The "conservative" Rabbis object to political images of Nazis ... Did they object to the CIA recruitment of Nazis after WW II? Ever? Did they object to Klaus Barbie distributing cocaine to fund CIA death squad activity and illicit wars? Did they object to Ronald Reagan raising funds via his TV show in the 50s to bring Eastern European Nazi quislings to the US, passed off as "freedom fighters?" Do they object to the far-right propaganda and Nazi ties of the Birch Society? Did they object to human experimentation by the military that drew on Nazi "talent" from Operation Paperclip? Where have the Rabbis been?
The ones at the Weishental Center have been surreptitious CIA/Nazi collaborators for decades.
Where are "conservative" Rabbis when they are really needed? In my 20 years of anti-fascist agitation, not one Rabbi has ever offered to help in any way. NOW they have something to say ... about "imagery" ... not about the substance of our lives and destructive usurpation of democracy by Nazi-collaborating (in many instances) American "conservatives, "conservative" Rabbis?
The far-right took over in Germany, and we saw the results. The far-right took over in the US, and we saw the results - codified torture, "disappearances," concentration camps, propaganda assaults, illicit wars for corporate profit, CIA-trained death squads ... what do "conservative" Rabbis have to say about all this Nazism? Nothing. Personally, I'm not so impressed with the useless Rabbis ... - AC
November 2, 2009
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- More than 300 Conservative rabbis signed a statement urging Americans to renounce the use of Nazi imagery in political discourse.
The Rabbinical Assembly, which represents more than 1,600 Conservative and Masorti rabbis around the world, worked with Los Angeles Rabbi David Wolpe to issue a statement noting recent examples of public figures using such rhetoric. They include the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention leader, the Rev. Dr. Richard Land, calling health care reform proposals "what the Nazis did" and U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) referring to the current health care system as a "holocaust in America."
"The willingness of supporters of public policy positions to employ the demonizing rhetoric of Nazism not only does nothing to move conversation forward; rather, it has a chilling effect on people of conscience who find the appropriation of such imagery to be disrespectful of the victims and reinforcing of the politics of personal attack that has damaged public discourse in the United States," reads the statement.
"We plead -- indeed we demand -- that civility govern these crucial deliberations. " 'Sages,' warned the Rabbis of the Talmud, 'take great care with the words you speak.' "
