Does Jack Kemp know what strange company he keeps?? (David Yerushalmi on left)I don’t use that term lightly because it’s thrown around all too easily by those with extreme ideological agendas. In order to understand why I’ve used it hear you must read Larry Cohler Esses’ second in a series on the efforts to open the Khalil Gibran Academy, a New York public school dedicated to teaching Arab language and culture. Larry’s first piece focussed on the involvement of Campus Watch in the successful campaign to unseat Debbie Almontaser as school principal; and its overall efforts to destroy the school.
In his second article he focuses on the Brooklyn group, Stop the Madrassa, behind the local campaign to derail the school. The erstwhile leader of the group is not a Brooklyn local and not even a New Yorker. In fact, he was originally a Ukrainian Jew who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s. [UPDATE: David Yerushalmi was NOT born in the Ukraine. His ancestors were. He was born in the U.S. and did not emigrate here. My error was due to a misunderstanding of something my informant wrote to me about Yerushalmi’s background.] He ended up in Los Angeles where he worked as a junior associate for my friend, Dean Hansell. Dean, who is an extremely mild and decent man not known to speak ill of many, knew Yerushalmi then as David Beychok and called him “very conservative.” If anything, this was an understatement as Larry makes clear:
A key leader of the group opposing a new, Arab-focused public school in Brooklyn is a virulent opponent of a democratic Jewish state who denounces “Zionist Israel” and calls on it to “cast off the yoke of liberal democracy.”
Stop the Madrassa leader David Yerushalmi also condemns democracy in the United States and, in comments that evoke classical anti-Semitic stereotypes, says he finds truth in the view that Jews “destroy their host nations like a fatal parasite.”
Stop the Madrassa and other critics seeking to derail the opening of the Khalil Gibran school, set for next month, have charged that the school’s advisory board includes radical Islamists.
Now, Yerushalmi’s comments have raised concerns about Stop the Madrassa’s own leadership by some of its own advisory members.
Yerushalmi, a national advisory board member, counsel and de facto treasurer for Stop the Madrassa, wrote regarding conservative criticism of Israel, Zionism and Jews: “Much of what drives it is true and accurate.” Conservatives’ primary “critique,” he said, “is that the Jews of the modern age are the most radical, aggressive and effective of the liberal Elite.”
“One must admit readily that the radical liberal Jew is a fact of the West and a destructive one,” he wrote. “Indeed, Jews in the main have turned their backs on the belief in G-d and His commandments as a book of laws for a particular and chosen people.”
In Israel, he said, other than the ultra-Orthodox, “Most Israelis are raging Leftists, and this includes the so-called nationalists who found a home in the ‘right-wing’ Likud political bloc or one of the other smaller and more marginal right wing parties.”
In a message to a pro-Israel rally last June he asked: “What interest does America have in a strong Israel? If your answer is democracy in a liberal or western sense, know you have sided with the Palestinians of Hamas.”
You tell me…is this guy a fascist or what? This may be one of the rare times when using that term is actually totally accurate and apt.
So how does Daniel Pipes feel about getting into bed with reptiles like Yerushalmi. Oh, he’s terribly concerned with how it might look:
Asked if, in light of Yerushalmi’s background, Stop the Madrassa might be harboring extremists among its own leadership, Daniel Pipes, another member of its national advisory board, said “These are troubling statements and raise questions about my serving on the same board as Mr. Yerushalmi. I shall be looking into the matter.”
We await with bated breath Pipes’ decision on whether he will continue being associated with someone who is actually even more extreme, racist and hateful than he himself is (and that’s tough to do).
Another Stop the Madrassa board member wasn’t put off by Yerushalmi’s overt racism:
Jeff Wiesenfeld, a former aide to ex-Gov. Pataki, who also serves on the group’s advisory board…also drew a distinction between Yerushalmi’s views and the outlook of some of the school’s supporters. Yerushalmi, he said, had expressed “a Jewish supremacist type of thought” — one he rejects — “but nowhere in those quotes did I hear him advocating violence or harm to anyone,” as words like intifada and jihad do.
I see. Yerushalmi renounces democracy, embraces Jewish supremacism (that’s a nice way of saying Kahanism or Jewish racism) but he’s still OK unless he puts an axe in some Arab’s head. But Debbie Almontaser, who has been a devout student of the ADL’s multicultural programming and worked tirelessly at reaching out to New York’s Jewish community in building support for the school–she’s the one who espouses violence because she explained the meaning of a word on a T-shirt. Is this feeble-minded rhetoric of what.
I originally heard about Yerushalmi from a law partner of Dean’s in Washington, D.C. who was involved in interfaith work with Arabs, Jews and Christians. A Falls Church imam discovered that Yerushalmi had sent people to “infiltrate” his mosque in order to prove that it supported radical jihad. Dean’s colleague asked me what I knew about him and sent me to Yerushalmi’s website, SANE. I thought I’d heard of many of the Jewish right-wing extremists out there. But I hadn’t heard of this one. At his site, I learned some wonderful things: That Bill O’Reilly is a “secular progressive” and Sean Hannity “”participates in the destruction of America’s national existence.” That worship of Islam in the U.S. should be illegal.
