Posted on 03/31/2011 7:34:55 PM PDT by dalight
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has expressed concern at the appointment of Rabbi Richard Jacobs as head of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). Included among our concerns is the fact that Rabbi Jacobs is a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street, the extremist, George Soros-funded lobby group that takes positions to the left of the Israeli Labor and far-left Meretz parties, recently opposed sanctions on Iran, and urged President Barack Obama not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning as “illegal” Jewish homes and communities in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. Jacobs is also a long-time board member and advocate of the New Israel Fund (NIF), which is a leading promoter and funder of organizations that advocate boycotting, divesting from, and imposing sanctions upon, Israel (BDS) as well as other groups involved in delegitimizing Israel and mounting ‘lawfare’ suits against Israeli political and military officials, causing these officials to not visit certain European countries. The ZOA is concerned by Rabbi Jacobs’ close association with J Street and NIF and thus at the prospect of the Reform movement becoming a captive of the beliefs and actions of both organizations. We hope the Reform movement, under Jacob’s leadership, will not become an unnamed arm and political ally of these organizations.
(Excerpt) Read more at zoa.org ...
The more serious a professing Jew is about religion, the more likely he or she is to take the biblical promises of re-establishment of the Land of Israel at face value.
Not surprising if one is familiar with the positions the Reform movement has taken on Israel over the years. Conservatives who happen to be Reform Jews should seriously be asking where their money is going when they support the Reform movement....
It is surprising because as a congregation the Reform movement has begun to seriously re-engage with Israel and to some extent Zionism. This is exactly opposite of the seeming drift.
Nevertheless, I agree with the idea that many Reform members are going to start having the same thoughts when they comprehend (if they ever find out) who is leading the organization. I know it gives me great pause and I have to be asking that question seriously.
You mean DEFORMED Judiasm. I hope you learn from this, since you have gone after me in the past. They revere Marx not Moses. They are NOT Jews, but JINOs. they are the enemy. Let them turn gay, have abortions and intermarry. We won't miss them.
Well, its not that simple. The whole idea that Israel should be occupied prior to the coming of the Messiah is something that until nearly the 1700's was expressly forbidden. A presence was maintained by some Jewish groups but no formal movement was undertaken to actively return to the Promised Land.
This changed because of the decision of the Vilna Gaon to suggest that the coming of the Messiah might be paved by preparations for the return of the people to Israel. To this end, hundreds of Gaonim ventured to Israel and began the process of setting up infrastructure that opened the way for the Zionism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
However, as early as, 1885 the US Reform movement rejected the idea of a return to Zion along with any expectation of a Messianic figure to come and establish a new Jewish State. This was intensely pragmatic and reasonable at the time as Jews saw America as the New Jerusalem, a land of milk and honey and opportunity to live and worship freely like no other country had ever been in the world.
Moreso, a pragmatic analysis would say that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood is in direct response to the establishment of the State of Israel. This is undeniable. The work of this cabal has been to undermine and destroy Israel by any means and any country who would support Israel. And many Jews fantasize that life under Muslim domination wasn't so bad, and they hold out examples of periods of some freedom in Spain and Egypt for limited time periods.
However, history is not an arrow, but instead an ebb and flow of events. Most Ultra-Orthodox Jews approached the establishment of Israel with great suspicion, but warmed to it because of the politics of a community trying to comprehend the Holocaust and find meaning in its horror. The creation of Israel brought religious Jews and secularist together in a common goal and dream of a place where Jews might be safe not because of the might of a Ruler who could capriciously decide one day to sacrifice them, but rather because of their own determination to provide a safe home and defend it at all costs.
Soon, most Jews in the US and around the world accepted and became attached to this idea, of a place where any Jew fleeing persecution might call home. And in this, most of the Orthodox, the Reform and the Conservative Jewish movements in America came to agree to a great extent. The Reform movement maintains a University for teaching Reform Rabbi's and every Rabbi must spend their first year in Israel before finishing their education in the US. The Reform movement is extremely active in organizing Birthright trips for Reform teens and young adults because it has been shown as one of the single most effective ways of maintaining and assuring that these children will become Synagogue members as they form families and live in our Secular society.
The emphasis on Social Justice and Civil rights has led the Reform movement into this perilous waters because it is easy to take the arguments of these ideas and turn them to the support of the Palestinians against Israel herself. And the Muslim Brotherhood has been expert in turning each and every device and idea implemented to prevent another Holocaust against Israel and the Jewish people in general. This is the point of CAIR, to utilize the ideas of the Anti-Defamation League to immunize Islam from serious criticism using the tools developed to fight antisemitism.
