A Yom Kippur Letter to Joe Lieberman's Rabbis: Joe Is McCain's Best Jewish Friend. Please Ask Him To Beg McCain to Stop Encouraging Hate

Yom Kippur, 5769
New York City

Rabbi Daniel Cohen
Congregation Agudath Sholom
Stamford, Connecticut

Rabbi Barry Freundel
Kesher Israel Congregation
Washington, D.C.

Dear Rabbis Cohen and Freundel,

Please forgive the presumption -- not only don't we know one another, I'm the kind of "cultural Jew" who makes even Reform Rabbis weep.

But as far as I can tell, now that Joe Lieberman and his family have moved from New Haven to Stamford, you, Rabbi Cohen, are his primary Rabbi in Connecticut. And you, Rabbi Freundel, lead the congregation where Sen. Lieberman worships in Washington.

Sen. McCain loves Joe Lieberman -- he wanted him as his running mate, if press reports are accurate.

Sen. McCain listens to Joe Lieberman.

Sen. Lieberman is, if you will, John McCain's rabbi.

So I thought I would write to you and ask you, as Sen. Lieberman's rabbis, to talk to Sen. Lieberman about the hatred that the McCain-Palin campaign is encouraging --- and the special understanding we Jews have of how that hatred plays out.

Why this public forum? Because I feel this is an urgent moment for American Jews. And because, in this moment, the men who can perhaps do the most to help us all -- Jews, Gentiles and Muslims alike -- should be identified and challenged to step up and do the right thing.

And make no mistake: Your voices do matter. If Joe Lieberman is the devout Jew he professes to be, you two are the most influential voices he can hear. He'd never listen to me. But to you -- how can he turn away?

I often think about Kristallnacht, that terrible night in Germany when it became unmistakably clear what the Nazis intended for the Jews. Almost a hundred Jews murdered, tens of thousands deported, windows smashed, businesses seized -- and hundreds of synagogues burned. Quite the "November surprise," if you will. But even after this horrific orgy of violence in 1938, there were many German Jews who didn't get it, who thought they were safe, who thought this was where it ended.

Now we know better. We say "Never again." But look around you, gentlemen. History does repeat, and in this case, with spooky echoes of Germany's darkest decade. A bad economy. A search for someone who can be dehumanized and blamed. The cries for "justice". And then....?

How would we recognize Kristallnacht if it happened today?

My fear: It's on the horizon, and coming closer every day.

Today "The Other" is Barack Obama. At a McCain-Palin rally the other day, there was a cry from a yahoo in the crowd: "Off with his head!" John McCain and Sarah Palin have not condemned that man. Indeed, they promise to ratchet up their "questions" about Obama in the final weeks of the campaign. At this point, it seems, they'd find nothing upsetting if the audiences at their rallies showed up with torches and pitchforks.

Jews, above all others, should fear this kind of hate speech. It may start with the demonization of one black man. Then it will move on to greedy Wall Streeters and "Jewish bankers" and a "liberal media" owned and controlled by Jews. [It's already happening: The Anti-Defamation League reports "a dramatic upsurge in anti-Semitic statements" on financial message boards on the Web. ] And then -- it sounds crazy, but it sounded crazy to many Jews in Germany -- the mob will come for us. Because that's where this goes. It's where it always goes. No matter where it starts, it ends with the Jews -- we're the ultimate "Other."

On your synagogue's web site, Rabbi Cohen, I note that you have a large family. Six daughters? Mazel tov. We have only one, but she is as precious to us as your girls are to you and your wife, and the thought of having her wrenched from my hand at some 21st century equivalent of a railroad freight yard -- it wakes me in the night.

I know I am asking a hard thing of you -- to confront Joe Lieberman and ask him to talk to John McCain, and, if McCain won't stop this madness, to call upon Sen. Lieberman to condemn his friend.

But maybe if I make this request both public and personal -- maybe if I invoke the images of Germany, just seven decades ago -- and ask that you do what you can to keep our children from harm, you will see how crucial this moment is to each and every Jew. And how much power you have to help us, all of us, who dare to hope for better from this country but find ourselves, in the middle of the night, awake and terrified.

A healthy and productive New Year to you and yours.

Jesse Kornbluth

Comments

[vicenteduq]

Hitler reached power using the tools of Democracy.

There were huge votations for Adolf Hitler before he was appointed as German Chancellor by Hindenburg, January 30 1933.

Hitler used the "Tools of Democracy" and persuaded millions of Germans without using violence on them., just votes.

In Hitler's Table Talk and other written reports we see how Hitler despised the masses, and how he considered them to be stupid, lazy, passive, subdued, etc. ..... Hitler always referred to the masses with contempt as being "feminine".

So the means to reach power by the Nazis were not always violent and they used very effectively the tools of Democracy, like the voting urns. The Junkers, the Military Aristocracy, and the Rich Industrials, didn't fall in Hitler's claws just by terror or violence. They were persuaded in rich and plush salons, while being served the best liquors on silver trays.

