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Monthly Archives: May 2022

Killing America’s Children

26 Thursday May 2022

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Uncategorized

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This was sent to me by my friend Steven Koltai, now living in Maine.

Here (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/25/us/gun-control-republican-senators.html) is a list of Senators and where they stand on gun legislation. Most of us have a home state (or vacation home state) on this list. Of course, we all have Congresspeople as well.

If you really care about chipping away at the control of guns in America, and you believe (as do I) that there is no realistic chance of changing the filibuster in the current 117th Congress OR, at least in the next Congress (118th), achieving 60 votes to change gun laws, then the very least we can do is write to our respective Senator to urge passage of pending legislation.

You can find a good list of pending legislation here (https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/policy-areas/other-laws-policies/key-federal-regulation-acts/).

You can find the address for your Representative and Senator here (https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm and https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative).

Feel free to copy and paste this letter.

BEGIN TEXT

Dear Senator ___,

Like 90% of Americans, I favor substantial tightening of gun laws. There are numerous (and soon to be even more) proposed bills that accomplish this. A good list appears here:  https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/policy-areas/other-laws-policies/key-federal-regulation-acts/.

I know you already know all the facts, including that guns are the #1 cause of death for children in the United States (true since 2020). There are no wealthy countries besides the US where this is true, and even among poor countries, most are safer for children than the US. We are in the same category as “failed states” or countries in outright state of war, such as El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Yemen, Syria, Ukraine, Somalia, Sudan, Congo and Myanmar.

I know you care deeply about human life. We can debate at what point in gestation a life begins, but surely, we cannot debate that a child sitting in a classroom is not only alive, but is precious and is our responsibility to protect.

I hope you will not only consider, but actually help lead the campaign to pass one of the pending laws already on the books, before this Congress ends.

Thanks much for your consideration.

[Your name, town and state]

Why Israel Matters – Rabbi Martin Weiner Memorial Lecture

24 Tuesday May 2022

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This past Friday evening (May 20, 2022), I delivered the first Rabbi Martin Weiner Memorial Lecture at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco where I served during my first 7 years as a rabbi (1979-1986) with Rabbi Marty Weiner, my senior rabbi, mentor, and life-long friend.

Marty invited me before Covid to speak about my 2019 book Why Israel [and its Future] Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation with an Afterword by my sons Daniel and David Rosove (New Jersey: Ben Yehuda Press), but the event was delayed until Marty called me this past October (2021) and we set the date for May 20. Sadly, Marty died at the beginning of March.

In my talk (with a Q and A period following my talk – also recorded) I address in as concise, clear, and nuanced way as possible, as I did in my book, our American liberal Jewish relationship to Israel. I knew that if I hoped to penetrate the thinking of younger generations of Jews (and older Jews too), I had to speak honestly to their questions, doubts, struggles, and need to understand why our relationship with Israel matters for our future and the future of the Jewish people.

For those interested, you can watch on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fHEmDRayWo

Vote Aarika Rhodes for Congress (CA-32) on June 7

23 Monday May 2022

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Uncategorized

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In October, I endorsed Aarika Rhodes, an exciting young candidate for Congress in California’s 32nd District, and now, two weeks before the June 7 primary election, I hope that those of you who live in CA32 will vote for her, or if you live elsewhere and know people who live in this district, ask them to vote for Aarika.

California’s 32nd congressional district covers communities in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and parts of Simi Valley including Toluca Lake, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Chatsworth, Northridge, Porter Ranch, Reseda, Canoga Park, and Pacific Palisades.

Aarika’s policy concerns include promoting education reform, parental leave, and foster care reform; addressing the socioeconomic conditions that give rise to poverty, hunger, and homelessness; promoting universal basic income, climate change, immigration, and criminal justice reform; expanding Medicare and a host of other issues (see website link below).

Aarika believes in working together with everyone (left, right, and center on the political spectrum) and bringing people of different backgrounds (racial, ethnic, national, and religious) together to find common ground and get important things done. By nature, she is a people-person, moderate in temperament, without guile, smart, curious, and well-spoken, energetic, and politically savvy. She hopes to be a model of honest and inspirational leadership for people of all ages, especially children and young people who she believes need positive role models to inspire them to engage in politics and public service.

Aarika is an award-winning elementary school teacher in math and science and not only loves children, but children love her.

