Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Brad Greenberg, who writes the GodBlog for the L.A. Jewish Journal wrote to me today about the strange case of local Jewish philanthropist and Clinton bundler, Daphna Ziman, who has taken to the airwaves to denounce the Obama campaign as “a movement that will destroy us [the Jews].” It all starts innocently enough with an African American fraternity dinner at which Ziman was honored for her work supporting African-American foster children.

The keynote was delivered by Rev. Eric Lee, director of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference chapter. That’s when all hell broke loose. Here’s how Ziman characterized the speech in an e mail which became a viral sensation thanks to its dissemination via the 50,000 member e mail list of militantly pro-Israel group Stand With Us:

I have to tell you of an experience I had last night that was so anti semitic [sic] and frightening:

…He [Rev. Lee] began his speech by thanking Jesus for Obama, who is going to be the leader of the world. He continued by referring to other leaders Like Dr. King, being that this was the moment of celebrating Dr. King’s spirit on the anniversary of his assasination [sic], and Malcolm X.

It was right after the mention of Malcolm X that he looked right at me and started talking about the African American children who are suffering because of the JEWS [in the entertainment industry] that have featured them as rapists and murderers.

He spoke of a Jewish Rabbi, and then corrected himself to say “What other kind of Rabbis are there, but JEWS”. He told how this Rabbi came to him to say that he would like to bring the AA community and the Jewish community together. ” NO, NO, NO,!!!!” he shouted into the crowd, we are not going to come together. “The Jews have made money on us in the music business and we are the entertainers, and they are economically enslaving us.”

…He continued as to how now the salvation has come and the gates have open for African Americans to come together behind Barack Obama, because now is the time to show them.(meaning thejews). He continued to speak about ‘ White supremecy’ [sic] vs the talents and visionaries in the core of African Americans. He demeaned being given freedom, by saying “To what?” to a country that kills women and children.

I could no longer be polite and sit in front of the crowd, so I walked out.

I cried for me and my family, who have tried so hard to help the African American community, because we adopted children from the same realities and wanted to give back to other children and people. We have been completely color blind, for us it was only helping those children in need.

I cried for our beloved country and the division that Barack Obama has caused with his Rev. Wright opening the gates to ‘hate’ against the Jews and whites. I grew up so looking at America as the land of Freedom.

I was honored to receive my citizenship accompanied by members of the Kennedy family. Now, I’m afraid for Israel because Barack sat there for 20 years listening and not standing up for what’s right, why would he standup for Israel?

I cried for the Jewish community who are so blind that they can’t see that there’s a movement here that will destroy us. I cried because for the first time in my life I was afraid of the future.

I cried for our world that is moving backwards and not forward. Everyday, I see children so lost, and so deserving of hope and love. I look into their eyes, knowing that it is their lives that are in our hands. I’m crying now, so I’m going to stop writing because it is so painful.

I don’t know Daphna Ziman. I wasn’t at the dinner. But judging by the histrionics in her account it sounds to me like an extremely emotional, overwrought person who perhaps unconsciously, perhaps unintentionally sees her opportunity to create another Rev. Wright moment for the Obama campaign. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. She’s a true believer in the Clinton cause. She truly sees Obama as a mortal danger to America and Israel. She feels she’s doing her duty by bringing this incident to the attention of a few hundred thousand of her Jewish best friends.

Unfortunately, what we have here are the Obamaphobic Jewish gremlins again let loose to wreak havoc on a presidential campaign. I hate to use such a Christian motif but for the love of God someone’s got to drive a stake through the heart of such nonsense. Forget about the impact it has on the Obama campaign. It’s even worse for the Clinton campaign. Here you have one of her major California bundlers practically on the warpath over an event with no direct connection at all to Obama. To call this a stretch is to use utmost understatement.

To make matters even worse, Ziman has chosen to publicize her charges in an interview with neo-con Pajamas Media blogger Roger Simon. I should add that Pajamas Media’s chief funder, Aubrey Chernick, is a major supporter of Stand With Us, the group which put the “V” in viral in promoting Ziman’s assault on Obama.

