Larry Levine – Dear Rabbis, (not all), can we talk?
This Sunday evening starts Rosh Hashanah and most of the Jewish community will be a “captive” audience for you. Since you see most of them only a few times a year I thought that it may be necessary to remind you of a few things that you may want to consider for your sermon.
I am not a Rabbi or a religiously educated as much as I would like to be, however I have decided to “step up to the plate” after I received an email “commentary” from a Rabbi from Providence RI who shall be nameless. Let’s just say in my opinion this was not a “Talmudic” discussion, it was filled and tinged with hate, prejudice, bias (not from me) and it was not a pleasant exchange of ideas.
Unfortunately, this note came from a Rabbi who is very involved with J Street, so I told him what I think of J Street, how I rented a theater in Columbus Ohio to play the J Street Challenge for our community after one of our cantors decided to personally open a chapter at a leading conservative synagogue. To date there is no active chapter here in Columbus and I AM VERY PROUD OF THIS.
This synagogue who has a new Rabbi has a sign on the door that says LGBTQ welcome here. I don’t’ have a problem with this generally, (as if they are not welcome at any other synagogue). I considered posting a sign next to it that said Republicans and conservatives not welcome here and … I would have been right. Should have read LGBTQ CR or Conservative Republicans…
The Rabbi spent the time lecturing me on how Israel was not important to our children mostly because of Israeli policies and Bibi Netanyahu. Sorry Rabbi one of the reasons is because of Rabbis like you who unreasonably criticize Israel at every turn and do not discuss the miracle that we have witnessed in our generation. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t ever criticize Israel however people like you and Pete Beinart spend every waking moment trashing Israel and then wondering why our children hold negative views of it.
Where were you when the former President supported a candidate by sending lots of money from you and I against Netanyahu in the Israeli elections?
Talk about collusion and interference in elections. This happened, it is not speculation.
Where was your righteous indignation when the Obama administration targeted conservative and Pro Israel groups?
Where were you when Obama targeted some in the media, spied on several journalists and on Congress? Yup this happened.
Where were you when our former President had Al Sharpton, tax cheat and renowned anti Semite to the White house over 30 times.
Where were you when the former President supported the Muslim Brotherhood to lead Egypt? You know the brotherhood, the same guys who helped Hitler during the holocaust, yep those brothers. They have not changed.
Where were you when our former President divided our nation into one per-centers and corporate Jet owners, black and white, and stirred the pot of race for purely political purposes?
Where were you when the former President referred to the murder of Jews in France as a just a bunch of people?
Where was your criticism of President Obama when he treated the elected Prime Minister of Israel so poorly, making him enter through the back door and then leaving him in the white house while he went to dinner? The President also released a picture of him with his feet up on his desk while talking to Netanyahu a huge sign of disrespect noticed by the world but not by you.
Where was your criticism when the last thing that the former President did as President was to give the Palestinians over 250 million dollars and then abstained in a critical vote against Israel at the UN? The vote declared the Temple mount and Jerusalem was Palestinian land causing a huge potential for lawsuits and harassment internationally for Jewish citizens living there. I bet that many of you were okay with this declaration but not okay with the President moving our embassy to Jerusalem ….
So, when you start to say “in the age of” you should remember that the last “age of” wasn’t very good for Jews and the world.
Oh, one more thing. I have many more statements that I will address after my bruises heal from some of your responses like…. Islamophobia, anti immigrants, and lots more.
Stay tuned.
Happy New Year
Your friend Larry
Larry Levine
