Reformed Jewish Leaders?..Shame on YoU
Now the nation’s largest Jewish movement, Reform Judaism, is preparing to adopt a new prayer book that was intended to offer something for everyone — traditionalists, progressives and everyone else — even those who do not believe in God.
In New Prayer Book, Signs of Broad Change
Traditional touches coexist with a text that sometimes departs from tradition by omitting or modifying some prayers and by using language that is gender-neutral. References to God as “He” have been removed, and whenever Jewish patriarchs are named — like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so are the matriarchs — like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.
“We have interfaith families. We have so many visitors at b’nai mitzvah ceremonies that I could have a service on Shabbat morning where a majority of people there aren’t Jewish…”
A prayer book for “even those who do not believe in God”? Ha. 
She’s got to be kiddin.
Talk about diluting a Faith.
Another shining example of fatuous moral relativism.
For God’s sake…….quite literally: Be who you are. 
Be Jewish.
Quit apologizing every 15 seconds. It’s quite unflattering to say the least.
But apparently, It’s not enough to discard any semblance of authentic Judaism or even religion……….they must also cozy up to our sworn enemies.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, leader of the Reform movement, spoke this afternoon to the annual convention of the Is-lamic Society of North America.
Reform leader to Mus-lim Americans: Together we will fight the opportunists who demonize you“How did it happen that Christian fundamentalists, such as Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham, make vicious and public attacks against your religious tradition?” ..he asks.
I-S-N-A?…A Jew talkin to the Wah-abbists I-S-N-A?! 
The founder of C.A.-I.R. has unapologetically stated that Izlam did not come to America to be simply another religion but to be the dominant one.
He claims our Constitution would one day be replaced with sh-aria law. And….. IS-NA, is DIRECTLY connected to terrorist organizations, and sponsors Ham-ASS..you know the ones blowing up Israeli children daily.
Perhaps this alleged Rabbi should have done his homework, and read the articles from the Justice Dept. regarding the ongoing trial of the Holy Land Foundation of which CA-IR is an unindicted co-conspirator. Not to mention that 5 of CA-IR`s top officials have been tossed in the slammer already.
This is how your friends conceptualize you dear Rabbi.
Did the Rabbi take the time to address the most hatful people in the world who are “honor killing” their own daughters and sisters.
Did he manage to articulate anythin bout the ones who send their childen to mos-ques who then preach hate for all non-Muzlims, most especially Christians and Jews, aka pigs and apes?
Did he casually mention how Muzlim women have to be genitally mutilated for their..ahem…..God.
Did he offer a prayer for all the Muzlim children who have to listen to the im-ams who would make them all martyrs and dead by the age of 5?
These Jews are worse than Neville Chamberlain who had to go to Munich in person, because heck - you can`t lick somebody’s boots long distance, now can you.
Naw…but howzabout “helping” those that swear to behead you?
In preparation for Ei-d Al-F-iter, members of the Reform movement gather to pack food packages to be delivered to Mus-lims in East Jerusalem. One of movement’s Rabbis: ‘A small contribution to changing atmosphere in Israel’
Reform Jews assist Mus-lims for holiday
Awwwwwwwwww.
Ah yes, that will truly “contribute to change the atmosphere in Israel.”
Uh huh.
Where are the pics of the Muzlims and their children aiding children and families of Sderot?..and victims of suicide bombs?
WHERE?
Where on planet Earth have Muzlims joined together to help Jews or Christians? Ever?
Nice belt huh…Did y’all teach her how to make that too?
Sure, Reformed, or Progressive or “whatever you like to call yourselves these days Jews”: extend an olive branch when the Nuke’s on it’s way. Most especially to to ones who call for the destruction of the State of Israel and America daily.
While we all pray for a more just and peaceful world, these overtures and propositions are not only unrealistic and offensive, they are appeasing and dangerous.
From whence comes the confusion of friend vs enemy, or liberated vs exploited. Purposely blurring distinctions between peoples is disingenuous and has perilous implications.
For their sakes, I sure hope these reform “Rabbis” do not represent all reform Jews.
They certainly don’t represent Conservative or Orthodox ones.
Kumbaya.
Do they love u yet?