As a woman of color (Aarika’s father is African-American and her mother is Chinese-American), I wanted especially to know her positions on Israel and peace with the Palestinians. She told me (without knowing my background as an American Progressive Zionist Rabbinic leader) that she strongly supports Israel’s security, is for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, justice for the Palestinian people, and had she been in Congress she would have voted for the $1 billion Iron Dome bill for Israel after the last Hamas-Israel war.

I have spent many hours one-one-one with Aarika discussing the issues she cares most about. I am comfortable with her and her views, and once I was persuaded that she would be a fresh dynamic and intelligent voice in Congress representing my own district (CA-32), I offered to advise her on Israel and Middle East affairs. She welcomed my help whole-heartedly.

Aarika Rhodes is challenging Congressman Brad Sherman in the June primary election. Her goal is to win one of the top two spots to qualify her for the run-off in the 2022 general election. She is the most serious challenger to Sherman among four other candidates.

Why am I supporting Aarika against Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman?

  • I agree with her on 85-90% of the issues.
  • I am a progressive American Zionist and Sherman’s positions vis a vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are to the right of my own.
  • It is time for a change in the congressional leadership of CA-32. Aarika Rhodes represents a new generation of young, dynamic, smart, able, compassionate, and can-do leaders who cares about people, equality, and justice, is humble, and wants to serve. She feels an affinity with the Jewish community and would be an important ally in Congress on issues domestic and foreign that the liberal American Jewish community supports.

I include below the link to Aarika’s website and a few short campaign videos so you can get a feel for her dynamism, political concerns, and positions (check her policy positions most especially).

Aarika Rhode’s Website – https://www.aarikaforcongress.com/

Aarika’s Campaign Videos

  • https://youtu.be/E6GkNTKYrm4
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg_6-jwasvU (KHV2)
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCEPpA4wj8w
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ElquaV_IrY

“Memo: President Biden’s Upcoming Visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territory”

15 Sunday May 2022

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Uncategorized

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Note: The following memo contains positions of J Street, a leading pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy political organization in our nation’s capital that advocates for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be negotiated between the two parties with American support and agency.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and President of J Street, was just named as one of the top 40 most influential foreign policy advocates in America. Since he created J Street in 2009, the organization has become a safe political space in Washington, D.C. for pro-Israel Congressional Representatives and Senators, as well as those in the Administration and amongst all Americans (Jewish and non-Jewish), to express their love and support for the State of Israel, its security and democracy while reserving the right to critique Israeli government policies that do not comport with liberal American Jewish values and what we believe to be in Israel’s best interest as a secure, democratic, and Jewish state.

J Street endorses more than 200 members of Congress who support two states for two peoples, American and Israeli democracy.

I have been a supporter of J Street almost from its beginnings, and serve as a co-chair of its 1000+ member Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet representing America’s Jewish religious streams.

The following is a memo from Jeremy Ben-Ami, President of J Street regarding President Biben’s upcoming visit in Israel:

“President Joe Biden is scheduled to make his first official trip to Israel as president next month. The trip provides an important opportunity for the President to reaffirm the strong bilateral ties between the countries as well as to reiterate US support for moves toward normalization between Israel and some Arab-majority countries and American opposition to Iran ever acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Looming over the trip, however, are deepening concerns that tensions between Israelis and Palestinians could spiral into another round of violence. Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis, provocative Israeli violations of international law and Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank, and the lack of a political horizon for ending the ever-deepening occupation have shredded the simplistic notion that normalization accords that ignore the conflict could still materially impact it in positive way.

President Biden should not only acknowledge the growing threats to his stated goal of a two-state solution on his visit, he should use the trip to take at least a few actual steps toward reversing the current trajectory of the conflict toward permanent occupation by meaningfully pushing back on de facto annexation and violence.

This memorandum lays out steps the President could take if he decides to use his trip as an opportunity to do so.

1) Reaffirm US security aid to Israel and make clear its scope and limits

President Biden should rightly reaffirm the strong commitment of the United States to Israel’s security. He should, and no doubt will, restate his and this country’s full support for the unparalleled assistance the United States provides Israel in a number of ways, not least of which is the security assistance pledged in the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding concluded when he was Vice President under Barack Obama.

The President should also, however, be clear with Israelis about the sacrifice this entails for American taxpayers. $3.8 billion per year — plus an additional $1 billion in extraordinary funding for Iron Dome replenishment — is a substantial sum as the United States stretches to meet the critical needs of its own citizens in trying times.

