By Aliza Davidovit, journalist and former Rabbi’s wife
I’m very impressed that in such difficult economic times 400 rabbis were able to come together to raise $100K for a newspaper ad in the Wall Street Journal condemning Glenn Beck and what they deem as his improper “references” to the Holocaust.
What a shame that these same rabbis and their confreres who are so worried about the preservation of Jews didn’t read the January 19th article in Haaretz: “Israel’s greatest threat is not security, it’s poverty” with 1,774,800 citizens living in destitution. They sure could have bought a lot of sandwiches for $100,000. And how many of them actually work on behalf of the impoverished Holocaust survivors still extant who barely make ends meet and have to beg at the doorstep of Federations, Jewish Family Services, and the Claims Conference?
I’d also like to know where Glenn Beck’s “thank you” note is from these same rabbis for being among the very few journalists/commentators who stood up for Israel during the Gaza Flotilla crisis when the whole world was against it. Couldn’t George Soros lend them 44 cents for a stamp? They may want to watch Beck’s show of 06/02/10 wherein he expounds upon Israel’s history and points to the facts legitimizing the Jewish Homeland when its very right of existence is being questioned and threatened at every bend. With sanctions, boycotts and divestments being the latest vitriolic war against the Jewish State, odd how Glenn Beck’s use of the word Holocaust is what’s ratcheting up their ire?
I’m sick and tired of Jews who keep sticking up for our enemies. And George Soros, at the center of this issue, is no friend to Jews or Israel. As one of the world’s richest men, let his relatively sparse philanthropy toward Jewish causes speak for itself. Let his support for J Street with its alleged agenda to delegitimize Israel speak for itself. In 2003 the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ran a story saying, “George Soros says Jews and Israel cause anti-Semitism.” Wow, is there anything lower than blaming the rape victim for the rape.
Perhaps these same rabbis love watching CNN and the BBC where Israel seems to be blamed for all the world’s ills. Is it so hard for them to digest that Fox has been unbiased toward Israel from Operation Cast Lead to the flotilla fiasco?
Why don’t these rabbis take out ads against the United Nations whose Human Rights Council has adopted more resolutions against Israel —than any other country in the world, while terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, who are fighting a proxy war for Iran, are given immunity by that scam of an international body.
Did these same rabbis write angry letters to Columbia University when it invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust ever happened, to speak to impressionable young students?
Did the same rabbis write letters to President Obama saying they were offended that he is forcing Israel to make peace with a Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Ph.D thesis was a blatant denial of the Holocaust? Or do they only know how to love those who hates us and hate those who love us?
Maybe these same rabbis are also part of the Goldstone fan club and prefer to gaze east from the gas chambers than from Mt. Scopus.
In addition, since when is there a copyright over the word Holocaust and how it can be used? All Jews are equal shareholders. I own the history too! But, moreover, since when has the word Holocaust become solely a Jewish fiefdom? Can only a Jew make such references with impunity? Or is this group no better that the Muslim fundamentalists who decry the use of the name of Mohammed by infidels—surely cause to exterminate the offender…not! Whether you like it or not, the Holocaust is just a word, just as is Nazi. What counts are the millions of people who were murdered–if these same rabbis want to honor the memory of the dead, let them behave like menschen and say thank you to today’s friends.
And so, I thank Glenn Beck for keeping not only the memory of the Holocaust alive but the evermore important lesson, how the Holocaust came to be to begin with. By teaching how history unfolded he is doing much more than simply reiterating the slogan “never again,” he is pointing to the incremental steps that eventually led to the Holocaust and alerting us to the signposts.
As an aside, I’d like to remind these rabbis about the Talmudic decree that it is a sin to embarrass a person in public which is regarded as tantamount to murder. If they have a problem with Glenn Beck or Fox, why not raise their complaints behind the scenes? Their act makes it obvious that there is a much bigger agenda at play here.
The Jewish state is in greater peril now than perhaps it has ever been since its coming into existence. Antisemitism, as well, is also on the rise. It would serve our people much better to galvanize around the common purpose of survival rather than posing centerfold in the Wall Street Journal. If they are looking for a word war let them play a crossword puzzle in the New York Times. They will find themselves at home there.
