their celebration of Israel.
Dexter Van Zile of the David Project and David Moldau of Temple Shalom had no problem joining West Point graduate, Rev. Bill Adams of Bridges for Peace and Denette Abers to sing Hatikvah, Baruch Adonai, Havenu Shalom and My Country ‘Tis of Thee.
Does Mr. Foxman prefer the anemic support for Israel in the temples, synagogues and the “mainstream” churches found in the Boston area, compared to the energy that comes from Christians joining Jews in their devotion to Israel? I’m afraid the answer is yes.
It is time that people labor against the Left's attempt to replace the Scriptures with the Democratic playbook, religious faith with Political Correctness and Psalms with a refrain of anti-Americanism.
The leaders of the leftist Jewish establishment, staunch allies of the Democratic Party, are missing in action when it comes to expressing unqualified support for Israel. Larry Lowenthal, whose IDF service must be a senior moment by now, Nancy Kaufman, and Andy Tarsy should be given compulsory exposure to just one “Comfort My People” program.
Shame on Abe Foxman and the Boston establishment for embracing the anti-Americanism and Israel-bashing of the secularized left.
Posted by: Gerry | November 30, 2005 at 07:36 PM