One of the more laughably self-serving statements in Ziman’s video is:

“This is not about politics for me. This was not about anything else. This is about my people.

The odd thing about this is she probably does sincerely believe it’s not about politics. But just because she believes it, doesn’t mean it’s true. Does she think that Pajamas Media wants to promote her story out of pure love for the Jewish people?? ‘Course not. It’s political, baby. You better believe it.

I just came across this from the Wilshire & Washington blog which blows the lid off Ziman’s protestations of disinterest in politics. She has written an “essay” called The Road to the White House is Paved by a Distorted Media in which she writes the following:

Well, I have many questions that I dare ask Barack (must not mention middle name or else) Obama.
1. Were you born Barry Dunham or Barack Hussein Obama?
2. Did you change your name? When? Where? And Why?
3. Was there a naming ceremony? Where? Under what circumstances?
4 .Why are we not allowed to mention your middle name?

It occurred to me that the identity of a potential Commander and Chief is rather important…

What we have here is a loose cannon. And this isn’t the first or even second time she’s done something similar as Newsweek reported one of her earlier forays into smearing Obama for being soft on Israel.

Returning to the speech, Rev. Lee emphatically denies Ziman’s charges:

“None of those words are what I said. Not a single word. My goodness,” Lee said. “I look at the Jewish community as allies in our quest for advancement. For me, it doesn’t do any good to indict anybody. I just need help in changing the characterization of African Americans through the entertainment industry, and whoever can help me is fine. And without question there are a lot of influential members of the Jewish community that may be able to help us with that.”

…In fact, disputing her description, Lee noted that he and members of the SCLC are scheduled to take part in a black-Jewish seder organized by the American Jewish Committee on April 17 at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Eli Lipmen, the AJC’s L.A. spokesman, said Lee has been a friend of the Jewish community.

“Absolutely,” Lipmen said. “SCLC is a respected organization in the community and we have worked with them in the past.”

Lee said his speech began by faulting the black community for its own failings: “I indicted the African American community more so for spending $930 billion and not having control of any industries and for having such a high dropout rate and having 40 percent of our children in foster care.”

Lee said he referenced a conversation he had with an unidentified rabbi, during which he said the two communities needed to address the negative characterization of blacks on TV and in movies “for a genuine collaboration to take place.”

“Black leaders have gone to black entertainment leaders and said, ‘Take the “n” word out of your music and take the “b” word out of your music,’” Lee said in an interview. “And so, my thinking is — in building a relationship, and reconnecting, as it were, like when Dr. King was alive in the civil rights movement — is that our friends and allies in the Jewish community who have influence in the entertainment community can help us in changing the depiction of African Americans.”

In case any of you have been under a bushel for the past few decades, I must tell you that we Jews can get very touchy about certain subjects. We’re petrified about anti-Semitism because we endured so much suffering at the hands of evil ones like Hitler. We sometimes see enemies even where they aren’t because our antennae are so focused on nuances of words, phrases and thoughts that might be anti-Semitic. We have had so many enemies we tend to see them even where they may not be.

Further, Israel is a nation under siege. That makes some of us even more sensitive to such issues. Daphna Ziman has a very extreme case of anti-Semitism-itis. Such a condition does neither Jews nor anyone we come into contact with any good. It turns us into cartoon versions of Jews like Abe Foxman. And it can really hurt presidential candidates we support when we call their opponents racists and anti-Semites.

In fairness, I should add that Rev. Lee released a public statement in response to Ziman’s charges and it doesn’t do him any favors:

…The Black Power Movement emerged after the assassination of Dr. King and it was a direct response to the negative characterizations of African Americans through the silver screen, TV and the music industry, industries that are perceived to be influenced by many in the Jewish community. I then stated to the Rabbis that the Black Power Movement was our effort to define for ourselves our own identity rather than be defined by anyone else. I then indicated in my presentation that I told the Rabbis’ that before a genuine coalition could be rebuilt between our communities, there would have to be dialogue and efforts made to deal with the negative characterizations of African Americans.