That is why slanders and lies are so dangerous in any political campaign in any country, and America is no exception.

Thanks for article, Mr Jesse Kornbluth because you show us the dangers of excesses in Democracy. Particularly Slanders, Smear Attacks and Lies.

Add to that concern the fact that the State of Israel is in no better position, no better security, no better Military Situation than during the first day of the Bush Presidency. Also Ariel Sharon and his policies did not increased the Security of Israel or the USA.

http://tossUpStates.blogspot.com/

http://milenials.blogspot.com/

Vicente Duque

[ShawnMichel]

McCain and Palin's incitement to hatred was inevitable. It's their last move--a nonmove, really--in a game where checkmate has already been called. They are the petulant little losers tossing the board and its pieces over and putting up their sorry, wrinkly little dukes.

Obama in a landslide. Hope in a landslide. Sanity in a landslide.

Amen.

[Isolated in N GA]

The "greatest generation" became so, in part, by the sacrifices required to stamp out the blight of global fascism. At what point do true patriots make their voices heard, and say "Enough", or "Never Again"? Weak, insincere, accommodating rebukes for racial epithets by the leader of the Republican party during stump speeches are insufficient.

I have visited the concentration camp museum at Dachau, touched the ovens, and thought long and hard about how a highly civilized and educated people can be reduced to such actions. It happens incrementally, one step at a time, one small compromise- one small accommodation after another.

Economic turbulence, Jingoism, pride, ethnic scapegoating, dissolution of political morals and norms of civility, exploitation of an open democratic society by a small group of individuals filled with hate and envy. That is what drove Germans (and Italians, and Spaniards) to their great national disgrace. Do we believe that we are so fundamentally different from the German people, that these things could not happen in the USA? Have we expunged these emotions, these fears, this distrust of the other from the human psyche and condition? Please consider this question; do you think that the pending economic disaster does not create conditions favorable to germination and growth of the seeds of hate in American soil?

[Isolated in N GA]

I just returned from participating in the State Fair in Perry, Georgia. Pulling the horses back home, I had to spend a few moments in a truck stop restroom while fueling up the dually truck. The walls were covered with graffiti reading "Obama must die". I am compelled by a sense of obligation to community to write a public response.

Continuing on my way home, I listened over the radio to pundits dissecting and spinning the words of Georgia Congressman John Lewis "What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history¦ Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse¦ George Wallace never threw a bomb, he never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."

Returning home, I read the recent editorial of a mainstream commentator (Frank Rich, NY Times "Barack Hussein Obama") which used the metaphors of McCarthyism and the Weimar republic (code for the events surrounding the rise of German Fascism) to describe the strategy and language now employed by the leader of the Republican Party and his second in command.

[renatam]

After this week's Republican/McCain "rallies" - where a sherrif in uniform incited a crowd against Senator Obama, and other screamed "kill him" -- Senator Lieberman's attempts to make this benign because it was about an AA and not himself, means he is TOAST. Period.

[derik]

yup, Joe does need to fish or cut bait. After all, anyone not like them with a different name is "next" in line for a target in a real mess that historically going back over 2000 plus years has been a mess that can't be stopped without misery for those targets. Either way, I believe Obama will win. I do hope the crowds at the mccain campaigns go back to their bar-b-q, football and beer (whoops, I am different and I do those things too). Otherwise, things will continue getting messy.

[cyclewerker]

poor Lieberman doesn't know what is going to hit him next election...I grew up in CT...NO ONE likes him any more...Connecticut is an independent state that leans blue...voters usually decide based on a candidates qualifications/skills, etc...by letting McCain ride the Lieberman train, and not speaking out against the hate/vitriol that the repubs are spewing, Lieberman is likely in his last term as a senator...

[kathy4change]

My family lives in Ct. I will inform them the next time he runs - OUT!!!

[CitizenoftheRepublic]

I believe that the media as a responsible body of information dissemination should come together and condemn the Mc Cain/Palin ticket and refuse to show any footage or promotion of the campaign until the "ticket" condemns the actions and apologizes for not doing so the first shout! It's not the rabbi's responsibilities when it's being filmed and shown, it's the call letters on the TV and the radio to dis-engage and refuse to capitulate!

[renatam]

Absolutely. And regulation not only for finance/insurance...but MEDIA, is on deck. Covering a sherrif inciting a crowd in uniform -- and, crowds who verbally assault AA camera personnel w/epithets and threats...should not and will not be tolerated.

[arachne646]

They came for the communists, and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a communist.
They came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't Jewish.
They came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak up.

attr. to Rev. Niemoller

It doesn't matter at whom the hate is being directed right now, or the demographics of each candidate's campaign. When fear is built up and encouraged into hate, it will continue, especially in hard times, to grow and grow against not only its original political target, but against "the other".

