20 Monday Feb 2017
A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, novelist (1821-1881)
19 Sunday Feb 2017
Last week I accepted an invitation to join with eight others as signatories in an interfaith amicus brief in support of two Iraqi refugee petitioners. They charge that President Donald Trump’s Executive Order Travel Ban violates the equal protection component of the Due Process clause of the US Constitution because it discriminates against refugees based on their religion.
Darweesh et al.v. Trump et. Al was filed in the Eastern District of New York on Thursday, February 16 by the legal firm of Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, DC. The firm is representing the two plaintiffs pro bono.
Here is the unconstitutional passage of the Travel Ban Executive Order:
“…the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security may jointly determine to admit individuals to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis, in their discretion, but only so long as they determine that the admission of such individuals as refugees is in the national interest – including when the person is a religious minority in his country of nationality facing religious persecution…” (“Executive Order: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” – January 27, 2017 – Section 5e)
Trump’s specific designation of seven Middle East nations to which this Travel Ban applies (Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen) are majority-Muslim countries. The Executive Order gives preference to minority religious communities in those countries (i.e. Christians). That is a clear violation of the equal protection component of the Constitution’s Due Process clause because Muslims as a religious community are discriminated against.
The two plaintiffs are both Iraqi. One served as a translator for the American military in Iraq and feared for his life should he remain in his native country. He was promised political asylum by his American military handlers, but when he arrived at JFK he was refused entry because of Trump’s Travel Ban.
The other plaintiff is an Iraqi refugee who came to America in order to join his family. They had been thoroughly vetted and were cleared and granted visas. He too was refused entry and held at JFK until the Ninth Circuit Court stayed the ban. Both plaintiffs are now safely in the United States.
We Jews, if nothing else, know the heart of the stranger. The Torah instructs us frequently to remember that we were slaves in the land of Egypt. Tradition instructs us to welcome the stranger at all times with dignity, courtesy, and active support.
In times of crisis such as these in which millions of refugees are fleeing violence in their native countries, the exceptionalism of America combined with the ethical and moral impulse in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam call upon us to do everything possible to provide safe haven for the “tempest-tost.” (see Emma Lazarus, “The Great Colossus” inscribed on the Statue of Liberty)
Altruism is the noblest of moral motivations, but enlightened self-interest is also efficacious in our doing what is just and compassionate. The German Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller reminds us of real-world consequences if we don’t act on behalf of others:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The interfaith amicus brief signatories include:
I will report back as this case moves through the courts.
Though so many in my congregation have expressed their moral outrage at this Travel Ban, I am a signatory as an individual and do not claim to represent my synagogue or any other organization.
17 Friday Feb 2017
This is the first time that all the organizations of the American Reform Jewish movement have ever weighed in on a nomination by a President of the United States. However, we have done so because David Friedman’s qualifications, lack of diplomatic experience, erratic temperament, outrageous rhetoric and attacks on large sections of the American Jewish community, and his policy positions vis a vis Israel are not in the best interests of the American-Israel relationship and do not represent our Reform Jewish values in relationship to the democratic and Jewish State of Israel.
As the national Chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), on behalf of ARZA’s President Rabbi Josh Weinberg, and with the unanimous support of the national ARZA Officers and Board, I express my own gratitude that our movement of 1.5 million American Reform Jews has made such a clear and strong statement.
Please read the attached statement and note the expansive support of our movement’s national leadership.
13 Monday Feb 2017
Posted in American Politics and Life, Health and Well-Being
I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychoanalyst, social worker, or any kind of trained therapist. I am a congregational rabbi who has worked in three large congregations in three major American cities over the course of the last nearly 40 years, and I have encountered people with all kinds of emotional and psychological problems.
Since Donald Trump began his presidential campaign, I have asked a number of therapists what they believe is the nature of Donald Trump’s psychology. All of them said that without being able to personally interview, question, and examine him they could not offer anything precise or definitive.
“OK,” I have said to them. “I respect that, but nevertheless, can you venture a considered judgment of his psychology that can offer insight into the man given your many years of experience working with people?”
Each one, as we’ve heard in so many places, said that Trump exhibits signs of classic narcissism.
The Mayo Clinic reviews the common symptoms and causes of a wide range of personality disorders – see http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/personality-disorders/symptoms-causes/dxc-20247656 and http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/personality-disorders/home/ovc-20247654.
Here are some highlights:
Antisocial personality disorder
Histrionic personality disorder
Paranoid personality disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder
Rabbi Mark Samath posted on the Reform Rabbi list-serve a series of statements about President Trump made by therapists, journalists, current and past government officials, and political leaders. Some of the office holders are Democrats and some are Republicans. Rabbi Samath gave me permission to list what he provided to my colleagues:
The question for the country is whether a President with this kind of mental condition can be trusted to act in the best interests of the United States, setting aside for the moment Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns, to divest from all business concerns and put everything in a blind trust, and his violation of the emolument clause of the Constitution.
