Feed Reader
Judaism > The g-word was so 2007?now it?s the b-word
Looks like we could have a replay of the whether-to-call-it-a-genocide debate. Yesterday we had a brief about a statement from 185 rabbis and other communal figures calling on Jewish tourists to skip the Beijing Olympics. Well, today the ADL is out with a statement coming out against a Jewish boycott. It appears to be meant as a rebuttal. Read the ADL statement here. Below is the full statement calling for a tourist boycott, along with the list of signatories. April 30, 2008 A Yom Hashoah Declaration: The China Olympics Are Not Kosher We are deeply troubled by China?s support for the genocidal government of Sudan; its mistreatment of the people of Tibet; its denial of basic rights to its own citizens; and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas. Having endured the bitter experience of abandonment by our presumed allies during the Holocaust, we feel a particular obligation to speak out against injustice and persecution today. We remember all too well that the road to Nazi genocide began in the 1930s, with Hitler?s efforts to improve the public image of his evil regime. Nazi Germany sought to attract visitors to the 1936 Olympics in order to distract attention from its persecution of the Jews. Hitler?s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, called the 1936 games ?a victory for the German cause.? We dare not permit today?s totalitarian regimes to achieve such victories. Beijing?s authorization of the creation of a kosher kitchen at the Olympics village is apparently intended to help attract Jewish tourists to the games, as part of its broader strategy of improving its image and deflecting attention from its complicity in severe human rights abuses at home and abroad. Jews should not be party to the whitewashing of such a regime, kosher kitchen or no kosher kitchen. Regimes that practice or enable oppression, terrorism, or genocide are not kosher. Therefore on this occasion of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day on which we remember the Nazi genocide, we call upon world Jewry to refrain from attending the Beijing Olympics. Rabbi Dr. Yitz Greenberg Past President, Jewish Life Network Past Chairman, United States Holocaust Memorial Council (2000-2002) Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun / Ramaz School Author of Were We Our Brothers? Keepers? The Public Response of American Jews to the Holocaust Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie President Union for Reform Judaism Richard Gordon, President and Neil Goldstein, Executive Director on behalf of the American Jewish Congress New York, NY Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz President Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Rabbi Dr. David Ellenson President Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm Chancellor, Yeshiva University Head of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Rabbi Dr. David Golinkin President, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies Jerusalem, Israel Rabbi Joel H. Meyers Executive Vice President Rabbinical Assembly Rabbi Peter Knobel President, Central Conference of American Rabbis Rabbi Steven A. Fox Executive Vice President, Central Conference of American Rabbis Rabbi Charles A. Kroloff Vice President, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Past President, Central Conference of American Rabbis Rabbi Daniel Hillel Freelander Vice President Union for Reform Judaism Rabbi Deborah Prinz Director of Program and Member Services, Central Conference of American Rabbis Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman The Jewish Center of the Hamptons Past President, Central Conference of American Rabbis Past President, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Rabbi Dr. David A. Teutsch Director, Center for Jewish Ethics Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Rabbi Steven M. Brown, EdD Dean, William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education Director, Melton Research Center for Jewish Education Jewish Theological Seminary of America Hon. Edward I. Koch Mayor of New York City, 1978-1989 Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council Seymour D. Reich President, Israel Policy Forum; Past President, B?nai B?rith International Past Chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Rabbi