One of the most disturbing aspects of modern American Jewish life is the almost obsessive desire of many Jews to universalize every aspect of Jewish belief while downplaying the original meanings of customs and ritual. Leftist Rabbi Arthur Waskow help set this in motion decades ago with his “Freedom Seder” in which he hijacked the Haggadah recited by Jews on Passover to promote other causes. Since then, transposing the seder in order to morph the Jewish holiday that celebrates the freedom of the Jewish people into something that has nothing to do with the Jews and Judaism has become so commonplace it is something of a cliché.
This year, there are more egregious examples of this trend. The National Jewish Democratic Council has published a new version of the “Four Questions” from the Haggadah that is a paean, not to the liberation of the Jews from Egypt, but to the wonders of Barack Obama, to whom the NJDC directs Americans to express thanks rather than their Creator. One need only read the NJDC’s questions to understand their desperation to make up for three years of Israel-bashing by President Obama as well as to get a feel for the attitude of the group toward the president that can only be characterized as worshipful.
The president’s shaky record on Israel — which was made all too clear by the constant fights and sniping against the Jewish state that only abated once his re-election campaign began — has made it imperative for Democrats to pretend as if the administration’s stands on Jerusalem, the 1967 borders and years of failed engagement with Iran never happened. They can rightly claim he has not trashed the alliance with Israel and has even done the right thing at the United Nations and continued to fund programs begun under his predecessor like the Iron Dome missile defense system (which Obama falsely claims credit for initiating). He has also said all the right things about stopping Iran’s nuclear threat though his actions (and a series of insidious leaks from his staffers) have demonstrated that he is more concerned about stopping Israel from defending itself than actually doing something about Iran.
The NJDC’s questions also attempt to use Passover to promote their party’s stands on ObamaCare and the defense of entitlement spending that is bankrupting the nation. There is nothing wrong with Democrats taking those positions if that’s what they believe, but the attempt to link these partisan stands on divisive issues — about which Jews as well as non-Jews can disagree — with Judaism is absurd.
An old joke about Reform Judaism had it that the movement’s concept of the faith was merely the Democratic Party Platform with holidays thrown in. As unfair as such a characterization was, it appears the NJDC wants to go it one better by attempting to transform Jewish holidays into partisan talking points. Such things show no respect for Judaism by trivializing the Exodus as merely an excuse for political rhetoric.
Passover is the occasion for Jews to remember their liberation from Egypt and to embrace not only the gift of freedom but also the ability to worship God and His laws as a people. While seders are appropriate moments to remember those in need as well as other Jewish communities — such as that in Israel — which are assailed by foes, it is not the time to be delivering obsequious paeans to American politicians, no matter which party they belong to. That sort of absurd distortion of the festival of freedom bears a closer resemblance to idol worship than it does to Judaism.
Fair's Fair! They turned him into Jesus last time around. Now it's your turn.
Obama has progressed from being 'sort of like God' to in fact being God. n nAnd Debbie W -Schultz is his High Priestess. n n
Schultz: I know nothing, I hear nothing, I see nothing! Appropriate name, except that at his worst Schultz was a thousand times brighter!
This will not go down with his Muslim Brotherhood buddies. I wonder if they will forbid him from setting foot in their country as a result.
thank you so much for writing this! I'm on the NJDC email list (for some reason), and while other of their emails have been silly and obnoxious, this one really took the "OMG" cake. n nI've written to NJDC several times, suggesting that they take the "J" out of their name since they don't appear to be Jewish in any way I can ascertain. have never gotten a response.
I've just added the NJDC as the 11th plague to the Seder service.
I agree with every well written word here. n nYet, reading about the NFL Extravaganza that will attempt to pass for Easter worship in Texas, ostensibly representing my faith, I am loath to throw a rock at leftist political worship. It may not strike Jews as off key and as terribly terribly emblematic of the mile-wide, inch-deep American Christianity that passes for serious theology, but that is exactly the way it strikes me. It is to weep, and then to fall to one's knees in fervent pleas for relief from this farce.
Sally; n nWhile I appreciate your concern but the difference is that world Jewish population is just over 13 million. Texas alone has probably close to 20 million Christians. Add to that the fact that Reform Judaism represents a significant sector of the Jews, if you were to compare it to Christianity it would be more like most of the Christians in the Western Hemisphere transforming their religious beliefs into popular memes. n nFinally, the Haggadah reading is at least 1,000 years old with Passover being an ancient observance even 3,000 years ago. n nBut I do sympathize, it's hard to see your faith trivialized.
Quit yer bellyachin and watch the Ten Commandments movie with Charlston Heston instead of the NFL.
It is astonishing to see the overt attempts to deify Obama from his party. The constant self promotion is disgusting. He is a threat to the sovereignty of this country.
