Free Republic

(AlterNet version link. Tikkun Daily's headline for the same article is the rather bland in comparison: Reviving the American Liberal Movement.) Close to 600 people in the San Francisco Bay Area gave up their President’s Day Monday vacation to spend some nine hours in a “Strategy Conference for Liberals and Progressives” to address “How To Support Obama to BE the Obama Americans Thought We Elected” and “How to Launch a Constitutional Amendment to Restrain Corporate Power” after the Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow unrestrained corporate spending on elections. For many, just being in the context where this discussion was...

A former 1960s radical, Michael Lerner is the founder of Tikkun magazine, a publication that blends the scriptures of the Old Testament with the economic and social doctrines of Karl Marx. A frequent speaker on college campuses across the United States, Lerner brings this curious mix of religion and radical politics to the student audiences he addresses. In each appearance, as a way of legitimating his anti-Israel message, Lerner is introduced as a “rabbi.” In fact, his ordination ceremony took place within the context of the “Jewish Renewal” movement -- a sort of “New Age” Judaism whose origins trace back...

Israel's attempt to wipe out Hamas is understandable, but stupid. No country in the world is going to ignore the provocation of rockets being launched from neighbouring territory day after day. If Mexico had a group of anti-imperialists bombing Texas, imagine how long it would take for America to mobilise a counterattack. Israel has every right to respond. But the kind of response matters. Killing 500 Palestinians and wounding 2,000 others (at the time of writing) is disproportionate. Hamas can harass, but it cannot pose any threat to the existence of Israel. And just as Hamas's indiscriminate bombing of population...

The Network of Spiritual Progressives Strategizing with leaders of the Anti-War Movement Posted Friday, September 07 2007 Rabbi Michael Lerner This is a slightly edited version of a phone conference call convened by the NSP with the goal of establishing more contact and cooperation between various segments of the anti-war movement, and encouraging long-term strategic thinking. On the call were Tim Carpenter of Progressive Democrats of America, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, Rick Ufford chase of the Christian Peace Wtiness for Iraq, Leslie Cagan of UFPJ, Dot Maver of Ept. of Peace, Rabbi Michael Lerner and Nichola Torbett of NSP,...

Ex-president reportedly tells Michael Lerner’s delegation he wants pro-Israel Evangelicals to accept Judaism’s legitimacy; says Jews’ alliance with them a mistake. Adam Dickter - Assistant Managing Editor Wading into the delicate fray over the alliance between Jews and pro-Israel Evangelicals, former President Jimmy Carter last week reportedly said it was a mistake for Jews to accept such ties, and that he was working to convince Southern Baptists to change the way they look at Judaism and the Middle East. Christian Zionists can be better friends of Israel by challenging its government’s policies, while accepting Judaism as a legitimate path to...

Last month I wrote an article called “Norman Finkelstein’s Obscenities,” a response to Finkelstein’s latest screed, “Should Alan Dershowitz Target Himself for Assassination?” As the title of the article suggests, Finkelstein puts forward in his article what he believes to be a justification for my assassination as a war criminal, based on my support for Israel. Nor was this the only obscenity in the article. Not by a long shot. As I wrote in my article, Finkelstein piece was accompanied by a: cartoon drawn by “Latuff”, a frequent accomplice of Finkelstein. The cartoon portrayed me as masturbating in rapturous joy...

"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God." -- Mark 16:19 Right hand. Right side. Right way. Religious Right. It is easy to understand how conservative Christians have influenced politics and populace in America, says Rabbi Michael Lerner. It has been about taking ownership of the human need to feel valued, protected and directed. The activist, author and former darling of the Clinton administration was on the Easter edition of "Meet the Press" to discuss faith, morality and politics and will speak in...

The Talk Shows Sunday, April 16th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Joan Chittister, executive director, Center for Contemporary Spirituality; Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, Tikkun Magazine; Jon Meacham, managing editor, Newsweek; Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies, George Washington University; Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor, First Things; Joel Osteen, senior pastor, Lakewood Church. FACE THE NATION (CBS): New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. George Allen,...

Smarting from criticism that liberals have lost touch with voters' religious values, faith leaders have organized a first-of-its-kind conference to mobilize political activism among spiritual progressives. The sold-out four-day activism conference set to begin Wednesday in Berkeley is expected to draw progressive religious leaders from all over the nation. Well-known Rabbi Michael Lerner came up with the idea of a progressive interfaith conference that does not advocate for any political party but instead pushes for candidates and policies that uphold progressive moral ideals. He partnered with Jim Wallis, the evangelical best-selling author of "God's Politics" and founder of the liberal...

Conference seeks to morph energy into political clout Liberals have complained for two decades that conservatives misuse religion for political gain, but it wasn't until well-organized evangelicals powered President Bush's election in November that some decided that they had to do more than gripe. The latest post-election attempt at transforming the spiritual energy of the left into political clout began Wednesday at UC Berkeley, where 1,200 people attended the opening of a conference on "Spiritual Activism." The goal of the four-day conference is to create a spirituality-based platform to counter the religious right, but organizers are also intending to...

A poll of Jewish voters in Miami-Dade County, Fla., showed that 82 percent of them will vote for John Kerry and only 15 percent for President Bush. Coverage of The Miami Herald poll by the Ha'aretz newspaper in Israel drew criticism from the Tikkun Community, a California-based international Jewish organization with interfaith ties. A statement by Tikkun's Rabbi Michael Lerner said he was struck by the spin provided by Ha'aretz' U.S. correspondent Nathan Guttman. Like so many people in the media, this reporter appears to see the world through the framework of the Jewish establishment so powerfully that he cannot...

Liberals must stand up for their own ideals to win By Michael Lerner It's easy to denounce Sen. John Kerry's inconsistencies and waffling about the war. Certainly his statement that he would still have voted in favor of an intervention, even knowing what he knows now, has made it impossible for him to consistently represent the perspective of the American majority who think the war was a mistake. Yet the problem goes deeper -- to the heart of the opportunism which continues to befuddle America's liberal forces. The central problem with liberals is that they are "liberal" about their liberalism...

The group at the forefront of the recent anti-war rallies, International A.N.S.W.E.R (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is in reality a front organization designed to further the radical agenda of several extremist movements from the political Left. Despite the media’s assertions to the contrary, present incarnation of the peace movement, led by ANSWER, is anything but representative of mainstream America. ANSWER’s steering committee reads like a "Who’s Who" of radical political organizations. The most influential member of ANSWER’s steering committee, Ramsey Clark’s pet project known as the International Action Center (IAC), is considered by many observers to...

(03/29/2002) No Peace In Peace Camp Left in uproar over Rabbi Lerner’s ‘harsh’ Times ad rapping Israel. Eric J. Greenberg - Staff Writer Three prominent liberal New York rabbis have abruptly resigned from the advisory board of a new national Jewish peace group after their names appeared in a controversial full-page New York Times ad that likened Israel to the Passover story’s evil Pharaoh, and also used a Nazi allusion to describe the Sharon government’s military actions in the West Bank and Gaza. The two senior rabbis of Manhattan’s popular Congregation B’nai Jeshurun — Rolando Matalon and Marcelo Bronstein —...