Norman J. Cohen Provost Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Rabbi Saul J. Berman Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School Rabbi Dr. Eugene B. Borowitz Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Past President, American Theological Society Past National Director, Union of American Hebrew Congregations Rabbi Joshua Gutoff William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education Jewish Theological Seminary of America David I. Bernstein, Ph.D. Dean, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies Jerusalem, Israel Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner Director, Just Congregations Union for Reform Judaism Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer Director, Religious Studies Department Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Past President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association Prof. Steven Fine Professor of Jewish History, Yeshiva University Director, Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies Lawrence M. Katz President, Jewish Educators Assembly Rabbi Deborah A. Hirsch Director of Regions Union for Reform Judaism Rabbi Kenneth Brander Dean, Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future Nancy Hersh Co-Chair, Reconstructionist Educators of North America Education Director, Congregation Beth Hatikvah, Summit, NJ Dr. Joe Freedman Director, Ramah Programs in Israel Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, Bethesda MD President, Washington Board of Rabbis Rabbi Shalom Z. Berger, Ed.D. The Lookstein Center for Jewish Education Bar-Ilan University Mindy B. Davids, RJE First Vice President, National Association of Temple Educators Director of Education, Temple Shaaray Tefila, New York, NY Rabbi Dov Linzer Rosh HaYeshiva and Dean Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School Rabbi Marc D. Angel Rabbi Emeritus, Congregation Shearith Israel, New York, NY Rabbi Moshe Waldoks Temple Beth Zion , Brookline MA Chair, Holocaust Commemoration Committee, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston Rabbi Reuben J. Poupko Congregation Beth Israel Beth Aaron, Montreal Past President, Montreal Board of Rabbis Rabbi Stanley T. Schickler, RJE Executive Director National Association of Temple Educators Rabbi Dr. Gail Labovitz Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literature Chair, Department of Rabbinics, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies American Jewish University Dr. Shulamit J. Laderman Assistant Dean, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies; Lecturer, Art History, Bar Ilan University Dr. Walter Reich Past Executive Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Professor of International Affairs, Ethics, and Human Behavior - George Washington University Rabbi Joshua Boettiger Congregation Beth El; Bennington, VT Rabbi Alan Goldman Masgiach Ruhani Tochnit Shalem Young Judaea Year Course Rabbi Paul S. Laderman Past Director of Jewish Programming Israel Associaton of Community Centers Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon Congregation Bnai Jeshurun, New York, NY Rabbi Ellen Lippmann Kolot Chayeinu / Voices of Our Lives, Brooklyn NY Rabbi Daniel Polish Congregation Shir Hadash Poughkeepsie, NY Dr. Gary P. Zola Executive Director, American Jewish Archives; Associate Professor of the American Jewish Experience Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Rabbi Dov Fischer Rabbi, Young Israel of Orange County Adjunct Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Lisa Lieberman Barzilai, RJE Regional Educator, Union for Reform Judaism, Greater New York Council Vice President – National Association of Temple Educators Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman Director Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism Rabbi Scot A. Berman Executive Director Seryl & Charles Kushner Family Foundation Rabbi Sara Sapadin Assistant Rabbi Temple Beth-El of Great Neck, NY Rabbi Avis D. Miller Adas Israel Congregation Washington, DC Rabbi Evan Shore Young Israel Shaarei Torah of Syracuse Dewitt, NY Rabbi Daniel M. Bronstein Congregational Scholar, Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn, NY, Jewish Theological Seminary of America Rabbi Dr. Lewis M. Barth Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles Past Dean