This has created the bizarre situation where outright calls for oppression and death of Jews are defended using the language and tactics used initially to prevent this very outbreak from manifesting again.
Many Jews just want us "All to get Along." And this fantastic hope is a death trap when you specifically count on people pledged to kill you to be of a similar mind. It is impossible to even talk about the risk and the rapid rise of antisemitism on every level of American society to most Jews today, and this is amazing because these are the same people who chant, never again, never again.. yet.. it is becoming again and everything is the same, in that bright folks are telling themselves it won't get worse even as other folks keep saying.. Uh Oh.. look out.. things are coming apart at the seams!!!!!
Well, it seems I have a player who insists that I start biting.
I have gone after you in the past, and I will go after you now, and I will go after you in the future if you insist on using this language. I am a Jew. I am a Conservative who works tirelessly on a number of levels. Look at the list of the Rabbi's that endorsed Obama, you will find many many Conservative and Orthodox Rabbis in this list.
Your point and over-generalizations are crap, misinformed and frankly loathesome. 42% of the Jewish population of the US considers themselves Reform. That means that 2.5 million out of 6 Million Jews in US are in that group you propose to say good bye to. So, rather than 2% of the registered voters, the Jewish voting block would be 1%. But, unfortunately, a large number of Conservative and Orthodox Jews are liberals as well.. so lets just say, meaningless minority voting block.
As the Reform movement supports a huge share of the JCC and other fund raising organizations of the community, and oh by the way, Bernie Madhoff's contribution to the Orthodox community was to undermine many of its most important institutions, where as, the Reform community was largely untouched and has partially taken up the slack from the damage done by this singular event. Be careful of who you would throw out of the lifeboat, the next extra weight may be you!
In my experience, most Reform Jews believe the Democrat Party has priority over G-d.
Also I am not talking about ALL Reform Jews, but about their disgusting leadership which has endorsed everything from the homosexual agenda to illegal alien amnesty, to Muslim "outreach" to JStreet treason. Isn't that what this article is all about? I have no idea what Bernie Madoff has to do with all this. BTW, my calculations show that within 25 years, Orthodox Jews will out number Reform, and they are solid Republican voters (check the RJC numbers from 2004 and 2008). and that "list" of rabbis who endorsed Obama remind me of the useful idiots who also signed the Jewish fund for Justice's ad against Glenn Beck. Beck is a far better friend to Israel than those idiots.
THe leaders of the Reform Jewish Movement are hardcore leftists, esp. Rabbi David Saperstein, and now the J Street Jerks.
The make Israel the enemy instead of the “New Nazi” Palestinians, and think that you can deal with Hezbullah and Hamas. Yet, the Jews of Germany who stayed thought that they could deal with the Nazis, and you know how that worked out.
JINOS = New KAPOS = the enemy
Proud American and proud Jew
Unfortunately, this is a joke that is commonly told and far too true of many who come through the Rabbinic program. But, this is a thing of percentages. The fact is that these Rabbis reflect the people they serve, and Reform had drifted badly in the past though not in the way that Conservative or Orthodox folks would define this. Reform came to be because the Misnagim version of Orthodoxy left much to be desired. So much so, that people rebelled against its approachability. One answer to this problem was the rise of the Hassidic movements which emphasized making Judaism relevant and approachable by the common man. The Misnagim rejected Hasidim as a dangerous fracture that could lead to more troubles like the false Messianic movements that rose in the 1700's that destroyed whole communities. But, this rejection played right into the hands of the Russian authorities who were looking for such a divide to remove the limited sovereignty that the Jewish community enjoyed in the Pale. The bitterness of this clash remains 300 years later.
But, one of my Rabbi's in a moment of accidental truth, revealed a story about their interview to become a Rabbi when they were asked what was the most important event in Jewish history? Their answer was, "the election of FDR". The Rabbi doing the interview asked, I mean the most important religious event in Judaism."
One wants to hang their head in shame, but ultimately, Reform Judaism is actually pursuing faith and connection to Judaism as in no period since before WWII. The official split with Humanistic Judaism seems to have been the watershed. A Reform Jew may not necessarily believe in God but they must accept that the Rabbi will talk about God and teach of a world where God does exist and this has meaning.
So, it is convenient to use this to dismiss people, but it is wrong. Rather, these people are profoundly misinformed and incredibly capable of creating norms that maintain this status. But, how many time have we seen people shouted down over the last 2 years for asking where a certain man's birth certificate is? A man who went to court to have his opponent's Divorce decree unsealed because it was in the "Public" interest to learn the messy details of this event, but who maintains that their records proving their eligibility, the only one required by the Constitution, is private and sacrosanct.
