Jewish Organizations Are Failing the Jews
Sometimes running a blog can seem a lot like hosting a web gathering place for political lonely hearts — particularly running a right-leaning site in very left-leaning Massachusetts. I regularly receive emails thanking me for my site and lamenting the loneliness and seeming futility of it all. With the recent uptick in anti-Semitism, people walking the streets in our hometowns with signs comparing Jews to Nazis, and a perceived anemic reaction on the part of an organized Jewish community we’ve come to expect so much of, the calls have been coming even more frequently than usual.
Here’s one recent cri de coeur:
I’ve been growing increasingly concerned about the Boston Jewish community’s reaction, or non-reaction, to anti-Semitism. I recently learned that the coming week is “Israel Apartheid Week” with demonstrations planned at UMass, Ruggles T stop, and Boston College. [There was a lot more than that. — MS] As far as I can tell, nothing has been planned in response. Unless there is something I don’t know about, the lack of response to these distortions is like failing to move from an oncoming train. But when I express my concern to friends and family — even my husband — I’m met with shrugs and a “what can you do?” attitude. Am I the only one to feel that the organized leadership is not doing its job here? I’d love to have some input beyond my relatively small circle.
Dear Increasingly Concerned:
No, you are not alone in feeling organized leadership has been asleep at the switch. I know quite a few local grassroots activists who feel the local mainstream orgs are next to useless. They’re so focused on shmoozing behind the scenes, playing politics, and dabbling in leftist politics unrelated to Judaism that they seem to have lost the thread. I recently did an analysis of email alerts sent out by our local Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC — an agency of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, with branches across the country and the agency most expected to get involved in coordinating street-level activism) that found that fully 37 percent of Boston JCRC action alerts have nothing to do with Jews or Israel. That 37% involved such important Jewish issues as global warming, tuition discounts for illegal aliens, immigration issues, affordable housing, labor issues, opposition to tax cuts — you get the picture. They’re all issues upon which reasonable people may disagree, but certainly nothing that people who think they are giving money to help the Jewish community in a time of crisis would expect their money to be going to — and I was generous when deciding my metric for deriving that 37% number. It could easily have been worse.
The “mainstream” orgs just don’t seem to feel that anything near the street matters. As long as the governor’s office picks up the phone when they call, they feel like they are successfully justifying their salaries. Someday they’re going to discover that after all that high-level backslapping they’ve had the rug pulled out from under them. So Governor Deval Patrick shows up at a pro-Israel rally — success! He shows up shortly after at a forum sponsored by the Muslim American Society (a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the group behind the new Boston mega-mosque) — silence. The orgs are moneymaking operations. What will appeal to the elderly Jews who might put CJP in their wills? That’s what the leadership asks themselves.
Is Super Sunday (the big fundraising day) more important than survival? Is “Israel” just a marketing tool to perpetuate big salaries and generous perks while these same pitchmen work assiduously behind the scenes to undermine the work of the smaller organizations and local activists who actually fight? Would the fundraising glad-handers rather make nice with representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood and curry relations with non-Jewish groups than cooperate with Jewish groups that happen not to share their definition of what constitutes “social justice”? (Say, wasn’t that the name of Father Coughlin’s rag?) Can you imagine groups whose public priorities are purported to be Jews and Israel actually being ruled by fears of appearing too “particularistic”? Believe it.
You have put your finger right on it. Isnt it sad that history repeats itself. The Jews of the West have almost made it back to the 30′s, trying to hide from and ignore the ever growing din of what is becoming mainstream anti semitism. The Jewish leadership is trying to deflect and hide from the obvious growing animosity towards Israel and the Jews, with the self defeating tactic of keeping a low profile, keeping their perks, keeping their stature in the Democratic party and so on. I note that the most shrill criticism of Israel in the US/European media always seems to have a Jewish surname at the end of it.
Time to wake up before its too late.
As a Christian, let me make this observation about the Jewish community. I understand there is a long tradition of liberalism in Jewish thought and politics, but for the last 30 years at least (think Presidents Carter and Obama especially), liberals who control the Democrat Party have not been very friendly to Jews or to Israel. They have supported racial preferences which favors less qualified African-Americans over more qualified Jews, and they have been bashing Israel to make concession after concession to Hamas, the latest re-incarnation of Nazism. I can understand why black people gravitate to the Democrat Party: a large percentage of them want the government to treat them like children, and the Democrat Party is only to happy oblige them with pats on the head and racial preferences. But I can’t understand for the life of me why so many Jews keep voting for Democrats. It’s like signing your own death warrant.
Martin I’m a Catholic from Australia and want to thank you for your efforts.
I’ve understood the threats the West faces, but the point you make I’ve understood last and with greatest shock. “How could the Jews, after everything, not be vigilant?” “How could their leadership be so blind, even actively opposing their few friends?”
This almost requires a preternatural explanation.
Godspeed Martin.