and Professor Emeritus of Midrash and Related Literature Rabbi Leonard B. Troupp Rabbi Emeritus Temple Beth David of Commack, NY Rabbi Jeffrey A. Wohlberg Adas Israel Congregation Washington DC Rabbi Adam D. Fisher Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Isaiah Stony Brook, NY Rabbi Richard J. Shapiro Temple Beth-El Great Neck, NY Rabbi Amy Schwartzman Temple Rodef Shalom Falls Church, VA Rabbi Stephanie D. Kolin Temple Israel, Boston, MA Rabbi Ethan Seidel Tifereth Israel Congregation Washington, DC Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison Temple Israel Boston, MA Rabbi Shalom Carmy Yeshiva University Editor, Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought Rabbi Jonathan A. Schnitzer Senior Rabbi B?nai Israel Congregation, Rockville, MD Rabbi Pesach Sommer Rebbe, Yeshiva University High School for Boys New York, NY Rabbi David Leibtag Head of School Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns & Rockaway Lawrence, NY Rabbi Sue Ann Wasserman Director, Department of Worship, Music and Religious Living Union for Reform Judaism Rabbi Bernard H. Mehlman Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Israel, Boston, MA Rabbi Avi Weiss Founder and President, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Senior Rabbi, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin Headmaster, Ramaz Middle School Dr. Racelle R. Weiman Executive Director, The Dialogue Institute, Temple University; Foundating Director, Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, Hebrew Union College Rabbi Alan Berkowitz Ramaz School Rabbi Dr. Steve Glazer Congregation Beth Emeth, Herndon, VA Rabbi Dr. Gershon C. Gewirtz Young Israel of Brookline Cantor Alane S. Katzew Director of Music Programming Union for Reform Judaism Rabbi Ronne Friedman Temple Israel, Boston, MA Nathan Lewin, Esq. Honorary President, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists Cantor Roy B. Einhorn Temple Israel, Boston MA Rabbi Benjamin Blech Professor of Talmud, Yeshiva University Rabbi Marci N. Bellows Temple Shaaray Tefila New York, NY Rabbi Andy Bachman Congregation Beth Elohim Brooklyn, NY Rabbi Elie Weinstock Associate Rabbi, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun New York, NY Reb Mimi Feigelson Mashpiah Ruchanit, Lecturer of Rabbinics and Chassidic Thought Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, The American Jewish University Los Angeles, CA Rabbi Dan Shevitz Congregation Mishkon Tephilo Venice, CA Rabbi Joseph Polak Chairman, Halacha Committee, Bet Din of Boston Rabbi Deborah Schuldenfrei Assistant Rabbi, Congregation Shir Ha-Ma?a lot Irvine, CA Rabbi Stephen A. Klein Scarsdale, NY Rabbi Leah Lewis Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles, CA Rabbi Mordechai Y. Scher Kol BeRamah/Santa Fe Torah Learning Coop Santa Fe, NM Rabbi Joshua Lookstein New York, NY Rabbi Jeffrey Gale Rabbi of The Suburban Temple of Wantagh Rabbi David Adelson East End Temple New York, New York Rabbi Dr. Avi Berkowitz Rabbi Emeritus, Community Synagogue Max D. Raiskin Center, New York City Member of Faculty Young Judaea Year Course, Jerusalem Dr. Yaakov Elman Yeshiva University Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein Director of Youth and Family Education Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn NY Rabbi Arthur F. Starr Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Adath Yeshurun, Manchester, NH Cantor Dana Anesi Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester Chappaqua, NY Cantor Chanin Becker Scarsdale Synagogue-Temples Tremont and Emanu-El Scarsdale, NY Rabbi Mordechai Rackover Assistant Rabbi and Director of Education Beth Sholom Congregation, Potomac, MD Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester Chappaqua, NY Rabbi Ira Ebbin Beth Zion Congregation, Montreal, Quebec Rabbi Mayer Waxman Associate Director Yachad/The National Jewish Council for Disabilities Rabbi Alysa Mendelson Graf Temple Israel, Westport, CT Rabbi David Wirtschafter Temple Beth Sholom Irvine, CA Rabbi Chava Koster The Village Temple New York, NY Rabbi Scott Corngold Temple Emanu-El of Lynbrook Lynbrook, NY Prof. Michael Chernick Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion New York, NY Rabbi Scott B. Weiner The Hebrew Tabernacle New York, NY Rabbi Jocee Hudson Director of Education Temple Beth Sholom, Santa Ana CA Cantor