Who Stole My Religion?: October 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

Top 10 Reasons Jews Should Vote for Obama

Top 10 Reasons Jews Should Vote for Obama://

by Richard H. Schwartz, author of Who Stole My Religion?

There has been much discussion recently about which candidate Jews should support for president in 2012. Below are many important reasons that Jews should vote for Obama:

1. Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and other Republicans are promoting policies similar to or often worse than those that had such disastrous results during the George W. Bush administration, including converting a three-year major surplus, which was on track to completely eliminate the total federal debt, into a major deficit, creating very few net jobs (none in the private sector), and leaving the country on the brink of a depression, with an average of 750,000 jobs being lost during its last three months. Over 800,000 on its final month. Like, Bush, they want to reduce taxes for the wealthiest Americans, cut regulations, cut programs that benefit most Americans, and have a very hawkish foreign policy that might involve the US in additional wars. As Bill Clinton put it, “Romney is Bush on steroids.”

2. Republicans have obstructed efforts to get our country out of the tremendous ditch they left us in by voting no on and sometimes filibustering many Democratic proposals, some of which they previously supported and sometimes even co-sponsored. Hence, it is not surprising that a recent poll showed that 49% of Americans believe that Republican Congress members are purposely sabotaging the U.S. economy in order to defeat Obama and other Democrats, while only 40% disagree. Should we reward a Republican Party that is willing to sabotage our economy for its political gain. 3. Republicans support continued tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and highly profitable corporations, while basic social services that middle class and poor people depend on are being cut and teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and others are losing their jobs. During the 2010 lame duck session, every Republican Senator signed a statement indicating that they would not support any legislation unless tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans were continued.Every Republican candidate during the primaries, including Romney, stated that they would not support tax increases even if there were ten dollars of cuts that they supported for every dollar of tax increases.

4. Almost every Republican is in denial about the tremendous dangers from climate change, in spite of a very strong consensus in over a thousand peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and dire warnings by scientific academies all over the world that climate change is a major threat, largely caused by human activities, and the many wake-up calls we have been receiving in terms of severe, sometimes record-breaking, storms, tornadoes, floods, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires, Anyone who thinks that climate change is a hoax promoted by liberals should visit the website of the “Republicans for Environmental Protection” (www.rep.org), recently renamed ConservAmerica. This conservative group only endorsed four percent of Republicans in the 2010 U.S. midterm elections, because so many Republicans are in denial about climate change and other environmental threats. They are not endorsing Romney for president because he has backed away from his previous concern abut climate change as have most Republicans. So far they have only endorsed Scott Brown for a Senate seat in Massachussetts.
Paul Ryan is a climate denier and has a miserable record on the environment. Please check out

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10855-meet-paul-ryan-climate-denier-conspiracy-theorist-koch-acolyte

5. The Republican Party has moved far to the right under the influence of the Tea Party. There are very few moderate Republicans in Congress today. Gone are the days when there were Republican moderates like Jacob Javits, Clifford Case, John Chafee, and Arlen Specter. Significantly, there is only one Jewish Republican member of Congress, while there are about 40 Jewish Democratic Congressional members. The Republican controlled House has a positive rating from only about 12% of Americans because of their very reactionary stands on economic, environmental, and social issues.

6. Obama’s election is essential in order to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court from becoming even more conservative. There are now three justices who are in the mid-seventies, including Ruth Beder Ginsberg, who is not in good health. So, it is likely that the next president will have one or more Supreme Court picks. If a Republican president makes them, it would mean a very conservative Supreme Court for decades. The current Supreme court has struck a blow against democracy by permitting groups to spend unlimited amounts of money to support candidates.

7. Republicans are, in effect, waging a war against women. They have opposed legislation that would provide women with equal pay for equal work. Their platform opposes abortion in all cases, even if rape or incest is involved or the life of the mother is threatened. Paul Ryan and almost all Republicans have supported and in many cases co-sponsored legislation that would ban abortion in all cases and even contraception.

8. While far more needs to be done, Democrats have enacted policies that have turned the economy away from the possible depression that the Bush administration left the U.S. on the brink of. More net private-sector jobs have been created already during the Obama administration than during the entire eight years of the Bush presidency. While 800,000 jobs were being lost when Obama entered office, there now has been positive job growth in 31 consecutive months, and almost 5 million new jobs have been created during that period. The Obama administration has also had success in foreign policy, including ending the war in Iraq, killing Osama bin Laden, weakening al Qaeda. By contrast, Romney has made several gaffes in his statements about foreign policy. While Democratic policies have not always lived up to our hopes, largely due to Republican obstructionism, a return to Republican rule would be a nightmare.