It appears to me that Lee is a tone-deaf African-American minister who hasn’t yet learned how to speak in a nuanced fashion about the issues he wants to address. He verges on anti-Semitism without quite coming right out and saying anything that is explicitly so. Slightly troubling? Maybe.

But to take offense in the ‘chewing the scenery’ way Ziman did indicates a person who herself has some problem negotiating life’s byways with a sense of balance and proportion.

Lee’s allies must’ve told him that his “explanation” was less than satisfying, which is why he released a more forthright apology which stated in part:

I unequivocally denounce any anti-Semitic sentiments, statements and behavior and assure you that such hatred is not reflective of my character and my work. Specifically, I do not believe, and the SCLC does not subscribe to the belief, that Jews control the entertainment industries or are responsible for negative characterizations of African Americans.

The fact is that Lee did in fact get very close to saying what he claims he doesn’t believe. Let this be a lesson to him that sentiments perhaps widely accepted in certain segments of the African-American community will get him into deep doo-doo once they see the light of day in the outside world.

Finally, I think that Hillary Clinton has been done a deep disservice by Daphna Ziman. The latter’s attack on Obama was deeply offensive and not something the Clinton campaign should countenance. If Rev. Lee can be big enough to apologize to Ziman for any comments he made that might be construed as offensive, then the Clinton campaign should direct Ziman to apologize for any comments she made about Obama that could be construed as counter-productive. If Ziman is not willing to make such an apology then Clinton should distance herself from her. No senior Clinton Jewish supporter should have the right to claim that the Obama campaign will destroy the Jewish community or hurt Israel. This should be treif

tags black anti-semitism, brad greenberg, daphna ziman, eric lee, godblog, jewish-journal, obama campaign will destroy us, road to white house paved by distorted media, stand-with-us

To all my Jewish readers I wish a zis’n Peysach (” a sweet Passover”). I hope you enjoyed wonderful seders tonight and the same for tomorrow for those of you who do second seders.

Today, April 20th at 7PM Pacific time, KBCS will rebroadcast a one hour radio program I produced last year of Passover music (the program script and mp3s available here). The music covers the Jewish waterfront from Israel to North Africa, to the U.S.; from Ashkenazi to Sephardic; from contemporary to ancient. You can listen to the show Sunday live on radio (91.3 in Seattle), via audio stream, or listen here to the full hour program any time you like.

For those who would like to ponder deeper Passover themes, I wrote an essay some time ago exploring Moses’ identity and paralleling it with thorny issues of contemporary Jewish identity, Life of Moses as Allegory of Jewish Existence. I offer it to you for your contemplation.

Passover has always been one of my favorite Jewish holidays. I’ve found the seder to be one of the most accessible Jewish rituals for non-Jews. And further, the seder is full of wonderful, joyful music, good food and talk of liberation and social justice. Who could ask for anything more?

This link offers a sampling of past Passover themed posts I’ve written.

tags jewish-music, moses, passover, seder

Thanks to Jerry Haber for bringing this article to my attention. Whenever I read such a story it brings to mind Robert Duvall’s gung ho U.S. cavalry officer in Apocalypse Now: “Oh how I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Except in this case, the “napalm” is the smell of Walid Shoebat’s lies going up in smoke.

Shoebat is the darling of the neo-con, Israel First, Christian Zionist set who has claimed for years that he was a “PLO terrorist,” who converted from Islam to evangelical Christianity, and travels the world singing the praise of Israel’s maximalist claims to Judea and Samaria. He also denounces the Palestinians as terror-mad and Islam as a religion of violence and vengeance. He speaks to campus Hillels and any Jewish audience that will have him.

Now, the Jerusalem Post (yes, really the Jpost!) has blown the lid off Walid Shoebat or whoever he is:

Shoebat’s Web site says his is an assumed name, used to protect him from reprisal attacks by his former terror chiefs, whom he says have put a $10 million price on his head.

