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The Decline of the Factor of the Jewish vote.
GOP is attracting new votes of the Orthodox Jews. While Orthodox Jews comprise only about 10% of all American Jewry today it is closer to 30% of all the children under the age of 12 who call themselves Jewish only. Since the non-Orthodox Jews (mostly Democrats) are moving to the sun-belt and more Jews proportionally in the future will be Orthodox (mostly Republican) it is fair to say that the Jewish vote will be less of a factor in the future. And besides the fact the Jewish vote amongst younger Jews will be more and more split between Democrats and Republicans- the over-all Jewish population compared to the American population at large went from 2% to less than 1.2% making it all the more clear that American Jewry as a political force is waning in America.

I have his biography on Hitler.

We all make mistakes. I don't think he would deliberately do something to destroy his credibility.

I just read something inspiring about a Jew who, masquerading as a priest during the Spanish inquisition, helped many Jews who had been forced to convert to Catholicism or face death.

It is nice to find uplifting things, too.

http://jewishdailyreport.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/jewish-inspiration-death-bed-confession-חיזוק-לעם/

All critique of the PARTY is RACIST...that is until Hillary is elected in 2012...or maybe 2016...then All critique of the PARTY will be SEXIST... unless a Progressive like Mr. Levin gets in, then of course any questions will be anti-semetic. (for the slowbies out there...I'm saying that progressives shamelessly use identity politics, this distorts the historical record for short term political gain)

Mr. Besser,
Did you ever condemn leftists for comparing Bush to Hitler? Have you ever thought of condemning those who misuse the term "far right"?

And this is hardly new. In 1948, Truman falsely suggested that Dewey had been unwilling to fight Hitler. Martin Luther King Jr. famously slandered Goldwater: “We see dangerous signs of Hitlerism in the Goldwater campaign.”
16 years ago, Reverend Jesse Jackson said of the Christian Coalition : “The Christian Coalition was a strong force in Germany. It laid down a suitable, scientific, theological rationale for the tragedy in Germany. The Christian Coalition was very much in evidence there.”

And this isn't even unique to America. For over 60 years, the Israeli left has been calling Revisionist Zionists and Religious Zionists fascists.

By all means, condemn this, but condemn it on all sides instead of depending on a partisan hack like Milbank.

Interesting....did you publish an article about the dangers of this when Bush was the target of these accusations????

Keith Olberman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP2gs-NUtc

George Soros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DuafAqAHrc&feature=related

Whoopie Goldberg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yli3BxBEwOw&feature=related

Go to You Tube and type in Bush Hitler and just see the hundreds of videos making this comparison.

Where was your outrage?????????

How about the movie entitled "The Assassination of George Bush"?????

Imagine the outrage if a movie was released today called "The Assassination of Barack Obama"? I'll bet that would rate an article from you.

How do you spell DOUBLE STANDARD?

Hypocrisy????

Go to the Har Etzion page and read about Rabbi Amital's experience and reflections on the Holocaust. This is a great loss. Few are the great Tzaddikim like Rabbi Amital, Rabbi Aryeh Levin, Rabbi Kook who understood the big picture which flows up from our sacred texts.

Adina and Rachel,

I feel for what you are trying to do, I REALLY do, but there is a flaw in your (and all similar) reimagined or, as you call it, intentional paradigms of Judaism. The people you are hoping to engage by having them refashion the faith in personally meaningful ways suffer from huge levels of ignorance of even the very basics of Judaism. What percentage of American Jews even know what Tisha B'Av is? How can you observe what you don't know? How can you care about a fact, a system, or a way of being (which is what Judaism is intended to be) whose very basic elements are unknown? if you aren't committed from the beginning to putting such a system into place as the core of your life, then indeed why, as the title puts it, bother? What people will end up doing is not refashioning or renewing Judaism (as such a process presupposes knowledge), they are actually inventing a Judaism using contempory spirituality and humanism to fill in the gaps of actual knowledge, minus the collective committment.