9. Obama has taken many positive actions for Israel including: rejecting the Goldstone report that criticized Israeli actions in the war in Gaza; asking Congress to approve a $205 million package to help Israel build a new anti-missile defense system; successfully advocating for Israel’s admission into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; giving a speech in the heart of the Arab world, in which he told his listeners that they need to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state; stating to the UN General Assembly clearly and unequivocally that “Israel is a sovereign state and the historic homeland of the Jewish people” and “It should be clear to all that efforts to chip away at Israel’s legitimacy will only be met by the unshakable opposition of the US.”

Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have stated many times that the U.S. has been extremely cooperative in meeting Israel’s security needs. Another example of Obama’s strong support for Israel is his very positive response to a frantic, middle-of-the-night call from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that helped free six Israelis who were trapped in the Israeli embassy in Cairo that was under attack by militant Egyptians. After they were freed, Netanyahu said: "I would like to express my gratitude to the President of the United States, Barack Obama. I asked for his help. This was a decisive and fateful moment. He said, “I will do everything I can.” And so he did. He used every considerable means and influence of the United States to help us. We owe him a special measure of gratitude. This attests to the strong alliance between Israel and the United States."

On September 22, 2011, Prime Minister Netanyahu heaped additional praise on President Obama for his talk at the United Nations, in which Obama expressed opposition to U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, and indicated that he would veto a resolution supporting that recognition in the U.N. Security Council. Netanyahu indicated that Obama deserved a “badge of honor” for that talk.

10. President Obama has had a very positive relationship with Jews: his initial chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was Jewish and the son of Israelis; his present chief of staff Jack Lew is an Orthodox Jew; one of his key advisers David Axlerod, is Jewish, and he is also a key strategist for Obama’s reelection campaign; Obama nominated a Jew, Elana Kagan, as a Supreme Court Justice (even though that left the 9-member Court with three Jews and no Protestant members; he is the first president to have Passover Seders in the White House; Obama refused to send US representatives to Durban conferences, since they have espoused antisemitism; and Obama and his cabinet members have frequently stressed their solidarity with Jews and with Israel

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Outline of President Obama’s accomplishments, with citations:

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/13282-a-list-of-president-obamas-accomplishments

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Activist Ideas: 18 Ways to Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet

Now that the High Holy Days are over and we have all resolved to lead better lives this year, I thought I would share an excerpt from Who Stole My Religion? with 18 practical things you can do to help heal our imperiled planet:

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In attempting to change the world, sometimes we have to start by first changing ourselves. Rabbi Israel Salanter, the founder of the mussar (ethics) movement in Lithuania, taught: “First a person should put his house together, then his town, then his world.”

If you feel that global crises are so overwhelming that your efforts will have little effect, then consider the following. Judaism teaches: “You are not obligated to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it” (Pirkei Avot 2:21). Each of us must make a start and do whatever he or she can to help improve the world. Judaism also teaches that a person is obligated to protest when there is evil and, if necessary, to proceed from protest to action. Each person is to imagine that the world is evenly balanced between good and evil, and that each good deed tips the whole world toward the side of good. Therefore, her or his actions can determine the destiny of the entire world. Even if little is accomplished right away, the act of trying to make improvements will prevent the hardening of one’s heart and will affirm acceptance of an obligation to try to improve conditions. Even the act of consciousness-raising itself is important, because it may lead to future action for change.

In considering how much to become involved, please consider that the world is arguably approaching climate, food, energy, water, and other environmental catastrophes, as well as other threats. Consider how essential it is that major changes soon be made so that future generations will have a decent world in which to live.

Here are some things that each person can do:

1. Become well informed. Learn the facts about current environmental and other societal problems and the applicable Jewish teachings from this and other books.

2. Check rumors you receive by email against the facts before passing them on to others. Snopes.com is an excellent resource for verifying whether or not a particular Internet rumor is a hoax. Remember: Spreading lashon hara (evil gossip) is forbidden, and this includes material you receive by email.

3. Help elect candidates whose positions are most consistent with Jewish progressive values and environmental concerns. Join their campaigns and, of course, vote for them.