What I have provided proof of is that you and Catarin are completely ignorant about what Glenn Beck says and does.
I have suspected for a long time that you were a masochist. Now you have provided proof.
There was a time when real rabbis also 400 in number stood tall for Jews:
F..k reform rabbis and Jews!!
The Day the Rabbis Marched
One of the Committee’s more memorable activities was a protest Kook organized known as the Rabbis’ march. The protest took place in Washington, D.C. on October 6, 1943, three days before Yom Kippur. While the Bergson Group was largely secular, Kook successfully used his family’s rabbinic heritage to convince between 400 and 500 Orthodox rabbis to attend. Among the participants were Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Eliezer Silver, president of the Va’ad Ha-Hatzala and co-president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo (sometimes recorded as Solomon Mordechai) Friedman, the Boyaner Rebbe of New York and president of the Union of Grand Rabbis of the United States, Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz, rabbinical dean of the Mir Yeshiva, Rabbi Naftali Carlebach, father of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Charles Kahane, father of Rabbi Meir Kahane, and Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg and his father, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Hertzberg. No representatives from Conservative Judaism, or Reform Judaism were present.
Joined by Bergson Group activists, the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, and a number of prominent members of Congress including William Warren Barbour, the protesters marched on the United States Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, and White House, pleading for U.S. intervention on behalf of the Jews in Europe. Though the delegation was reluctantly received by Vice President Henry Wallace, Franklin Roosevelt avoided them entirely, both out of concerns regarding diplomatic neutrality, but also influenced by the advice of some of his Jewish aides and several prominent American Jewish spokespeople (including Dr. Stephen Wise), who thought the protest would stir up anti-Semitism and claimed that the marchers, many whom were both Orthodox as well as recent immigrants (or first-generation Americans) were not representative of American Jewry. Shortly before the protest reached the White House, FDR left the building through a rear exit to attend an Army ceremony, and then left for a weekend in the country. Disappointed and angered by the President’s failure to meet with them, the rabbis stood in front of the White House where they were met by Barbour and others, and refused to read their petition aloud, instead handing it off to the Presidential secretary, Marvin H. McIntyre. The march garnered much media attention, much of it focused on what was seen as the cold and insulting dismissal of many important community leaders, as well as the people in Europe they were fighting for. One Jewish newspaper commented, “Would a similar delegation of 500 Catholic priests have been thus treated?” Years later, Rabbi Soloveitchik, in recorded lectures, would bemoan the betrayal of the Rabbis’ mission by Stephen Wise, who dismissed them as a group of Orthodox rabbis who didn’t represent anyone.
My source is Glenn Beck himself – three hours each weekday on the radio, one hour each weekday on cable TV, and numerous books and publications. See for yourself.
Unless you have not heard of Pakistan, the Caliphate would have access to several bombs.
It is YOU who have no sources for your libel.
Cite your sources, AE. It is blissful to be as ignorant of Beck as possible. Next he will announce that the caliphate has the bomb.
Boom.
Good job, Narvey. Positive action beats chest thumping and hot air every time.
Damn straight Yamit. Those who disagree with the content of the letter by the 400 Rabbis and the position they have taken, should write letters where it is their Rabbi who signed on to this letter to Fox News.
Posting an article on Israpundit under the title Beck stands by Israel. The 400 Rabbis stand by Soros , accomplishes absolutely nothing.
It only affords most followers of Israpundit to express their views, be it sober and cogent or crude and extreme, under the cover and protection of anonymity because they use pseudonyms, just like you Yamit.
A lot of good these comments do, save to give one the satisfaction of having gotten whatever it is off their chests and to do it in the safety that pseudonyms afford.
I found the letter and the 400 Rabbis that are signatories to it. I expect all are American Rabbis.
The letter is in PDF format. Use your zoom feature. http://www.jewishjustice.org/sites/jfsj.aegir.purpose.com/files/Jewish%20Daily%20Forward%20ad.pdf
Take 5 minutes. Check the listed names with their designated congregations. If your Rabbi or a Rabbi you are familiar with, is on the list and you object to their participation in this $100k published letter, let them know in no uncertain terms by writing or calling under your real names.
Whether one is in agreement with the sentiments these 400 Rabbis expressed or not, there are some things that are galling about their actions.