Arianne Brown Sinai Temple Los Angeles, CA Rabbi Brian Schuldenfrei Sinai Temple Los Angeles, CA Rabbi Carey Brown Temple Isaiah Lexington, MA Rabbi David J. Gelfand Temple Israel of the City of New York Rabbi Stephen Wise Shaarei-Beth El Congregation Oakville, Ontario, Canada Rabbi Daniel Friedman Beth Israel Synagogue Edmonton, Canada Rabbi Allen Krause Temple Beth El Mission Viejo, CA Rabbi Randy Sheinberg Temple Emanuel/Temple Israel New Hyde Park, NY Rabbi Dennis Linson Temple Judea Laguna Hills, CA Rabbi Susan Conforti Board-Certified Chaplain, VITAS Innovative Hospice Rabbi Dov Gartenberg Temple Beth Shalom Long Beach, CA Rabbi Dr. Meir Sendor Young Israel of Sharon, MA Rabbi Ari Segal Head of School, Robert M. Beren Academy Houston, TX Rabbi Mayer Schiller Mashgiach Ruchani Yeshiva University High School for Boys Rabbi Yitzchok Feldman Congregation Emek Beracha, Palo Alto, CA Rabbi Peter Levi Temple Beth El South Orange County, Aliso Viejo, CA Rabbi Douglas B. Sagal Senior Rabbi Temple Emanu-El, Westfield NJ Rabbi Norman Koch Temple Sholom, New Milford, CT Rabbi Judith Schindler Temple Beth El, Charlotte, NC Rabbi Phil Cohen Temple B?rith Shalom, Prescott, AZ Rabbi Barry Gelman United Orthodox Synagogues, Houston, TX Rabbi Amy Joy Small Congregation Beth Hatikvah, Summit, NJ Rabbi Richard Litvak Temple Beth El, Aptos, CA Rabbi Michael Zedek Emanuel Congregation, Chicago, IL Past President, Hebrew Union College Alunmi Association Rabbi Paul Kipnes Congregation Or Ami, Calabasas, CA Rabbi Melanie Aron Congregation Shir Hadash, Los Gatos, CA Rabbi Allen B. Bennett Temple Israel, Alameda, CA Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman Congregation B?nai Chaim, Morrison, CO Rabbi Andrew Straus Temple Emanuel, Tempe, AZ Rabbi Adam M. Morris Temple Micah, Denver, CO Rabbi Aaron Frank Principal, Lower School Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, Baltimore, MD Rabbi Paula Marcus Temple Beth El, Aptos, CA Rabbi Douglas Kohn Congregation Emanu El, San Bernardino, CA Rabbi Michael Pincus Congregation Beth Israel, West Hartford, CT Rabbi Hesch Sommer Temple Beth Tikvah, Madison, CT Rabbi Stephen Fuchs Congregation Beth Israel, West Hartford, CT Rabbi Kenneth Chasen Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles, CA Rabbi Anne Persin North Tahoe Hebrew Congregation, Tahoe Vista, CA Rabbi Rena H. Kieval Congregation Ohav Shalom, Albany NY Rabbi Leonard Zukrow Temple Beth El, Pensacola, FL Rabbi Scott Looper Congregation Or Shalom, Vernon Hills, IL Rabbi Dr. Pinchas Giller American Jewish University, Los Angeles, CA Rabbi Mark N. Goldman Temple Bet Yam, St. Augustine, FL Rabbi Emeritus, Rockdale Temple/KK Bene Israel, Cincinnati, OH Rabbi Richard D. Agler Congregation B?nai Israel, Boca Raton, FL Rabbi David Fox Sandmel, Ph.D. KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, Chicago, IL Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz Congregation B?nai Israel, Bridgeport, CT and CLAL Associate Rabbi David Oler Congregation Beth Or, Deerfield, IL Rabbi Peter B. Schaktman Temple Emanu-El, Honolulu, HI Rabbi Leon Wiener Dow Jerusalem, Israel Rabbi Steven Bob Congregation Etz Chaim, Lombard, IL Rabbi Brian Strauss Congregation Beth Yeshurun, Houston, TX Rabbi Carie Carter Park Slope Jewish Center, Brooklyn, NY Rabbi Aaron M. Petuchowski Temple Sholom, Chicago, IL Rabbi Perry Netter Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles, CA Rabbi Gideon Shloush Congregation Adereth El, New York, NY Rabbi Joel L. Levine Temple Judea, Palm Beach Gardens, FL Rabbi C. Michelle Greenberg Temple Jeremiah, Northfield, IL Rabbi Stephen F. Moch Congregation B?nai Emmunah, Tarpon Springs, FL Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh Temple Israel of Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA Rabbi Mimi Weisel Jewish Community High School of the Bay, San Francisco, CA Rabbi Harry Brechner Congregation Emanu-El, Victoria BC, Canada Rabbi Uri Topolosky Congregation Beth Israel, New Orleans, LA Rabbi Daniel Cohen Agudath Sholom Stamford, CT Rabbi Yossi Pollak Congregation Bnai Jacob Anschei Brzezan-The Stanton Street Shul Lower East Side, New York City Rabbi Yitzchok Adler Beth David Synagogue, West Hartford, CT Rabbi Dov R. Katz Baltimore, MD Rabbi Yaffa-Shira Sultan Congregation Dor Hadash, San Diego, CA (Institutions listed for identification purposes only.)