I prefer an expression ‘most politically corrected synagogue’ to ‘most politically connected synagogue’ in the article below. (Lily)
1. WorldWide Religious News（http://wwrn.org）
Obama to Jews: Shared values compel support for Israel
by Cathy Lynn Grossman ("The Washington Post," May 22, 2015)
Washington - President Obama came to Washington’s most politically connected synagogue Friday (May 22) with a dual mission — to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month and to mark the first “Solidarity Sabbath,” a campaign against anti-Semitism.
But mostly his speech circled back to the testy issue of U.S.-Israel relations.
“No administration has done more to ensure that Israel can protect itself,” he assured a crowd of nearly 1,200 people, who responded with shrieks of approval.
“My commitment to Israel’s security is and always will be unshakable,” he said. “It would be a moral failing on the part of the U.S. government and the American people, it would be a moral failing on my part, if we did not stand up firmly, steadfastly not just on behalf of Israel’s right to exist, but its right to thrive and prosper.”
The visit at Adas Israel, a congregation that draws members of Congress, diplomats, ambassadors and two Jewish Supreme Court Justices, was only the fourth from a sitting president at a Jewish synagogue.
The president did not shy from mentioning the U.S. push for an anti-nuclear agreement with Iran. Obama was emphatic, saying, “Iran must not, under any circumstances, be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.”
He added: “I will not accept a bad deal. … This deal will have my name on it, so nobody has a bigger personal stake in making sure it delivers on its promise.”
The theme of shared values among Jews and Christians, who believe in God, justice, freedom and the rule of law, was threaded throughout the speech. To ignore these values would be to ignore the lessons of the ages, “that everybody has a place, everybody has rights, everybody is a child of God,” the president said.
In tying his remarks to Jewish American Heritage Month, Obama spoke of rabbis who marched for civil rights in Selma 50 years ago, and he noted the contributions of Jews, from Albert Einstein to Louis Brandeis.
“Our future will stand on the values we share,” he said, citing the anti-poverty themes he addressed a week ago at a symposium at Georgetown University. “Our shared values compel us to redouble our effort to protect our plant and the human rights of all who share this planet.”
But the president kept returning to the subject of Israel: “The people of Israel must always know America has its back. That does not mean there will not be or should not be periodic disagreements between our two governments.”
To those who say public disagreements on policy show lack of support for Israel, he said, “I must object.” To paper over settlement policy or the Israel Palestinian conflict is “not a true measure of friendship.”
”Jewish values,” Obama said, means caring as well about “a Palestinian child in Ramallah trapped without opportunity.”
Obama rejected the trend in some pro-Israel quarters to brand anyone who questions Israel’s settlement policy, anyone “expressing compassion or empathy towards Palestinian youth,” or anyone who publicly disagrees with the Israeli government as “anti-Israel” or “anti-Jewish.”
“I feel a responsibility to speak out honestly,” he added, while adding that “the Palestinians are not the easiest of partners.”
The president also spoke on the significance of Solidarity Sabbath, in which world leaders publicly express their opposition to anti-Semitism. Obama said the “disturbing rise” of anti-Semitism is “a threat to broader human values to which we all must aspire. And when we allow anti-Semitism to take root, then our souls are destroyed….”
He concluded:”Jewish American life is a testimony to the capacity to make our values live. But it requires courage. It requires strength. It requires that we speak the truth not just when it’s easy, but when it’s hard.”
Greg Rosenbaum, chairman of the JAHM celebrations, said before the speech, “Having the president speak from the pulpit about these issues will advance our agenda,” educating Americans about the contributions of Jews to U.S. history and culture.
“I think it will carry tremendous moral weight on the issue of rising anti-Semitism both at home and abroad,” Rosenbaum said.
Jewish American History Month was established by Congress in 2006. Events, including museum and online exhibitions at the Library of Congress and the National Park Service, can be found at a government-sponsored website highlighting 350 years of Jewish contributions to American history, culture and society. An interactive events calendar with listings from Florida to New York to California can be found at the Jewish American Heritage Month website.
The Lantos Foundation initiated the global “Solidarity Sabbath” as a response to the “resurgence of open, virulent, violent anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe,” said Katrina Lantos Swett, head of the foundation.