Sending love and peace to my friends over at Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, 123beta, DeMediacratic Nation, Right Truth, Adam’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Nuke’s News & Views, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Thoughts, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Faultline USA, third world county, The World According to Carl, Walls of the City, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, Planck’s Constant, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
September 4th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
I suppose something similar has happened with the Bible, both New and Old Testaments. Different “versions” have been printed, that completely change the original wording and intent. I’m not talking about accurate “translations” of the Bible, but versions which literally change the Bible. It’s a shame and a lot of people buy those versions not realizing that they are not accurate.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
‘A prayer book for “even those who do not believe in God”?’
*heh* G. K CHesterton once said something along the lines about how sad it would be to be an atheist, be thankful for ones life, the world, ones circumstances… and have no one to thank.
Of course, he said it better, being CHesterton and all.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
The new anti-semitism - same as the old anti-semitism…
There’s a new anti-semitism according to Denis MacShane in the Washington Post who says, “Hatred of Jews has reached new heights in Europe and many points south and east of the old continent.” I agree with that. Here’s the situation:…
September 4th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
That was an interesting”home” project belt!
I agree with Debbie,I dont like religion being diluted so much that theres nothing left.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Does Reform Judaism (at least the kind you mentioned) even count as a religion any more? Aren’t religions supposed to contain God’s truth, not something for everybody? Reform Judaism is almost as bad as the many Protestant churches that embrace homosexuality, abortion, and the whole something for everyone thing.
September 4th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Recognizing Matriarchs is not diultuing Judaism. One of the problems faced by all religions, but Judaism specifically is intermarriage and shrinking congregrations. Once you leave major population areas like New York etc., and go to places like where I now live, there are Reform and Progressive and Modern forms. We still say the Sh’mah and the Kaddish. We still kneel, and we still chant Avinu…and blow the Shofar (in mine, by a young woman).
As for “new” anti-semitism, its all the same to me.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Have they dumped the HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER thing yet….
How about a religion that worships Carvel Ice Cream, Dunkin Donuts and of course Domino’s Pizza.Sort of the “trinity” of gluttony .The concept of moral/ethical accountability is just to much to handle in todays society. You mean i would have to think of someone other than myself….Heaven forbid!!!!
Angel, keep firing away, who know maybe one day they will get it.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
You keep being Jewish. I’ll keep being a Gentile with strong Jewish overtones.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:41 am
My friend says there are 3 types of Jews.
Orthodox
Conservative
Fake
heh.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Sounds EXACTLY like the PeeCee revisions of all the SONG and Prayer books of the United Church … completely drained of context in the name of revisionism for the sake of WHAT?
September 5th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Good grief! Every time I say nothing can surprise me any more, something else pops up that surprises me.
Will the insanity ever stop?
September 5th, 2007 at 10:01 am
My friend says there are 3 types of Jews.
I wonder how much your friend knows about Judaism, if anything. It is not unusual to find that many people are limited in their knowledge about the various denominations of Judaism.
I am not part of the Reform movement, but I know something about it… to see more about the tenets of Reform Judaism which include a belief in G-d and Torah.
It is fighting a battle in how to best attract and involve a number of Jews who have been relatively uninvolved. I’d be curious to hear people try and explain why including the matriarchs is such a big deal What is the significance there.
And changing G-d to gender neutral is in line with Jewish thought which refers to G-d in Masculine and Feminine terms.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Moral relativism = crazy talk when it reaches this level of nonsense.
September 5th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Unbelievable. I knew they were trying to re-translate the bible, but wasn’t aware the sickness has crawled its way into God’s chosen people.
Sigh.
September 5th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
The Reform movement has completely lost any authority. I thought that they had gone of the deep end when they allowed same-sex marriage under a chuppah(!) but now they’ve gone completely loco. According to some studies, because of the huge intermarriage, assimilation rate and the low birthrate, the Reform Jewish community will have decreased by 98% in the next 100 years!!!!!! Wake up Jews! There is not alternative to Torah!
September 5th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I attended a Reform congregation for a couple of years, but it just seemed too washed out. I’m not an incredibly religious person, but Reform Judaism was too “lite” for me.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Angel,
Thanks for the heads up!
BTW do you have a copy of the post?
Just put it some where on my blog and I’ll repost it. Do I have to link to you first? Or within a time frame? Let me know how to.
=======
I’m a member of a Reform Congregation. My mate and I have 4 children. #2 son graduated from U. Chicago this past June with honors.
So I’m doing my part.
Of course the reason I belong to a Reform Temple is that my mate converted.
I grew up in an Orthodox Congregation and frankly the difference between them and the Reform Congregation I belong to is not great.