I think a better discussion of this phenomenon is an article entitled “The Jewish Stockholm Syndrome.” Jewish people are condeming themselves to relive history. Their support for far-left causes these days is akin to their support of Lenin and his communists hordes; these Jews soon found themselves in Stalin’s gulags. I go to Jewish organizations and synogogues and frequently find that they are nothing but extensions of the democratic party, giving us a watered down PC Jewish experience. The new commandments seem to be to fight global warming, “social justice” (for anyone but Jews), inclusiveness and multiculturalism (it is so bad that in some congegations, the masculine pronoun for G-d is verboten), gay marriage, universal healthcare, etc. What happened to G-d and spirituality? I want to join a synogogue, NOT a democratic social club.
Don’t ever underestimate the ability of a Jew to sell another Jew down the river. These left wing Jewish leaders will burnish their liberal credentials at the expense of the Jewish people. Just recall how in a protest against the leader of Iran at the UN last year, they dis-invited Sarah Palin, a truly disgraceful act, but had Hillary speak, who wants to give scholarships to the progeny of brainwashed Palestinian terrorists.
Were you on the streets with a one-man counter-rally? Rather than complain, set an example.
Right on, Martin! The other side has synagogue and church outreach programs. Why don’t we work to organize the same type of thing to help wake people up?
Jews ARE waking up to the dangers of liberalism and are embracing conservativism, especially here in Canada. At a recent solidarity rally for Israel in Toronto, the Tory representative got several standing ovations and was barely able to speak due to the constant clapping and cheering from the crowd. The liberal MP’s welcome was subdued, to say the least. PM Stephen Harper is responsible for this turnabout. Those who still adhere to the dinosaur-like belief that democrats are “good for the Jews” are slowly moving to the centre-right. This is largely due to the constant Israel-bashing from the far left.
Totally correct. In addition, many churches support the Palestinian (pro-terror) position. Where is the JCRC outreach? There needs to be more TRUE dialogue – about Israel and anti-semitism, not other issues – between churches and synagogues. How about every synagogue ‘adopting’ a couple of churches to present a more balanced picture than what’s presented in MSM?
Let me be contrarian here.
Jewish groups have never assumed the responsibility of trying to stop antisemitism. We are about to read, during Passover, about the inevitability of of this disease. They can’t stop it from occurring. Their strategy has been to carefully pick which battles to fight. For many years, the act of refraining from labeling every linguistic slight or country club ‘restriction’–refraining from creating a constant din of accusations–has been quite effective.
The strategy was no match for the amount of petrodollars that flooded into the country, into the academy, into any number of ‘grassroots’ organizations, whose members gradually moved into news organizations–the sole purpose has been to destroy the State of Israel–by portraying Israel as the majority oppressor in the middle east. The Jewish groups were taken by surprise as antisemitism morphed into anti-zionism, and now, it’s back again as anti-semitism.
And besides, if Jewish organizations needed to devote all of their time and energy debunking a myth that any sentient being can see is false simply by looking at a map–then the problem has grown to proportions beyond their ability to effectively deal with it.
Right now, it appears that these organizations are trying to hunker down where they are strong, in the Democratic Party, for instance.
That being said, Jewish groups, to generalize, like to think of themselves as modern, and today modern means not being religious. Well, if a Jew doesn’t want to be religious, then define ‘Jew’. This is tantamount to Spiderman getting caught in his own web.
And that is where the problems truly have their roots–in the inability of Jewish educational institutions, that is, Hebrew schools, day schools, and pulpit rabbis, to effectively teach Jews themselves who we are, why we are, and what we are about. Consequently, this lets other folks do a more effective job of defining us. And this has never worked to our benefit–that is, it has always had disastrous consequences.
As a Christian on the outside looking in, it seems incredible to me that Jews in America have managed to successfully “forget” what can happen when those who hate them become ascendant, and instead of confronting Antisemitism, the Jihad and Muslim threats to Jews and to Israel’s existence head on, are busily, compulsively, engaged in an orgy of misdirected activism, politicking and philanthropy, afraid to even acknowledge the existence of or to turn their heads and actually look at their enemies, and, instead, frittering away their resources and energy on trendy causes that, while perhaps worthy, are a major drain and destraction from what should be Jew’s main and only concern, the battle to survive the increasingly concerted, world-wide attempts to destroy them as a people; I expect an increasing tide of Jewish refugees from a hostile Europe to hit our shores in the next decade.
Denial rules and allegedly intelligent Jews–needy, gullible–”you like me, you really like me” and lemming like–automatically follow whatever current Democratic demagogue–no real friend of Jews–arrives to help their denial along, and to lead them ever closer towards the edge of the cliff.
I live in Boston and as a sephardic orthodox Jew and green card immigrant, I see the Boston jewish community exactly as you do.
No leadership, confusing judaism with politics(democrats only) and always ready to pay attention to the Papua New Guinea ecological problems instead of jewish issues: tuition, child care, solidarity with our elders abandoned in Boston’s retirement houses, anti-semitism in campus and so on!
Don’t be surprised. All these anti-jewish and anti-Israel activities have always a jew behind them.
Just go to MIT and Harvard.
Sick!
At the root of the American Jewish (the Israeli perspective is rather different) error is faulty analysis and inability/unwillingness to recognize changes to the political landscape. The faulty analysis part is seeing the primary enemy as Fascism, and committing the “enemy of an enemy” error to conclude that salvation lies in Communism. Most American Jews are still fighting Hitler by embracing any and all things left of center.