Shoebat is sometimes paid for his appearances, and he also solicits donations to a Walid Shoebat Foundation to help fund this work and to “fight for the Jewish people.”

The BBC, Fox News and CNN have all presented Shoebat as a terrorist turned peacemaker, interviewing him as someone uniquely capable of providing insight into the terrorist mindset.

Now he and two other former extremists are set to appear along with US Senator Joe Lieberman, Ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor and other notables at an annual “Christians United For Israel” conference in Washington in July.

The three “ex-terrorists” have appeared…most recently, at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, in February, at a conference whose findings, the organizers said, would be circulated at the Pentagon and among members of Congress and other influential figures.

Last year, Shoebat spoke to the BattleCry Christian gathering in San Francisco, which drew a reported 22,000 evangelical teenagers to what the San Francisco Chronicle described as “a mix of pep rally, rock concert and church service.”

The paper described Shoebat as a self-proclaimed “former Islamic terrorist” who said that Islam was a “satanic cult” and who told the crowd how he eventually accepted Jesus into his heart.

However, Shoebat’s claim to have bombed Bank Leumi in Bethlehem is rejected by members of his family who still live in the area, and Bank Leumi says it has no record of such an attack ever taking place.

His relatives, members of the Shoebat family, are mystified by the notion of “Walid Shoebat” being an assumed name. And the Walid Shoebat Foundation’s working process is less than transparent, with Shoebat’s claim that it is registered as a charity in the state of Pennsylvania being denied by the Pennsylvania State Attorney’s Office.

Shoebat’s claim to have been a terrorist rests on his account of the purported bombing of Bank Leumi. But after checking its files, the bank said it had no record of an attack on its Bethlehem branch anywhere in the relevant 1977-79 period.

Shoebat told The Jerusalem Post that this could be because the bank building was robustly protected with steel and that the attack may have caused little damage.

Asked whether word of the bombing made the news at the time, he said, “I don’t know. I didn’t read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days.” (In 2004, he had told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph: “I was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb.”)

Shoebat could not immediately recall the year, or even the time of year, of the purported bombing when talking to the Post by phone from the US. After wavering, he finally settled for the summer of 1977.

The Sunday Telegraph described Shoebat as a man who “for much of his life… was eager to commit acts of terrorism for the sake of his soul and the Palestinian cause.”

In that interview he described how he and his peers were indoctrinated as children “to believe that the fires of hell were an ever-present reality. We were all terrified of burning in hell when we died… The teachers told us that the only way we could certainly avoid that fate was to die in a martyrdom operation - to die for Islam.”

But an uncle and a cousin of Shoebat, who still live in Beit Sahur in the Bethlehem area, where Shoebat grew up, said that Shoebat’s education was rather mild ideologically, and that religion did not play a dominant role.

The uncle, interviewed at his home, said he remembered little about his nephew, because Walid left for America at the age of 16, and because his American mother always kept a distance from the rest of the family. The uncle and his wife both said firmly that there was no attack on Bank Leumi.

When questioned on this discrepancy, Shoebat was adamant that he did carry out such a bombing, and that his relatives deny it to cover up for another cousin who was with him during the attack and still lives in Bethlehem.

Shoebat evinced no particular surprise that his family could be tracked down simply by asking Beit Sahur locals where they lived, even though his Internet site claims that his is an assumed name.

What’s especially ironic about this is that most con men conceal their identity and change their name to hide their tracks. In this case, Shoebat claimed his name was fake when it was genuine, a total reversal of the pattern. But almost everything else about him appears to be made up.

Yet another right-wing pro-Israel fantasist seeking grandeur on behalf of his cause. What is sad about this is that pro-Israel nationalists are so eager to find friends wherever they can that they don’t bother to test the credibility or moral code of those with whom they jump into bed. John Hagee is but another example of this problem though one can’t accuse him of fictionalizing his background.

