“RABBI OBAMA” AND THE SHAME OF CONSERVATIVE JEWS
“Rabbi Obama” And The Shame Brought By Leaders of Conservative Judaism
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2012/05/rabbi-obama-and-shame-brought-by.html
Yesterday afternoon President Obama and White House Chief of Staff Jack “Hey I’m Jewish and Love Obama” Lew met with leaders of the Conservative Jewish movement. That’s Conservative Judaism, not conservative politically. The leadership of Conservative Judaism, as well as much of the rabbinate is progressive politically.
For example, you may remember last year when two leading conservative and 398 other Rabbis broke Jewish law when they joined a socialist-oriented organization in a politically based (and false) attack on Glenn Beck.
The reason for the meeting was for the president to shore up a voting block which has already cut way back on donations and may vote for him to a lesser extent than they did in 2008 (Obama will most definitely win the Jewish vote in 2012 but even the most liberal based polls project him reviving much less than the 78% he garnered in 2008).
According to ynet news.com
During the meeting, Obama told the rabbis that when he was running for Senate some accused him of being the Jewish lobby’s “puppet” because of his many Jewish associates in Chicago. Now, he said, the Republicans are trying to portray him as not being supportive of Israel by stressing the fact that his father was Muslim and he has a Muslim name, as well as by claiming that he had been overly aggressive in pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to promote the peace process with the Palestinians.
How dare he lie like that? How dare the Rabbis not admonish the president for making false accusations!
I have never been more ashamed of the Conservative Jewish Movement. Our leaders have allowed the president to publicly slander Republicans; forgetting that some of them (this writer included) are counted in their congregation’s minyans (the quorum of ten Jews needed for communal prayer).
As someone who has often accused the president of being anti-Israel, I have never based that accusation on his name or the heritage of his father. In fact there isn’t a serious writer I’ve read that has based their opinions on his name or his father.
Most writers base our opinions on three and a half years of anti-Israel policies such breaking previous agreements between Israel and the US govt., surrounding himself with anti-Semites and Israel haters, making demands on Israel without making the simplest demand on the Palestinians (the recognition of Israel as Jewish State). And let’s not forget the times he used rhetoric in an attempt to portray Israel as some sort of war-mongering human rights violator the court of world opinion.
And I won’t even get near his lie about ever being called a puppet of the Israel lobby. Surely his anti-Semitic preacher Jeremiah Wright, his former office-mate the anti-Israel Bill Ayers or his good friend the anti-Semitic former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi never made that charge.
Here comes the weird part:
Obama also stressed he probably knows about Judaism more than any other president, because he read about it – and wondered how come no one asks Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner or Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell about their support to Israel.
“Well whaddaya know folks,” we no longer need to learn Rashi script and the Rambam is now obsolete. Barack Obama is now a Jewish scholar.
One question though, if Obama knows so much about Judaism, why doesn’t he understand the concept of Lashon Hara (wronging people through speech)?
The Torah says Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people (Lev. 19:16). The ancient Jewish Sages took that passage and said that there are three transgressions that would cause a man to lose his place in the world to come: murder, adultery, and idol worship, but lashon hara is equivalent to all three (Bab. Erchin 15b). Jews believe that the harm done by telling tales about people is worse than the harm done by something like theft because one can repay stolen money, but harm done by speech can never be repaired.
The president and his progressive compatriots are constantly telling lies about their political opponents, not their policies but their persons. The president and mainstream progressives have called us racists, xenophobes, haters of the poor, aged, women, and infirmed.
Sure there have been conservatives who have questioned Obama’s religion and birthplace, there is a name for them in the Republican and political Conservative movements–Nuts (or Ron Paul supporters–but that’s redundant). Those claims are not supported by the mainstream. However those claims are supported by and even voiced by our president.
Honestly I cannot blame the president, he wants to get re-elected so (as he told Russian President Medvedev) he can have more flexibily in a second term.
However, I do have a beef with the leadership of Conservative Jewry. It seems that nothing matters to them, his anti-Israel policies, his support of anti-Semites, his Lashon Hara right to their faces–none of it.
Perhaps they are so wrapped up in “social justice” justice politics (itself an anathema to Jewish law) that they’ve lost all powers of reasons. These Conservative Jewish leaders have thrown out their “higher calling” their love of the Jewish state, and have begun to worship the golden calf of big government and a progressive political theology committed to replacing the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as the Gods of other faiths.
Shame on these supposed leaders for forgetting the words “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” Shame on them for allowing themselves to become political pawns of an anti-Israel, anti-religion President–Shame on them for forgetting why they became Rabbis in the first place.
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