Roseanne Barr in Oakland: another Jewish woman who will not be silenced

The social hall at Oakland's Congregation Beth Abraham was filled last night with people who had gathered to hear the story of comedienne Roseanne Barr's dramatic transformation into an active supporter of the state of Israel.

Roseanne Barr interviewed by Dr. Lenny Kristal 

Seattle blogger Richard Silverstein's attempt to organize a protest fell flat and the program went on without a hitch. Good to see that no one outside of Press TV takes him too seriously.

Rabbi Bloom touched upon the controversy surrounding his guest speaker by reading an email he had received, signed by a handful of people.

"You will see the attached that over 70 individuals signed a petition urging you to reconsider your ill-advised decision to host Roseanne Barr on February 27^th.

It is clear now that no reconsideration will happen, and the event will go on as planned.

You have the freedom to stand by a person that has a history of “voicing any thought that comes to mind”.  No matter how hateful. No matter the hurt in causes the human community. We do not find this anything to celebrate. Like the many places of worship that have in the past (and the present) used their freedom to host those that  denigrated Black people, Jewish people, immigrants, Muslims, you have chosen to sully your reputation and debase your sanctuary with hate and extremism. You have chosen narrow devotion to a nation-state rather than choosing justice, mercy and compassion. It is not the first time such a thing has happened.

We will continue to speak of the traditional values of love, compassion, universalism of human rights, justice. We will not be deterred by the rants of a few that seek mass destruction. We hope at some time you can join us."

The gathered crowd collapsed into laughter.

The local "outrage as a lifestyle choice" folk  (thank you, Howard Jacobson, for that) immediately began spreading lies about Barr's talk.

Rabbi Lynn Gottleib of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinic Council  jumped at the opportunity to bear false witness, accusing Roseanne of spreading anti-Muslim vitriol, "at a synagogue, no less"

JVP Rabbi Lynn Gottleib bears false witness

The reality was very different.  Roseanne discussed growing up Jewish in Salt Lake city. She discussed her socialist orientation, and she discussed her fascination with the story of Purim, and with Queen Esther, another Jewish woman who would not be silenced.    Roseanne Barr used the talk at Congregation Beth Abraham to express her desire for peaceful co-existence in the region, stating,  

"If I could get one Palestinian grandmother to join me, me and her – I would be the representative of the Jewish people and she would be of the Palestinians – we would sit down and hammer out a peace agreement and hand it to the people in power. I don't see why that can't happen. Last time I was in Israel, I sought out Palestinian women and had wonderful conversations with them, and I will probably seek them out again." 

Crowd filters in to hear Roseann Barr at Congregation Beth Abraham

Roseanne Barr in Oakland: The Selective Outrage of the Morally bankrupt Part 2

Its deja vu. All over again

Controversial comedienne Roseanne Barr will be speaking at Oakland's Congregation Beth Abraham February 27.

From Haaretz:

No one is quite sure what happened to Roseanne Barr when it comes to Israel. In 2013, the outspoken, outrageous and very political comedian made an utter about-face, morphing from a fierce critic who called Israel a “Nazi state” into a die-hard supporter, attacking those who criticize the Jewish State with the same angry obscenities she once hurled at the country itself.

The conversion occurred seemingly overnight.

But she has promised to explain it all publicly in the coming days. Barr will address the shift in her activism on February 27 at a reception held by the pro-Israel advocacy organization StandWithUs at Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland, California, where she will be in conversation with Israel advocate Lenny Kristal.


We wrote about her last scheduled trip to the Bay Area here

Roseanne Barr: Is consistency the hobgoblin of small minds?

And here

Roseanne Barr in Berkeley: The Selective Outrage of the Morally bankrupt.

A campaign to discredit her and pressure the sponsoring organizations into canceling has been instituted and has failed. Disgraced blogger Richard Silverstein flooded the local community with letters. And there was a petition. There's always a petition.

Interestingly enough, this call for "civility" was penned by Jim Harris, a local anti-Israel activist with a history of some very uncivil behavior.  He's a self proclaimed member of the International Solidarity Movement, which prides itself on providing human shields for terror groups.  He organized a protest at a local AIPAC dinner  that spiraled out of control, leading to 7 arrests. 

And, yes, the same Jim Harris who cries crocodile tears over "hateful words sure to incite bigotry" had no crisis of conscience when he attended a talk at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists  featuring notorious holocaust denier and  antisemite Gilad Atzmon  

As of now, Jim Harris's petition is signed by people from such diverse locales as Queen Charlotte, Canada and  Lupsingen, Switzerland. Not a single congregant from Beth Abraham has signed it.

Just another example of the selective moral outrage of the anti-Israel community.

Seattle blogger Richard Silverstein calls for protest at an Oakland synagogue

Seattle blogger Richard Silverstein has called for protest at  an Oakland synagogue, and has led a letter writing campaign directed towards local community leaders. Why he thinks our local community is his business is a mystery. He is spurred on, no doubt, by little more than his own elevated sense of self-importance and his own humorless existence.

