Rabbi Susan Grossman: March 2008 Archives

Years ago, as a rabbinical student, I was one of a group of rabbinical students who visited an African American seminary in Atlanta. My fellow rabbinical students and I expected an uplifting weekend of interfaith sharing like we had experienced in visits to other (largely white) seminaries. We were unprepared for the raw anger directed against us as Jews. We were blamed for "Jewish exploitation of blacks." We heard stereotypical charges against Jewish pawnbrokers and Jewish landlords, the middlemen who represented institutionalized oppression in the ghetto. Having lived in the buildings of exploitive landlords myself, I could understand their anger against such landlords (not all of whom were Jewish). But I could not understand why these students held so tightly to their anger against all Jews or why they transferred such anger to us. One of the more self-reflective students explained it this way: African Americans were angry that we Jews could succeed in America where they could not because we could pass as whites whereas they could not.

I have thought a lot about those interactions since the recent brouhaha over presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s relationship with his controversial black liberation pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

It may be a twist of fate that Eliot Spitzer faced his downfall a few days before Purim, the Jewish holiday that entertains how people are often not what they appear. Spitzer appeared to be someone who defended and upheld the law of the land. He was known as a ruthless attorney general. Now we know it was all a mask.

Spitzer’s sin was not only that he cheated on his wife. He also cheated on the people of New York who voted him into office as governor to uphold the laws of the land.

It has been said that if you say something often enough and emphatically enough, more and more people will believe it. Something that at first may seem obviously ridiculous with repetition becomes accepted fact. That is why Holocaust deniers are placing their works in college libraries so that future students will come to question the historical fact of the Holocaust. That is also why purveyors of hate are having a field day with an Internet that provides unlimited and immediate access to spread all different forms of hate, particularly anti-Semitism.

Though cloaked in modern technology, the problem of spreading lies about one group of people to stimulate hatred and violence against them is probably as old as human kind. It is a crucial element in the Book of Esther we will read next Thursday night on Purim. The story recounts how the evil vizier Haman sought to destroy all the Jews in the Persian Empire because he was insulted that the Jew Mordecai would not bow down to him. The Jews are saved when King Ahashverus’ queen, Esther, who had hidden her identity as a Jew and Mordecai’s relative, reveals she is Jewish and begs the king to save her life and the lives of her people.

If the term ‘kosher’ means fit, or done right, is the food we eat 'kosher" if it's produced using unethical practices? What if it meets all other technical requirements? Conservative Rabbi Morris Allen says, "no". For Rabbi Allen, it is not enough to be concerned about the ritual specifics of the kosher food we eat without also being concerned about the ethical issues raised by its production, processing, and marketing.

This realization grew out of Rabbi Allen’s "Chew by Choice" program, which he began to encourage kosher observance in his congregation. He soon realized that ritual observance divorced from ethical observance is inconsistent with Jewish values. Thus was born Heksher Tzedek, now a national program of the Conservative Movement.

Rabbi Stern is right to protest that we should not be judging someone on their religious affiliation. However, he is wrong to uncritically pass along the very information that has been circulating in anti-Obama email smears.

If Rabbi Stern had checked out his sources, he would have discovered that the right wing articles he cites are full of inaccuracies. If he had checked with any impartial journalistic source, like the New York Jewish Week, he would have discovered that Zbigniew Brzezinski does not serve on Obama’s campaign and has had no input on Obama’s Middle East policy. Rather, Obama’s Middle East foreign policy advisors include such strong pro-Israel advocates as former Clinton advisors as Dennis Ross, Dan Shapiro, and Anthony Lake.

As for Samantha Powers as a foreign policy advisor in Obama’s campaign, a spokesperson for the NJDC, recently told me that Powers does not advise Obama on Middle East matters and that his Middle East advisors include many conservative pro-Israel advisors. The spokesperson said, "…The most important thing to keep in mind is that Obama has a strong voting record on Israel, his campaign has a released an array of strong pro-Israel proposals and he speaks eloquently in support of Israel. As Jewish Democrats, it is comforting to know that whoever our nominee is will be pro Israel." That is supported by recent statements from AIPAC, as I mentioned in my last post.