President Biden should make clear that all American aid, as required by US law, is for Israel’s legitimate defense purposes only. He should be firm and explicit that no US-origin arms or military equipment, whether bought with aid or not, may be used in connection with de facto annexation activities such as expanding settlements or settler-only infrastructure, demolishing Palestinian homes or community structures, or evicting and forcibly relocating Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank or East Jerusalem in violation of international law and Palestinian human rights. The President should be clear that the United States regards such acts as inconsistent with the US-Israel bilateral relationship, international law and Palestinian rights whether they are carried out using US-supplied materiel or not.

The urgency for such a warning is especially clear in light of recent significant acts of de facto annexation, like the Israeli High Court’s green-lighting of the eviction of around 1,000 Palestinians in the Masafer Yatta area of the South Hebron Hills and the decision to advance the construction of nearly 4,500 new settlement units in the West Bank — moves which the President should address directly on the trip.

The President should be frank that while he stands fully by US aid commitments to Israel, such assistance is facing increasing skepticism from a growing number of voters and lawmakers.

Questions are being raised both about the use of equipment bought with American taxpayer money in connection with violations of Palestinian rights, and Israel’s actual economic need for such aid when Israel’s government is spending large sums on building illegal settlements rather than on defensive systems it deems necessary for its security.

2) Encourage Israel to take the steps necessary to enter the Visa Waiver Program

President Biden should reiterate his hope that Israel will soon qualify to join the Visa Waiver Program. He must also be clear about the steps Israel must take to meet the requirements to do so. He should be frank about the US Government’s assessment that Israel has yet to satisfy all of the program’s criteria, including the key benchmark of reciprocity, which requires Israel to allow all Americans to enter Israel on equal terms.

The President should be clear in particular about Israel’s need to end the practices noted by the Department of State in its international travel information for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza under which Israel subjects US citizens of Arab or Muslim heritage, particularly Palestinian-Americans, to disparate and discriminatory treatment. Concerns in this regard with new rules for West Bank entry, promulgated by Israel as the occupying power, should be firmly treated as a step backwards from — not toward — Israeli entry to the Visa Waiver Program.

3) Insist on Israeli cooperation in reopening a separate consulate in Jerusalem

Nearly a year and a half into his administration, President Biden has yet to fulfill his promise to reopen a physically and hierarchically separate consulate in Jerusalem. This consulate would once again serve as a key conduit for the Palestinian people and is essential to effectively conducting US-Palestinian bilateral affairs. The Israeli government has thus far refused to grant the United States permission to do so, even as it allows a number of other countries to maintain consulates-general in Jerusalem.

The President should emphasize what Israel’s own top security experts have said about the benefits of having an independent US consulate in Jerusalem. The Chair of Commanders for Israel’s Security Maj. Gen. (ret.) Matan Vilnai wrote, “Few political/diplomatic measures – with no security downside – can make a greater contribution to strengthening the stature of the PA among Palestinians, stabilize its governance capacity and hence secure the continuity of security coordination, more than reopening of the American consulate.”

4) Hasten the end of the Palestinian Authority prisoners’ payment program by incentivizing reform

When meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, President Biden should commend Palestinian leaders’ ongoing security coordination with Israel and their continued support for the two-state solution. He should also be forthright about US concerns with instances of officially-sanctioned incitement as well as with the ongoing prisoners’ payments program.

Palestinian leaders are considering proposals for reforming the program to meet the requirements of the US Taylor Force Act, which suspended US direct budgetary support to the Palestinian Authority while the program as currently constituted is in effect.

To further incentivize reform of the program, President Biden should publicly and expressly pledge that, once the program is reformed to comply with the Taylor Force Act, he will use existing statutory authority to terminate an outdated 1987 law that legislatively designates the Palestinian Liberation Organization as a terrorist organization. Ending the designation would be a meaningful achievement for Palestinian leaders who recognize Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence, facilitating deeper diplomatic and collaborative relationships between the Palestinian government and the outside world.

5) Insist on bringing Palestinians into the normalization agreement process

It has been reported that President Biden may attend a multilateral convening involving leaders of Arab countries that have recently concluded normalization agreements with Israel. The President should use any such opportunity to not merely reaffirm US support for efforts to normalize relations between Israel and its neighbors, but as a chance to make clear that the Palestinians must be an integral part of a process that was touted by too many of its proponents as an end-run around them and addressing their conflict with Israel.

