'Surfing rabbi' rallies with British anti-Islam group outside Israel embassy

Haaretz ^ | 10/25/10 | Staff

[Nachum]

An Orthodox California rabbi running for state senate under the Tea Party banner marched yesterday with a far right-wing anti-Islam group in Britain outside the Israeli Embassy.

Rabbi Nachum Shifren, an ex-lifeguard known as the surfing rabbi, is considered a long shot to represent west Los Angeles in the California senate. He has spoken at Tea Party events and says he is a member of the group.

The English Defence League has said it wants to foster ties with the American Tea Party, a right-wing group that has also taken anti-Muslim and anti-immigration stances, and the rally, at which Shifren spoke, was meant as a first step toward that goal.

"I am coming to the UK to express my solidarity with the patriots in England who are on the front line in the war on jihad and stealth jihad," Shifren told the Jewish Chronicle last week. "Multiculturalists have brought us to the brink, insisting on degrading our own cultures while pandering to forces of darkness that threaten to completely transform our societal foundations."

[decimon]

You can be both with the Tea Party and with other groups but the Tea Party itself should stick to economic issues.