This is where, for all its quirks and flaws, the independent minyanim movement, which in its own way undermines traditional rabbinic Judaism, has it 100% right. Their movement is based upon Jews retaking ownership of Judaism back from the rabbis through educating themselves on Jewish texts, philosophy, thought, and living and then forming communities around such diffuse lay leadership. There is oodles of room for creativity, expressiveness, and individuality in such processes, but the learning is the absolute core and the "intention" grows out of mastery of the authentic and unbroken line of Jewish thought. The "intention" starts with the foundation.

Without that real committment to learning by the laity, I fear what you advocate is just the latest in a long line of such ideas that substitutes well intentioned creative constructs for actual knowledge acquisition. Why do the guilt-inducing heavy lifing of learning about what you aren't doing and don't know when you can just inspirationally make up a personally relevant, Jewish flavored replacement? it's sanctioned laziness that won't undo the damage to Jewish adherence that our ignorance and lack of our families putting Judaism first in the lives has wrought...

I don't know why you have such anger towards an organization that does so much good, but suffice to say the other half a million Jews in Brooklyn, at the very least, disagree with you.

I tried to establsh a COEJL branch here in Charleston a few years ago, but found virtually no support in B'Nai Jacob, my synagogue, a rather conservative/traditional...but no longer orthodox congregation.

West Virginia, particularily here in the State Capital, is so coal oriented, and controlled, including by a huge majority of the Jewish Lawyers who suck at the trough of the rich and powerful coal industry, that the few of us that would like to have a COEJL presence here are not sure now how to proceed.

I personally have 50+ years of experience as an engineer (Michigan '61) in dealing with air pollution in my native Ontario, plus 30 years in Southern Califcornia and now for 10 years in Charleston.

The Governor has appointed me to a third term on the WV Public Energy Authority, but has not allowed it to make any meaningful progress towards renewable energy.

I beleive firmly that the transition to renewable energy is well underway around the world, and if West Virginia does not participate, it is going to die economically when coal is recognized as too expensive...when all the legacy costs of health and the environment are added up and assigned to coal fired power....as Ontario, Spain, Germany and Israel have done.

By the way, I was involved in the design, construction and financial issues of the first CSP Plants in Southern California, nine plants that were designed by an Israeli Firm, LUZ Those 9 Mojave plants, built in the 1980's, were built over the objections of nayslayers who stated they would never pay forthemselves until oil reached $14.00 per barrel!

I have pretty good public speaking skills. I am a trained Presenter of the Gore Climate Change program...having just been at a second training at the end of June.

I have, (I'll be 78 in August), with colleagues and angel investors, started a new manufacturing company that will produce a system to reduce the carbon footprint of every Airbus and Boeing jet that incorporates our system in their daily operations. So I am "walking the walk...not just talking the talk"

But I beleive that we need direction and support in planning a COEJL branch in Charleston. My wife and I have now joined the Reform Temple, and they have a new progressive thinking Rabbis. The time mey be right to try again.

We will need to have a "heavy hitter" articulate Rabbis or Nationally known Jewish Leader tpo come to Charleston for a Kick Off meeting, once we have planned and organized a CRW Chapter.

There is a very strong Federated Jewish Charities organization here in Charleston, so the community, while small, is intensive and active.

Can you help us?.

Allan Tweddle

The problem with this is the corrupt and criminal "orthodox" Beth Dins particularly in Australia, who are anything but orthodox. After being a victim of this, after hundreds of thousands of dollars spent and 8 years only to cut the losses in disgust, the irresponsibility of the Rabbinate and its refusal to deal with rogue Beth Dins make the process impossible. There needs to be Gov. leadership to bring the Rabbinate to account and remove and prosecute the frauds.
Failure to do so will mean foreign Governments will need to clean up the mess that the Rabbinate fails to do, and in the process causes the entire Jewish people to become odious.
This is seriously overdue to be addressed. If the Jewish State cares for its reputation it MUST address the failures of the Rabbinate.

This is so disgusting that it makes me sick. I have known of this happening so often in congregations that it is disgusting. One with a Rabbi from Cherry Hill, NJ who had to have his wife killed to be wth his lover instead of just getting a divorce and leaving the congregation. It is one thing for an individual to do this but when a Cantor or Rabbi does these acts it makes me sick. I would just tell them to leave NOW.