American rabbis critical of President Donald Trump will not try to organize a conference call with him for the Jewish High Holy Days in protest of his response to a white nationalist rally in Virginia.
The conference call for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur was a tradition under President Barack Obama, but was never planned under Trump. Rabbis representing the liberal and centrist branches of American Judaism said they would not attempt to plan any such call ahead of the holidays next month.
Trump denounced bigotry at the march in Charlottesville, Virginia, but also said “very fine people” were on “both sides” of the demonstrations, which drew neo-Nazis, white nationalists, members of the Ku Klux Klan and counterprotesters. One woman was killed when an alleged white nationalist drove his car into a group of counterprotesters.
“The president’s words have given succor to those who advocate anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia,” the rabbis said Wednesday in announcing their decision.
The announcement came from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represent the liberal Reform movement; the Rabbinical Assembly, which represents the centrist Conservative movement; and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.
Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said he did not know whether the Trump administration had been considering participating in such a conference call this year.
The Rabbinical Council of America, which represents modern Orthodox rabbis, had joined the presidential holiday call in the past but did not sign this week’s announcement.
Rabbi Mark Dratch, executive vice president of the group, said, “We respect the office of the presidency and believe it is more effective to address questions and concerns directly with the White House.”
The council had issued a statement soon after the violence in Charlottesville criticizing Trump’s remarks as a “failing of moral leadership” that “fans the flames of intolerance.”
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
13 Responses
Good. If they want to pretend they’re Jewish, they can also pretend to be outraged at nothing.
He shouldn’t mind. It’s perfectly fine. These people have been protesting Hashem for centuries by not communicating with Him.
I think cancelling the call is a missed opportunity to express feelings on issues, and to ask for important things like pardoning Shalom Rubashkin. When you can have the president’s ear, don’t show him your backside.
To kollelman: Hashem decides who is Jewish by giving a person a Jewish soul. If you want to pretend that you know to whom Hashem has given a Jewish soul, you can tell Him He picked some wrong people.
Huju and Kollelman, There are at least 2 reform clergy in Brooklyn who are reform converts and therefore although the use the title rabbi are neither rabbis or halachically Jewish. We don’t have to worry about counting them in a minyon, since the ones I know of are women.
To huju: a person can totally disconnect with Hashem if he so chooses – “al tashlicheini m’lfonecho” we ask. The lives of reform and reconstructionist is one long declaration of “ein lanu cheilek b’elokai yisroel”.
To frum-n-fair: a nice idea theoretically, but the reform etc. have as much interest in rubashkin as we had in o.j. simpson, none whatsoever. Their connection to Hashem, yiddishkeit, frum jews, morality (except the liberal imagined form of (im)morality), is nonexistent. It’s a pseudo religion usurping jewish ideas, to promote their nonsense.
What we should do is reach out to the president, expressing support for his agenda and thanks for his friendship to authentic Jewish people.
How sad that it takes some nonsensical made up protest for them not to be mechalel yom kippur and yomtov for the first time in years. If you want to understand the ovdei avoda zara during the time of the Beis Hamikdosh, just look at them. The pathetic total discard of true morals, of truth, of righteousness, in order to chase “boros asher lo yachilu hamayim”, stupidity wrapped in a cloak of self righteousness, is something thousands of years old.
huju: I’m specifically referencing the many in those groups who are not legitimate Jews. Many of those groups accept Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers as Jews. They also accept conversions that are at best questionable and at worst a complete joke. I find it appalling that many of these fools get onto the public stage and purport to speak on behalf of Judaism, when they themselves do not actually follow true Judaism. More than likely, this is another case of virtue signaling and an attempt to get a few minutes of fame.
huju: after 200 years of assimilation and intermarriage, they themselves admit to a staggering number of genuine gentiles who are being told and who think that they are truly Jewish. We know what Hashem thinks about this by what the Toah says, and that is that a gentile doesn’t have a Jewish soul. And that someone who didn’t convert according to halacha is not Jewish, and ALSO doesn’t have a Jewish soul. We don’t have to pretend to know who has a Jewish soul. The Torah tells us who has one. And huge numbers of people who are part of the reform movement are gentiles, who do not have a Jewish soul.
One point I don’t see mentioned here is the unmasking of the misleading “in protest of his response to a white nationalist rally in Virginia”. The major players here have been trashing Trump, some going back to at least 2016. For brevity I give only one example. Pesner boycotted Trump in 2016 AIPAC and trashed him mercilessly in a 2016 op-ed.
Glad that you placed “Rabbis” in quotes. For those individuals tied to these groups that sport this title, it is a title that qualifications for are always changing. Look at the Reconstructionist group. The latest meshugas is that a so-called rabbi can even have a gentile wife without even the phony conversion.
Why does YWN frequently substitute “reformed” for “reform?”
“Reformed, Conservative & Reconstructionist Jewish ‘Rabbis’ Protest Trump By Dropping High-Holiday Conference Call.”
They are not Rabbis.
The above mentioned groups do not practice Judaism and are not a part of Judaism.
If the President has extra time to all people for Rosh Hashana, he can call me. I’m halachically Jewish & I have no problem bringing up Rubashkin’s & Pollard’s cases.