Judaism has always had this problem. It is hard being a Jew. Even if you are not very religious. Personally I’m proud to be a Jew. A member of the Jewish Nation.
Think of Purim and why we are told to get drunk on Purim. Persecution has always strengthened Jewish identity. Without that persecution assimilation is a siren call. It is not a new problem.
Which reminds me:
“Jews earn like Episcopalians, and vote like Puerto Ricans.” Milton Himmelfarb
Oh, well.
My take: Socialism is the enforcement of Jewish ghetto culture by the government. Funny thing is most socialists these days have it in for Jews. If they only knew.
Any way, I have blogrolled you and will be back. BTW this is not a bleg for reciprocation.
Plus, can I teach you a little about fusion physics so you can do a post on that? Our energy future is really bright.
====
I note Classical Values is on your blog roll. I have posting privileges there. You might want to take a look at The Astute Bloggers too. He is another right wing Jewish blogger (Reliapundit) with his cohorts who might be of interest. He is another New Yawker. My relatives from that area all live in and around Orange, N.J.
Bless you,
Simon
September 5th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
What it means to be a Jew has changed over time.
There was a time when Hassids were considered irreligious.
May I recommend Elie Wiesel’s book “Souls On Fire”.
It could be retitled: “The Early History of Modern Jewish Zen”.
I don’t mind the addition of the matriarchs but couldn’t they have at least tried to match the poetry of the original? It doesn’t flow right.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Hey Jack, I know you probably don’t want to hear this from a redneck that learned the Hebrew alphabet from Barney but I’m going to say it anyway.
People are attracted to passion and conviction. And, you can only change so much of what you do before it changes who you are.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE INPUTS AND ADDITIONS ONE AND ALL!
September 5th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Hey Jack, I know you probably don’t want to hear this from a redneck that learned the Hebrew alphabet from Barney but I’m going to say it anyway.
People are attracted to passion and conviction. And, you can only change so much of what you do before it changes who you are.
BWH,
That sounds like a nice slogan, but it doesn’t really dig into what is happening with this, siddur/prayer book. I am not talking about the political position, strictly religious.
Jews view G-d as having both masculine and feminine attributes, so making a change to gender neutral really doesn’t have an impact.
I don’t see why adding the matriarchs creates any sort of issue, other than it sounds different. We still learn and revere their roles in our history.
The truth is that it is hard to be a Jew. It is tougher than many other religions that do not have the same requirements/challenges. America is a land that constantly asks people to assimilate.
Much of that is very valuable and something that I support, but at the same time I don’t support giving up who I am, where I come from and what adds meaning to my life.
Not every Jew is able to keep all of the mitzvot/commandments. So we can go in a couple of directions. One of them is to do what we can to try and retain and bring back as many as possible.
September 6th, 2007 at 5:39 am
bravo!!!!!!!!! great post…
September 6th, 2007 at 8:06 am
I really think that the brazenness of the Islamists is directly related to this weakness!
After all, if they can freely get away with it, why not?
SPIT!!!
September 6th, 2007 at 9:23 am
There are some calling themselves Jews, who are I suppose, but who sell out their own people and anyone else for the money. Those control large segments of the media and are in high levels in most of our society. They are not the only ones in the Corporatist class, but they are significant by the numbers of them and by their willingness to participate in the deaths of their own people as well as others to maintain their power and money.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Flanders unless you provide facts all you are doing is slinging around antisemitic BS. It is the equivalent of my saying that there are people who call themselves Christians but really do nothing but grab power and murder people for oil.
They are both ignorant remarks.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
What is wrong with today’s Jews?
A perspective of a moderate Muslim.
When Muslims criticize Jews chances are it’s Islamists. You rarely see moderate (an I do mean real moderate, not Islamists like CAIR who claim to be moderate) Muslims saying unflattering things about the Jews. So, normally, when I see the Jews do dumb things i.e., supporting an Islamist congressional candidate because of partisanship (American Jewish World’s support for Keith Ellison) or providing utilities to a terrorist enclave (Gaza), I try to keep my mouth shut. For obvious reasons. But not this time.
I thought I’ve seen everything: Cuban missile crisis, fall of Berlin wall, 9/11. Until recently, I thought that the father of modern terrorism getting awarded a Nobel Peace Prize was the most peculiar event in my lifetime. But a recent, largely unnoticed event, could take the cake in peculiarity contest.