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JCRC Plans Campaign
To Promote Civility
The Jewish Community Relations
Council applauds the 38 rabbis who
signed the joint letter to the Jewish
News ("A Plea for Civility in Our Jewish
Dialogue," Dec. 15, page 5) challenging
the uncivilized behavior of online dem-
agogues in our community. Such tactics
are inherently undemocratic because
they interfere with the free exchange of
ideas.
The lack of civility also undermines
the cohesiveness of the Jewish com-
munity. It has become much more dif-
ficult to attain the common ground of
compromise that historically enabled
Jews to stand together in the face of
adversity.
To reverse this trend, the JCRC is
embarking on a long-term local cam-
paign to promote civility in public dis-
course. Our goals are to set appropriate
standards for conversation and debate
on issues of community concern, to
provide training and procedures for
people who disagree on those issues to
confront their disagreements respect-
fully and productively, and to provide
forums and other platforms for discuss-
ing issues that have recently been so
damaging to community consensus.
We look forward to working with the
Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish
Committee and other organizations and
individuals that share these goals.

Sharon Lipton, president,

Jewish Community Relations Council

of Metropolitan Detroit

Rabbis Should Focus On
Defending Jews, Zionism
I sympathize with the plea of the rabbis,
especially answering anonymous accu-
sations. I always take responsibility for
what I write.
Ever since the advertisement of 400
rabbis against Glenn Beck, a radical
supporter of Israel, I lost it with many
of our rabbis.
There are profound confusions
among our rabbis of all streams. Some
rabbis feel that what is good for the
world is good for the Jews. Rabbis
should be accountable to the needs of
their Jewish community, not advocating
the right to have minarets on mosques
in Switzerland.
Rabbis frequently do not understand
the gravity of anti-Semitism. In sermon
after sermon, they speak about "spiri-
tuality" while their Jewish students are
harassed in colleges and their com-
munity does not understand current
Jewish events.
Too many rabbis do not teach the

community history of the Jewish people,
especially the recent history. They do not
bother to fight falsehoods about Israel,
Zionism and, by inference, Judaism.
They have a convoluted attitude
toward Islam, a combination of tikkun
olam [repairing the world], appease-
ment and naivete.
Muslim teachings, goals and actions
are clear: They have no Jews in their
agenda. Freedom of religion is not their
banner. The Saudi flag reads, "There is
no god but Allah and Muhammad is the
messenger of Allah." What is there that
the rabbis do not understand?
But in the name of religious freedom,
we allow imams to our synagogues
while they never allowed a rabbi to their
mosques. Rabbis did not speak out
against proposals for a mosque in lower
Manhattan or a Muslim school in a for-
mer Farmington school building.
With all the confusions that rabbis
have, they have to carve it in their heart:
Their duty is to the Jewish commu-
nity first — what is good for the Jews.
Rabbis cannot dilute their duty by other
trends in the country or world.

Isaac Barr, M.D.,

Bloomfield Township

Radical Islamists Have No
Place In Our Synagogues
The Detroit Jewish clergy are correct
when they state that "a disturbing trend
is developing in our community" ("A
Plea for Civility In Our Jewish Dialogue
Dec. 15, page 5). But the disturbing
trend is not "divisive rhetoric" — it
is that our rabbis are violating their
responsibility to the Jewish community
with their "participation in ecumeni-
cal and civic events" where known and
verified radical Islamists are part of the
program.
In fact, it is the very same clergy that
invite allies of those promoting the
destruction of Israel and the Jewish
people into our houses of worship. This
is done with reckless disregard for the
long-term safety of our community
and with full knowledge of who those
people are.
The presence of Imam Mustapha
Elturk (the head of the Islamic
Organization of North America —
IONA) at Congregation Shaarey Zedek
in Southfield for a 9-11 commemora-
tion is a perfect example.
The rabbi not only hosted Elturk, who
leads a group that has been roundly
condemned by the national ADL as "a
branch of a radical anti-Semitic and
anti-American Parkistani organiza-
tion, Tanzeem-e-Islami" and "despite
its effort to 'mainstream' itself, IONA

maintains its official ties to Pakistan
and remains committed to its goals and
extremist ideology." But then his syna-
gogue went so far as to have the police
called on three Jewish women, threaten-
ing them with arrest, for merely hand-
ing out information from the national
ADL on the dangers that the imam and
his group represent to the Jewish corn-
munity.
I know this for a fact, because I was
one of those women. I am still trying
to fathom what threat we posed that
caused Shaarey Zedek to want to have
us arrested? Why would the clergy at
Shaarey Zedek want to stifle free speech?
What does the rabbi at Shaarey Zedek
have to hide other than the fact that he
was well aware of who Imam Elturk
was, the imam's endorsement of sha-
riah law, and that his group, the IONA,
has been described by Joe Kaufman of
Americans Against Hate on the Pajamas
Media website as the American arm of
Tanzeem-e-Islami, a "Nazi-style Islamist
movement" located in Pakistan.
Even with all of this information at
hand, the rabbi willingly invited this
imam to grace the halls of one of our
most prestigious synagogues.
Prior to the Holocaust's Final
Solution, no one wanted to believe what
had been written or what was being
said about the Jews. Most of the Jewish
communal leaders remained silent in
an effort to get along with those who
wished their extermination.
Unfortunately, it appears that not
much has changed in over 70 years,
except that our clergy have now gone
one step further. These very rabbis now
condemn" the free speech of those Jews
who will not be silent by cloaking it as
some kind of obstacle to their futile or
non-existent "dialogue."

((

Sue Burstein-Kahn

Farmington Hills

Different Visions
But Common Goal
As a former chair and current executive
board member of the Michigan Anti-
Defamation League, there is really only
one thing I want to add to the "Plea For
Civility" made by the Michigan Board of
Rabbis in the Dec. 15 JN:
Amen!
By engaging in what the rabbis accu-
rately describe as "divisive discourse
a few within our Jewish family who
portray themselves as Israel's (and
America's) defenders are, in fact, doing
the work of our enemies. They launch
vicious, often personal, and too often
baseless attacks against anybody who
dares to disagree with what they have

Letters on page 6

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December 22 • 2011

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