Crackpot? Sure. Harmless? No. Daniel Pipes and David Yerushalmi have hijacked Jewish-Arab relations in New York City and made a huge splash in the media. They are not ineffectual extremists with no following. They are a force to be reckoned with and the fact that the organized Jewish community does not recognize this and combat it speaks volumes about its own lack of leadership in this area.
I’ve been following this story for a bit, it’s unbelievable really that such open racists have been allowed to create such a controversy. Anyway, here’s a post on some information I’ve found about Yerushalmi:
http://www.kabobfest.com/2007/08/stop-madrassa-coalition-arrest-all.html
If you really want to see how nuts this guy is, you should check out SANE’s website, including their Sharia-Jihad index.
P.S.
Imams worship in mosques, not churches
UGH, my apologies for that stupid mistake. I write my posts quite late at night & all I can is my brain was functioning on low power at the time. Thanks for correcting me.
Maybe we could just round all the extremists (of all ideological stripes) in the world and strand them on an island for a giant cage match.
The world would certainly be better for it.
fyi, CHURCH (as in “falls church imam”) here is part of the name of the town, “Falls Church” which is i think in northern viriginia, i did not read that statement as saying “the imam’s church was infiltrated” but rather, “the mosque in the town of Falls Church was infiltrated, as reported by the imam.
interesting site.
I’ve never met Mr. Yerushalmi so I do not know where he stands relative to my own position. (This is my own personal position) I AM NOT ANTI-MUSLIM (the individual) BUT I AM ANTI-IISLAM (the world-view). I don’t believe that Mr. Foxman makes that distinction (which I hope Mr Yerushalmi does but does not seem to have articulated). On the contrary, what I see coming from Mr. Foxman’s keyboard is a resort to Ad-Hominem reasoning (or lack of reasoning as it were). It is clear from the very title of this essay.
I agree with Mr. Foxman that one must be guarded and fight tyrrany wherever it might be found, however, I also believe that one should be discerning, be respectful wherever possible, if at all possible avoid dismissiveness and look at the reasons for the stances which people may take.
One prayer which is recited in the synagogue regularly is the Oleynu. One phrase from that prayer says “On that day (the day when peace will prevail on the earth) the Lord shall be One and His Name shall be One”. In essence, that time of peace, according to that prayer, is marked as a time when all mankind will be in agreement as to whom God is, what He is like and what He expects from us.
Unlike many who give lip-service to that prayer, I believe it whole-heartedly. Such a conviction could give rise to the notion of a fascistic religious world view which seeks to impose its perspective on unwilling participants (Sharia law – case in point).
Others, who might be dismissive towards such a prayer (be they Jew or Gentile) would be more likely to maintain a “live and let live” attitude.
I would seek to encourage debate. I’ve long ago dismissed islam as the genuine means of defining or coming to grips with this “Lord is One – Name One” agreement concerning whom God is, what He is like and what He expects from us notion, partially because the Prophet Isaiah wrote “Come now, let us reason together says the Lord…” Force (which seems to be the case with Islam) and ad-hominem (which seems to be the case with Mr. Foxman in his article) fail to yield to Isaiah’s appeal to reason.
I, for one, am extremely wary of Islam. I’ve talked with many Muslims and have found many to be very wonderful human beings. Nevertheless, never have I said anything to them to encourage them in their faith because, if they are “good” people, I am convinced that it is not BECAUSE OF Islam but INSPITE of Islam.
For this reason, I’m a bit slower to pass judgement on Mr. Yerushalmi.
What narischkeit. Someone says: I’m not anti-Jew, I’m only anti-Judaism. Make sense? I thought not. You hate my religion, you hate me. Any distinction a racist such as yrself seeks to make is meaningless.
And yr statement of hate for Islam shows discernment, respect & a lack of dismissiveness?
What you neglect is that an earlier form of this prayer actually called for spitting on the beliefs of non-Jews. So you see we have just as much hate as the other guy & your late for Islam is but a slightly more elegant form of this.
Yr level of knowledge of Islam is abysmal. There are no Muslims aside fr. a few in the hills and valleys of Pakistan & Afghanistan who wish to impose Sharia law as a system on any non-Muslim. I’m plain sick & tired of yr ignorance. If you want to spout ignorant nonsense about a subject you know not at all, you’ll do it elsewhere.
The next time you attempt to publish such idiocy here you’ll be gone. I wouldn’t accept anyone publishing such nonsense about Judaism & certainly won’t allow the same said of Islam.
blah blah blah. More stupidity…
Mr. Silverstein,
With all due respect, there are a whole bunch of Jewish people who do not practice Judaism. In fact, you yourself should know that a huge percentage of Jews are atheists and many don’t even attend synagogue during the High Holidays. Nevertheless, they see themselves and are regarded as Jews. Hence, I would argue that practicing Judaism does not make one a Jew. You should know that it goes a lot deeper than that.