In his cross-hairs is comedienne Roseanne Barr, who is scheduled to appear at Congregation Beth Abraham later this month.

Such criticism is particularly  rich coming from Richard Silverstein who openly shills for the terror-supporting International Solidarity Movement (ISM)

Roseanne Barr's long journey of self discovery has led her back to Judaism and Israel.   We wrote about it last year, before an earlier Bay area appearance was cancelled

How seriously should we take Roseanne's Twitter outbursts? Roseanne Barr is a public figure, but she is not an academic or a journalist. She's a comedienne- essentially a shock jock , who uses the literary tools of exaggeration and hyperbole to drive home her points. 

Does it make us uncomfortable? Yes- but its meant to....

What can we, as a community, learn from Roseanne Barr's personal journey?   One thing is certain. Human beings are capable of much more nuance and subtlety when not restricted to 140 characters or less.

Roseanne Barr in Berkeley: The Selective Outrage of the Morally bankrupt

Via Emunah:

Roseanne Barr is coming to the Magnes Museum in Berkeley on Tuesday, to discuss "Israel, the Jews and me". There is a lot of justifiable curiosity about her personal journey towards Zionism.

It was only last year, after all that Roseanne's program with notorious anti-Semite Gilad Atzmon was promoted by the extremist anti-Israel group, Jewish Voice for Peace.

How does one go from hobnobbing with extremists and anti-Semites to publicly supporting Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people? How does such a dramatic about face happen in a matter of months?

I have a ticket. I hope to find out.

Ben (the son of) Zoma had asked and answered in Pirke Avot: "Who is wise? He who learns from all people". The community is hoping to learn from Roseanne's personal journey.  The Jewish Community Relations Center is sponsoring the facilitated discussion with her.

Always outspoken, Roseanne is becoming even more controversial in recent days with a series of tweets that push the line of acceptable discourse. 

From the Sacramento Bee:

Barr’s Twitter page has since become a battleground with the 62-year-old comic lobbing rejoinders to obscene and anti-Semitic slurs directed at her. On Wednesday, Barr tweeted, “Proud to have spam blocked 25k Jew haters today! #UCDavisDivest toads.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article9771911.html#storylink=cpy

Our friends at Divest this  recently had a good discussion about  Twitter ( statements of 140 characters or less), remarking that social media as a whole

enables those stupid things we all say (especially in our younger years – things that might still make us wince upon remembrance) to be broadcast around the globe where they get to live on forever in screen grabs of Twitter feeds and Facebook timelines long since deleted.

Concluding

But as these thirty-second communication tools become proxies for what we are thinking, or bricks in the wall of confirmation bias too many of us are building around ourselves, it might be time to reflect on how tools originally designed to help us make friends should not be used to destroy lives.

How seriously should we take Roseanne's Twitter outbursts? Roseanne Barr is a public figure, but she is not an academic or a journalist. She's a comedienne- essentially a shock jock , who uses the literary tools of exaggeration and hyperbole to drive home her points.

Does it make us uncomfortable? Yes- but its meant to.

Opponents of Israel are using Tuesday's event as yet another reason to rage against the Jewish community. Jim Harris, founder of Stop AIPAC, and a familiar face at anti-Israel protests throughout the Bay area has started a petition "End Your Support for Roseanne Barr's call to "nuke" a California University".

He writes:

On Tuesday, February 17th, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of San Francisco will be hosting a talk by Roseanne Barr in Berkeley, California. We are shocked and saddened at this, as Roseanne Barr has long been so uncivil in her speech, even to the point of supporting violence against masses of people.  The latest, but certainly not the only, is her tweet of Feb. 10th that stated "I hope all the Jews leave UC Davis and then it gets nuked!"

Jim ends his petition (currently signed by a few dozen people) with a demand.

We demand that JCRC remove its sponsorship for this talk. To support civility. To reject all calls to violence. 

Jim Harris is providing us with yet another example of the selective outrage of the morally bankrupt anti-Israel activist. There were no calls or petitions for civility when pro-Israel activists were threatened and attacked at events he organized and attended. There was no condemnation of the genocidal aspirations of Hamas or the local organizations that enable and excuse them. And there was no calls or petitions for civility  when JVP promoted  Gilad "Burning synagogues is a rational act" Atzmon, just a few short months ago. And as Europe collapses, as Jews living Jewish lives are slaughtered, Jim Harris chooses to be outraged over 140 poorly chosen words.

On Tuesday, we'll be testing Ben Zoma's words, first hand. What can we, as a community, learn from Roseanne Barr's personal journey?   One thing is certain. Human beings are capable of much more nuance and subtlety when not restricted to 140 characters or less.

UPDATE:
The talk, originally scheduled for Tuesday night, has been cancelled

Roseanne Barr: Is consistency the hobgoblin of small minds?