Then to compound that, they ignore the fact that Fascism as we knew it in 1930s is as dead as Elvis, and a different form of Fascism (ironically embraced by the left) is on the rise.
So Hitler’s dead, Stalin’s dead, Nazism was vanquished, and Communism is thoroughly discredited, an enemy as virulent and dangerous as Hitler is on the rise, and what to they do? They’re still trying to support Stalin in the hopes that he’ll defeat Hitler. And in the process, they’re supporting the new Nazis.
Intelligent, my butt.
Others have said it, but it is worth repeating:
Jews in America are very religious, but the religion is not Judaism, it’s liberalism.
Does anyone know of a survey that compares the attitudes towards Israel of American evangelical Christians and American Jews? I strongly suspect that American evangelical Christians are more pro-Israel than American Jews.
It’s much worse than that, though. In some places, local Jewish organizations are actually helping antisemitism – the theater in the JCC in Washington, DC is putting up a production of “Seven Jewish Children” (2009′s “My Name is Rachel Corrie”). I don’t understand how this can happen.
http://tinyurl.com/dxgvfv
LB: Here is the beloved Elder of Zion’s Magnus Opum Contraire:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/03/seven-arab-children.html
Be careful among your fellow Jews who are staunch liberal: they are actually encouraging anti-semiticism by doing nothing and rationalizing arguments passively. They are allowing Islamic orgs in America become more powerful (now thanks to Obama) while the Islamic orgs are doing nothing to stop or deter anti-semiticism within the ranks and from guest speakers who come to America to preach anti-Western/radical jihad craps. Debbie Schlussel warn of this many times in her hometown.
The worst of it is that liberal Jews are actually making anti-semitcism the norm in the American consciousness (it’s still a taboo subject now), because if other non-Jewish Americans SEE what the Jews doing nothing to stop it, then Americans would come to an unfortunate conclusion that it must be a norm anyway (“if American Muslims are still bashing the Jews, then I guess it is okay to bash Jews as well”). I have yet to see any major Islamic org (such as CAIR or MAS) coming out to sincerely condemn anti-semiticism so far and that’s bad.
Speaking of ADL, stay away from them! Especially Abe Foxman. Far, far, far left no matter what Foxman or ADL tell you otherwise. Jewish conservatives and moderates should shun ADL and form a core group really dedicated to combating anti-semiticism and Islamic fundamentalism, support individual rights and freedom, AND exposing the hypocrisy of Jewish liberalism in America.
I recommend Ruth Wisse’s book: “If I am not for Myself; The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews”. She absolutely pegs the moral dilemma Western Jews face when they curry favor with self-styled liberals in a futile attempt at acceptance, rather than standing up for themselves.
I suspect that, when the final betrayal comes, far too many of my fellow Jews will be shocked and outraged, when in fact, the handwriting has been on the wall for quite some time.
Boy does this ever have it right. The far left is just GREAT at mobilizing dumb, disaffected college kids,paid non-profit staff and various low lifes to agitate for virtually every cause inimical to the survival of freedom and liberty. And they are terrific where it comes to keeping at it.
And while this is all going on, organized Jewry in affluent America is absolutely preoccupied with ……………….WHAT?: Abortion rights, global warming and stem cell research.
If, to paraphrase and invert the saying, history repeats itself first as farce and later as tragedy, it is altogether manifest that we are now deep into the farce stage. Can we be marching mindlessly as the tune plays to tragedy? From the available evidence that is where we appear to be headed.
I note, also, a lot of this “People of the Book” crap, with various Rabbis and congregations doing all sorts of woolly headed liberal outreach to Muslims, and indulging in all sorts of interfaith meetings and dialogues, in the hope, I guess, that if they pet and feed the hungry tiger and pretend it is a kitten, it will not eat them.
If Jews actually studied the three fundamental texts of Islam–the Qur’an, the Principle Hadiths (the Words and Deeds of the Prophet and His Companions) and the Sira (Ibn Ishaq’s earliest biography of Muhammad),and read a little Bat Ye’or and Robert Bostom on the history of how Muslims have treated unbelievers during this last 1,400 years, clicked on MEMRI.org and listened to Imams raving about killing Jews in influential mosques throughout the world, watched the popular series based on the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” on Egyptian TV–a big hit, I understand, with Muslim families gathered together in front of TV screens at Ramadan, look at a little of the Palestinian TV equivalent of “Sesame Street,” and hear little children tell how they want to grow up to be suicide bombers and kill Jews, understood what the terms “Takiyya” and “Kitman,” “Naskh” (Abrogation) and “Hudna” mean, and paid attenton to the Muslim Brotherhood’s (Ikhwan) plans for the United States, as revealed in uncontested documents entered into evidence by the Justice Department at the recent Holy Land terrorism funding trial:
“The Ikhwan [The Muslim Brotherhood's name for itself] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
I would hope that such self-deceiving and self-defeating “dialogues” would be largely a thing of the past.
“I would hope that such self-deceiving and self-defeating “dialogues” would be largely a thing of the past.”