Think back and ask yourself when was the last time these 400 Rabbis came together to raise megabucks to take an unequivocal public stance in support of Israel, against American government singular pressure on Israel to make concessions, against Presidents who deliberately for their own interests, mischaracterized the core obstacle to peace as being the settlements, who ignored the major core reason for peace not being yet achieved, ie. Palestinian/Arab rabid anti-semitism and rejection of Israel and all those anti-Israel/anti-semitic groups in the U.S. and elsewhere, to name but several issues that have over many years warranted these 400 Rabbis speaking out.
Shame on them. No good will come of that either, unless they are shamed by people concerned with their failures to come together in this fashion and speak out on the issues of greatest concern to Jews and Israel.
That’s exactly the way it works. It is up to the ignorant to bring themselves up to speed before shooting off their mouths. Here is what YOU wrote, which illustrates your ignorance of Beck:
Since you are obviously unfamiliar with Glenn Beck – which is amazing for someone who claims to be a supporter of Israel – it is up to you to educate yourself.
Not the way it works. You made a general statement without gives sources for you position. I asked you to give sources for your statement.
Shooting off from the mouth and as usual but nothing to back it up: is soooo you.
Do you want to write them all a letter?
They are mostly reform, some conservative and re-constructionists, not a real rabbi in the bunch the, organizer is a Lady rabbi(sic) and she ain’t no Haredit.
What are the names of these 400 Rabbis and what Congregations do they lead? Anybody know a website that provides that information?
Here are some examples of your crap:
1. To begin with the kids you are talking about are all of liberal parents – conservatives send their kids to private schools or work with them so they do well in public schools.
2. Quote by Catarin, “Down with Beck whose mind was destroyed years ago by alcohol.” Since Glenn Beck is anti-Soros and pro-Israel, that would make Mr. Catarin pro-Soros and anti-Israel.
3. Quote by Catarin, “Can’t you cope with a diversity in Judaism…”. Here the pro-Soros, anti-Israel Catarin is playing on Jewish sentiments to attack the most pro-Israel American commentator on US cable TV today.
Here we see that Mr. Catarin has not even heard for himself a word of what Beck has said. He is quoting what he has “heard” someone else say about Beck. This shows this man’s abject ignorance of Beck. Anyone who has heard Glenn Beck knows that a) He always backs up whatever he says with reams of evidence, and b) he always challenges his listeners to do their own research.
A-ha! We now see that Mr. Catarin is a supporter of Imam Obama, the most anti-Semitic president in US history, who is also supported by the evil George Soros and the 400 idiotic Rabbis who have become his pawns.
No wonder Mr. Catarin is attacking Glenn Beck, who exposes the dark underbelly of the Imam Obama administration on a daily basis as anyone who watches his show would know.
American Eagle, you are full of crap! You must know that the high school graduation rate in the US is abysmal. Somewhere between 25-50% of high school students don’t graduate. Now those aren’t Liberal kids. That’s the kids of all you baloney people who would rather run your mouths, talk about issues that mean nothing, while you’re reloading your guns and badmouthing the people who are trying to make this country work.
I hear Beck says that the new Islamic caliphate will begin in Babylon because the US refused to bomb it twice, and US officials are now part of it! This stupid man makes everything up. Before the GWB war archaeologists and researchers met with US officials to ask that archaeological sites in Iraq be spared from the fighting and that more guards be stationed at Iraq’s museums. Might as well have been speaking to a sand storm. The Museums were looted, U.S. soldiers camped on top of Babylon but at least it wasn’t bombed. You don’t have the brain power to figure things out, you just repeat what the crap people say.
You constantly insult the President of the United States. He’s just too smart for you A–h—s. Remember what goes around comes around. I wouldn’t want to be you, but hey! Enjoy!
George Soros has weighed in on the Egyptian revolution. According to him the Muslim Brotherhood is a constructive force in Egypt, while the biggest stumbling block is Israel. I hope Mr. Catarin is happy now.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/02/AR2011020205041.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Quote:
The main stumbling block is Israel. In reality, Israel has as much to gain from the spread of democracy in the Middle East as the United States has. But Israel is unlikely to recognize its own best interests because the change is too sudden and carries too many risks. And some U.S. supporters of Israel are more rigid and ideological than Israelis themselves. Fortunately, Obama is not beholden to the religious right, which has carried on a veritable vendetta against him. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is no longer monolithic or the sole representative of the Jewish community. The main danger is that the Obama administration will not adjust its policies quickly enough to the suddenly changed reality.