I should add to the passage about their appearance at the Air Force Academy. Their talk was billed as being about Islamic terror when in reality they were there to advance their mission of evangelizing to the unconverted. The Academy has been in tremendous hot water over the past year or so for having chaplains who nakedly promoting conversion of non-evangelical cadets against the institution’s regulations. Several Congressional members have been livid about this. So it seems that in this appearance both Shoebat AND his Air Force hosts were concealing their ulterior motives in bringing them there.

This begs another question: can Joe Lieberman continue with plans to appear with these three fraudsters? If he does, will anyone call him and them on the charade they’ll be perpetrating on the Jewish community?

Here’s more on their ongoing fraud:

A New York Times report last month on the Air Force Academy event, headlined “Speakers at Academy Said to Make False Claims,” noted that “Academic professors and others who have heard the three men speak in the United States and Canada said some of their stories border on the fantastic, like Mr. Saleem’s account of how, as a child, he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights. No such incidents have been reported, the academic experts said. They also question how three middle-aged men who claim they were recruited as teenagers or younger could have been steeped in the violent religious ideology that only became prevalent in the late 1980s.”

The Times quoted Prof. Douglas Howard, who teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as saying after he heard Saleem speak last November at the college that he thought the three were connected to several major Christian evangelical organizations.

“It was just an old time gospel hour: ‘Jesus can change your life, he changed mine,’” Howard said.

The professor told the Times that his doubts about the authenticity of the three grew after he heard stories like that of the Golan Heights tunnels, “as well as something on Mr. Saleem’s Web site along the lines that he was descended from the grand wazir of Islam. The grand wazir of Islam is a nonsensical term.”

The newspaper said Arab-American civil rights organizations have questioned “why, at a time when the United States government has vigorously moved to jail or at least deport anyone with a known terrorist connection, the three men, if they are telling the truth, are allowed to circulate freely.”

And there’s more about Shoebat’s financial fraud:

Visitors to Shoebat’s Internet site are encouraged to make a donation to his foundation to enable him to disseminate his message. However, a notice on the page states that for “security reasons,” the money will not be debited to his foundation, but rather to a company called Top Executive Media. The name Top Executive Media is used by a greetings card firm from Pennsylvania called Top Executive Greetings, a company with an annual turnover of $500,000. When one makes a donation through the Shoebat Internet site, the Web address changes to topexecutivegreetings.com/shoebat.

This seems to be the only active page for the company; its homepage is blank.

Asked by the Post whether the Walid Shoebat Foundation is a registered charity, Shoebat replied that it is registered in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania State Attorney’s office said it had no record of a charity registered under this name.

Questioned further, Shoebat said it was registered under a different name, but that he was not aware of the details, which are handled by his manager.

“I remain separate to the running of the charity so that I am not constrained by church rules,” he explained, adding that the organization’s connection to certain churches meant it would be difficult for him to speak to secular audiences if he became too involved in running it.

Dr. Joel Fishman, of the Allegheny County Law Library in Pennsylvania, expressed doubts about this donation process. If the money were being given to a registered charity, the charity would have to make annual reports to the state and federal government on how it was being spent, he noted.

Shoebat insisted donations were not being misused, however. “I survive by being an author,” he said. “I only get paid for being an author. All the money that is donated gets put back into events.”

If the Bank Leumi bombing claim is unfounded, it is unclear why Shoebat would have wanted to manufacture a terrorist past. True or not, however, it has plainly brought him some prominence and provided him with a means to speak in favor of Israel and be paid for doing so.

In that final paragraph, the reporter makes clear why the reluctant Muslim would have wanted to manufacture a terrorist past: it has brought him a following and financial rewards. And all built on a pro-Israel house of cards.

Shoebat’s manager mentioned above is Keith Davies, who has commented angrily here about my previous “outing” of Shoebat. The question yet to be answered is who is behind Top Executive Media. It seems clear that it is either Christian evangelicals like Hagee or possibly pro-Israel extremists like an Irving Moskowitz. I am sure they’re tried to cover their tracks pretty well. But I hope a good investigative journalist can follow up on this and uncover more.

