Progressive Jews and Anti-Semitism


My father was a combat photographer in World War II, who filmed our frontline troops in Europe from Omaha Beach through the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge to Berlin in ruins. He also filmed the liberation of Dachau, an experience so painful he never spoke about it to me until the last year of his life, at age ninety-eight. He could hardly speak. He was crying so hard his frail body was shaking, as he gasped out, “I’m sorry to be so weak.”
Battle of the Bulge
In my father’s his last years, many things fell away, but he always gave charity to one group, the Anti-Defamation League, the voice of conscience of American Jews fighting to purge our society of the scourge of anti-Semitism.
No more. Now the ADL is just one more left-wing group, “a radical extension of the Democratic Party,” according to Isi Leibler, a prominent worldwide Jewish leader writing in the Jerusalem Post . The only anti-Semitism that it will fight is that of the tiny fringe group of white supremacists. The greater danger of the radical left and Muslim activists gets a pass. The Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, declared anti-Semitic by the American government, is supported by Democratic politicians and so ADL won’t fight it. ADL actively supports the Marxist anti-Semitic group Black Lives Matter, which “incorporates anti-Israel passages in its platform and campaigns against anti-boycott legislation.”
ADL’s moral collapse is even greater than Leibler had space to enumerate. ADL won’t fight anti-Semitism, even violence against Jewish youngsters on campus, organized by Muslim Brotherhood front groups, because progressive multiculturism privileges Muslims over Jews. And it utterly refuses to confront the Democrat party mainstreaming anti-Semitism from three out of its four main voting blocs – blacks, new Hispanics, and leftists.
Today in America, Leibler writes, Jews and Israel’s biggest supporters are Evangelicals. American Jewish leaders are betraying the trust of their community, putting their liberal agenda ahead of protecting Jews at home and Israel abroad.
Jewish identity has become submerged by progressivism. Indeed, left-wing Jews wishing to be regarded as “progressive” are discovering that a prerequisite to their acceptance requires a hostile attitude to Israel.
It all began with Obama, says Leibler. Before Obama, Jewish leaders were not intimidated. Their job was to speak out in defense of Israel. No more.
Obama had pro-Israel congressmen spied on by our intelligence services for opposing his pro-Iran policies. In a favorite Obama technique for suppression, pro-Israel groups were harassed and suppressed by the IRS.
Barack Obama treated Israel “as a rogue state.” He groveled before the Iranians and treated Israeli defenders and Arab terrorists as moral equivalents. “The response by the majority of the American Jewish establishment, who were previously never reticent about raising their voices, was a deafening silence,” writes Liebler.
Jewish leadership caved to Obama’s bullying. They knew that criticizing Obama would be punished severely by liberal activists, jeopardize their funding, and bring down even more hostile attacks from President Obama.
Many Jewish liberals are “so ignorant of their heritage that they regarded social justice and their Democratic political affiliation as the foremost factors in their Jewish identity.”
This past decade has been one of unprecedented passivity and cowardice by the Jewish establishment. It failed to speak out against Obama’s anti-Israel bias and remained silent when the ADL, J Street, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the National Council of Jewish Women, progressive rabbis and other Jews engaged in the primitive defamation of Trump from Jewish platforms.
Jewish groups have always been scrupulously bipartisan as a bedrock principle. Fighting anti-Semitism and promoting Jewish American interests was never partisan. But after Obama radicalized the party, that went out the window. Leibler calls out the hysteria sweeping through the Jewish community, as progressive rabbis and their lay leaders call Trump racist, an anti-Semite, and even a Nazi sympathizer.
This, despite the fact that to date, Trump has unquestionably been the most positive president toward Israel and has a converted Jewish daughter who is religiously observant. He introduced significant beneficial policies, such as ceasing financial aid to Palestinian terrorists, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and promoting the case for Israel at the UN and international forums.
Meanwhile, they support rabid black and Muslim anti-semites wherever they may be – on campus, in Congress, leading the pussy-hat Women’s March, Farrakhan supporters in Congress, in the social justice movement.
Jewish silence has already sowed the wind.
What must have shocked and sent shivers down the spines of Jews even remotely supportive of Israel was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s appointment of (Ilan Omar) this antisemitic newly elected congresswoman to the prestigious and powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, which oversees foreign aid and such national security issues as terrorism and the proliferation of nonconventional weapons.
Isi Leibler was born before the Holocaust. He has seen it happen before. He is calling out American Jewish leadership for their cowardice and collusion with the forces of left-wing hate. He says the appointment of Ilan Omar to the Foreign Affairs Committee is a wakeup call.
In truth, it is a wakeup call to all of us. Pelosi’s folly has given Congresswoman Omar the keys to America’s national security secrets.
When anti-Semitism rules, none of us are safe.
“It all began with Obama, says Leibler . Before Obama, Jewish leaders were not intimidated. Their job was to speak out in defense of Israel. No more.
