In Pain … Calling Out Our Beloved Rabbi Avi Weiss
JVL Introduction
Modern Orthodox Judaism in the States has attempted to combine remaining fully observant with being a full member of modern society.
Open Orthodoxy, founded in the late 90s by Rabbi Avi Weiss, on the left of Modern Orthodoxy, emphasises the openness of halakha (religious law) and aims for an even more inclusive and open-minded Judaism.
It has been particularly progressive in its affirmation of the equality of women in religious life.
But the polarising force of Israel in American Jewish life is such that Rabbi Weiss’s recent political interventions have been to pick on politicians of colour for one failure and one alone – the failure to be sufficiently pro-Israel in order to avoid charges of antisemitism.
So Raphael Warnock running (successfully) against Kelly Loeffler for a Georgia Senate seat is anathematised by Weiss, while he has nothing to say about Loeffler who campaigned openly with leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and QAnon.
It makes you want to weep…
This article was originally published by Tikkun on Tue 5 Jan 2021. Read the original here.
In Pain … Calling Out Our Beloved Rabbi Avi Weiss
I, along with many Tikkun activists, joined with Rabbi Avi Weiss in 1995 to picket the NAACP “summit of Black leaders” when it included the rabid anti-Semite and homophobe Rev. Farrakhan. Avi knew that we took a critical stance toward Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank, calling it immoral and stupid, and supporting positions very close to that of Georgia Senate candidate, Reverend Raphael Warnock’s. But we were fellow Jews, so it was kosher for us to have those views, but apparently now Avi labels anyone an anti-Semite who holds those views. It is a sad reflection of the right wing radicalization of Avi’s “Open Orthodoxy” and a huge disservice to the Jewish people. Please read the article below by Joshua Shanes.
By Rabbi Michael Lerner
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Brilliant article and I am so delighted that Warnock and Ossoff won their seats in the senate .