Reported in Ha'aretz:
U.S. rabbis: McCain attacks on Obama creeping toward 'hate speech'
By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
A group of liberal American rabbis have denounced Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign as leaning toward "hate speech" in its treatment of Democratic rival Barack Obama.
Yesterday I posted an e-mail I received from JTS describing, among other things, how difficult three rabbinic students found it in 1943 to get rabbis in New York to speak out about the Nazis plans to annihilate the Jews of Europe. When Abraham Joshua Heschel marched with Martin Luther King on the Sabbath, Orthodox rabbis berated him. He responded, saying "Today I pray with my feet."
So it is heartening that a group of American Rabbis are taking a stand. Words have power, as Jews well know. And once roused, racial hatred takes on a life of its own.
"The manner in which Senator McCain, Governor [Sarah] Palin and their supporters refer to Senator Obama is creeping toward hate speech," Rabbis for Obama said in a statement on Thursday.
"As leaders of the Jewish community we are well aware of the dangers of using inflammatory political language to marginalize individuals and groups. Increasingly those speaking on behalf of the McCain campaign have been demonizing Senator Obama as not being like us."
This demonstrates to me not only that these rabbis are willing to speak out against prejudice where they see it, but also the degree to which we are integrated into American life. We are taking advantage of the rights of Americans, which we claim fully. Contrast this with another group of well-integraged Jews in Germany in the early 1930's. They believed themselves to be German citizens, but saw growing injustice as an abberration, and I think did not want to call attention to themselves. Perhaps the same was true of those American rabbis in 1943. There is a difference between safety and security.
According to the rabbis, the McCain campaign has deliberately stressed Obama's middle name - Hussein - as if to insinuate the candidate's Muslim background, a contentious rumor circulating since the start of the campaign.
"They [the McCain campaign] recently used a uniformed sheriff to warm up the crowd at a rallyby emphasize the senator's middle name," the rabbis wrote. "At another event Senator McCain seemed shocked when one of his supporters stated that Senator Obama was an 'Arab.' That false belief is the fruit of the McCain campaign's emphasizing Senator Obama's middle name."
The rabbis endorse Obama in their statement. They also condemn the Jewish Republican Committee's attempts on behalf of McCain to cast doubt on Obama's commitment to Isreal.
"They [Republican Jews] know that in the Jewish community this is the moral equivalent of crying fire in a crowded theater," the liberal rabbis said, adding: "The RJC approach harkens back to the classic Republican red baiting tactics of Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon from the early fifties."
"We have put our credibility as rabbis who love Israel on the line to publicly endorse Senator Obama for President because of the smears and lies coming from the other side," wrote the rabbis.
"Never before in the history of the United States has a group of rabbis come together on this scale to work on behalf on a candidate for president."
Hallelujah, and amen.
Cross-posted at Street Prophets