I have written regularly about Shoebat and other so-called “Good Arab” friends of Israel like Tawfiq Hamid and Amir Taheri and accused them of being at the least intellectual frauds if not real, genuine frauds. But I never had specific evidence until now of the genuine nature of Shoebat’s fraud. The ardent pro-Israel set should’ve realized that if these guys seem too good to be true, it’s because they are. If I smelled a rat why didn’t they?

tags christian-zionist, joe lieberman, muslim apostate, plo, walid shoebat fraud

Hagee said [he is not] trying to dictate Israel’s security and political policies. Hagee will support Israel whether or not it carries out withdrawals, he repeatedly said, adding that this is something its citizens will decide…

What Hagee essentially says about himself…is, yes, I am a skeptic as to the wisdom behind withdrawals. But I never acted against them, nor shall I…

…Hagee said Israel is a free country. “…Israelis and Israelis alone have the right to make existential decisions about land and peace.” The only lobbying he did on that issue was to try and persuade the U.S. government not to pressure Israel into adopting policies it was reluctant to carry out.

–Shmuel Rosner in Haaretz

American evangelist John Hagee on Sunday…declared that Israel must
remain in control of all of Jerusalem…”Turning part or all of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban,” Hagee said.

–Associated Press

In the spirit of Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, I’d like to dedicate this post to John Hagee, one of the most two-faced Christian preachers out there (and there are quite a few I’m sorry to say). All I can say is: “White man speak with forked tongue.” Believe Hagee at your peril. And as I’ve written before if you lie down with a lying low-down dog you’ll get up with fleas.

Hagee is carrying water for the Likud, make no mistake about that. So if you ever hear anyone trying to sell you the idea that all Hagee cares about is what’s good for Israel–ask that person: “Which Israel?” Bibi’s Israel or the Israel inhabited by the majority of its citizens, who are not right-wing zealots?

Apparently, Hagee takes American Jews for fools. He thinks he can say one thing and then say the exact opposite and we’ll just roll over to get our tummies scratched. All I can say is: butt out buster. Israel doesn’t need your help in determining what its interests are.

John McCain too has drunk the cool-aid. Witness this interview with the Jewish Journal’s Rob Eshman (thanks to Gershom Gorenberg for providing the link):

McCain also defended his support of the controversial Rev. John Hagee…I asked the senator how he would get pro-Israel evangelicals, who have been staunchly opposed to Israel giving up territory or compromising on the status of Jerusalem, to support any peace agreement.

“You can’t jump ahead here,” he said. “I know they favor a peace process. I know they favor that because of my close relations with them, and pastor John Hagee … is one of the leaders of the pro-Israel-evangelical movement in America.”

I started to correct him — Hagee and other evangelicals most certainly don’t support compromise on territory or Jerusalem, and McCain must know this. That’s when I got my first taste of the famous McCain technique: I’ll-talk-so-you-can’t.

“Look,” he cut me off, “I just have to tell you that we should be so grateful for the support of the evangelical movement for the state of Israel, given the influence that they have, beneficial influence that they have over millions of Americans, and then we’ll worry about a peace process later on, but I know that they are committed to peace between Palestinians and Israelis as well.”

Sure John, we trust you just like we trust Hagee. Hagee will support a peace process simply because you know he will. Good enough for me.

According to today’s NY Times, both Hagee and McCain are soft-pedaling the former’s endorsement. It seems there’s been a firestorm of controversy regarding Hagee’s more daft religious views. But I find this statement from the McCain campaign to be incredible:

A McCain adviser acknowledged on Monday that the campaign had failed to look into Mr. Hagee’s background adequately…

Say what? You’re running a presidential campaign and you don’t realize that Hagee is one of the most controversial religious figures in the United States before you accept his endorsement? Not to mention, if you’re going to roast your opponent for his minister’s endorsement (Rev. Wright) you’d better be prepared for your own religious endorsers to come under scrutiny.

