Bachmann Should Not Have Been Focus Of Yom Kippur, Chicago Rabbi Says

LakeView Patch:

A week after Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) made a controversial appearance at a Chicago synagogue on Yom Kippur, the congregation’s senior rabbi, and the man who introduced Bachmann during the service, speaks up about her appearance.

Read the whole story at LakeView Patch

Comments

[barrycourage]

03:00 PM on 10/09/2012

Synagogues are very crowded on Yom Kippur.

I'm surprised there was room for her and her escorts in white coats.

[nypapajoe]

11:46 AM on 10/09/2012

Increase her Meds STAT! No microphones or cameras she become even more irrational in its presence!

[Aiden C]

11:44 AM on 10/09/2012

A community that feels inclusive? By nature, Bachmann is NOT part of that community, seeing as how she believes everyone in that room is going to go to hell.... Perhaps the good Rabbi should worry more about making sure his own community feels inclusive to its own members. There's no good reason he should have acquiesced to Bachmann's presence at the service at all--what good reason other than politicking could there possibly have been for that?

Furthermore, the introduction of any elected officials at a Yom Kippur service is distasteful and cheapening. On the day of repentance, a day between man and god, why acknowledge an elected official? How does that do anything but cheapen the holy day?

I'm sorry, but the Rabbi is wrong on literally every count. And then he gives the "sorry you were offended" rather than the "sorry I did what I did" speech. Save it. If I were a member at that synagogue, I wouldn't be anymore.

[beckpod1]

11:10 AM on 10/09/2012

I sure wouldn't invite a person known for untruths and crazy facts to a place where decent people come worship....it's irresponsible!

[Illuminarts]

10:29 AM on 10/09/2012

Bachmann could learn a thing or two from the Rabbi about being gracious to people with differing viewpoints.

[thegreenhornet]

08:28 AM on 10/09/2012

One should ask whether Frau Bachmann has ever been to a Jewish service before. This was the day of atonement, the highest of holy days. Did she offer atonement for any remissions or sins or did she simply go to shake hands and look for votes? The question is her sincerity in attending this service not the fact that she attended. I have a Muslim friend who wishes me well on the high holy days and I try to respond in kind on his. He is much better at it than I and is sincere in his wishes. it is the latter that counts.

[henrypapillon]

06:53 AM on 10/09/2012

I thought the phrase was "ruffle some feathers" , not rustle some feathers. You rustle (steal) cattle.You wrestle Linda McMahon. You RUFFLE feathers.

[enigma2]

08:39 AM on 10/09/2012

Good point, Henry.

[athiesttoo]

08:44 AM on 10/09/2012

F&F

[Michael Lindley]

05:05 AM on 10/09/2012

Could one assume from this isolated incident that believing in that which cannot be measured nor proved (God, for instance) leads those that give their lives to these beliefs to be poor judges of what's right and wrong? Religion was man's second, major attempt at successful division of people, with ethnicity being the first. Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Muslins, Hindus are all experts at making sure we remain divided about something. Politics, and Bachmann in particular, are just pushing the envelope a little further. Did the Rabbi have a noble goal in mind? Well, if you think promoting one's own bigotry is noble, then, I guess he did. LakeView is really gay, really affluent on not very religious. That plays against the Rabbi's political agenda. And the disrespect he showed for his congregation and the holiday itself is appalling. Time for him to go, politics has become more I portent to him than his flock of believers.

[speckitis]

03:18 AM on 10/09/2012

If "The Most Interesting Man in The World" once had an awkward moment just to see what it felt like, then Bachman was his advisor.

[Tahut]

03:00 AM on 10/09/2012

that the Rabi is speaking out indicates there are internal religious issues and Bachmann's appearance was the catalyst. he's think along one line of religious values while those in the synagogue are of another.

the fact that he knew before hand her appearance might rustle some feathers. he failed to understand some people felt their inner sanctuary would be violated by her presence on a holy day. that her presence was more political than faithful and her politics is what's in question.

[Kye154]

12:48 AM on 10/09/2012

Isn't it funny that the Jewish people have always thought that they were God's chosen people and got Bachmann instead?

[ReasonableGuy]

12:03 AM on 10/09/2012

I used to think of Minnesota as a cold place, with lots of smart people.

Now I just think of it as a cold place.

Dump the ever-embarrassing fool known as Michele Bachmann.

[proggirl]

03:17 AM on 10/09/2012

sigh. Once again, she represents one district out of eight. And MN has also elected Keith Ellison, Paul Wellstone, Al Franken and Mark Dayton. Don't paint the whole state with her tarred brush.

[ReasonableGuy]

10:59 AM on 10/09/2012

Fair enough. 

[Mafdet]

11:30 PM on 10/08/2012

It was the voices in her head, wasn't it, Rabbi?  But she can't help it when they get that loud.  And besides, one of them is apparently God, so you may want to pull back a little on your peevishness.

[dennissinned]

11:16 PM on 10/08/2012

She's an opportunist, plain and simple.

[alice sophia]

11:46 AM on 10/09/2012

She's Palin's under-study.

[revolution7153]

10:54 PM on 10/08/2012

How do you suppose Michele Bachman and her ilk would react if MN Rep. Keith Ellison (a Muslim) payed a visit to her church on Easter?