Free Republic

In ways that immediately brought to mind dangerous parallels with the yellow Star of David patch worn by Jews during the Third Reich, Donald Trump in November suggested that Syrian refugees, posing as allegedly dangerous Fifth Columnists, should wear badges on account of their Muslim faith so that they could not infiltrate American society and carry out plots against the nation. When asked by a reporter whether he thought the comparison with Nazi Germany was a fair one, Trump responded "you tell me." So shocking have been these and similar statements that not just liberal voices and outlets, but even...

Cornel West, an extremist race-relations instructor at Princeton, addressed the 10th annual Young Democratic Socialists conference earlier this month. The three-day event took place at Norman Thomas High School in Manhattan, named after an American socialist activist. The meeting, entitled "Real change for a change," described itself as a "snap shot of the current socialist movement in the United States."

(This panel, these virtual outright threats to Obama occurred tonight on MSNBC's The Last Word, hosted by Lawrence O'Donnell, with panelists Rabbi Michael Lerner (Editor-Tikkun), Jane Hamsher, Ralph Nader, and Alan Grayson). Video - Denouncing the Tax Deal (MSNBC page under 'top video stories').

Date: Saturday, December 12, 2009 Time: 11:00am - 3:00pm Location: Washington, DC Lafayette Square across from White House (Metro: Farragut West or Farragut North) 10:30 AM YAF will counter protest the 9/11 "inside job" conspiracy theorists. They call it an anti-war rally, but the nuts and bolts are coming from the left coast for this!!! This just cam in last minute!!!! Contact: jordan@yaf.com or 202-596-7923 to join with YAF In Freedom, YAF Come protest the likes of: Scheduled Speakers Dennis Kucinich US Representative (D-Ohio) and former Presidential candidate, www.kucinich.house.gov Cynthia McKinney 2008 Green Party candidate for President, former six-term Democratic...

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...

What is it with Jim Moran? The nine-term Democratic congressman from Northern Virginia can't seem to keep his head on straight when it comes to talking about Iraq and the reasons we have ended up over there. In the run-up to the March 2003 invasion, during an event at a Reston church sponsored by a peace coalition, Moran said: "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this." Not stopping there, he added, "The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change...

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...

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...

In recent years, Passover has undergone a make-over in the American Jewish non-Orthodox community, one that has converted it largely into a holiday devoted to celebrating human rights, protesting a long list of human rights abuses and promoting fashionable causes. The remake seems designed to make Passover a cosmopolitan holiday, one with a universal message in which all can join, in essence the Jewish answer to the Declaration of the Rights of Man of the French Revolution. Back in the 1960s, a series of Political Correctness Haggadahs were written, in which the message of Passover was turned into a celebration...

Feb. 12, 2003 US rabbi barred from San Francisco war protest, as too 'pro-Israel' By THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF Rabbi Michael Lerner says today he has been barred from speaking at an anti-war protest planned for this Sunday in San Francisco, because he spoke out against the organizers'dissemination of anti-Israel propaganda. Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue, writes of his being turned away at the rally on the op-ed page of Wednesday's Wall Street Journal. "We at Tikkun do not believe that this war--in which thousands of Iraqi civilians are likely to die--will...

(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 —...

*********************************************************************** PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! The following forwarded email from Tikkun is long, so here is the short summary. The people around Tikkun (a progressive Jewish magazine) are in the process of organizing a civil disobedience action in Washington DC to protest Israel's actions in the Middle East. This could be a very powerful statement if it happens. The email below is aimed primarily at the Jewish community, however the Tikkun people are now working with several Christian groups such as Sojourners to organize this action. All who agree with the positions described below (a condemnation of violence on all sides,...