Obama had pro-Israel congressmen spied on by our intelligence services for opposing his pro-Iran policies. In a favorite Obama technique for suppression, pro-Israel groups were harassed and suppressed by the IRS.
Barack Obama treated Israel “as a rogue state.” He groveled before the Iranians and treated Israeli defenders and Arab terrorists as moral equivalents. “The response by the majority of the American Jewish establishment, who were previously never reticent about raising their voices, was a deafening silence,” writes Liebler.
Jewish leadership caved to Obama’s bullying. They knew that criticizing Obama would be punished severely by liberal activists, jeopardize their funding, and bring down even more hostile attacks from President Obama.
Many Jewish liberals are “so ignorant of their heritage that they regarded social justice and their Democratic political affiliation as the foremost factors in their Jewish identity.”
Jewish groups have always been scrupulously bipartisan as a bedrock principle. Fighting anti-Semitism and promoting Jewish American interests was never partisan. But after Obama radicalized the party, that went out the window. Leibler calls out the hysteria sweeping through the Jewish community, as progressive rabbis and their lay leaders call Trump racist, an anti-Semite, and even a Nazi sympathizer.
It seems that there is a widening chasm between the governing conservative Jews in Israel 🇮🇱 and progressive secular Jews in America. The same split exists between American Jews living in Israel and many American Jews living here. The split also seems to follow religious lines between secular and liberal observant and conservative and Orthodox observant. The article implies that secular progressive American Jews are more comfortable dealing with other secular progressive domestic groups than with more religious and more conservative Jews in Israel and here, even if several of the progressive groups have anti Semitic positions in relationship to Israel and BDS. I agree with Mr. Leibler in the seeded article.
Wrong. There is a problem with Jews both in Israel and in the US with Netanyahu and his government. It is an issue you would not understand since it has to do with the denominations of Judaism. He is actually making more secular Jews by backing the ultra orthodox.
Again, something you would not understand since you couldn't even tell me the difference between any of these sects.
No, what the article tried to do was discredit the ADL with a pile of lies, and then tie it into other Jewish sects to discredit them. It was all BS He has never fought for Israel. He is just another American Jew with a POV.
What a pile of lies. My brother in law was the face of the ADL for over 10 years and never does the ADL not support Israel or Jewish and human rights.
But let's start with the first lie in this article:
Here right from the ADL's page:
Here is another lie:
Again from the ADL's pages:
Oh, wait.. did you say they don't care about Muslim activities that are anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish? What is this?:
And yet your article has another lie:
On Black Lives Matter:
To the Editor:
Supprot of Louis Farrakhan because they are afraid to speak out against Democrats? Seriously?
Beyond his anti-Semitism, Farrakhan also targets the LGBT community– “do you think Allah is pleased with you bringing the evils of Sodom and Gomorrah to the entire world?” and white people in general — “the greatest thing that is happening is the natural death of the White race.”
It's a damn shame that a Jew would bad mouth the good that the ADL does over partisan politics. It is not shocking that evangelicals are making the most of this. They need Israel, and not Jews who don't fall in line with their master plan of Armegedon.
They think they need Israel, for a prophecy.
They don't care a whit about any Jewish peoples, anywhere...
True enough!
The battle of Armageddon has nothing to do with any present county. It takes place after the second coming, after the final judgement and is the final battle between good and evil the universe will ever see. There are Christians who believe that Armageddon happens before the 2nd coming and that current Israel plays a huge role in it. I disagree and support what I said at the top. I support Israel because it is the right thing to do, not because they have any role to play in the 2nd coming.
Bullshit partisan rants of an 85 year old man who feared anyone one with a Muslim name.
I don't think I could expect anything less from a guy who was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1977. Really?
Shame on you for peddling this Bullshit.
In your own words, why is it the right thing to do?
Isi Leibler
Honorary Vice-President
Isi Leibler is a veteran international Jewish leader with a distinguished record of contributions to the Jewish world and the cause of human rights.
Born in Antwerp Belgium in 1934, Leibler was brought to Australia by his parents as an infant just before the outbreak of World War II. He lived there until he immigrated to Israel in 1999.
Australian Jewry
Described in the Encyclopaedia Judaica as “unquestionably the dominant Jewish lay leader in Australia during the previous quarter century”, Leibler occupied the leadership of the Australian Jewish community (Executive Council of Australian Jewry) from 1978 and served four terms in this office, retiring in 1995.
Soviet Jewry
In 1962, Mr. Leibler engineered a public campaign which resulted in Australia becoming the first country in the world to raise the plight of Soviet Jewry at the United Nations. In 1965, he published a book Soviet Jewry and Human Rights which had significant international repercussions and created a schism amongst the hitherto pro Soviet left.
Before the collapse of the USSR, Leibler made numerous visits to the Soviet Union and developed close associations with the leading Jewish dissidents and refuseniks. The visits came to an end in 1980 with his arrest and expulsion from the Soviet Union.