World leaders agreed to speak out as “a way to tell Jewish citizens — and all citizens: we stand shoulder to shoulder and that bigotry and racism and anti-Semitism will find no sanctuary within our country,” added Lantos Swett.
The foundation is promoting #SolidaritySabbath and a pledge at its website where people can affirm “our shared commitment to the most fundamental of human rights: The freedom of religion, conscience, and belief.”
・Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
2.ZOA's Klein Quoted in NY Times about Obama's Synagogue Speech
by Julie Hirschfeld Davis
22 May 2015
President Obama sought to reassure American Jews that he is a fierce supporter of Israel as he visited an influential synagogue here on Friday to defend his quest for a nuclear agreement with Iran. The visit was also an attempt to mend a strained relationship with parts of the American Jewish community that dates to the start of Mr. Obama's presidency and has worsened in recent months.
"When I hear some people say that disagreements over policy belie a general lack of support of Israel, I must object - and I object forcefully," Mr. Obama said. But he said he was unwilling to "paper over differences."
Calling himself an "honorary member of the tribe," Mr. Obama, wearing a yarmulke and standing at the bimah where rabbis chant from the Torah, told about 1,000 people in the packed sanctuary at Adas Israel, a large Conservative congregation about three miles from the White House, that the United States had an "enduring friendship with the people of Israel" and "unbreakable bonds with the state of Israel" that could never be weakened.
"Our commitment to Israel's security, and my commitment to Israel's security is, and always will be, unshakable," Mr. Obama said.
And, he said, "it is precisely because I care so deeply about the state of Israel that I feel a responsibility to speak out honestly about what I think would lead to long-term security and to the preservation of a true democracy in the Jewish homeland." He added, "I believe that's two states for two peoples, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security."
The president used the roughly 30-minute speech to vow that he would reject a "bad deal" or one that failed to meet his objective of cutting off Tehran's pathways to developing a bomb, and argued that an agreement was in Israel's best security interests.
Above all, Mr. Obama said, "the people of Israel must always know: America has its back."
It was unclear how much a single visit to a synagogue would assuage Jewish concerns, but White House officials indicated that it was part of what they described as a sustained effort to reach out to American Jews before the June 30 deadline for completing the Iran accord.
In his remarks, the president worked to put his support for Israel in a personal context and to knock down a perception among some Jewish leaders and activists that he lacks a deep emotional connection to Israel and its people. As a young man inspired by the civil rights struggle in the United States, Mr. Obama said, he came to know Israel "through these incredible images of kibbutzim," the collective communities that formed the backbone of the Jewish state.
"Those values in many ways came to be my own values," Mr. Obama said.
The president's views on Israel were forged during his time in Chicago, when he became friendly with a group of prominent Jewish Democrats that included Lester Crown, a Chicago-based industrialist, the federal judge Abner J. Mikva, and Newton N. Minow, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He came to share their approach to Israel, which involved staunch support for the Jewish state coupled with a willingness to criticize its policies.
Years later as he campaigned for president, Mr. Obama would tell a group of Jewish leaders in Cleveland that a person did not have to be pro-Likud - a conservative and hawkish party in Israel - to be pro-Israel. At a White House meeting during his first year in office, he questioned whether a stance that put "no daylight" between the United States and Israel was productive, telling a group of Jewish leaders that it had yielded no progress during the previous administration.
At the same time, Mr. Obama has sought close ties with Jewish communities during his time in office, has provided substantial military assistance to Israel and has selected Jews to serve in prominent posts in his administration, including his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now the mayor of Chicago, and Jacob J. Lew, now Treasury secretary. He was the first president to host a Passover Seder at the White House, now an annual custom. In his re-election in 2012, Mr. Obama received 70 percent of the Jewish vote.
But Mr. Obama's decision to go to Cairo early on in his tenure - before he made a presidential visit to Jerusalem, where he had traveled as a candidate - and speak in stark terms about the pain and daily humiliations Palestinians had suffered was an indication to his critics that he would be biased against Israel in his attempts to promote a two-state solution. That sense has deepened as Mr. Obama has clashed bitterly and openly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel over the Iran accord and other issues, and as conservative Jews have increasingly lavished campaign contributions on Republicans.
