MOSHE PHILLIPS: JEWISH EXPONENT HYPES LEFTISTS
http://www.examiner.com/jewish-culture-in-philadelphia/new-issue-of-jewish-exponent-features-four-articles-hyping-leftists?render=print#print
Guest commentary by Moshe Phillips (Jewish Exponent Watch: November 10 issue)
The November 10th edition of the Philadelphia area’s Jewish Exponent features several articles which each give a profoundly one-sided view of Jewish leftists and their organizations. The Exponent continues to bolster the most hard-left elements of the community and alienate both moderates and those on the right.
The feature by Bryan Schwartzman about Rabbi Marcia Prager is perhaps most shocking. Prager is a leader of radical Arthur Waskow’s so-called Jewish Renewal movement. Waskow and Prager were among the headliners at Tikkun Magazine’s Network of Spiritual Progressives conference earlier this year. Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Shawn Zevit and Leonard Gordon are all interviewed for the article. None are identified as the radicals they are. All five had leadership roles in either J Street, the Jewish Fast for Gaza or the Rabbis for Human Rights or all three. Gordon was an originator of the J Street PAC and was listed as on its Advisory Council in its April 15, 2008 press release.
The “Torah Portion” column, “We’re No Angels, but God Made Us Nevertheless,” is by Rabbi Adam Zeff of the Germantown Jewish Centre. The GJC is one of the most prominent pulpits on the left wing of the United Synagogue movement. Zeff’s immediate predecessor was Leonard Gordon. On its website, GJC boasts of its ties to the Reconstructionist movement. Thus, the Exponent continues to make its Torah section pretty much the exclusive territory of left-leaning, non-observant individuals. (Every once in a while, the Exponent — perhaps to create an illusion of balance — prints a Torah discussion by an observant rabbi.)
The article about marking the death of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin paints an extremely sympathetic portrait of the Habonim Dror youth movement. Schwartzman wrote this article too, and he failed to identify Habonim Dror as the socialist movement it truly is. Moreover, Habonim Dror’s former college-student wing, the Union of Progressive Zionists, was morphed into J Street U. (See more about J Street U here.)
Schwartzman’s article about this past Tuesday’s elections gushes about the victories of Democrats. There is no sense of objectivity whatsoever.
Along the same lines, it should also be noted that the editors of the Exponent chose to print an editorial that in part praised President Obama for his inaction on Iran’s nuclear program. One can only wonder if the editors will also whitewash Obama’s part in French President Sarkozy’s labeling of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyau as a “liar.”
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