There are, of course, many other reasons that Trump should be investigated and brought up on impeachment charges in the Congress.
Veteran reporter J.J. Goldberg reviews the challenges in this opinion piece in Today’s Forward. I recommend it.
Should Democrats Turn Donald Trump Into Richard Nixon?
Note: I represent only myself and not my congregation or any other organization.
12 Sunday Feb 2017
SENATE HEARINGS are beginning as soon as THIS WEEK on President Trump’s nomination of his personal lawyer DAVID FRIEDMAN to be the next American Ambassador to Israel.
Friedman has no foreign policy experience. His abrasive and contemptuous temperament is inappropriate as a member of the American diplomatic corps. He is divisive and insulting not only to large portions of the American Jewish community but to the Palestinian people as well.
In an earlier post, I noted that I am a signatory to an open letter sponsored by J Street (an American pro-Israel and pro-peace political organization based in Washington, D.C. that is committed to a two-states for two peoples diplomatic resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) and Amenu (The American Friends of Israel’s Zionist Union, opposition party in the Israeli Knesset) that included dozens of American rabbis and cantors who strongly oppose Friedman’s nomination as the next United States Ambassador to Israel.
After reading this letter, I hope you will feel moved to contact your two Senators, especially if they are in the Senate majority, and express your opposition to Trump’s divisive and potentially destructive appointment.
Here is the original J Street and Amenu rabbinic and cantorial letter:
We are writing today as rabbis and cantors asking President Trump to withdraw the nomination of David Friedman to be the United States Ambassador to the state of Israel. Failing that, we implore the US Senate not to confirm him.
In this letter, we will address concerns around his denigration of American Jews who believe differently from him and his policy positions that we believe run contrary to the interests of the United States and Israel.
The Rabbis of the Talmud are adamant that we are to speak to and about other people — particularly those with whom we disagree — with love and respect. We are taught that shaming a person is tantamount to shedding their blood (Baba Metzia 58b).
Yet Mr. Friedman seems to have no qualms about insulting people with whom he disagrees.
Mr. Friedman has repeatedly compared members of the Jewish community whose views on Israel differ from his own to “kapos,” who were Jews who collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. He called members of J Street, a pro-Israel organization that wants to see peace between Israelis and Palestinians, “worse than kapos.” He has even questioned whether its more than 180,000 supporters are really Jews — as if he has the right to decide such a weighty matter.
[Note: Friedman has since said he will walk back these comments, but he has not done so to date nor has he apologized to any individual or group that he insulted. Those close to him claim that he cares deeply about assuring the unity of the Jewish people, but his comments and attitudes suggest that he has no clue about the meaning of and application of the principle of k’lal Yisrael, the “unity of the Jewish people”.]
This is the very antithesis of the diplomatic behavior Americans expect from their ambassadors.
An ambassador is charged with representing our entire nation. It is historically perverse and wildly insulting to characterize Jewish advocates for peace, including many of the signers of this letter, as no better than Nazi collaborators plotting to destroy the Jewish people.
If Mr. Friedman cannot responsibly understand history, he cannot responsibly shape the future.
The situation in and around Israel is volatile. Mr. Friedman’s inflammatory comments about Jews, Palestinians and Muslims and the peace process itself are precisely the type of comments that can ignite further conflict and drive deeper wedges between parties.
While we believe the above should be enough to disqualify Mr. Friedman, we have grave policy concerns as well. Mr. Friedman vocally supports the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which American presidents since Johnson have seen as an obstacle to peace.
Moreover, Mr. Friedman opposes the two-state solution, which has been a policy cornerstone for Republican and Democratic administrations for the past quarter century. We are very concerned that rather than try to represent the US as an advocate for peace, Mr. Friedman will seek to mold American policy in line with his extreme ideology.
We yearn for an Israel that is secure, democratic and the national homeland of the Jewish people. Mr. Friedman’s pro-settler positions and opposition to the two-state solution are in conflict with our views and the majority of American Jews who see settlement expansion as an obstacle to peace and who strongly support a two-state solution. Mr. Friedman’s favored policies would weaken Israel’s security, democracy, and status as the national homeland of the Jewish people.
Mr. Friedman’s apparent inability to speak respectfully about and to people with whom he disagrees and his advocacy of extreme policies which threaten the future of Israel and run contrary to American interests are both sufficient reasons to disqualify Mr. Friedman’s nomination. He is the wrong choice to serve as our nation’s Ambassador to Israel.