Sorry, Wolla Dalbo, Facing reality wouldn’t make a dent in their mental armor.
In my family, most of the anger is directed at those shocking observant Jews (religious fanatics) and those “scary Christian Evangelicals” who only pretend to support Jews, but really want to force them into conversion (you get the picture). That Christian Evangelicals are among the few people in this country who could be counted on to physically come to their defense is just not relevant to them. When I pointed this out to a relative, she insisted that she would refuse to be protected by such people.
When you abandon your own identity in an effort to be accepted, it can be pretty scary to realize that you gave up what really matters for nothing.
A well-written and much-needed piece, Mr. Solomon. Congratulations! The situation you describe in Boston is every bit as dire and as ominous here in my home town of St. Louis (and, I suspect, in many other American cities). What you’re describing is, I believe, a classic case of denial — of refusal to face the truth because the truth is too fearsome.
What is this fearsome truth? It’s the truth that (1)Islamism is a genuine — and worsening — threat to the continued existence of the Jewish people; (2) that this threat concerns not just the Jews of Israel, but the Jews of the United States; and (3) that theis threat to the Jews of the United States is intensifying with every passing day, as Jewish birth rates dwindle and as Muslim immigration to this country increases, and Muslim birthrates remain far higher than Jewish.
It will not be long before the Muslim population of this country far exceeds the Jewish. When that happens, the political climate in this country will undergo a massive shift. Jewish influence in the halls of power will shrink, and Muslim influence will swell. This is the reality — the harsh and potentous reality — that most American Jews are too cowardly to face. Hence the denial.
Like children fearful of the bogeyman, most American Jews console themselves by escaping into a fantasy world where “the liberals will take care of me.” An honest look at the actions of the Obama administration pertaining to Jews –the selection of Samantha Power as a presidential adviser, the near-selection of Charles Freeman as presidential intelligence adviser, the grant of millions of dollars to “rebuild Gaza,” and on and on — would quickly disabuse them of this fantasy. But, because they’re terrified of what they might see, they won’t take an honest look.
Unless America’s Jews turn their fear into courage and resolve, the future of American Jewry looks foreboding. Right now, I’d say the survival prospects for Israel’s Jews look better than the survival prospects for America’s.
and a different form of Fascism (ironically embraced by the left) is on the rise.
Self-hating Boomer,
Fascism was always a leftist, socialist polity. The Nazis were socialists.
See Hitler’s 1927 Mayday speech
Toland in his book p306 quoted:
“We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions”
The biggest bit of disinformation of the 20th Century was that Nazism was Rightwing; right of Stalin but far left.
Pity education authorities removed history in an unexpurgated version from curricula.
Allow me to be contrarian once more.
Framing the problem is very complicated. One of the reasons is that Jews have never had a large population, let alone unified population. If the new Islamic brand of fascism is successful–and it might be, the Jews won’t be the only ones caught off guard. Europe is falling simply because they will lose the population race. That is a choice they made, not to have children.
But even if all Jews were to have big families, population was never an alternative. Neither is violence. Oh yes, of course Israel has to defend itself. But at best, they buy time until the next time the battle intensifies. It’s been that way since 1948, one long war.
So, if you eliminate brute force of number and brute force of weapons as solutions–by the way, the two main weapons of the Arab world–then what is left? This is exactly the kind of dynamic that leads to denial, having no viable solutions to address a problem, that, in our hearts, we are well aware.
But, intellectually, both the Jews and the western world have to get into that painted corner in order to get out. But that is one fearsome corner.
Sol: I couldn’t have said it better except that you can articulate much better than I. I have been spouting this for several years much to the chagrin of most of my peers. But what is to be done about it. Grassroots organization spout up because most of the mainstream are inept. Then the grassroots wind up being the mainstream and the original mainstream are still with us, all of whom are sucking the financial blood out of us. I am afraid there is no answer.
Those who have been oppressed grow weary of always being watchful and are vulnerable to those who give the appearance of acceptance and protection. Progressives, whose ideas have some overlap with Judaism (though hardly as much as advertised) have offered this acceptance, but only at the price of conversion. Not conversion to Christianity, but to liberalism. The road to this conversion has been long and without signposts, but many have taken it. Many Jews can no longer distinguish progressivism with a sprinkling of yiddish words and a NYC bias from actual Judaism.
It is a profoundly sad development on many levels.
Political Islam is a threat to Israel and the Jews. Political Islam is also a threat to Americans, Indians, Thais, and anyone else who stands in its way.
Yet American, Thai, European, Hindu, Catholic, Buddhist, secular and other politicians (and political groups) from the entire political spectrum, left to right, ally with Muslim brotherhood groups and Islamofascist regimes like Iran, Saudi Arabia.
Why do they do this? They think that working with a form of evil that appears to be popular and powerful will help their careers and their finances.
When people from any group see their leaders working with their enemies, it makes them lose hope. Or, it makes them turn to extremists who are willing to fight Islamic groups. This may explain why some Europeans in countries like Austria are voting for Nazis in an effort to “do something” about Muslim immigrants.
When our fascists are beating up their fascists, we can only be certain of one thing – the fascists will win. The best way to avoid this kind of scenario is for moderate, reasonable voices to start speaking up.
