Earlier today, I wrote about the budding controversy over the inclusion of a leader of an anti-Zionist group on the list of the “Rabbis for Obama” created by the president’s re-election campaign. But in doing so I apparently gave Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of the so-called Jewish Voices for Peace too much honor. She is not the only member of what the Anti-Defamation League called one the top 10 anti-Israel groups in the country. She is, in fact, only one of eight members of JVP’s rabbinic council to appear on the list of Rabbis for Obama.
Some readers have reacted by saying that it is not fair to ask the Democratic group to repudiate anti-Zionists on their list. The only thing membership in the Rabbis for Obama connotes, they say, is support for the president. They point out that if they all had to vouch for each other, the whole thing would collapse, since Orthodox rabbis would not be able to affiliate with the non-Orthodox and other denominational squabbles would render any list bringing Jewish clergy together behind any cause impossible. That’s an interesting argument, but it misses the point about Rabbis for Obama and the way it is being used in the campaign.
The significance of Rabbis for Obama is not the fact that you can gather signatures from a few hundred Jewish clergy members on behalf of a Democratic candidate for president. As I noted earlier, given that most Jews are devout liberals, it’s hardly surprising–or even noteworthy–that so many rabbis could be counted on to back the Democratic ticket. But the reason the Democrats have promoted the group so ardently is because of President Obama’s weakness on Israel. Rabbis for Obama has one purpose, and that is to provide a rabbinical hechsher for the president’s Middle East policies. The hope is that it will help wavering voters forget the first three years of his administration, when he was constantly picking fights with Israel, and remember only his election year Jewish charm offensive. Rabbis for Obama exists in 2012 for the same reason a group with the same name was created in 2007: to vouch for the president’s bona fides on Israel.
The group can be as inclusive as it likes. If the rabbis involved want to treat as merely a list of those who support the Democrats, so be it. But if the Rabbis for Obama are neutral about associating with anti-Zionists who support the boycott of Israel (all of Israel and not just the West Bank settlements) and the Palestinian “right of return” while opposing the Jewish state’s right of self-defense, then the group doesn’t have the standing to give the president a kosher stamp of approval for his Israel policies. So long as Gottlieb and her anti-Zionist colleagues are in the group, the press, along with groups like the Emergency Committee for Israel and the Republican Jewish Coalition, is entitled to call the Democrats out on this issue whenever anyone with the “Rabbis for Obama” label is trotted out for that purpose.
Good job bringing this to light! Thank you. I hope Commentary creates a post listing the Rabbis who participated in the Goldstone acclamation and cross referencing them to the Rabbis for Obama.
Another approach would be for the rest of us to shame them publicly. They're not going to change so we may as well nail them to their own propaganda.
Good for these Rabbis. The ones supportive of Israel are just like the Lutheran pastors who supported Basically Germany.
OK, so we have this here list of “Rabbis for Obama.”r nr nApparently now we have to find out how many are “Rabbis for Israel.”
OK, so we have this here list of "Rabbis for Obama." n nApparently we now have to find out how many are "Rabbis for Israel."
Why couldn't they provide congregational names and denominations? That's even in their own interest. As it is, at first glance it's just a list of nudniks from nowheresville. But then, some affiliations are not to be put down in black and white for the purpose of discretion, just as the Presidential wunderkind these birds of a feather flock to does not exactly put in bold relief his ties to old-line CPUSA Chicago associates. Anti-Zionists forming the quintessential Obama paradigm of "pro-Israel" Jewry? A Defense budget facing Team O budget cuts plus Team O designed sequestration for 1 trillion cool ones? As Stalin was wont to say, comrades that is no coincidence. n nVia Israel Matzav members of the Obama Judenrat contingent: n nJewish Voice for Peace n nChava Bahle, Suttons Bay Michigan n nRachel Evelyne Barenblat, Lanesboro MA n nHaim Beliak, Los Angeles n nLynn Gottlieb, Berkeley (Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Co-founder of Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence, Stony Point, NY, JVP Advisory Board” n nLinda J. Holtzman, Philadelphia n nRebecca Lillian, Chicago n nDavid Mivasair, State College n nBrant Rosen, Evanston, co-founder Taanit Tzedek-Jewish Fast for Gaza n nRabbis for Human Rights n nCharles M. Feinberg, Washington DC n nGerald Serotta, Chevy Chase MD n nSimkha Y. Weintraub, Brooklyn n nSharon Brous, Los Angeles n nAryeh Cohen, Los Angeles n nAyelet S. Cohen, New York n nMaurice D Harris, Eugene OR n nEllen Lippmann, Brooklyn n nSidney Schwarz, Rockville MD
What does one expect after fifty years of profound intermarriage. The title “Rabbi” has never been more ambiguous. I will just leave it at that. Any Jewish person who would vote for Obama just because a list of “Rabbis” support him, is a damn fool and might just as easily vote for Obama because he is the best friend Israel ever had in the White House, so the propaganda goes. Obviously, anyone can become a rabbi. Psychologist Michael Lerner did. With the title of “rabbi” Lerner hoodwinked millions of Jewish Americans into supporting “Americans for Peace Now”, an anti-zionist organization, quite clearly…J Street is another. r nTrudy is quite right, these people and organizations must be confronted, humiliated and put out of business, for good; for lack of funds.
Rabbis? Schmucks with ear laps is closer to the truth.
What's an ear lap? Schmuck I know, and though all rabbis should have one, many on this list don't.
There are four levels of Jewish stupidity: n n1. Putz – that's a real jerk. n n2. Schmuck – that's a stupid putz who's out of touch with reality. n n3. Schmuck with ear laps – that's a hopeless schmuck who is completely useless. n n4. Coonya Lemel – that's a schmuck with ear laps wrapped in rolls of cotton tape and covered with honey; many of the these s0-called rabbis qualify for this unique distinction. Sort of a George Soros with a lisp. n nI hope that is helpful.
“Rabbis for Obama” group, with rabbis from almost 40 states, includes some of the most enthusiastic supporters of sanctions against the Jewish state, including the Jewish Voice for Peace whose leadership is star-studded with names like Chava Bahle, Suttons Bay, MI, Rachel Evelyne Barenblat, Lanesboro, MA, Haim Beliak, Los Angeles, Lynn Gottlieb, Berkeley, Linda Holtzman, Philadelphia, Rebecca Lillian, Chicago, David Mivasair, State College, PA, and Brant Rosen, Evanston, IL. To date, nothing has helped to better define Obama as the most anti-Israel president since Jimmy Carter.
just because they have the word "Jewish" in their name doesn't make them friends of the Jewish State. and any president who counts on "Jewish Voices for Peace" to prove he's pro-Israel simply doesn't understand what being pro-Israel means.
Sad but true. Growing up, I always thought that a Rabbi had three things he/she believed in: G-d, Torah and Israel. Finding out that this does not apply to all Rabbis is like finding out that Santa is not real!
In fact the Goldstone report didn't present any evidence — only allegations.