Unquote.
Do your own homework. Start by reading his numerous books if you don’t have access to his three hours a day on the radio and one hour a day on cable TV.
In that case, why are you libelling Glenn Beck?
78% of liberal American Jews displayed their stupidity in 2008 by voting to elect Imam Obama, the most anti-Semitic president in US history, controlled only by the overwhelming support among Americans for Israel.
We have freedom os speech and religion in America. No one was forcing their views on anyone else.
If you were one of those who voted for Obama, you voted for someone who is not only anti-Semitic but wants to bring America down to the level of Europe – a continent which is struggling to cope with Islamic fundamentalism and financially incapable of helping anyone like their ancestors did in in WW-I and WW-II.
The primary blame for America’s decline lies with the liberals and the Democrats. George Soros is funding the decline, now using liberal Rabbis as pawns, because Soros benefits from chaos. What Glenn Beck is doing is exposing their consipracies and showing how America can regain its exceptionalism.
What’s new is liberal Jewish Rabbis taking out $100,000 ads in the New York Times to falsely attack a defender of Israel.
Cite examples if you can?
Vinnie, was the “straight news” “straight”, or not? I hope you don’t want straight news written by opinion journalists.
This is the most libelous comment I have seen here in awhile. To begin with, anyone who has listened to or seen a show by Glenn Beck would know that Catarin’s scurrilous comment about his mind being destroyed by alcohol is a brazen libel. It looks like Catarin and the 400 Soros-funded Rabbis, who would throw Israel under the bus in furtherance of their liberal agenda, are on the same side.
Liberal American Rabbis have always been involved in American politics and played a big part in 78% of American Jews voting for Imam Obama, the most anti-Semitic US president in history.
Talk about ignorant Jews, one cannot support anti-Semitism and love Glenn Beck at the same time because he exposes and confronts anti-Semitism wherever it raises its ugly head, including taking on the power of George Soros and the small army of liberal Rabbis. Wise up.
Well, I think lying and war mongering is disgraceful and unAmerican. This breed we’re seeing on the right is something new to me, because I can’t believe how people are willing to display their stupidity. And I can’t believe one of the smartest groups of people in the world is falling for his unhingings. I thought during the Bush years the Religious Right might start a civil war because Christian leaders fed their followers all these lies, and if you’re not following Jesus’ teachings, you ain’t a Christian. Jesus said Give unto Caesar that which is his and give unto G-d that which is His. Some of these Right Republicans wanted to form Christian-based groups for their political purposes. They were phonies using whatever tactics they could to get their way. This is not the American way. If we change the way we are, we start America down a slide to mediocrity, or I guess we’re already sliding, because these kinds of people are anti-American.
America has lost it’s position as Number One in many educational and other categories. This is what Beck’s people have done, dumbed us down.
If you like Beck that says a lot about your desperation. Haven’t there always been different Jewish groups? Why do you hate the 400? Can’t you cope with a diversity in Judaism as Christians have had to do with hundreds of different Christian sects? So you don’t agree with them. What’s new?
Bwahahahahaha!!!!!!!
“Zealot” alert:
Most Jews have nothing against Glenn Beck
There is Zealotry and then there is zealotry: One woman’s concept of zealotry is an-others concept of stupid useful idiots.
Since I am not a liberal; I hold that stupid people have no right to voice stupid opinions. Not you of-course but those stupid 400 political zombies who got their degrees in rabbi-ing, where Political Correctness 101 was the prerequisite course of study, probably the main course of study for most of them.
By publicizing a political ad under the name of Rabbis, they injected Judaism into the American left right debate. Since many of us don’t consider most of them Kosher rabbis or rabbis in fact according to Jewish tradition I resent the fact that they use their Falsch title rabbis in the ad. Ignorant Jews and certainly Gentiles will get the wrong idea and if anything support anti-Semitism by all those who love Beck and even more who support his ideas. That could be a majority of Americans.