Getting back to Hagee, he is an utter ignoramus when it comes to understanding the difference between the Taliban and the Palestinians. In normal everyday life you don’t usually pay a price for being an ignoramus. But in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there are no such luxuries. It is the ignoramuses who propel the conflict to ever-greater heights of hate and bloodshed.

tags al franken, christian-zionist, john mccain endorsed by evangelicals, john-hagee, lies and the lying liars who tell them

One of the constant themes repeated ad nauseum by right-wing Islamophobes like Daniel Pipes, Alan Dershowitz and their supporters is that Muslims are uniformly extremists filled with hate. There are no “Muslim moderates.” No imams denounce terror. They all support Al Qaeda, etc. etc.

Walter Ruby in Jewish Week brings yet further evidence of the utter falsity of such claims. He writes about the new interim imam of New York City’s largest and most influential mosque, the Islamic Cultural Center, the Indonesian-born Mohammed Shamsi Ali. The interview with him is wide-ranging, candid and impressive:

[He] declared in a dialogue with Rabbi Schneier at the New York Synagogue earlier this month that it “cannot be accepted to deny the existence of Israel” or to deny the Holocaust. Appearing last week at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Imam Ali delivered a special sermon during Mincha services in which he urged Jews and Muslims to revisit “problematic” passages in the Koran and Torah. Those passages buttress bellicose stances against other religions by understanding them as having been written in earlier times, and not necessarily relevant to today’s world.

Imam Ali also urged his listeners to “look beyond what is presented in the media” about Jewish-Muslim relations in order to create “real connections” based on trust and affection. “Once you get to know Muslims,” he said, “you will ask them, ‘Are you really the people I see portrayed [negatively] on Fox News?’”

Key Muslim leaders in New York praise the Indonesian-born Ali as a charismatic and compassionate leader whose embrace of interfaith dialogue represents “mainstream” opinion within the Muslim community.

It is sad, but somehow reassuring that those in both the Muslim and Jewish communities who reach out to the other side are rebuffed by their respective extremist right fringes:

A shadowy Queens-based militant group known as the Islamic Thinkers Society has attacked Imam Ali on its Web site as an “FBI mouthpiece” and “moderate Uncle Sam Muslim” who has corrupted young people at his mosque in Jamaica by allowing them to have “access to guitars and drums.”

Imam Ali…makes no apology for his cooperation with the FBI and New York City police. “We understand the job of law enforcement [in the post-9/11 situation),” he said. “I myself have said publicly that if anyone [in the Muslim community] sees something suspicious, he has an obligation to report it to the police. At the same time, law enforcement must be careful not to overreact and create a situation where there is an interruption of basic American values when it applies to Muslims.”

This reminded me of one of my own personal experiences on that score. I was the western director of New Jewish Agenda in the 1980s during a time when Alex Odeh, then director of the Arab American Anti Discrimination Committee, was assassinated by a letter bomb probably orchestrated by members of the Jewish Defense League. I received a voice mail message from the JDL’s Earl Krugel threatening our group and reported this to the FBI and agreed to meet investigators in my office. I was excoriated by some Agenda members for doing so. My view is that when my life is threatened I’m going to have to trust somebody. While I don’t see the FBI as necessarily my friend, they sure know a lot more about the JDL and the threat they pose than I do. It was trust them or trust no one. And when I’m in danger I have to trust someone. That’s why I allowed them into my office.

The Muslim religious leader’s views put him squarely in the mainstream of American religious life. This is a man who Jews should be able to “do business with” to quote Maggie Thatcher’s infamous phrase about Gorbachev:

Imam Ali believes that American Jews and Muslims should build a relationship “that is more influenced by religious commonalities than by political differences. We cannot deny the emotional impact of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, yet we need to ensure that our relationship is not determined only by that.” He added, “We also should remember that there have been bright times in our relationship as well, such as the cooperation between Muslims and Jews in Andalusia during the Middle Ages.”

I’m pleased that Jewish academic institutions like the Jewish Theological Seminary and HUC-JIR have hosted talks with him and are reaching out to him.