And you’re right, they have to start doing it now.
As an example of the entering wedge, I offer the first Muslim elected to Congress, Minnesota’s Congressman Keith Ellison–recently back from the Hajj to Mecca, paid for by a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/08/rep-ellison-makes-pilgrimage-paid-group-critics-extremism/), who demanded that he be allowed to swear his oath of office on the Qur”an, and cleverly quelled many objections by using Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Qur’an to swear on; a Qur’an which lables unbelievers as “the vilest of creatures,” replete with advice like “kill the unbelievers wherever you find them” and which says that the only legitimate government is Islam and Shari’a law. (Had Ellison used a Bible, there is a Hadith that says that any oaths that a Muslim might have to swear by any deity other than Allah are invalid.)
Then, there is far Left Congressman John Conyers, Chairman of the key House Judiciary Committee, who represents heavily Muslim areas in and around Detroit (his official website is in English and Arabic), has repeatedly pressed for legislation gutting attempts by the government to investigate possible terrorist activities by Muslims in the U.S. under the theory that it is “profiling,” and who is in an excellent position to block legislation unfriendly to Muslims, and to promote legislation that is.
Finally, I offer Barack Hussain Obama, who has not to this day presented his original birth certificate to prove that he is a “a natural born citizen”–as the Constitution requires, whose campaign website denied the early Muslim childhood education that Obama himself wrote about in his autobiographical “Dreams From My Father,” whose father and step-father were Muslims and whose paternal family–although you hardly knew he had one during the campaign–is almost exclusively Muslim, and who was mysteriously able to travel to Indonesia several decades ago at a time when the orthodox Muslim government then in charge barred foreign unbelievers from entry.
It was also Obama, when he was a U.S. Senator, who took a little reported trip on the taxpayer’s nickel to Kenya, so that he and Michelle could spend several days in intense campaigning for his fellow Luo tribesman and “cousin,” East German educated Marxist and Muslim Raila Odinga, nicknamed the “Butcher of Kenya” for all the murders his machete wielding mobs of supporters have committed–Christians are a favorite target. During this campaign Odinga signed an agreement with Muslim leaders that provided that, in exchange for Muslim leaders delivering the Muslim vote, Odinga, if he won, would impose Shari’a law on majority Christian Kenya and suppress Christian worship in that country; Odinga denied signing such a document, whereupon Muslim leaders released to the press the original copy of the detailed agreement signed by Odinga.
Given the extremely high birth rate of Muslims already in this country and their geographic, and, therefore, economic and political concentration, supplemented by our government’s efforts to import even more Muslim “refugees”–hundreds of thousands of Somalis already and now, Iraqis and Palestinians–their political power can only increase.
The Jewish Malady
Its hard to get active and vocal and try to make a difference. That would mean less time at the country club, I’d have to drive somewhere in my mercedes, I’d have to write a letter, I’d have to get on the phone. Can’t I just write a check to some one, let him do the fighting, let him stand alone, then I could say I helped, I sent a check.
As For Children
Its hard enough to raise one child let alone two, its hard to raise two children let alone three, its hard to raise three children let alone more, no Jew has more than three children, haven’t you heard of overpopulation?
What Is Right
Every Jew stands for what is right, overpopulation/against it, pollution/against it, special rights for minority groups/for it, gun control/for it, global warming/against it……but who will stand for us?
The Saturday Rituals
Wake up, nuzzle my wife, let the dog out, let the cat in, get the newspaper, eat breakfast, have an extra cup of coffee, read the paper,
check my messages, make some phone calls, take a shower…..too late for the synagogue. Aren’t Saturday mornings great?
@Still Bill
Lets be honest. Has voting for Democrats improved the lives of African Americans either? The ghettos in every city would say not. Unfortunately identity politics rule both Jewish and Black people’s voting records.
What a magnificent piece of writing. If anything, though, it is too mild. The story of the organized American Jewish Community in the 21st century will be known by the three “C’s”:
Cowardice
Complicity and
Collapse
In the history of the world (and I say this without hyperbole), there has never been a more treasonous intra-ethnic movement than there is now among American Jews. Faced with destruction for the second time in 65 years, Jews (overwhelmingly identified with the Reform Movement, Reconstructionists and other fringe, leftist groups masquerading as religious ones) have to put up with a timorous, betraying leadership that believes they will be eaten last. In the glaring face of an administration that is rapidly selling out Israel (Samantha Power, Brzezinski, Rice, Scowcroft and Malley)most American Jews are now actively identifying with the aggressor (the faux people, “Palestinians”). This psychopathology, while restricted to sporadic outbreaks in the past has now reached epidemic proportions. Martin Solomon has the pulse of this tragedy. We’re waiting for more from him.
Dear Abe Foxman of the ADL: You are a general fighting the last war. Christians are not trying to “EXTERMINATE” Jews. I’ll give you a multiple choice question: What religion wants to EXTERMINATE Jews: (a) Islam; (b) Islam; (c) Islam. Did you answer the question correctly? “Know thine enemies!” Fool.
