Rabbi Lerner – Master of Compassion or Master of Deceit?
By Gilad Atzmon on June 13, 2016
Unlike many other peace loving people I am not impressed at all
Deconstruction By Gilad Atzmon
I met Rabbi Michael Lerner twice in 2012. The rabbi kindly invited me into his home, we dined together, I met with members of his congregation and discussed my thoughts with them. However, I was recently troubled by Rabbi Lerner’s speech at Muhammad Ali’s funeral. Unlike many other peace loving people I was not impressed at all.
To watch Rabbi Lerner’s speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cza0IY1h6VI
It takes some balls for a rabbi to stand in front of the American people and sing 4 bars of Kadish, the Hebrew prayer for the dead. But it takes more than balls for a rabbi to stand in front of the nation and fib for eight minutes. Rabbi Michael Lerner has accomplished both.
“I came here as a representative of American Jews,” Rabbi Lerner announced to his audience at Muhammad Ali’s funeral. And I wonder if the Rabbi is indeed the representative of the Jews, how come he grossly misrepresents the beliefs of 90% of Jewish Americans? The answer? Rabbi Lerner doesn’t represent any Jews, not even the 15 members of his congregation. Rabbi Lerner misrepresented the nature of Judaism, Jews and Jewishness. He was on a mission to give the ‘J word’ a good plug.
“American Jews played an important role with African-American struggles,” the Rabbi insisted. This is certainly the case but, of course, Jews also played an important role in the African slave trade. The Rabbi missed a great opportunity to express sincere regret about that unfortunate fact. And when the Rabbi said: “we today stand in solidarity with the Islamic community in the country and all around the world,” he was simply insincere. The truth is to the contrary. Leading Jewish American institutions and lobbies have been at the forefront of advocacy of the war against Arabs, Muslims and Islam.
Rabbi Lerner claims that he and his Tikun organisation “have called upon the United States Government to stand up for the Palestinian Government.” In fact, the Rabbi and his Tikun organisation do not support the most elementary of Palestinian rights such as the Right Of Return.
The Rabbi claims that as a Jew he realises that “God has created everyone in God’s image and that everyone is equally precious.” Seemingly the Rabbi is confused. The religion Lerner describes is not Judaism that is tribal, exclusive and exceptionalist but Christianity that is universal and inclusive. In Judaism, Jews are chosen (what ever that means). The followers of the Judaic religion have invented a God who chooses them over all other people. This fact may explain why Rabbi Lerner doesn’t support a universal right of return in Palestine. His offering to the Palestinians is very limited. He effectively denies the Palestinian cause.
You can hear what Rabbi Lerner really thinks about Islam, Muslims Arabs Palestinians and the primacy of Jewish suffering (in particular from 17.20 m/s):