Saturday, September 15, 2018

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl Sounding the Alarm for Anti-Semitism

In recent weeks, anti-Semitic flyers have appeared by local synagogues.   A holocaust denier appeared on Berkeley radio station KPFA.  And the repugnant Institute for Historical Review has placed digital advertisements at local BART stations.

Its time for the Bay Area, and the country as a whole, to wake up.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of  New York's Central Synagogue, one of the largest reform congregations in America addresses this issue in her Rosh Hashanah sermon posted on Facebook, detailing the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism in our everyday life.
  
Yom Teruah  Sounding the Alarm for Anti-Semitism

Ever heard of Russell Walker?
He proclaimed: “God is a white supremacist”
and says all Jewish people “descend from Satan.”
So who is Russell Walker?
He’s the Republican candidate
for a seat in the North Carolina state legislature.
Steve West hosts a YouTube Channel where he said:
“Looking back in history, unfortunately, Hitler was right.”
West speaks of “Jewish cabals”
that are “harvesting baby parts” from Planned Parenthood.
He recently won the Republican primary
for a seat in the Missouri House of Representatives.
John Fitzgerald posted a reward online
of “$2,000 to anybody who can prove
that the official Holocaust narrative is true.”
He will be a Republican candidate
for the California House of representatives.
Ilhan Omar is already a Democratic state representative in Minnesota
and nearly certain to win a US Congressional seat this year.
She tweeted, quote: “Israel has hypnotized the world,
may Allah awaken the people
and help them see the evil doings of Israel,”
which she described as an “apartheid regime.”
These are real candidates who aspire to run our country.
ADL reports that there are more people running for public office
who express antisemitic views than ever before.

This anti-Semitism, on both the left and the right is evident not only in the political arena, but on campus, as well.  Rabbi Buchdahl  continues:

Opposition to Israel
has increasingly become a necessary precondition
for all other progressive commitments.
Some groups will only allow Jewish students to participate 
if they take a ‘disloyalty oath’
and affirm they are opposed to “Israeli racism.”
This singling out of Israel, as THE litmus test
for Jewish involvement in any social justice cause
is antisemitism,
plain and simple. 

And I beg of you students to call that out when you see it. 

Read  Rabbi Buchdahl's powerful call to action here.

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