I ask you today to contact your Senators and urge them to vote against David Friedman’s appointment as the next US Ambassador to Israel. I also encourage you to contact moderate and reasonable Senate Republicans to register your views.
Note: I speak here only for myself and not on behalf of my synagogue or any Jewish organization.
06 Monday Feb 2017
05 Sunday Feb 2017
Why is President Donald Trump so dangerous to our democracy and the world? Because he lies, insists upon the truth of his lies, doubles down on them, and then mercilessly demeans and attacks his critics.
There is a method to what Trump does. Here are some of the specifics that are necessary for the achievement of his ends:
Taken together these things (which are not exhaustive) are reminiscent of the methods described in Mein Kampf to subjugate a population to the power and will of the leader. As was the case in the 1930s in Nazi Germany, everything for Trump depends upon establishing the Big Lie as truth.
Robert Reich posted on his Facebook page ten specific steps Trump has used from the beginning of his campaign to promote the Big Lie as a means of establishing himself as the Savior of the nation:
Step 1: Trump lies.
Step 2: Experts contradict him, saying his claim is baseless and false. The media report that the claim is false.
Step 3: Trump blasts the experts and condemns the media for being “dishonest.”
Step 4: Trump repeats the lie in tweets and speeches. He asserts that “many people” say he’s right.
Step 5: The mainstream media start to describe the lie as a “disputed fact.”
Step 6: Trump repeats the lie in tweets, interviews, and speeches. His surrogates repeat it on Fox News and in the right-wing blogosphere.
Step 7: The mainstream media begin to describe Trump’s lie as a “controversy.”
Step 8: Polls show a growing number of Americans (including most Republicans) believe Trump’s lie to be true.
Step 9: The media start describing Trump’s lie as “a claim that reflects a partisan divide in America,” and is “found to be true by many.”
Step 10: The public is confused and disoriented about what the facts are. Trump wins.
What ought we to do in response?
Finally – because so much is being thrown up by the Trump administration every day, it is only human to want to stop listening to the news and, out of a sense of disgust and powerlessness, to turn away and disengage. That, however, is the opposite of what we ought to be doing. Deferring to Trump is exactly what dictators want from their subjects. Denial of what is happening in the body politic and moral character of our nation is not an option; neither is despair.
We Jews and we Americans are people of hope, and hope comes from engagement and the belief that we can effect change and heal the world of its pain and imperfections.
Chazak v’ematz – Be strong and courageous!
Note: I speak only for myself and do not claim to represent the views of my congregation or any other Jewish organization.
05 Sunday Feb 2017
Posted in American Politics and Life, Ethics, Social Justice, Women's Rights
SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU IF YOU MARCHED ON JANUARY 21
This is a direct request from her Chief of Staff:
FEINSTEIN WANTS 2-4 SENTENCES FROM MARCHERS EXPLAINING WHY YOU MARCHED AND WHAT IT MEANT TO YOU.
She will incorporate messages AND note the NUMBER of emails she receives in her opening statement at the Sessions hearing for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Please send emails with the subject line WHY I MARCHED to:
03 Friday Feb 2017
Posted in American Politics and Life, Jewish History
Until today (February 3, 2017), I believed that the number commonly cited of murdered victims by the Nazis was 11 million (6 million Jews and 5 million others – Catholics, Romas, homosexuals, communists, trade unionists, etc.). It turns out that Simon Wiesenthal, the famed “Nazi hunter,” made up the 5 –million number of non-Jewish victims in order to catch the attention of the non-Jewish world in the 1970s that were ignoring the crime of genocide by the Nazis against Judaism and the Jewish people.
The real figure, according to Holocaust historians Yehuda Bauer and Deborah Lipstadt, is more on the order of 500,000 non-Jews murdered, certainly not a small number by any measurement, but not 5 million. The total number of people who died as a consequence of the Nazi aggression is about 35 million.
Read this article in “The Times of Israel” by Ron Kampeas (February 1) for details and the unintended impact of Wiesenthal’s made-up fiction on politics today.
“An oft-cited statistic of 4 million non-Jewish Holocaust deaths has no basis in fact, experts say and may be contributing to [Holocaust] denial efforts…All of the world had to be annihilated,” [Holocaust historian Yehuda] Bauer said. “That was the intent. There was never an idea in Nazi minds to murder all the Russians…
The number 5 million also adheres to no known understanding of the number of non-Jews killed by the Nazis: While as many as 35 million people were killed overall because of Nazi aggression, the number of non-Jews who died in the concentration camps is no more than half a million, Bauer said.”
02 Thursday Feb 2017
Posted in Quote of the Day, Social Justice
“We have come to a point where it is loyalty to resist and treason to submit.”
– Carl Schurz, revolutionary, statesman, and reformer (1829-1906)