Specifically, President Biden should encourage the parties to the existing Accords to find ways to engage Palestinian leaders in regional cooperation emerging as a result of the agreements. He should also make clear that future agreements should commit the parties to meaningful positive steps to improve conditions for Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Further, we strongly recommend that the President expressly acknowledge the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative as a reference point for a comprehensive, regional normalization with Israel. He could do this as part of a reaffirmation that the December 2016 Obama-Kerry principles on the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict constitute official US policy. The President should make clear that, as important as it is for Israel to normalize relations with Arab states, its future as both a democracy and as the national home for the Jewish people depends on reaching a negotiated agreement culminating in a viable Palestinian state.”

“It wasn’t by accident that 1 million died”

11 Wednesday May 2022

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Uncategorized

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Myah Ward writes today on Politico the following (Excerpted from her longer piece):

“May 1, 2021 was the day the White House announced that there are so many Covid vaccines that any American who wants to get vaccinated can get vaccinated. Yet we lost another 200,000-300,000 Americans after that date. Those who were defiant to vaccines were overwhelmingly in red states, and the redder the county as measured by Trump voters in the 2020 election, the higher the vaccine refusal and the greater the loss of life.

It wasn’t by accident. It was a deliberate effort by members of the House Freedom Caucus, in the House, some U.S. senators, amplified nightly on Fox News.

I don’t even call it misinformation or disinformation anymore. I call it anti-science aggression, to convince millions of Americans not to take a Covid vaccine. And at least 200,000 Americans between May 1 and the end of 2021 died needlessly from Covid because of it. And everyone’s afraid to talk about it because it’s very unpleasant to have to point out that these deaths occurred along such a strict partisan divide. Even the White House won’t talk about it in that way.”

My postscript: Many, of course, got sick and died through no fault of their own. And many are still getting sick after being vaccinated and boosted. But, too many people are becoming lackadaisical about masking up, as though this pandemic is history. It isn’t, and I hope people will keep their masks on every time they are with a group of people inside a restaurant, synagogue, church, mosque, concert, theater, market, drugstore, and even in a moderate to large crowd in the homes of friends. The White House announced that 100 million people will be infected with the new sub-variant of the disease by the fall, which means many will become infected this summer too. So – Be vigilant.

Myah Ward’s piece is worth reading – it isn’t long. She is a young journalist (I’m an old guy so everyone seems young to me) who writes for POLITICO, The New York Times, Bloomberg News, MSN, MSN Canada, Yahoo News, Yahoo, Yahoo Finance, Fortune, Playbook PM Newsletter, Charlotte Business Journal. You can read her entire piece here:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/FMfcgzGpFqVJXlzZQxdWBLffFQbvgcpn

The SCOTUS Decision

03 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Uncategorized

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“Mom; Dad – did you see the news?” My son, Daniel, texted us last night.

“Yes,” I texted back. “Awful – infuriating – sad, backwards, and cruel!”

Then I thought:

George W. Bush did this when he appointed Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

No – Mitch McConnell did this when he twisted Senate procedure and autocratically didn’t allow a Democratic President (a year before his term was up) to nominate a candidate for a vacant seat on the Supreme Court.

No – 75,000 non-voters across three states in the 2016 presidential election did this and let Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College despite her having 3 million more popular votes.

No – Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who I Ioved and respected) did this because she didn’t resign at her advanced age and when she was ill with a life-threatening disease during the early years of the Obama Administration so he could appoint a liberal successor when Democrats controlled the Senate.

No – Trump did this by appointing 3 radical (not conservative) Supreme Court justices that reversed established law and the principle of precedent in order to eliminate a woman’s right to privacy and to choose.

No – Fox News and right-wing media did this by scaring the daylights out of too many Americans for too long to vote their fears and resentments.

No – too many Americans did this that could have made a difference but shrugged when election time arrived, threw up their hands out of disinterest, ignorance, or laziness, and didn’t vote in purple states that went red instead of blue.

No – misogynists did this that attacked mask mandates but had no problem telling women what they may and may not do with their bodies and lives.

No – it’s all the above – and it’s because extreme conservatives have shown themselves to be far more passionate and disciplined in the electoral process than us liberals – that’s our fault, so we did this!

So – what do we do now?

Simple: Vote and then get everyone you know to vote against insurrectionists in Congress and for the Democratic Party in the upcoming mid-terms in every state (especially swing states), and take back the state legislatures and governorships and congressional and senate seats, and pass laws everywhere affirming Roe and thereby restoring the right of women to choose and have access to quality health care everywhere in the country for abortion services, and affirm the overwhelming will of the American people on abortion rights.

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