Dear Abe: You are not with the ADL, the Arab Defense League; you are with the JDL, the Jewish Defense League. I always try to give a fool his proper attribution. A “useful idiot” deserves a correct attribution.
It’s much more simple than all written above.
80 pct of the Jews who voted for the first president a black man, well Carter but who knew when he was campaigning, who could absolve all Jews of the guilt of not marching in Selma nor having been on the freedom rides.
“I couldn’t march in the ’60′s but look what I did, I voted for the black man”. Maybe it would be good if we had the confessional thing and could have gotten absolved of this way back in the day.
Jamie Gorelick: Give back the money. You made sure 9/11 would happen. Give back the money.
Was surfing WND and came across this site. Interesting thread. Here’s my story: I’m Jewish, middle age, and was born and raised in the Boston area…lived in Brookline for over a decade. I finally couldn’t take Massachusetts anymore because of its crazy liberals…particularly the Jews. As I spent years surrounded by my fellow rabid liberal Jews, I came to the realization that I wanted NOTHING to do with them. They knew nothing of Jewish history and nothing of Israel…and they hated America. Religion to them is eating a bagel and arguing about the right of women to get an abortion (THE defining issue for Jews since Jewish women pretty much lead Jewish men around by their noses), as well as denigrating the vast majority of good, everyday Americans (all of whom are Nazis of course).
I came to the realization that academic smarts – which we Jews possess — does not mean life smarts. For a pretty smart goup of people, the 95% of Jews who are liberal are really the dumbest animals on the planet since they so blindly subscribe to Socialism, their true religion. And they don’t even know that the Nazis were Socialists! They think they were right-wingers. What morons. I lost all respect for the Jewish community and avoid it like the plague.
Yup, I had it. I dropped out of the community because I couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t care what happens to them (I can’t even say I belong anymore) because they are all such losers. I’d much rather hang out and be friends with Christian conservatives who support Israel and America than Jewish liberals who hate both.
Anyway, good to know there are still some regular, normal Jewish Americans since you are posting to this site. My recommendation to all of you is to leave Massachusetts, just like I did…it’s a lost cause for you. There is nothing you can do to change it. It will only get worse and worse as time goes by. There is a liberal cultural there among the whole population that is too entrenched to fight. Just look at your elected officials – all Dems/Libs. Even if you go to another place where there are lots of liberals, like NYC, it is a lot better because they aren’t as militant, hostile, and vocal as they are in Mass.
The real goal though is for normal Jews to move to the mid-Atlantic states or the South…this is where regular Americans with nice dipositions live. People with normal values, who are patriotic, know about American history, and respect the rule of Constitutional law.
Good luck to all you good conservative Jews in Boston…and I mean that, because that’s the only thing that will help you maintain your sanity among your (i can’t even bring myself to say “our” anymore) totally screwed up Jewish brothers and sisters.
By purported estimates, TWO-THIRDS OF VOTING JEWS VOTED FOR OBAMA. This is amzaing, as some of Obama’s closest pre-election “advisors” were either openly hostile to Israel (Susan Powers) or blatantly anti-Jew (Rashidi). Obama’s nomination of that Jew Hater Freeman gives real insight into the mind of the man Jews supported overwhelmingly. I love Israel and have great respect for the Jewish people. But sometimes I just have to acknowledge that they can be their own worst enemy.
James, you forgot Rahm Emanuel, whose father helped built modern Israel. You kinda ask, “What went wrong?”.
# 36 James: As a Catholic I will not not comment on who the Jews’s worst enemy is, except to say that it’s not Christians. The last time I checked, Jesus was a Jew, and if being a Jew is good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me. I love Jesus amd I love Jews. GOD BLESS AMERICA.
I am from a family of Jewish liberals. They are very biggoted in my opinion, convinced that American Christians are all stupid, dangerous, racist, war mongers.
Non-believing Jews, as well as most people who reject traditional Judeao-Christian values practice left wing ideology and left wing politics as a substitute religion. We all need to have beliefs of some kind to help us make sense of things, and American leftist are no exception.
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the politics of most of my family members has led me to wonder if the Jews in Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany had “hope” in their new governments and walked in to the death camps relieved that gun control had finaly been enacted.
Thanks for an excellent article. I have given up trying to figure about why so many American Jews voted for someone like OBUMA. The fact remains that islam and islamofacism is the greatest threat to All JEWS, American, European, whererevr they live. The anti semitism and hatred that is in the qur’an, hadiths and sira towards the Jews has been in
place since the 7th century. The treatment of the Jews at the hands of islam is disgusting, violent and cannot be hidden, smoothed over or white washed.
#19 Wallo Dalbo has it correct.
“I note, also, a lot of this “People of the Book” crap, with various Rabbis and congregations doing all sorts of woolly headed liberal outreach to Muslims, and indulging in all sorts of interfaith meetings and dialogues, in the hope, I guess, that if they pet and feed the hungry tiger and pretend it is a kitten, it will not eat them.”