Supporters of Mr. Obama say his critics have long misunderstood his views on Israel.
"There's been a lamentable partisanship that has come to surround Israel policy, and some confuse the occasional challenges in the relationship between Obama and Bibi with the president's overall level of support for Israel," said Norman L. Eisen, a former ambassador to the Czech Republic and longtime friend of Mr. Obama's who is active in pro-Israel circles, referring to Mr. Netanyahu by his nickname. "None of those critiques are accurate, or reflective of how Obama feels about Israel."
"Anybody who knows him personally knows that he is a very strong supporter of Israel and of the Jewish people," Mr. Eisen said, calling it "part of his identity."
Mr. Obama's speech on Friday offered no shifts in position, angering some pro-Israel leaders who said he had missed an opportunity to make concrete promises that would have allayed their concerns, such as by vowing to veto any anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations, including one calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.
"He was really attempting the pull the wool over pro-Israel eyes," said Morton A. Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America. "This speech showed no respect for the intelligence of the pro-Israel community, which is horrified by the catastrophe of the Iran deal."
Mr. Klein said he had predicted early on that Mr. Obama would be "the most hostile president to Israel, ever," based on the Cairo speech and his membership in what he called an "anti-Semitic church" led by the Rev.Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the African-American pastor whom the president called his spiritual mentor. Mr. Obama has since broken with Mr. Wright.
Still, Mr. Obama, who received an exceedingly warm reception from his audience - composed of prominent Jewish leaders, lawmakers and opinion leaders, many of them from the more liberal wing of American Jews - went out of his way to acknowledge that many Jews in Israel and the United States regard the Palestinians as bad actors.
"The Palestinians are not the easiest of partners," Mr. Obama said. "The neighborhood is dangerous, and we cannot expect Israel to take existential risks with their security."
Some Jewish leaders heard in that statement an attempt by Mr. Obama to reach out to Jewish Americans uncertain of his motives.
"For the president of the United States to say that publicly, even in that gentle a way, is notable," said Nathan J. Diament, executive director for public policy at the Orthodox Union, an umbrella organization for Orthodox Jewry.
Mr. Obama's visit to Adas Israel was the first time in more than 30 years and only the fourth time that a sitting American president had spoken in a synagogue. William Howard Taft was the first in 1909, when he addressed a congregation in Pittsburgh, followed by Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.
・This article was published by NY Times and may be found here.
・About the ZOA
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is the oldest and one of the largest pro-Israel organizations in the United States. With offices around the country and in Israel, the ZOA educates the public, elected officials, the media, and college/high school students about the truth of the ongoing Arab war against Israel. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.- Israel relations through educational activities, public affairs programs and our work on Capitol Hill, and to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias in the media, in textbooks, in schools and on college campuses. Under the leadership of such presidents as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, and current President Morton A. Klein, the ZOA has been - and continues to be - on the front lines of Jewish activism. www.zoa.org. For more information contact Mort Klein 212-481-1500.
3.Tablet (http://tabletmag.com)
Obama: Denying Israel’s Right To Exist as a Jewish Homeland Is Anti-Semitic
The president draws a line in the sand in his latest interview
by Yair Rosenberg
22 May 2015
Yesterday, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published a wide-ranging interview with President Obama on the Middle East. Naturally, much of the ensuing commentary has focused on the president’s defense of his Iran diplomacy and his administration’s handling of the fight against ISIS. But in poring over Obama’s comments on these big ticket issues, one of the president’s more remarkable statements has largely been overlooked: his equation of denying Israel’s right to exist with anti-Semitism.
In the latter part of their conversation, Obama and Goldberg turned to the subject of Israel. The president began by making a spirited case against those in the pro-Israel community who equate his criticisms of Israeli policy with an anti-Israel or anti-Semitic outlook. “I completely reject that,” he said. On the contrary, the president argued, by standing up for the shared liberal values of the U.S. and Israel—and pointing out when either falls short—he is ensuring both countries will endure and thrive. “I want Israel, in the same way that I want the United States, to embody the Judeo-Christian and, ultimately then, what I believe are human or universal values that have led to progress over a millennium,” he said. “I want Israel to embody these values because Israel is aligned with us in that fight for what I believe to be true.”