Paradoxically, when Gorbachev liberalised the system with the introduction of perestroika, Leibler became the first international Jewish leader to be invited to the Soviet Union to evaluate the changes. He subsequently launched the first Jewish cultural centre in the Soviet Union – the Solomon Mykhoels Centre in Moscow – together with the first Hebrew Song Festivals in Moscow and Leningrad.
Leibler’s activities and campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry are documented in the book: Let my People Go: The untold story of Australia and Soviet Jews 1969 – 1989, authored by Sam Lipski and Suzanne Rutland in 2015.
Asia Pacific
Following the liberation of Soviet Jewry, Mr Leibler focused his attention on the Asia-Pacific region. His meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen were recognised as major contributions towards accelerating the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and both countries. Leibler also convened a colloquium for leading Jewish and Chinese scholars in Beijing prior to the formalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and China.
Publications and Writings
Leibler writes prolifically and is a weekly columnist for the Jerusalem Post, enjoying a vast following throughout the world on the internet. He is also a regular columnist for Israel Hayom, the Israeli daily newspaper. He has also appeared in many other newspapers, including the New York Times and the Guardian and is frequently interviewed on both TV and radio.
Leibler was one of the first to warn of the dangers of religious extremism, in particular radical religious nationalism. He has written extensively on this subject and his works have been translated into Hebrew, Russian, French and Spanish.
He has also focused on the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora and his publication The Israel-Diaspora Identity Crisis: A Looming Disaster has been read and debated throughout the Jewish world. He now Chairs the Israel Diaspora Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, a leading Israeli think tank.
Leibler also published a study on the threat post Zionism poses to the soul of Israel, titled Is the Dream Ending? The publication was translated into Hebrew and widely distributed.
Business
In Australia Leibler’s company, Jetset Tours, was the largest travel organization in the region with branches throughout the world. He was also a director of one of Australia’s three national television companies. In Israel he has invested and acts as a consultant to a number of high tech companies.
Awards
Mr Leibler was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1977, an AO (Officer of the Order of Australia) in 1989 and an honorary Doctor of Letters from Deakin University in 1990. In 2015, Leibler was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bar Ilan University in recognition of “his tireless efforts to address the challenges facing the Jewish nation atevery historic crossroad”
Residence
Mr. Leibler lives in Jerusalem with his wife Naomi who served as World President of Emunah. Three of his children and their families also reside there.
It is only fair to show both sides of a controversial figure......
Well said Split!
Born in Antwerp , Belgium , Leibler was brought to Australia by his parents as an infant just before the outbreak of World War II. Leibler served as president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Chairman of the Governing Board of the World Jewish Congress . He was a leader in the global campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry and played a role in the lead-up to Israeli diplomatic relations between India and China.
Liebler and his wife moved to Israel in 1999, settling in Jerusalem . He writes weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post , the Hebrew daily Israel Hayom , and on his blog Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem. [1]
Liebler married Naomi Porush in 1958, and the couple had three sons and a daughter. All of his children and most of their families also live in Israel.
A pro-Israel organization that found its nonprofit status subjected to undue scrutiny by the Obama administration's IRS as a result of its advocacy on the Jewish state's behalf reached a settlement Thursday with the Department of Justice that included a formal apology from the U.S. government for subjecting the group to unfair treatment, according to an announcement.
The Trump administration's DOJ announced Tuesday that it had reached a settlement with Z Street , a conservative pro-Israel advocacy group that sued the government over allegations the Obama administration subjected the organization to unfair scrutiny as a result of its pro-Israel views. Z Street was just one of several conservative organizations to sue the U.S. government.
The case had been locked in court since 2015, when judges rejected the Obama administration's claims that it did not act improperly.
"Z Street alleged that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) applied heightened scrutiny to applications for tax-exempt status received from organizations connected in any way to Israel, and applied this policy to Z Street's application, resulting in delay," the Justice Department announced in a press release. "The settlement agreement includes an apology from the IRS to Z Street for the delayed processing of the group's application for tax-exempt status."
This is not about Obama. This attack was on the ADL and was full of lies, and I clearly backed it up. Leibler at best is another partisan hack, making up BS so that people not in the know, will buy it.
I have a question for you. How many Jews do you know? What denominations are they? What are their political leanings? I know you live in the Northern Cali, so I am guessing if you know any, it's a few and very superficially. Heck, not even Sacramento has enough to fill one synagogue. Just curious, since you love Israel, but Jews, only in the abstract.
The seeded article was very clearly all about Obama and his impact on left of center groups. Leibler isn’t even an American. His family fled pre holocaust Europe for Australia and he’s done a lot of great things for Russian Jews and many causes. His article was from the Israeli perspective of our domestic situation. As for whether I know Jews or not, I do. My dads sister my aunt married a Jewish man and my two cousins were in that mixed family and all of his relatives are Jewish. I have also met messianic Jews in my church around the country.
HA -
Perrie destroyed the premise of this seed with her long and detailed response near the top. Do the right thing and lock this article as a failed premise and move on.