Unfortunately, as I’ve documented here the N.Y. Jewish federation has not taken as forward-thinking a role. In fact, it has backslid into fear and mistrust of the local Muslim community. Federation rabbis have been directed to withdraw from interfaith dialogue projects. Rabbi Michael Paley was once a member of Debbie Almontaser’s support committee and listed as a keynote speaker at one of Rabbi Schneier’s conferences. He backed out of both projects mysteriously.

Also, after enthusiastically endorsing the Other Israel Film Festival devoted to Israeli Arab cinema, the Federation executive Jon Ruskay, abruptly told the festival organizers that they must remove the Federation’s logo from publicity brochures. Festival founder Carole Zabar was taken aback by Ruskay’s change of tack. An ill wind apparently blows through the Federation when it comes to Muslim-Jewish relations in New York.

Unfortunately, the Jewish communal group is missing out on an important opportunity to engage local Muslims in dialogue and debate about issues that divide and link us. Events in the Middle East are too bloody and too catastrophic to miss such possibilities when they arise. To the Ruskays of the Jewish world I say (paraphrasing Hillel): if you will not be for peace, who will be for it? If you are only for yourself, what are you? If not now, when?

tags carole zabar, debbie-almontaser, Imam Seeks Real Connections, islami cultural center, jewish-week, jon ruskay, muslim-jewish dialogue, other-israel-film-festival, rabbi-michael-paley, walter ruby

In blood and fire Judea fell; in blood and fire shall Judea rise. --early Zionist anthem The enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower the Jews that day, but the plot was overturned, and the Jews overpowered their enemies...The Jews struck at all their opponents with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they defeated all their enemies. In Shushan Capital the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. Haman...persecutor of the Jews, had planned to destroy the Jews...But when Esther came to the king, the king ordered decrees that the evil plans he had plotted against the Jews be visited upon him instead, and he and his sons were hanged on the gallows. --Book of Esther Last week marked the Jewish festival of ...

A group called World Evangelical Alliance bought a full-page N.Y. Times ad (at least $120,000) this week. A bigger waste of money I'd have a hard time conceiving. Nearest I can tell, the basic message is: "Jews, we love you. But we don't love you enough to stop proselytizing you or converting you. In fact, we really don't care what you think of that, since it's more important to us to keep doing this than it is to respect your wishes that we not do so." And the real kicker was that the evangelical signatories insisted that converted Jews like Jews for Jesus and messianic Jews are still authentic Jews; and that despite ...

Geert Wilders of Fitna fame: picture of smug self-promoter Yes, I know Geert Wilders' anti-Muslim diatribe, Fitna, has been watched by 400 zillion YouTube viewers. That must make it right, right? Wrong. I watched the first minute or so at the behest of a very nice fellow who's been helping me upgrade my Wordpress installation. As soon as the first panel from the Koran was displayed on screen quoting a verse that threatens death to all and sundry and was followed by the 9/11 plane flying into the World Trade Center, I knew what I was in for. That was enough for me. Do I ...

I've just discovered that The Guardian has published my latest contribution in their Comment is Free blog, Acting in Ignorance, which details harsh acts of Israeli incitement in the aftermath of the Merkaz HaRav terror attack.  I've grown used to the editors changing my chosen titles and this time is no exception.  My original title was a riff on the old HaShomer slogan: In Blood, Fire and Hatred Shall Judea Rise Again, which I like quite a bit better. I can't believe how many comments have been deleted by the moderator.  I'm used to stirring up a hornet's nest in certain circles.

How doth the right hate Obama? Let me count the ways. The latest attack on Barack Obama emanates from the right wing American Spectator, which dredged up a 2003 Merrill McPeak interview from The Oregonian. In it, McPeak speaks candidly about prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace and sets forth the shockingly candid idea that American Jews stand in the path of a settlement. Here's the segment of the interview in question: We don't have a playbook for the Middle East. You know, for instance, obviously, a part of that long-term strategy would be getting the Israelis and the Palestinians together...And even so the process has gone off the tracks, but the process isn't enough. ...