But having defined what sort of critiques of Israel don’t constitute anti-Semitism, the president then proceeded to outline those that do. And this is where he broke new ground. Asked by Goldberg to delineate the relationship between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, Obama answered as follows:
I think a good baseline is: Do you think that Israel has a right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people, and are you aware of the particular circumstances of Jewish history that might prompt that need and desire? And if your answer is no, if your notion is somehow that that history doesn’t matter, then that’s a problem, in my mind. If, on the other hand, you acknowledge the justness of the Jewish homeland, you acknowledge the active presence of anti-Semitism—that it’s not just something in the past, but it is current—if you acknowledge that there are people and nations that, if convenient, would do the Jewish people harm because of a warped ideology. If you acknowledge those things, then you should be able to align yourself with Israel where its security is at stake, you should be able to align yourself with Israel when it comes to making sure that it is not held to a double standard in international fora, you should align yourself with Israel when it comes to making sure that it is not isolated.
Essentially, Obama defined anti-Zionism—as distinct from sharp, public criticism of Israel and its policies—as anti-Semitism. In his construction, denying Israel’s right to exist (i.e. Zionism) is to deny the lessons of history and betray a deeply flawed moral outlook. In making this case, Obama joins other world leaders like British Prime Minister David Cameron and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls—both, like him, critics of Israeli settlements and advocates for a two-state solution—who have pointedly labeled anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism. Likewise, Obama’s words accord with the U.S. State Department’s official definition of anti-Semitism, which includes “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, and denying Israel the right to exist.”
Obama’s articulation of this position, however, is far more eloquent and rich than any of these antecedents. His explanation for why opposing Israel’s existence is bigoted is simultaneously moral, historical and structural. To consign the Jews to statelessness, in Obama’s view, would undo the painful progress made by the world towards treating them as equals and protecting them from prejudice. It would turn back the clock to a much darker time, when Jews had no national home to stand up for their rights and offer them refuge. It would be an abdication of moral responsibility for the persecutions of the past and a willful ignorance as to their implications.
Or, as the president put it to Goldberg: “I think it would be a moral failing for me as president of the United States, and a moral failing for America, and a moral failing for the world, if we did not protect Israel and stand up for its right to exist, because that would negate not just the history of the 20th century, it would negate the history of the past millennium.”
(Notably, Obama’s detailed denunciation of anti-Zionism also accounts for—and includes—anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox sects and principled anti-nationalists. The president’s point is not that such people are personally prejudiced whatsoever towards Jews, but that the structural consequences of their views are undeniably anti-Jewish. Like other forms of racism, he argues, anti-Semitism can persist structurally while being perpetuated by individuals who are not bigoted in their own interactions.)
Obama’s declaration also explains why he is such a passionate advocate for the two-state solution: he views Israel’s establishment as a moral triumph against historical injustice, and seeks the same for the Palestinians. His answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not to undermine the legitimacy of one of the parties but to ensure that each has a home of their own. To do anything else would be to reverse moral progress, rather than advance it.
Beyond offering insight into Obama’s worldview, how much does his insight here matter? For one thing, it has pressing relevance to debates that are happening on college campuses over the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel. As has been well-documented, the BDS movement’s leaders and founding principles call for not simply the end of the occupation, but the effective abolition of Israel through an influx of millions of Palestinians, abrogating its Jewish character and returning Jews to statelessness. As Omar Barghouti, one of the movement’s founding fathers, put it, Israel “was Palestine, and there is no reason why it should not be renamed Palestine.” Where Obama seeks to build two homes for two peoples, the BDS movement—like their Israeli mirror image in the settler movement—seeks to impoverish one at the expense of the other. College students debating Israel and Palestine, then, might consider whose vision they find more morally appealing.
Likewise, Obama’s thinking also suggests a way forward for campus Hillel houses dealing with the thorny issue of where to draw the line on hosting speakers and groups that are critical of Israel. Here, the president’s perspective offers a straightforward standard for enlightened discourse: harsh critics of Israel and Israeli policy, yes; critics of Israel’s existence, no.
Call it the Obama test.
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