[LisaLisa1234]

Amen.

[dfortruth]

When I look at this election I think about the story of King Saul and David.

For the word of God says: for My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. .

McCain/Pain speaks division, lies, fear, and they point out the sins of others, but overlook ther own sin.
At a time like this McCain do not want anyone to remember the Keating Five, where he help to deregulate the banking laws for his personal gain.

McCain feed the media, the media feeds it to the people, just like they fed the lies of weapons of mass destruction to start a war for their gain. Now the want a war against Iran, but their agenda is to usher in the endtimes. The what they really want is the holy land, to rule and rein in it.

Why do you think McCain did not choose Joe as his vp, because the neocons do not want a jewish person in their whitehouse, nor a black. But they need Joe to help them with the jewish vote.

So they use old fears, that is probably how Osama bin Liden got his follwers to be filled with hate and anger enough to place bombs on themselve to kill other that do not believer what they believe. That is how the devil works. devil=lie=evil to bring fear with leads to destruction

[unlikelyconservative]

I love to hear what you think about Hamas officials and Louis Farrakhan's endorsement of Obama.

[EngineerBill]

Barack Obama has both rejected and denounced Farrakhan and Hamas. The point of this article is where is McCain's or Palin's rejection of violent rhetoric?

[Bitter Clinger]

Many people, especially those of the Jewish faith, seem to assume that Sen. Joe McCarthy was anti-Semitic, and that McCarthyism is anti-Semitic in general. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sen. McCarthy's chief counsel on his senate committee was Roy Cohn, and another prominent staffer was David Schine, both Jewish. Sen McCarthy employed Jewish staffers in high positions in his office at a time when overt anti-Semitism was a common practice on capitol hill. While some right wingers are anti-Semitic many more are strong supporters of Israel and cooperate with Jewish groups in U.S.A. and Israel on common issues.

[sedum]

Do you have a point to make?

[LJinFla]

Wow, I found this article slightly distasteful. I live in Tampa and I know we have our share of rednecks that will yell out hate at rally's....especially at republican rallies.......that is hardly equivalent to visions of holocaust.

Every place has the odd idiot that engages in hate speech. I agree that the McCain/Palin group should have said hey now we will have none of that crap here! They didn't and so while they might not agree with the guy that yelled "kill him" [obama] they surely implied that they did not care that their rally incites those kinds of feelings in the fringe cases.

Still I think it is a bit far fetched to compare that to the holocaust. After Obama wins, you will see that too. The American people at large do not think like that, it is only the intolerant A-holes that come out of the wood works when incited.

[CitizenoftheRepublic]

That's the point. They aren't stopping this "hate speech" any where they go and they have the pulpit to do it. You are not a history major, anthropologist or anyone of qualification to state this is "far fetched" because history proves you wrong more than once, dear. Tell that to the folks in your state with the tatoos on their arms not printed by Miami Ink, but by the short mustache gang of the 30's and 40's! What color would you like yours in?

[turtlejew]

It always starts with just one statement . . .how well is that one received and believed? . . . well, let us push a little harder . . .one more statement . . . .and then just one more . . ..

no one should ever follow the yetzer hara (evil impulse) -- even to win at any costs

life and death are in the hands of the tongue

[berrycooda]

Is it hate speech because they mention who Obama's co-workers on committees were...

Who knows what this man's views are today...

McCain & Palin can't help who is in the audience. Those people are just as radical as the person referenced to.

Counting the days until Nov. 4 so then the comments can be about voter fraud....etc
This is not hate speech....Constantly taking apart everything someone says and keeping it in the news
is what makes it so.

I think it gets promoted by media who keeps telling it over and over and over and over.....
They plant thoughts in peoples minds that weren't even there.

I heard that speech and didn't give it a thought until it got torn apart by the news media.

You probably won't print this because everytime I talk against the news media, it never shows up.

[LisaLisa1234]

Mentioning who Obama's co-committee members is not hate speech. That's not what's at issue here. The following statements most certainly can incite hatred:

"This is a man who does not see America the way we see America"

"This man sees America as so imperfect that he pals around with terrorists" (Note the plural of terrorists...like serving on a board can be equated to having beer with numerous terrorists)

"Who is Barack Obama?" (The question should really be, "Who is Sarah Palin?" We still don't know.)

"Barack Hussein Obama" (The man did not choose his own middle name)

Need more examples?

[ckdogs]

I certainly agree with the premise that McCain/Palin should not "rabble rouse" to this degree, or should, at least, condemn the racist remarks that their rhetoric engenders. I also agree that those who say they are religious, and then use racism to further their political ends, is the ultimate hypocrisy. I guess what I take issue with is the idea that we should be against this because it might affect the Jews in particular. I take the prejudice against anyone as a personal insult - whether or not it is against my own race or religion.

[LisaLisa1234]

I agree--prejudice and racism (and sexism) hurt us as a nation.