Very true and it will do NO GOOD to feed the hands that want to cut off the head of every Jew, and infidel. That what islam’s goal is, that and complete, total world domination under an islamic caliphate, ruled by sharia law.
islam is not a religion but an ideaology that teaches and supports violence and death, waged through jihad. It can be outright wars or done as mentioned by Wallo Dalbo(see post#19)through stealth jihad, from the inside out. Cair, the MB. MSA, any and ALL muslim organizations are just tools of the jihad being waged. Especially against Jews and those that live anywhere in FREE world. Those who pretend that anti-semitism and Jew hatred are just small, temporary events are missing the real threat here. It can happen again and this is how it started back in the 1930′s. OBUMA was never and NEVER will be a friend of the Jews or Israel. Anyone who studied this charlatan’s political “career” should have been able to ascertain that. It is time for American Jews to wake up and start fighting back because they very well may be coming for you, and me. My powder is dry and one can never have enough.
When the IGNORANCE of those American Jews who voted for the mullah, who now squats in White House, they did not see or hear that this poser and liar was already deeply in bed with islam, and radical islam at that. It will only get worse as OBUMA and his racist adminitration do all they can to neutralize Israel and cast their lot with islam worldwide. Do not be fooled by those JINO who OBUMA has appointed into his cabinet of corrupted islamosympathizers.
Excellent article, Sol! Thank you so much! You said many things that needed to be voiced and heard.
Thank you, Pajamas Media, for running this superb and all-too-timely piece.
Sol, I have one slight issue with your statement that “… The big national groups are little better. ADL has been pretty good of late …”
I think you are being a little too generous here, Sol. I am a recipient of ADL’s regular e-mails (a couple or so per week), so I have a whole archive full of them, going back several years. I don’t think they’ve been that good. Possibly marginally better than they used to be, but then again, the reality changes and they have to try to keep pace with the facts on the ground. However, much of their slant is still part and parcel of the “Liberal Progressive” agenda. If you’d like to do some analysis on them, too (similar to the one you did on JCRC), I could forward you all those e-mails.
The basic problem with the ADL is pretty much the same as with JCRC. And don’t hold your breath for the new head of the AJC, either: Rob Leikind, who used to run the New England ADL out of Boston some years ago, before he stepped down to give way to his underling Andrew Tarsy (yet another kumbayologist), and who — for whatever reasons of political expediency — was David Harris’ pick as the latest head of Boston’s AJC, is the same type of a dhimmi: a representatively delusional and wishful thinking “Liberal Progressive,” just like most of them. He may not be as bad as the (very) bad old Larry Lowenthal, whose retirement we couldn’t wait for, but he ain’t no Abba Kovner.
The enemies within are much more dangerous than the enemies without, for they quietly undermine our ability to fight the external enemy, and often enough even aid and abet the enemy, serving either as apologists or useful idiots to those who are hellbent on our extermination. And I use the term “internal enemy” rather loosely here — one does not have to actively fight against one’s own to become the enemy “in effect, if not in intent” (to borrow a quote from Larry Summers who paid dearly for it).
On the face of it, those “mainstream” Jewish orgs are supposedly doing what their donors want. However, in the process of implementing their leftist policies and agendas, they not only waste the precious resources (which have dwindled now, courtesy of Maddoff and the crisis), but they often also serve the purposes of our sworn enemies, doing so out of political correctness and other similarly insane “reasons” — ON OUR DIME, no less!!!
But then again, what else is new? In WWII a similar thing was happening, when most of the Jews with the highest, most visible and powerful positions in the U.S. gov’t were playing it “safe” so as not to make waves and not attract attention to the fact that they themselves were Jewish. That dhimmi attitude cost countless Jewish lives.
When will the mainstream Jews wake up and make their donations conditional upon the Jewish establishment’s stepping up to the plate and fighting for what is right, rather than just for what is Left?
Immigration control.
Sol: Thanks for a nicely written article on this important issue! Of course, one must understand that your tone here is a kind understatement of the problem – following your blog (http://www.solomonia.com/blog/) one can easily see just how bad the situation really is.
A tremendous summing-up of our crisis.This should be required reading for every rabbi in America, with or without guitar.
You Jews who focus their wrath on Obama are confused.It is the Jews who are their own worst enemy. Try get Carl Wexler. David Axelrod, Sen Levin, David Sommers etc. to help.Thank God for the help of hillary Clinton, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon’s mother, Pastor John Hagee, Billie Brim, & 50 million evangelists. We Jews are blinded by tradition. Tradition is wonderful but to quote “Ben Gurion-We must be realistic & believe in miracles. Hashem left humanity to govern the earth & unless we Jews support the land of Israel, the people of Israel, & the Tora of Israel we have nothing.
PatriotUSA (and a few others) -
Judaism is about a lot more than politics. Politics are trivial compared to pursuing justice, glorifying G-d’s name, and perfecting the world.
Sure, I find the political views of the other people in my synagogue wrong and illogical. But I have no difficulty recognizing them as fellow Jews, struggling to make a good community and world. I (faintly) hope to influence their political views, but mainly I just want to support them as fellow Jews – and get the same from them.
I hope you will rethink retreating to the South and away from your fellow Yidden. You are more than simply Republican. You may not quite be able to put your finger on it, but you’ll feel something wrong when you’re out hunting deer Saturday morning with your new friends.
