Rabbi Marc Gellman blames "The Jews" for Joe Lieberman's loss
In Newsweek, Rabbi Marc Gellman pulls a Mel Gibson and blames the Jews for Joe Lieberman’s recent loss in the Connecticut Democratic primary. Some highlights:
…He lost because Barbra Streisand’s highly publicized contribution to Lamont and because of the number of Jews who hated Bush and the war more than they loved Joe. […] My disappointment is with my people. I simply do not understand why so many Jews bailed on Joe. I cannot understand why Joe’s percentage of the Jewish vote was not in the high 90s instead of the 54-57 percent range (according to Lieberman’s campaign). I have opinions on way too many things I don’t know nearly enough about, but I know about Jews. I am a professional Jew, and yet if you asked me to explain why Jews did not vote for Joe the way blacks voted for Barack Obama or Catholics voted for John F. Kennedy I would not know what to tell you. […] (Lieberman’s loss) …ought to be a huge embarrassment to all card-carrying Jews whether they agreed with Joe or not.
…He lost because Barbra Streisand’s highly publicized contribution to Lamont and because of the number of Jews who hated Bush and the war more than they loved Joe. […] My disappointment is with my people. I simply do not understand why so many Jews bailed on Joe. I cannot understand why Joe’s percentage of the Jewish vote was not in the high 90s instead of the 54-57 percent range (according to Lieberman’s campaign). I have opinions on way too many things I don’t know nearly enough about, but I know about Jews. I am a professional Jew, and yet if you asked me to explain why Jews did not vote for Joe the way blacks voted for Barack Obama or Catholics voted for John F. Kennedy I would not know what to tell you. […] (Lieberman’s loss) …ought to be a huge embarrassment to all card-carrying Jews whether they agreed with Joe or not.
That is the most ridiculous piece of crap I’ve heard in awhile. So group solidarity according to Rabbi Gellman says that I should support Leiberman even if I whole-heartedly disagree with the way he will conduct himself in office if elected. Puhleeze!!!
My response is up over here:
http://divinityisinthedetails.blogspot.com/2006/08/go-kiss-w-or-spurious-argument-from.html
But it’s Lieberman that has deserted us, not the other way around. Sigh.
Gawker lets ’em have it: http://gawker.com/news/top/good-for-the-newsweek-194321.php
Professional Jew? Is everyone else on here who is a rabbi or works for a Jewish organization a professional Jew too? Am I one?
I’d dare suggest that professional Jews tend not to support politicians who editorialized that Don Rumsfeld SHOULDN’T resign after Abu Ghraib…
If American voters behaved as Rabbi Gellman suggests they should, and stuck with their tribe, then Jewish candidates would always lose to Christian candidates.
Dear Rabbi Marc:
Perhaps if you stopped being a professional Jew, and dedicated yourself to being a reality-based Jew, you would not even think to ask such a question as sounds that it came out of the mouth of a braying yahoo.
Well, as the banner of this blog used to say, 2 Jews, 3 Opinions.
“Another consequence of this historic selection is that it now frees Jews to vote against Lieberman even though he is Jewish. His selection is the historic moment that marks full Jewish acceptance in America—not the rise of Henry Kissinger, not the movies of Steven Spielberg, not the corporate mastery of Michael Eisner. None of them have done and none of them mean what Lieberman has done and what Lieberman means. True acceptance means that we as Jews can be delighted that he was nominated and then vote against him because we do not agree with his politics. Voting for Lieberman because he is Jewish is just as wrong as voting against Lieberman because he is Jewish. Acceptance means being considered for public office because of where you stand on the issues, not where you stand on the sabbath. Politics isn’t baseball. There is no room in politics for irrational rooting for the hometown team. If you believe in Lieberman’s political views, then you should vote for him; if you don’t, then you shouldn’t, and you should not feel as if you have betrayed Judaism or the Jewish people or God by your vote.”
—Rabbi Marc Gellman
What Lieberman means? Lieberman means that you can be shomer shabbos and still have such inhuman ethics that you support the war in Iraq. I wish Lieberman were not Jewish, so he could save me the embarrasment (ditto for Halutz, Peretz and Olmert).
“the corporate mastery of Michael Eisner.”
How can anyone who trumpets the life of Michael Eisner claim to have a moral compass? That guy got rich payings millions of people across the globe sweatshop wages in locked factories over 80 hour weeks?
No wonder Gellman’s a Lieberman fan.
“…He lost because Barbra Streisand’s highly publicized contribution to Lamont…”
So maybe Rabbi Gellman should really be blaming the gays instead of the Jews for Lieberman’s loss.
I don’t think there is any evidence that the Irish voted tribally for the likes of Kennedy. Certainly I would bail on Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly. In the formers case we also share gender. Vote your ideals not your ethnic, religious or gender identity.
Maybe Jews didn’t vote for Lieberman because…they didn’t want to.