We Tried to Warn Obama...But He Wouldn't Listen

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Wednesday January 20, 2010 · 11:14 AM PST

2010/01/20 · 11:14

The defeat of the Democrats choice to succeed Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate is being treated as though there is a decided shift of mass opinion to the Right in the U.S. But it is the Obama Administration, not the people who supported him in 2008, which moved to the Right--in the name of being pragmatists or realists-- in the process emptying their own agenda in regard to health care, environment, human rights, social and economic justice, and global peace of the critical elements that made those programs sound hopeful, and leaving many of their supporters feeling confused, disillusioned, and unable to rally around the politics that seemed so very far from "the change you can believe in" that we had been promised.

Rabbilerner

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Monday December 14, 2009 · 5:15 PM PST

2009/12/14 · 17:15

In the typical fashion that have made Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins into heroes among those who hate (sometimes for good reasons, sometimes not) the religions of the world, we get below Hitchens’ distortions endorsed by Dawkins. The approach is typical: a religious view is mis-described and distorted, then ridiculed—all made possible by quoting out of context and taking the least sophisticated possible interpretations of the tradition. Unlike Hitchens and fellow traveler Dawkins, I believe in intellectual honesty, and hence am first presenting a link to the entirety of Hitchens attack, so you can read it in context, then what I wrote that his misrepresents, then my comments. Then try to figure out why anyone with a serious intellectual curiosity would give a moment’s attention to this clown. Both Hitchens and Dawkins take the most primitive versions of religion, seemingly unaware of the variants of religion that have evolved through the ages.

Rabbilerner

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Thursday December 03, 2009 · 9:56 AM PST

2009/12/03 · 09:56

Many of the world’s religious leaders in attendance at the Parliament of World Religions taking place in Melbourne, Australia, are in partial mourning for the dream of a new world that President Obama promised, and decisively torpedoed in his announcement of major escalation of military forces in Afghanistan.

Rabbilerner

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Wednesday November 25, 2009 · 12:42 PM PST

2009/11/25 · 12:42

While Obama is still hailed around the world in almost messianic tones, recent polls indicate his approval rate is below 50% in the U.S. How could a man who aroused so much hope be losing support so dramatically? And what lessons can be learned for politicians all around the world?

Rabbilerner

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Thursday September 10, 2009 · 3:44 PM PDT

2009/09/10 · 15:44

Media analyses of President Obama’s health care speech were divided on whether he had indicated serious support for a public option or had, instead, cleverly tossed a bone of "recognition" to the progressives while simultaneously demanding that they drop their insistence that the health care reform undercut insurance company profits.

Rabbilerner

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Tuesday July 07, 2009 · 10:46 AM PDT

2009/07/07 · 10:46

Explanatory Note from Rabbi Lerner: Why I Signed This Very Weak Statement

Rabbilerner

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Monday May 18, 2009 · 10:26 AM PDT

2009/05/18 · 10:26

While doves in the American Jewish community are lining up to support President Obama in his supposed confrontation with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, the hard-nosed supporters of the Occupation can sigh with relief. Nothing proposed by Obama is likely to change the realities on the ground in the West Bank.

Rabbilerner

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Tuesday April 21, 2009 · 3:37 PM PDT

2009/04/21 · 15:37

When representatives of many Arab and Muslim nations publicly applaud Ahmadinejad's racist rant, the real losers are the Palestinians.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the Durban II conference on racism turned into a racist rant against Israel and the Jewish people. The conference, intended to give the people of the world an opportunity to challenge racism, lost all credibility when many in attendance applauded Ahmadinejad's claim that the Jewish people used the Holocaust as a pretext to take over and dominate the people of Palestine. Ahmadinejad, you'll recall, won global attention when he became the first leader of a UN country to call for the wiping out of another UN country (though he later claimed he was only calling for regime change), and for denying the very existence of the Holocaust.

Rabbilerner

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Wednesday April 01, 2009 · 11:46 AM PDT

2009/04/01 · 11:46

For Ethically Sensitive Jews and our non-Jewish allies.
(You don't have to be Jewish to create or attend a Seder--or to adopt the approach to spiritual reality embodied in this text).

This text is not meant to be a replacement for but a supplement to the traditional Haggadah. Feel free to make copies of this to use at any seder you attend, or to transform this in ways that work best for you!

Rabbilerner

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Wednesday February 25, 2009 · 3:03 PM PST

2009/02/25 · 15:03

The Democrats are wasting the opportunity this crisis gives us to deeply reexamine and transform our economic system. There is a lack of vision in imagining the economics we need. We are stuck in believing that we need constant consumer goods to prove our success.

Imagine what a sabbatical year would look like, when we stop all nonessential work and share everything that has been saved, or some of the other radical ideas from the Jewish tradition. Spiritual critiques of the economy are not just add-ons to secular ideas, they actually go deeper in daring to imagine an economy based on caring. Engage your own spiritual community in this debate and share it with us at Tikkun, come to our conference at the end of April.

Rabbilerner

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Wednesday January 14, 2009 · 6:02 PM PST

2009/01/14 · 18:02

On Wednesday Jan. 1st the Tikkun Community and the Network of Spiritual Progressives purchased an full page Ad in The New York Times (it appears on page A17 of Wednesday's issue). It was signed by about 3000 people and funded almost entirely by small donations from about 1200 people. We purchased this Ad to give a voice to a widely held opinion that gets almost zero coverage from the news media. We plan on purchasing more Ads in other newspapers, if we have the funds. Please read the Ad (below or in PDF format) and go to http://www.spiritualprogressives.org... to sign it and, if you are so moved, donate to get it published elsewhere. You can also call 510-644-1200 to sign and donate.

Rabbilerner

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Wednesday January 07, 2009 · 8:51 AM PST

2009/01/07 · 08:51

The leadership of the State of Israel has rejected the latest calls for a cease fire. Only President-Elect Obama has the moral authority to make a call for a cease fire that could be listened to seriously by the Israelis. But if he is going to take that step, he should also use this moment to move beyond the specifics of the present moment and call for an international conference that could bring together the forces that would effectively insist on a fair and just settlement.

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