Free Republic

FOR YEARS I have watched the Palestinians do absurdly self-destructive things, and have never understood them until now. But watching the Bush administration stoutly defend Israel this week against the background of an American Jewish population that vocally (often sneeringly) dislikes him and his administration, and consistently votes by massive majorities for his Democratic opponents, I start to understand the Palestinians just a little. American Jews are not Palestinians and have not sunk to the level of supporting terrorist murderers. But their behavior is a lesson in self-destructive nihilism that could teach even the Palestinians a thing or two. U.S....

For years I have watched the Palestinians do absurdly self-destructive things, and have never understood them until now. But watching the Bush administration stoutly defend Israel this week against the background of an American Jewish population that vocally (often sneeringly) dislikes him and his administration, and consistently votes by massive majorities for his Democratic opponents, I start to understand the Palestinians just a little. American Jews are not Palestinians and have not sunk to the level of supporting terrorist murderers. But their behavior is a lesson in self-destructive nihilism that could teach even the Palestinians a thing or two. U.S....

The American Jewish community has been demonstrating wall-to-wall support for Israel as it fights on two fronts. Major Jewish organizations have backed Israel's actions and are considering a community-wide emergency fund-raising effort. The United Jewish Communities (UJC), which represents 55 Jewish federations and 400 independent Jewish communities across North America, has already provided $1 million via the Jewish Agency that will be used to send children from communities near the northern border to youth villages in the central region. The UJC is considering embarking on a special fund-raising campaign, similar to the Israel Emergency Campaign that raised more than $360m....

It is impossible to keep up with the barrage of statistics 'analyzing' the US Jewish community. The Forward, back on May 7, 2004, carried a story headlined "Survey Released on Jewish Women's Sexuality." I recently tried to locate this study, only to learn that it hasn't been published and won't be for another year or two, meaning three or four years after it was "released." Months earlier, I had no greater success trying to get a Hillel report on the attitudes of Jewish collegians, only to be told that what I saw about it in a newspaper was prematurely released...

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean addressed the American Jewish Committee on Wednesday, where he claimed the Democratic Party is more inclusive and a better choice for Jewish Americans. I was recently asked about the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties," Dean said. "When it comes right down to it, the essential difference is that the Democtrats fundamentally believe it is important to make sure that American Jews feel comfortable being American Jews." But the facts don't back up the DNC Chairman's assertions. Virginia Democrat Rep. Jim Moran blamed the war in Iraq on the Jewish community, claiming, "If...

The Bully Might Get Punched Back © Rabbi Daniel Lapin Two years have now elapsed since Mel Gibson released his movie “The Passion” and since various Jewish organizations launched their notorious attacks on religious conservatives. Since then, Mel has moved on to film a new movie, also in an unusual and unspoken foreign language. “Apocalypto” follows the adventures of a long-ago Mayan hero. However the same Jewish organizations have not moved on. When their bizarre predictions of pogroms in Pittsburgh and massacres in Mississippi failed to materialize, they just continued with more of the same attacks. These organizations whose purpose...

In a history-making moment, President George W. Bush is expected next week to proclaim May of every year as Jewish American Heritage Month. The proclamation will be the culmination of months of work by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who pushed resolutions through the House and Senate that urged Bush to take action. That’s no small feat for a first-term Demo-crat. Now it’s up to school districts, museums and community groups to make the symbolic designation meaningful. Wasserman Schultz wants these institutions to raise awareness about Jewish contributions to American life, as they have done with Black History Month...

Poll: US Jews uninterested in shul By GEORGE CONGER Jews ranked second to last on the table of weekly worship attendance with less than one in six attending services, beating out only those who report no religious affiliation. "This is a statistical cri de coeur from our people," Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles told The Jerusalem Post. "If things continue as they are we will produce a generation of Jews who will be irretrievably lost." In a series of interviews conducted from 2002 to 2005, Gallup interviewed 11,000 adult Americans and asked, "How often do you...

Palestinians are embracing a government of armed thugs. Syria engineered a political assassination in Lebanon, and are sending terrorists all over the world. Saudi Arabia is seriously torn between the modern world and 14th Century Islamofascism. Ariel Sharon is recovering from a coma. And Iran’s leader, after openly coveting the destruction of Israel, began processing uranium for atomic bombs. American Jews: Why are you still liberal? From various wars to the Intifadah, American liberal Democrat policy has placated and encouraged Israel’s enemies for over 50 years. Once, the resulting mayhem could be managed by a bit of diplomacy coupled with...

Jewish History Month proposal up to president The House of Representatives approved a resolution Thursday calling on the president to proclaim January as Jewish History Month. Quick, who was Judith Resnik? If President Bush heeds Thursday's congressional resolution urging him to designate January as Jewish History Month, schoolchildren across the nation may learn that Resnik was the first Jewish-American woman astronaut. She was killed in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. The Jewish history resolution was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Weston Democrat who represents Broward and Miami-Dade counties and happens to be the first...

