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The Tuesday The Rabbi Saw Red

In its rush to the loony left, Reform Judaism leaves a left-wing rabbi behind
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A reader who describes himself as a “pretty left-wing guy, a Bernie-voting vegan” who is also a rabbi has hit the wall with his liberal co-religionists. He sends in this statement by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the Reform Jewish community in the US, saying that one of the lessons of the Holocaust is that cross-crapping must be permitted. Excerpt:

The coming days will see somber commemorations, as we remember the six million Jews who died in the Shoah. The pain we feel as we remember all those unfinished lives is still numbing. The Jewish people have learned well that intolerance and bigotry undermine the sacred core of our communities, and so, wherever we see bigotry and hatred in our world, we are commanded to stand for acceptance and love.

Jewish stars contain within them two triangles, which can awaken us to awareness and activism. This year especially, let us remember all the victims of hatred and intolerance by speaking out against the many efforts underway to legally restrict the freedom and dignity of God’s LGBTQ children. Let our remembrance lead us to act courageously and consistently as we partner with the Holy One in shaping a more just, compassionate, and inclusive world for all. Our God demands nothing less.

The rabbi reader who sent this in says:

At a time when Israel is both unsafe and tearing itself apart, Judaism is on the decline in all but the ultra-Orthodox sectors, there’s vast , real problems in America. . . the largest Jewish denomination in the USA passes a Trans inclusion resolution at its Biennial and that’s what makes the news.

The rabbi also sends in this statement from a gay rabbi in North Carolina, who says that opposing LGBT is just like Jim Crow, and the NC legislation is un-Jewish because “we are all created in the image of the divine, lending each of us, in whatever bodies, genders, and expressions we choose, a spark of godliness. ”

Finally, the rabbi sends along this hathotic announcement of an upcoming Jewish human rights awards banquet in NYC, hosted by the actress who plays the rabbi in the TV series Transparent. Says the (real) rabbi:

T’ruah (name of rabbinic human rights group- great folks, do great work, name is the sound of the shofar), which does work on labor rights, Israel-Palestine, anti-torture- good stuff- apparently can’t imagine that not every rabbi who would agree that religious leaders who oppose labor exploitation and torture and solitary confinement think it’s cool that the non-Jewish actress who validates transgender ideology on TV would host the gala.

Please note: in no way am I saying that a non Jewish person shouldn’t host a Jewish fundraising gala. My point is that this actress’s sole claim to representing rabbinic or human rights values is that she plays a rabbi on TV, one who validates the left-wing cause of the day and is explicitly written to be the modern rabbi who critiques all traditional religious values.

I have been a lefty since birth, and yet every year I wonder more and more why it is that these people can’t understand how they come across to anybody outside the bubble.

This brings to mine a 2014 blog entry at Commentary by Jonathan S. Tobin, remarking on the decision by a prominent Reform rabbi to leave the rabbinate to become a social worker. Excerpt:

His decision to leave doesn’t mean that Beth Elohim will collapse. But it does show that when you start treating Judaism as merely a vehicle for liberal social activism, it’s difficult to resist the impulse to eliminate the middleman. Bachmann may not be renouncing his faith or even his calling as a rabbi but, as we learn in the Times account of his decision making process that he has discovered that he’s a lot more interested in spending his life advancing the anti-poverty agenda than in teaching Judaism to a generation of Jews who are desperately in need of leaders able to reach them.

One needs to be careful about going too far with this line of reasoning, but, it’s difficult to criticize the Times for assuming that there is a connection between the rapid decline in affiliation and synagogue attendance and the way many non-Orthodox Jews believe their faith is synonymous with liberal activism rather than a civilization and a people that transcends the particular political fashion of our own time.

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