It must be hard getting anywhere in town when all you take is left’s…
You’re right Ted. “Hamalbin penei havero berabim…” the one offending a friend in front of others is losing not only his place in this world, but also in the world to come. The “400” you call Rabbis, might not be what the title implies. I saw Glenn Beck’s show and he was backing the Jews and Israel and he reminds us what happened 70/75 years ago. At that time we had too many Soroses of which I was not very proud, their doings in these days can help create a new Holocaust and this is what we must avoid. The left has abandoned us years ago, but many of the Jews cannot abandon the left; what we must understand is that the left of today is not what it was, today it is associated with Anti-Semitic Islamism, with Fascism, with neo nazism, with Jihadism – yes, you may ask how is it possible, Socialism and Fascism together? Yes, they became partnes in need of help, one another. We are in the brink of winning, we must make an additional effort, all lovers of justice, Jews and Non Jews, we have to defeat that evil left that brings poorness, masses of illiterates, destruction of families, lack of faith and no future at all.
Ted, do you print articles like this on purpose? Down with Beck whose mind was destroyed years ago by alcohol. And you all turn on the 400 rabbis? Seems like you are the Zealots.
These 400 rabbis impersonators will stand with evil and attack Glenn Beck also show their liberal ‘tolerance’ for free speech by trying to silence him. They never condemn any Jew haters like the vile Hillary Clinton or Jesse Jackson but will attack conservatives even though the conservatives are more pro Jewish than they will ever be. To them it is more important to follow the leftist line than to defend a conservative who is pro Jewish.
Too bad their sheep followers know less than their ‘rabbis’ who mislead them into marching in goose steps with the left (all the way to the gas chambers).
In this world of the politically correct everything is upside down. Norman Podhoretz tried to explain why Jews are enthralled with “liberalism”
to the extent that they will give up the best interests of Israel if their “horse” (Obama) dictates so. An interesting question regarding the
rabbis is who drives whom. Are the rabbis liberal because the congregants are liberal or vice versa, are liberal congregants attracted to
liberal rabbis.
Glen Beck is another story. He goes against the main stream in a purely academic style and his lack of fear in calling a spade a spade bothers the
establishment.
I was disgusted beyond words by that ad. I’ve been involved in Israel advocacy on a volunteer basis for thirteen years now; for me it has become an unpaid, part-time job that consumes many hours each week.
There is a lot that undermines my morale in this capacity. The endless Israel-bashing in the media, the charades in the UN, etc.
But nothing leaves me more dispirited than fellow Jews who attack one of the few influential Gentile allies we have: Glenn Beck. Kind of like Jews who still support Obama (pretty much the same thing).
But I would not call FOX or the WSJ a bastion of “fairness with respect to Israel, by the way. I track them closely, and since 2006, I would only call them the “least hostile” major media outlets where Israel is concerned. Their straight news reportage – as oppposed to opinion commentators on the editorial pages or TV – is just about as bad as Al Jazeera anymore. Their treatment of the Gaza war of ’09 was as bad as anyone’s.
Where is Alan Dershowitz, erstwhile blind supporter of Imam Obama, on this issue?
A friend of mine in Israel just had to sell his computer today because he cannot pay the rent on his trailor in the “occupied territories”. He is a Rabbi who runs a charity to furnish clothes and household items to the poor for a dollar.
He may have to sell his computer, these Rabbis who support Soros have sold their souls, and belong with Korach in Hell!
I was thinking along the lines of: “And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: ‘We came to thy brother Esau, and moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.'” (Genesis 32:7)
Is that “400”, as in “400 prophets of Asherah”? I would have thought they would have chosen a more flattering number, like “70” or “613”.
“Six geese a-laying, Four hundred rabbis, and a partridge in a pear tree!” 🙂
Even Foxman has standards.
These “rabbis” minister to very liberal congregations which enjoins those who not only do not practice any form of Judaism but who are anti-semetic idiots. There are many forms of Jews in this world, but these I would place in the catagory as traitorss.
These 400 rabbis, and others like them, are the modern kapos. George Soros and his minions are evil. We must chose to stand for what is right – and in this case it is Glenn Beck.