You commented – “What you neglect is that an earlier form of this prayer actually called for spitting on the beliefs of non-Jews. So you see we have just as much hate as the other guy & your late for Islam is but a slightly more elegant form of this.” – You’re right. that quote from the Oleynu far predates the Rabbis. It came from the 14th chapter of Zechariah in the Tanach which, of course predated that Rabinical prayer. You’re right… at face value one might perceive my perspective as hateful. But as I’ve said in other posts I prefer debate over “making nice” and giving assent to a world-view that I deem to be wrong. (Did my mother hate me when she warned me not to cross the street?) According to your persepect, however, it seems that the Prophet Elijah was hateful when he challenged the priests of Baal at Mt. Carmel, and furthermore, Jezebel, herself, being an adherent of Baal worship, was justified in persecuting him? If that’s the case, why is he regarded today as “such a hero of the faith?” Maybe you ought to throw out the Tanach… but then you’d be hating Judaism.
Now you said “The next time you attempt to publish such idiocy here you’ll be gone.” Making such a statement certainly makes me believe that you are given to censorship. In fact I question any respect that you might have for the first amendment.
As the good book says… “Professing to be wise they became fools.”
We’ve already had this argument in the comment threads here & I hate repetition. You simply are ignorant about halacha, which does not have a litmus test for determining Jewishness. You are Jewish regardless of yr level of religious practice. You are Jewish even if you convert to another religion (so that you might return if you wish & not have to reconvert). So stop telling us what you think about these issues, which has nothing to do with what the tradition & rabbis say on the matter.
There are comment rules. One of them is no religion bashing, not Judaism, not Islam. This blog’s purpose isn’t to point out the flaws or sins or depravities of Islam or Judaism. You can do that at DebkaFiles, MEMRI or 1,000 other sites.
I appreciate your comment rules. I was never presented them when I signed on. If I was, I certainly did not notice them. That’s the truth.
Nevertheless I find it somewhat convenient on your part to make such a rule because by so doing, you manage to avoid discussion about the very issue which is at the crux of Muslim acceptance particularly by those in the west… namely 1. What is their theology? 2. How does it compare and contrast with Jewish and Christian theology? (I can live with points 1 and 2 ‘though I’m inclined to challenge everyone’s theology) but most importantly, on a practical level, 3. How does their world view impact their relationship to their non-Muslim neighbors? On these questions I could preach to the choir all I want but one doesn’t get anything done when preaching to the choir. So I’m thankful that I’ve managed to get a word in with you.
When 9/11 happened, I knew that one very important key to the “war on terror” was to cause Muslims to question the validity of their faith. You, on the other hand, make statements to reinforce their theology. Hence you are doing exactly the wrong thing especially in light of the declaration of the Oleynu which says that when peace finally comes it will be characterized by a universal agreement on matters of theology. I like to encourage debate because God calls us to reason with Him (Isa.1). Furthermore kowtowing to the differences in theologies is the exact antithesis of the process by which this agreement on matters of theology can be attained. In light of the Oleynu, either one “religion” is right and all the others are wrong or they’re all wrong. But I cannot tolerate rendering legitimacy to what I know to be wrong! People, especially in this country, have every right to be wrong, but I have every right to challenge that as long as the constitution stays in place. And your free to throw any ad-homonym epithet at me that you like.
You say “I hate your religion and I hate you.” That is an amazing presumption on your part. I’ve been jealous of people in the past but I can’t really say that I hate anyone. In fact, presenting my ideas as I did, I think, is an act of love. Have I called you a name or impugned your character?
I think that it is safe to say that I am suspicious of all religion. This is somewhat of a broad brush, but overall, religion has historically proved to be a remarkable means by which sadism can be legitimized… whether it be Sharia law, the Spanish Inquisition or the Salem Witch Trials. Furthermore, religion is a man made construct by which “religiosity” can be demonstrated as a substitute for behavior and meditation characteristic of what truly exemplifies that of a true Tsadik.
I’m just a voice on the good ship planet earth suggesting a better way. I’m personally of the opinion that it’s the only way. At this point, you might be tempted to accuse me of being narrow minded, but since I am Jewish, I can, with all confidence, say that if I were not open minded I would not have come to believe as I do. Furthermore, I don’t believe that I’m coercing you or twisting your arm.
Look… Most Jews don’t like me. Most Muslims don’t like me. Most Hindus don’t like me. Do you think that I enjoy telling people what they don’t want to hear? Basically I’m an easy going guy who likes approval from others. But getting approval is easy. It’s accomplished by not doing the hard thing. Jesus did the hard thing. He said things that people didn’t want to hear and it got Him into trouble. Now that’s my kind of Rabbi!
Best Regards
P.S.
Richard,
I have no doubt that you mean well. My opinion, however, is that you are going about things the wr way.
”
My people perish for lack of knowledge.”
I grew up with this guy in Florida. His father operated on me once. Stumbled upon the story. Had no idea, but no surprised. He was a bit of a misfit and very angry and fearful in my opinion. Shame to see this kind of stuff happen to someone you knew and used to smoke weed with back when we were all hippies. Most of us grew out of the rebel without a clue thing, but some never found happiness or peace- seems he was one of them.