Israelis are known to be found in every corner of the world, but an American historian has claimed they were thought to be in America 400 years ago. Mark Miller, a history professor at the Roanoke College in Virginia, said that the first European settlers in America believed native Indians were Israelites who had lost their faith. The Indians were mistaken for a "lost Israeli tribe that had been blown off course and landed in America" and became savages, according to the historian.

Liberals are feeling their oats these days. The president’s poll ratings are down. Support for the Iraq war has eroded. Democrats in Congress are on the offensive charging the White House with misleading the country into war. An aide to the Vice President has been indicted, Congressman Tom DeLay is also facing charges, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is under the spotlight for stock transactions by his blind trust. It is, in other words, a perfect storm of opportunity for the left, which must also mean that it is time for leaders of major Jewish organizations on the political...

HOUSTON, Oct. 28 - When she was growing up in a small town in southern Colorado, an area where her ancestors settled centuries ago when it was on the fringes of the northern frontier of New Spain, Bernadette Gonzalez always thought some of the stories about her family were unusual, if not bizarre. Her grandmother, for instance, refused to travel on Saturday and would use a specific porcelain basin to drain blood out of meat before she cooked it. In one tale that particularly puzzled Ms. Gonzalez, 52, her grandfather called for a Jewish doctor to circumcise him while he...

Last year Jews in America celebrated their 350th year in America; the first Jews in America arrived in New Amsterdam (New York) in 1654. Earlier this week President Bush joined in the celebration with a visit to the restored Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington (above, I believe with a Torah scroll rescued from the Holocaust) followed by his attendance at a dinner organized to commemorate 350 years of Jewish life in America (below). The president gave a memorable speech at the dinner. After the introductory remarks, President Bush noted the contribution of Jews to America through service in...

Only in America does a president light a menorah while a Jewish choral group sings Hebrew songs and the Marine band plays American songs. Only in America do Jews feel so honored as Jews and yet so completely part of the larger culture, fully Jewish and fully part of the greater nationality. Non-American Jews (including even Canadians) are often amazed at how completely American Jews in the U.S. feel. We take it for granted, but as a former college lecturer in Jewish history, I know that this is unique.

With every passing day – and there are precious few left – another enormous constituency turns against President George W. Bush in his race against John Kerry. First, the Hollywood celebrities mobilized against Bush. Then came the recording industry, with mega-stars like Bruce Springsteen offering free concerts in order to defeat Bush. Next it was the turn of the academic and scientific communities to pummel the president, with 54 Nobel Prize winners announcing they would tour the universities denouncing Bush. Of course, the president had already been abandoned by Europe, with their million-man rallies against him where he was burned...

AMERICAN JEWS CHOOSE HARRI-KERRY FOR ISRAEL By Don Feder Where do American Jewish voters go for guidance? Apparently, this year we’re heeding advice from Tehran, from the rabidly anti-Semitic former prime minister of Malaysia and – of course – from our pals in the Palestinian Authority. Sorry, that’s a bit of black humor. What I mean to say is that – in one of those ironic twists of fate -- it’s likely that this year a majority of Jewish voters will cast their ballots for the presidential candidate favored by Israel’s most implacable enemies. According to The American Jewish Committee’s...

Jewish Voters: Bush's Secret Weapon? By Ciro Scotti 01 September, 2004 MSNBC If Bill Clinton was the first black President -- a moniker he relished -- then George W. Bush is the first Jewish President. After first disengaging from the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations and refusing to even lay eyes on Yasser Arafat, Bush went on to give Israeli Prime Minister and best Mideast buddy Ariel Sharon virtual carte blanche in his crackdown on the suicide-bombing Palestinans and then followed the advice of his fiercely pro-Israel neocon advisers and went to war in Iraq. Matthew Brooks, executive director of the Republican...

Confronting stereotypes and the need to take principled stances. Oh, and a look at John Kerry's positions on Israel,My decision to vote for the reelection of President George W. Bush, despite the fact that I am a life-long Democrat, has caused some to call me a turncoat. But am I really? Or am I moving in a direction the Democratic Party itself should be going? As mayor of New York City, I described myself as "a liberal with sanity." It troubled me that over the years, the Democratic Party had drifted toward the radical left. The vast majority of registered...

If the non-Jewish public is even vaguely aware of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, it's probably because its annual telethon draws celebrities including Adam Sandler, Michael Douglas, James Caan, Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Hopkins. But within the Jewish world, this small branch of Judaism is generating outsized levels of interest — and concern. On the one hand, Chabad — with its rigorous observance of Jewish law and rabbis in long beards and wide-brimmed black hats — has become an island of growth, innovation and success at a time of aging synagogue memberships and stagnant population elsewhere among American Jews.