Jews have often gotten lost, the Torah is full of this history. Reform Judaism is not a way to get lost, but when it becomes infiltrated by the very same people who have infiltrated every other academic institution, you shouldn't be surprised that they graduate a bunch of liberal folks who think that Justice needs the word "social" in front of it, in spite of the injunction for Justice not to treat the rich man or the poor man differently. This is why the figure of Justice wears a blindfold, so that it might not consider who approached the bench, but the facts of the case itself. Thus, Justice, can almost never be hyphenated. But someone must stand up to those who have done this, and set out a false God in our midst. But, understand, that the seeds of this hastiness, the desire to bring about the Messianic age now, and in our lives is in the Kaddish. The false faiths in Progressivism, Socialism and Communism are not new to Judaism. They are what people grab when they lose their sense of God. But, because these are all secular religions, they ultimately teach that selfishness and feeding ones own ego is the only value in the end, and this just leads to evil.
Yet, there is hope. God doesn't lay out these things without the other shoe being ready to land. And, these times too are in accordance with God's will.
The important thing for you is to find your way to God, and to living a good life that is righteous. It is not as important that you spend time looking down on this one or that one, unless you are proposing to reach out to them and give them a hand up.
At the conserva-reformed synagogue in Seattle before I left (~2000), they literally substituted for “Hamman” in the Haggadah the name “Bush,” so everyone booed appropriately.
I’ve no time for further discussion or rationalization.
- Chabadnick.
At the conserva-reformed synagogue in Seattle before I left (~2000), they literally substituted for “Hamman” in the Megillah the name “Bush,” so everyone booed appropriately.
I’ve no time for further discussion or rationalization.
- Chabadnick.
So it would seem. I have met Saperstein, and he is beneath my contempt. This is disturbing. Very.
When your relative is clearly an Alcoholic though, he is still your uncle, brother, sister, mom. Our leadership is lost for the moment when it comes to the world of politics and this is getting worse. Very frustrating. But, in the world of Practice, we are making positive moves. On a Reform birthright trip you will find prayer, Shabbat Services, and much more, you won't find this on many of the Conservative or mainline Orthodox trips. I know because my daughter got attached to a Conservative oriented trip to Israel and I had to beg for them to make time for her to attend Shabbat, which in the end never occurred, the few kids that were interested had to make due on their own.
To some extent, like so many institutions, Reform Judaism has become professionalized and all decision making has been removed from the congregants. The Rabbi's appoint the board members, and all of the congregational leadership and there is no one to change the direction of the boat if it is going off course. But, this is true of almost every large charitable organization. It is true of our very own government where the Tea Party is possibly a last gasp of Americans trying to recover their freedom and ability to control their own fate rather than be controlled by a group of elitist bureaucrats.
This is occurring in all of our institutions, the messy scrum of politics is seen as a problem rather than "the solution." Yet, this open but hopefully dull conflict was the very mechanism that our founding fathers selected to provide the ability of a people to remain free and govern themselves.
If you want to see a vibrant growth in Reform and Conservative and mainline Orthodox communities, get back to allowing the congregation to have a say in their lives and future and let them duke out some of the controversies. Its ok. Well managed conflict brings out better answers than group think and a bunch of yes men.
My point is that Jews immersed in foolishness and evil are everywhere just like there are Christians, Atheists, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims lost and wrapped up in evil. This is almost the normal human condition.
It is the exception that has been created by the availability of Torah that has allowed some to rise above this evil.
At the Hillel that my daughter attends, they had a Orthodox Rabbinic intern who referred to Israel as "Palestine in Occupation". There are despicable folks of every stripe.
Personally, I believe that Reform Judaism offers great hope for those who are willing to pry it out of the hands of those who would use it as a vehicle for "social justice", socialism, and vanity. It served as a great vehicle before and it is poised to be again.
Jacobs is also a long-time board member and advocate of the New Israel Fund (NIF), which is a leading promoter and funder of organizations that advocate boycotting, divesting from, and imposing sanctions upon, Israel
Wow, this Rabbi Jacobs is to the left of Yoffie, whom he is replacing. Absolutely disgraceful!
Thanks to Mort Klein of ZOA for laying out all the key facts in the posted article.
Depressing. Yoffe is such a schmuck, that I thought for sure that his retirement would be a good thing.
ML/NJ
They are more fond of platitudes than reality, IMHO..
22 “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. 30 I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. 32 I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign LORD. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel!
33 “‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. 35 They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.” 36 Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the LORD have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.’
HaShem will, for His sake, fix this mess, which by the look of things, should be soon. B"H, Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
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