Via Emunah:

United States Supreme Court Justice Robert  Jackson, explaining a change of opinion, once wrote “I see no reason why I should be consciously wrong today because I was unconsciously wrong yesterday. ”

Life events- a serious illness, the birth of a child, the death of a loved one can cause people to reverse their trajectory.  It happens. People do change their minds.   When faced with new information, it's what you expect thoughtful and intelligent people to do.  Its not a sign of moral or intelligent weakness to admit error and change course.

In the political area, you just can’t help but question the motivation behind an abrupt about face. Does it represent a sincere change in analysis, or is it simply political expediency, or worse, graft?

Roseanne Barr will be speaking in Berkeley next month.  Her talk is entitled “Israel, the Jews and me”.  Roseanne Barr’s record of  political activism is inconsistent and unconventional, to say the least.

In 2008 , Roseanne wrote on her blog, referring to the Gaza flotilla: “I said Israel will attack any boat carrying doctors and medical supplies--they have turned away the red cross already and all medical and food assistance. Israel is a NAZI state. The Jewish Soul is being tortured in Israel. The destruction of the jews in Israel has been assured with this inhuman attack on civilians in gaza. Hamas is the street gangs---this is equivilent to los angeles attacking and launching war on the people of watts to attempt to kill the bloods and the crips.”

In 2012,  Roseanne  ran for president on the Peace and Freedom ticket, after losing the Green Party nomination. She chose anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan as her running mate. The platform included marijuana legalization, environmental preservation, ending the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and equal rights. She declared “Cindy and I are the ‘Throw the Bums Out’ ticket and the ‘Ballot Access’ ticket. The American people are sick and tired of this ‘lesser evil’ garbage they get fed every election year.. Both the Democrats and the Republicans do the same evils once they’re in office… I’m here to tell the voters: if you want to tell the government and the two domineering parties that you’re sick and tired of all their evil, register in the Peace and Freedom Party and vote for me and Cindy.”

The choice of Cindy Sheehan was an interesting one. Cindy was reportedly mentored and housed in Berkeley by Stephen Pearcy and Virginia Johnson, married attorneys, slumlords and 1% ers who made a name for themselves  by showing up at anti-Israel rallies with grotesque anti-American and anti-Israel imagery. Stephen Pearcy was often seen carrying the flag of the terror groups,  Hezbollah and  Hamas.

Sheehan bought into the Pearcys  Svengalian coaching hook line and sinker. She was once reported saying, “Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the army to protect America, not Israel.”. After the subsequent uproar, she denied the outburst.

I’ll be going to see Roseanne next month, because I’m curious about her transition. How did she emerge from hob-nobbing with anti-Israel activists and buying into worldwide Zionist conspiracy mindset, to effectively advocating for Israel on social media? If her conversion is sincere, it may provide insight into how to reach other members of the progressive community.

Roseanne Barr at the Magnes in Berkeley

Roseanne Barr (yes, that Roseanne Barr) will be appearing at the Magnes Museum in Berkeley, Feb 17, speaking about "Israel, the Jews and me"

Roseanne Barr has taken to social media to advocate for Israel, and to call out the hypocrisy of groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace.

From her blog:

Letter to the Erev Rav who know nothing about Judaism whatsoever, and who lead the attack on the Jewish People for selfish reasons, by lying to the Gentile World:

REALLY? You are aligning more and more with people who call Jews monsters to be destroyed after 2000 years of exile witch-burnings, Inquisition, Pogrom and Holocaust inflicted on their ‘chosen’ targets, the Jewish people? Really?
You feel it is moral to express your sympathy for those who occupy all but a sliver of the middle east, those who stone women to death execute gays and rape little children, and GET AWAY with doing it, because child ‘marriage’ (polygamist pedophile cults) have a Priest class which absolves all pedophiles of criminal action against innocents. You’re that far gone? Really? You don’t ‘choose’ to see that condemning the Jewish people as a CLASS is a racist thing to do, though you also spout Marxist rhetoric regarding class? REALLY?

You believe that making Judaism illegal in every Arab Country is OK? Really? You ignore the Jewish Nakba-800 thousand expelled Jews in the middle east FORCED to move to Israel, since 1948-by violence and hatred, their wealth stolen? You scream and yell that there should be no harbor or rest for any of them inside a Jewish State, or anywhere else on earth? REALLY? You ignore the FACT that the Arab world did this to Jews AFTER AUSHWITZ? You ignore the FACT that those with whom you agree are now taunting Holocaust Survivors still alive in the world, and calling them Nazis? REALLY?

You leave me no choice then, but to assess your moral indignation as meaningless lawless revolting and vile.  I laugh in astonishment at what hypocrites and naked bigots you are. Therefore, I hereby exclude you from any relevant discussions about Truth Justice Equality or human decency because you have forfeited the right to be included in any of those discussions.