Reb Shlomo, #45, just curious, why is Hillary on that list? What specifically has she done? Her tenure so far as SOS isn’t starting out so well.
New Islamist tactics in France,
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2009/03/where-are-police.html
Just what pajamasmedia.com needs … more Jewish News. I’m pretty much done with this website. At some point this was a good alternative to huffingtonpost.com, but now this site is just Jewish News. There is so much more to current events. You can’t have 1/5 of the articles being “OMG Jew/Islam!!”. Who Cares?!
Trevor. You are a fine man, a true gentleman. The title of this article should have tipped you off that it was about a Jewish issue. Given your sensitive nature, you must avoid all articles that might have anything to do with the big problems facing my people. I presume though that I can count on you to be a righteous gentile once the next holocaust comes. Please do go back to your liberal blogs, but be forewarned there might be some liberal Jews lurking there. Come back and visit sometime, you may discover that you will have really missed us.
The problem is not so much with the Jewish community as it is with the “leaders” of the Jewish organizations. Many of them are actively trying to prevent the organization of groups/events that try to deal directly with the problem that Jews in the west are facing. One more than one occasion so called leaders have used their influence to hinder my attempts to take a direct approach to dealing with the hate-fest that is “Israel Apartheid Week” The whole thing sickens me.
Martin has hit upon a very important issue. Sarah Palin, an ardent Israel supporter was disinvited from speaking out against Ahmadinejad the day before he was warmly welcomed at the UN, with the support of Jewish groups! This was without question one the lowest moments in American Jewish history and I regret having lived to see it.
The question is what happens now? Obviously by looking at the posts here there are conservative Jews who understand what is happening, even in Boston! Where should we congregate, where should we organize? Are there organizations already in place where we can go forward and grow or do we need to start new ones? I do not think we can effect change from within the existing orgs that Sol speaks of.
I could not have said it better myself. Thank goodness I no longer feel alone and others have also taken up the cause.
Having been registered with the Democratic Party for many years and voting along party line, I have witnessed the hijacking of my once proud party by the radical liberal fringe and could never understand why other Jews could not see this. Unfortunately I now realize they not only see it but actively promote it.
I’ve since changed my party affiliation and hopefully others will join soon. If not,
sales of skin lotion will rise dramatically in response to the hand wringing among my co-religionists.
Oscar, can’t say it was a request of islamists, cuz young french and jews were among the manifestants, this was more a political support for Hamas in a well known store of the nonentheless well known surburb of St Denis, besides the video has been removed from palestinian sites and from dailymotion. I suppose that these people have been berated for doing so. Business is business, yes, in our so called “socialist” country (LMAO), the counter part would have been to boycott all the supplies by Halal, impossible for the financers that have no patry !
Foxman is Madoff:
The ADL is the biggest failure and indeed, a scandalous one. They refused to be the ADL for Israel when it was daily being defamed by the MSM. They still refuse to call out the Jewish nation to awaken to this new situation where the enemy is Islam, not Christianity.
Foxman is Madoff…. ADL is a Ponzi scheme to scare old Jews with right wing bogey men. Foxman hasn’t the ball to go after the real enemy. And he has the nerve to ask for more money now. They should cuff him to Madoff.
I scan all the comments and see a repeat or rehash of many years past, and still we have yet to learn where the constructive answer may be. Haters will be haters in each generation and a special magic of personal contatc with the jew/Israel hater may possibly change that but the fact is that most Americans know little to nothing about Jewish life and Israel and we jews as Individuals, with our organizations have failed for years to educate the great masses of well meaning americans who just dont know and just dont get it. I mean educate with creative media tools, no matter if grass roots or national, we have failed to explain what Israel is all about and explain this big mystery of jewish living and I dont mean matza ball soup ,which maybe all anyone knows. We have failed to use creative media tools. We have failed to educate Jews and non Jews. We have defined media as newspapers and TV news reporting warped and incorrect mid east news reports. I have yet to walk into our DC metro and see Hadassah do a poster campaign for equal health care for both Jew and Arab. I have yetr to see th eJerusalem info Office do a TV ad on touring and visiting Israel. I have yet to see synagogue signs out in front by the street say ISRAEL= Democracy, Freedom, and religious Tolerence. We support israel signs that we see now teaches nothing. We have left huge gaps education of creative educating messages unattended. When we leave these gaps of good info open, most often the wrong party comes along to fill the gap with all that is hateful, but that is our fault as individuals and as organizations. For sure our organizations have failed us. To be defensive is no being pro- active, but that is all we have ever been. Just getting out there in the streets may make us feel good in rolling up our sleeves and picking up a sign and screaming back at the haters in the street, but still the passer by with no understanding has learned nothing other than that jews can scream back. We better learn how to reach out creatively to assimilated Jews nd to educate creatively non-Jews with impressive inforamtion about Israel. The only people that seem to be doing it right are the Israel21C website people who generate great impressive info of israels accomplishments that most americans just dont know about. The other is Blue Star P.R. in Sanfrancisco that has generated tons of creative posters and outdoor billborads that educate the masses.
Avrum Ashery
Media professional, Graphic designer, Jewish educator
You get a lot of respect from me for writing these hluepfl articles.
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