Obama's Lesson and The Jewish Community
Monday March 31, 2008
Categories: Jewish Issues
There are few times in this blog’s history when I have felt that Rabbi Grossman was one hundred percent correct in her criticisms of my ideas. However, a few weeks ago she called me out for citing a few crack...
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About Virtual Talmud
This blog is no longer updated and is closed for comments. We welcome your comments about Judaism in our Judaism forums.
Brad Hirschfield currently blogs on Windows and Doors.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. Listed as one of the nation’s 50 most influential rabbis in Newsweek, and a regular commentator on Court TV, he is the creator of the popular series, Building Bridges, airing on Bridges TV, and the co-host of the weekly radio show, Hirschfield and Kula.
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hey mr obama i need to know what what you planining for the us i am doing a arical on you and i cant find any informaton on that
A beautiful post. Thank you Rabbi Stern.
Undoubtedly having grown up on the mean streets of Honolulu, Obama must have faced a huge torrent of racism (in the only state where whites are a minority). Rememeber there were no Blacks on Hawaii 5-0 and only one on Magnum PI.
To say nothing of the anti-Muslim comments he must have gotten in Jakarta.
No wonder he attended Farrakhan's 'Million Man March', and no wonder he went for years to Rev Wright's church where Sunday after Sunday where he listened to what seems to have been constant diatribes about America, White, etc.
It must have been horrible going to Columbia and Harvard Law after that.
But its nice to know that finally his wife is proud to be American.
Its absurd to think that just by going on that march and being so close to Farrakhan's friend anyone could possibly think that Obama was in any way anti-Jewish.
And surrounding himself with Carterite foreign policy officials how could anyone think him anti-Israel.
The mind reels.
Are you stoping the blog because your voting for Obama? Well it is a shame. And how can a man sit over 20 yrs in a church that is racist and not be effected? And how can we over look this mans double speak? It looks like he may get the nomination.And if he wins we all will lose and wonder ?"how'd that happen, oh yeah they ask for it"
"Obama’s approach to dealing with the situation broke with typical political thinking..." Now, if we can only be wise enough to recognize the opportunity that presents. Obama's call to perfect an imperfect nation and thereby help to heal the world should speak to every Jew in the language at the very center of what it means to be Jewish. His reference to Israel as a "stalwart ally" sould be clear enough as well.
To a great extent, Obama is the new Jimmy Carter -- a person about whom we know almost nothing and want to know even less. Obama like Carter is a blank canvass onto which people project their ideal candidate. When Obama turns the race issue into a call for Class Warfare, many people cling to their projected image on the canvass rather than pay attention to what Obama actually said. Obama calls for Class Warfare and people say he called for healing and unity!?!
When Obama lies, most people close their ears and abdicate their minds. We know he joined that Trinity Church expressly due to its liberation theology in order to obtain the "creds" his background in Hawaii and Jakarta did not provide. He did not rise in Illinois politics by opposing the ideas of Rev Wright. For Obama to now pretend he does not agree with those ideas is another lie. Or, was Obama lying to everyone at Trinity Church for 20 years when he supported this approach to social justice?
How bad is Rev Wright? The theology of Rev Wright is not any more inflammatory than Nathan’s telling King David, "Thou art the man." That is what is meant by "Speaking Truth to Power." While I personally believe that the Victimization Philosophy which often accompanies that social analysis is harmful to the alleged victims, it has more logic and morality behind it than White preachers who blame Gays for 9/11 or Katrina.
While the gap in Black and White perceptions of America can be great, Obama showed no character in throwing Rev Wright under the bus. Obama left it to others to try to explain the context within which The Rev. made those statements. Obama opened no dialog, when he had the chance. Why? The most likely reason is that he believes that White America is too racist to open their minds. Whether White America is that racist is an open question, but Obama had the opportunity to bridge the divide and he chose to turn upon his friend and mentor, whom he had supported for twenty years. At the very least, the canvass should have a huge Question Mark?
A man of integrity would have understood that he himself had made the conscious decision to associate with The Rev. Wright’s social philosophy in order to further his own personal ambitions. A man of integrity would have weathered the storm of The Rev’s hyperbolic oratory. A man of integrity would have explained his support for The Rev. John McCain stuck with his support for the surge in Iraq when everyone thought it had cost him his candidacy, and if Obama were a man of integrity, he would have done the same.
Too many Americans hold Obama to a lower standard than they hold other candidates. As Rep Emanuel Cleaver recently stated, when Obama is elected 99.9% of America will still be clueless about Obama.
Obama is just now getting his feet wet when it comes to understanding some of the dirty politics that go on behind the scenes - he is just now facing the tactics of some of the most skilled influencers of our time. I did not agree with his calling his pastor's remarks stupid. I do think it was an opportunity to teach and to call America to its responsibility to examine its mind and heart on how it really views black people here in this country and around the world, and to call all races to the table to confront the evil that still exists in so many areas of our country and in the church. It is not too late for that.
As for holding Obama to a lower standard, that seems a strange comment -- what standards are the other candidates being held to? My problem with the attack against Obama is that he was judged on what his pastor had to say. in light of the fact that not once, in all my lifetime, has anyone else running for president been judged on the preachings of their pastors. Not once, has anyone delved into the background of the other presidential candidates or presidents to find out what they believed then held the presidential candidate/president responsible for what others had to say. When will America be honest enough to admit it has and will always have a double standard when it comes to people of color? Martin Luther King Jr. looked forward to the day when black people would be judged on the content of their character and not on the color of their skin - that day has yet to arrive.
I sat under a pastor for many years and I did not agree with everything he said, but I recognized many wonderful qualities that he possessed and the wisdom and knowledge that he shared was priceless and I grew spiritually. Just because I sat under his teachings did not make me just like him. I prayed for him that God would reveal to him that something he said was wrong. I would ask God to make him stand in the pulpit and correct it but the only thing God let me know to do was to continue to pray for him, not judge him, and stay with him until it was time for me to leave that congregation.
If we are obedient to God, many times our actions will not line up with man's expectations. When it is all said and done, we should look for honesty, integrity, and political qualifications. Everybody does not come from the same place and has not had the same struggles. We should weigh up all the facts and not take something out of context and run with it especially with our limited knowledge and other peoples' perspectives.
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Abbie
Actually, Rev. Wright grew up in a very nice Middle Class family in a nice Middle Class neighborhood. That doesn't mean that he didn't experience racism, but I don't think that excuses his beliefs.
The main reason that I am voting for Clinto, though, is that I like her policies on most issues better. That is the most important issue.
For those interested in the Torah Code, in Bamidbar (Numbers) 13:1--17:1, with a matrix of 201, HLRY-CLNTN (skip 401) is encrypted next to NSEE-44 [44th President](skip 402), DMCRaHT (skip 397) & USAMRCA (skip 201). Though it appears she is behind, something drastic and perhaps tragic is indicated in surrounding "finds" that may preclude Senator Obama from being the nomination. In Vayikra (Leviticus) it is encrypted that Bush would be NSEE-43, which we discovered before it happened. When the issue of the "chads" in Florida came up, we knew it wouldn't amount to anything based on the Code. Sunday, June 8th, Sivan 5th, 5768 (2008), is encrypted tightly compact to these "finds."