4. Inform others. Write timely letters to editors of publications. Set up programs and discussions. Become registered with community, library, or school speakers’ bureaus. Wear a button. Put bumper stickers where many people will see them. Make and display posters.

5. Simplify your life-style. Conserve energy. Recycle materials. Buy and wear used clothing. Bike or walk whenever possible, rather than drive, and learn to combine errands on your trips. Share rides. Use mass transit when appropriate.

6. Become a vegetarian, and preferably a vegan, or at least sharply reduce your consumption of animal products. As discussed in Chapter 12 of Who Stole My Religion, veganism is the diet most consistent with such Jewish values as showing compassion to animals, taking care of one’s health, preserving the environment, sharing with hungry people, conserving natural resources, and pursuing peace. Even if you don’t feel you can give up meat right now, try having a meatless day each week, when you try new recipes at home, or eat out in a vegetarian restaurant.

7. Work with organizations and groups on some of the significant issues. If your time is limited, then choose one issue that interests you and devote yourself to that. For contact information for Jewish groups working on such issues, see Appendices D and E. If there are no local groups or if you differ with such groups on some important issues, set up a group in your synagogue, Jewish Center, or Hillel.

8. Encourage your public and congregational libraries to order, stock, and circulate books on global issues and Jewish teachings related to them. Donate any duplicate copies. Request that libraries regularly acquire such books. Subscribe to relevant magazines, and, if you can afford it, buy some to donate.

9. Speak or organize events with guest speakers and/or audio-visual presentations on how Jewish values address current critical issues. Consider requesting a complimentary DVD of the documentary film, A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the World at aSacredDuty.com Schedule a showing of the film at your synagogue or other organization. Offer it to your local film festival or other arts event.

10. Ask rabbis and other religious leaders to give sermons and/or classes discussing Judaism’s teachings on social justice, sustainability, hunger, peace, conservation, and other Jewish values and how they can be applied to current issues.

11. Contact editors of local newspapers and ask that more space be devoted to current threats and on religious teachings related to them. Write articles and letters using information from this book and other books and magazines.

12. Try to influence public policy on the issues. Organize letter-writing campaigns and group visits to politicians to lobby for a safer, saner, more stable world. Run for office if you feel inclined to do so. Members of city counsels, school boards, and other local institutions can have a big impact. Think globally, act locally.

13. Consult with rabbis and religious educators and leaders on how to apply to today’s critical issues such Jewish mandates as “seek peace and pursue it,” “bal tashchit” (you shall not waste), “justice, justice shall you pursue,” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” Ask principals of yeshivas and day schools to see that their curricula reflect traditional Jewish concerns with environ-mental, peace, and justice issues. Volunteer to speak to classes and to help plan curricula.

14. As an outgrowth of Jewish teachings on helping feed hungry people and conserving resources, work to end the tremendous amount of waste associated with many Jewish organizational functions and celebrations:

Encourage friends and institutions to simplify, reduce wastefulness, and serve less lavish celebratory feasts. Put this into practice at your own celebrations.
Request that meat not be served, since the production of meat wastes grain, land, and other resources and contributes substantially to pollution, deforestation, desertification, loss of biodiversity, and climate change. Refraining from eating meat also expresses identification with the millions of people who lack an adequate diet, as well as the billions of farmed animals slaughtered each year.
Reclaim left over edible food from simchas to donate to shelters and food kitchens. Recommend to people hosting a celebration that they donate a portion of the cost of the event to Mazon (an organization discussed in Appendix D) or another group working to reduce hunger.

15. Start a community garden, or participate in one already established. As much as possible, buy your food from local farmers’ markets. Volunteer at a homeless shelter or food shelf program. Encourage your children to go with you, so they develop the habit of caring for others less fortunate than themselves.

16. Help set up a committee to analyze and reduce energy consumption in your synagogue. Apply steps taken to reduce synagogue energy use as a model for similar action on other buildings and homes in the community.

17. Set up a social action committee at your synagogue, temple, Jewish Center, day or afternoon school, or campus, to help people get more involved in educational and action-centered activities. Build coalitions with other social justice groups in your community.

18. Raise the consciousness of your synagogue and other local Jewish organizations and individuals about how Jewish teachings can be applied to respond to current societal problems. Ask respectful but challenging questions such as those discussed in Chapter 15 of Who Stole My Religion.

(Excerpted and adapted from Who Stole My Religion?: Revitalizing Judaism and Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet by Richard H. Schwartz with Yonassan Gershom.)