Web Exclusive: My Neighbor, Barack

 

I got this from a friend this morning:

by Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf

Published on: Mar 19, 2008


Not everyone can claim to be the neighbor of a Presidential candidate - I can, though, because I am.

Barack Obama's Chicago home is across the street from KAM Isaiah Israel, the Hyde Park synagogue at which I've served for 27 years. He spoke to our congregation as an Illinois state senator; more recently, his Secret Service agents have made use of our, shall we say, facilities.

But it's not neighborly instinct that's led me to support the Obama candidacy: I support Barack Obama because he stands for what I believe, what our tradition demands.

We sometimes forget, but an integral part of that tradition is dialogue and a willingness to disagree. Certainly many who call me their rabbi have taken political positions far from mine - just as Barack Obama's opinions have differed from those of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

On March 18, the candidate gave a speech that made abundantly clear that he and Wright often disagree. Obama condemned Wright's "incendiary language," and "views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, butS that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation."

Of course, race is only one issue on which Wright has stepped beyond the bounds of civil discourse. He's frequently made statements regarding Israel and the Jewish community that I find troubling. But to limit our understanding of Obama to the ill-conceived comments of the man who once led his church is dishonest and self-defeating.

Obama's strong positions on poverty and the climate, his early and consistent opposition to the Iraq War, his commitment to ending the Darfur genocide - all these speak directly to Jewish concerns. If we're sidetracked by Wright's words, we'll be working against these interests. After all, a preacher speaks to a congregation, not for the congregation.

Many people remain concerned that Obama isn't committed to Israel. Some want him to fall in line behind the intransigent, conservative thinking that has silenced Jewish debate on Israeli policy and enabled the Bush Administration's criminal neglect of the diplomatic process.

Clearly, though, anyone who thinks Obama waffles on Israel hasn't been paying attention. In 2007, he spoke to AIPAC about "a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel." Today, his website states clearly that America's "first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East
must be to the security of Israel."

For my part, I've sometimes found Obama too cautious on Israel. He, like all our politicians, knows he mustn't stray too far from the conventional line, and that can be disappointing. But unlike anyone else on the stump, Obama has also made it clear that he'll broaden the dialogue. He knows what peace entails.

Speaking recently before a Jewish audience in Cleveland, Obama did the unthinkable - he challenged the room. He talked about the need to ask "difficult questions" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "I sat down with the head of Israeli security forces," he said "and his view of the Palestinians was incredibly nuancedS. There's good and there's bad, and he was willing to say sometimes we make mistakesS and if we're just pressing down on these folks constantly, without giving them some prospects for hope, that's not good for our security."

Yet, in spite of all of Obama's strengths, we've been loathe to admit a difficult truth: Among some American Jews, race plays a key role in the hesitation to support the Obama candidacy. We've forgotten that Black and Jewish America once shared a common vision. In the civil rights era, I and
many in our community stood shoulder to shoulder with the giants of our generation, demanding freedom for all Americans.

Obama himself doesn't share our amnesia, however. "I would not be sitting here," he said in Cleveland, "if it were not for a whole host of Jewish Americans." That was literal truth, but not everyone remembers it.

I've worked with Obama for more than a decade, as has my son, a lawyer who represents children and people with disabilities. He has admired Obama's dedication and skill as he worked on issues affecting our most vulnerable citizens.

Obama is no anti-Semite. He is not anti-Israel. He is one of our own, the one figure on the political scene who remembers our past, and has a real vision for repairing our present.

Barack Obama is brilliant and open-hearted; he is wiser and more thoughtful than his former minister. He offers what America, Israel, and the Jewish community need: a US President willing to ask hard questions, and grapple with difficult answers.

I am very proud to be his neighbor. I hope someday to visit him in the White House.

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf is rabbi emeritus at Chicago's KAM Isaiah Israel,
Illinois's oldest Jewish congregation.

 

http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a5420/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html

BSG, Collaborators, Torn, A Measure of Salvation

Last night I had some wine after work with insijaam and then Pita and I watched the next 3  BSG’s, Collaborators, Torn and A Measure of Salvation. 

Like I said, this series got incredibly dark incredibly fast. One minute we were shooting Cylon raiders and rewinding to get a better look at Apollo’s towel scene and the next minute Tigh’s eye is rolling across the floor like a hard boiled egg and Jammer is being sucked out of the airlock for crimes against humanity. Intense. Collaborators deals with what the fleet is to do with those humans who collaborated with the Cylons in the occupation of New Caprica. The acting president convenes secret juries to consider extreme crimes against humanity and execute those who they unanimously decide are guilty. I have to say, I do not feel very bad for Jammer. I know that he felt very conflicted about joining the New Caprica Police. While occupying the planet that the humans had settled on, the Cylons recruited for humans to be in a police force for the occupiers. Like in Vichy France. But even if he felt bad about it, he still did it. Some things are just wrong, even if they are hard to resist and even if you have good reasons for the choice you make. Plenty of people made a different choice.

The two episodes that follow, Torn and A Measure of Salvation deal with genocide. The Cylons follow Baltar’s instructions to find a beacon left behind by the 13^th Colony on the way to Earth. When they bring it on board it is contaminated with a virus that makes all the skinjobs really sick. Humans are immune. So the Colonials decide to get close to a Cylon ship and execute the sick Cylons. When they download into new bodies they will take the virus with them. There’s a debate about the use of biological warfare and in the end Helo kills the Cylons out of range so that the genocide cannot take place. He just thinks that it’s wrong.

 

Threading through these episodes are a lot of interaction between Skinjobs and Humans and most of them don’t have the faintest idea about humans. Sharon seems to get it, but D’Anna is totally clueless. She tortures Baltar and when he screams to his Head Six that he loves her, D’Anna softens and releases him thinking that he is talking to her. Leoben also seemed to think that Kara really loved him. That a forced declaration of love is somehow comparable to the real exchange of emotion between two people. Their occupation of New Caprica seems similarly flawed. They just don’t understand about some things that are key to being human – free will, freedom, love, revenge, family, loyalty.

 

I still really miss Lost, but Pita and I are going out tomorrow night to see Chris Rock at the Paramount! Hooray!