This is merely an expression of the reality: For Leftists, their religion is their politics. I know Lubavitchers who are still in the bag for Obama, because their morality is more in tune with the Christian type morality espoused by Leftist demagoguery. n nYet Jews have willing surrendered to popular culture throughout our history, though I can't say if there were more forced conversions. Maintaining a Jewish identity can be difficult, especially in times and places where it's unpopular. n nToday's Leftist Jews have essentially converted to this political inclination and their Jewishness is a mere ornament of diversity. If it were required that they choose one or another, they would most likely choose their political beliefs. n n n
Kapos hijacking my religion. DISGUSTING!
Two Jews get shipwrecked on a desert island…for 10 long years they wait to be rescued..keeping themselves occupied with such building projects as the island's resources would permit….a ship finally stopped to pick them up….the Captain gazed upon the site of 3 synagogues the castaways had built….."But why three of them?",he asked..clearly puzzled…."That should be obvious",one of them said…"Conservative for him,Orthodox for me…and a 3rd one that neither of us would ever set foot in"
The version I heard was with one shipwrecked Jew who proudly shows the rescuing captain his pride and joy, the shul he's built out of palm trees and driftwood. "But what's that other building over there?" asks the caption. "THAT," bristles the Jew, "is the shul I wouldn't be caught dead in." No Jewish civil war has been more venomous than the war of brothers in Satmar's fractured Chasidic family.
Yes, there are numerous versions of this same joke. Which just goes to illustrate the principle behind the joke. nBut the NJDC's sick joke was intended in all seriousness, and if not avoda zara ("idol worship", like most trranslations of Hebrew religious terms, loses a certain ich vais nisht) certainly comes close. n nBy the way, does anyone else find it ironic that one literal translation of avoda zara is "foreign service"?
Well, as long as they dont shlep Potus into the Kol Nidre. "Lifnei Obama, malchei hamlachim, ha kadosh baruch hu" won't cut it. Bending the knee to state power has its limits.
I have wondered when Obama would have his Acts 12 Herod moment: n n20. Now [Herod] cherished bitter animosity and hostility for the people of Tyre and Sidon; and [their deputies] came to him in a united body, and having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was nourished by and depended on the king's [country] for food. n 21. On an appointed day Herod arrayed himself in his royal robes, took his seat upon [his] throne, and addressed an oration to them. n 22. And the assembled people shouted, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man! n 23. And at once an angel of the Lord smote him and cut him down, because he did not give God the glory (the preeminence and kingly majesty that belong to Him as the supreme Ruler); and he was eaten by worms and died. n 24. But the Word of the Lord [concerning the attainment through Christ of salvation in the kingdom of God] continued to grow and spread.
You picqued my curiosity so I clicked on your link. The New Republican Haggadah was not written by Republicans. It was written by one apparently left wing nut to ridicule what he mistakenly thinks that Republicans believe. The result is a caricature of a caricature. n nBy contrast, the DJNC piece reflects what the DJNC themselves believe. The result is a travesty.
Oddly enough, the NJDC has not seen fit to publish my quite moderate comment to their entry. Imagine that.
I agree with Mr. Tobin. God chose the Jewish people not because they are more special than anyone else but because He wanted them to be a light to the nations. The Jewish people are to be a visible proof that God exists. Also, to show the peoples of the world how to live and relate to their fellow man. God says in His word that Her nis a jealous God and idoltry will not long be tolerated. Judgements come when people who are called by His name turn away from Him and are guilty of apostasy. God uses nature and weather as judgements. He also said in His word that He blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel.
A more interesting question is how you guys on the Left will deal with it. n nBecause when Israel had Labour Prime Ministers, you lefties denounced them too. n nThe only kind of Israeli Prime Minister you guys on the left would support, is one who surrenders to Hezbollah and invites the Palestinians to take over Tel Aviv.
Presumably you are referring to the late President Nixon
Obama throws close to a trillion down the crapper and calls it “stimulus,” rushes to socialize the auto industry, shoves unconstitutional health care down our throats, burdens us with huge new tax burdens and business-strangling regulations, throw billions of good money after bad in trying to get "green energy" to do something, and you worry about him being called "Obama of the Democrat party?" n nPriorities, priorities.
There isn't going to be a "new" leadership in Israel–it's a small polity in a region of rivalries between cousins and new forces don't emerge de novo as a rule. It is the "old" leadership of Bibi, Barak, and the associated heads in the military and security agences who have decided to go down the road a pace on Iran with Obama. What happens after that will depend on Obama's performance and not some Israeli J-Street Peace Now assumption of power. But no, Israel will never accept the anti-Zionist perspective of so many of O's defenders who prefer an Iran with nukes to a Zionist entity with its Jews.