{Self-hating Jew, Michael Chabon, depicted receiving an honorarium at this year’s graduation from the Reform Movement’s flagship entity, the Hebrew Union College. Paradoxically, it was coined a “Coalition for Jewish Values!” Orwellian. Suicidal.}

MOST have a hard time wrapping their mind around a very harsh reality, namely, that there are “traitors within.” Of course, history is replete with said treacherous behavior. But when it comes from deep within one’s so-called tribe – a tiny and beleaguered one at that – the knife twists even sharper. Unconscionable. Unforgivable. Mind you, none of this is meant to suggest that mere ideological, political, or this and that difference(s) represents the grave crisis at hand. Far from it. 

BUT before seguing to what can only be deemed a Jewish tragedy and travesty, rational folks must agree that there are certain red lines which should never be crossed by one’s communal leadership. 

MOST egregiously and dangerously, doing so under the guise of what it means to be a “good Jew” – housed under the bull-crap of the “tikkun olam” umbrella mantra – is not only reprehensible, but worthy of tarring, feathering, and disabusing in a most public manner. Hence, today’s smack-down – though hardly a stand-alone at these pages, as will be bullet-pointed below.

It is so very difficult, indeed utterly unbearable, to sit silently by while Jews, and now the general religious and secular communities, completely misuse and distort the term Tikkun Olam– certainly not intentionally or out of any malice, but rather out of ignorance in the pursuit of virtuous goals and principles which may be applicable to general society and civilization but which have tragically become a poor substitute for authentic religious observance.

This repair rhetoric has become an obsession, a catch-all credo. Everything today is Tikkun Olam. Enough with the Tikkun Olam. It is a senseless and meaningless misconception, its true meaning nothing like it is commonly used and purported to be.

It is not at all a centuries-old tradition, it is not a call to action, and it is not a commandment. And to be clear, Tikkun Olam does not even mean repairing the world in the sense of social justice. Nor in traditional sources is Tikkun Olam in any way even a direct human imperative or action, but rather one that is left in G-d’s hands.

We cannot, and are not instructed to, save the world, or even to repair it. Judaism teaches no such thing. Rather, we are instructed to conduct ourselves properly, to observe the Mitzvos, the Commandments (which are not good deeds, but rather commandments, required imperatives), and in that way to contribute to society and civilization both by example and through practice and action…..continue the truth-telling here…..

NOW that that has been established, it must be noted that the most recent nails in the heart of Reform and Conservative Judaism were “predicted” at these pages. How so? As always, let’s rebuild the case. Then, and only then, will the truth become self-evident. The indictment sealed.

• Going back to Sept. 2012 (the onset of this site), it became an absolute imperative to warn my fellow “tribes-people” about the dangers associated with voting for, once again, HUSSEIN Obama! Mind you, a preponderance made said mistake in 2008. Indeed, the so-called smart-set never seem to learn their lessons, at least, when it comes to their real religion: leftist universalism!
• Demonstrably, in between 2012 and 2016, know that several more proofs of the same have (dis)graced this site, but no matter. Like clockwork, along came another mandatory outing – this time in the aftermath of the 2016 election cycle. Par for their leftist course, the ADL got in on the act – they just can’t help themselves! Egregiously, their stated (fundraising-inclined) mission is: “To stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all…“, but truth dare be told, if a leftist and universalist outcome is not assured, well, the poohbahs at ADL have zero interest in pursuing “justice.” This was exactly what transpired when President Trump won the election, as their smear machine went into hyper-drive. Full throttle.
• So, is it any shock that a main day camp for the Conservative Movement, Camp Solomon Schechter, in the summer of 2017, flew the “Palestinian” flag, yes, ostensibly in a “hand of friendship” to visiting Muslim children?? Indeed, it is under this flag that avowed enemies of the Jewish people, let alone Israel, pledge their allegiance to! Comparatively, can anyone imagine a so-called Jewish camp flying the Nazi flag for any conceivable reason? Same thing. Mind you, it was only after outraged parents and benefactors raised a ruckus that the camp’s leadership, sort of, kind of, apologized. Too damn late.
• Disgracefully and dangerously, Solomon Schechter’s leadership betrayed its own to appease the powers-that-be on the left who bow to “the god of universalism” – Jews and non-Jews alike.
• Camp Solomon Schechter and Camp Ramah, “the camping arm of Conservative Judaism”, have chosen sides – and it’s not the Jewish one. Wait and see…
• Which brings us to one more repugnant exposure (August 21, 2017), that is, before the newly promised indictments. Alas, once again, this finger is pointing in the direction of Michael Chabon (and wifey, Ayelet Waldman) via an open indictment of a self-hating Jew. He isn’t satisfied with maligning Israel, not at all. A low-life, a “JBB” (Jew by-accident of-birth), not only does he seek the destruction of Israel, but the evisceration of Judaism in toto! Tragically, the aforementioned join an increasingly long list of self-destroyers. But it is due to their (misguided) “stature” that they require the highest form of opprobrium.

TO wit, how much worse can it get? VERY.

Major American Jewish groups have had to deal with the challenge of Jewish anti-Israel groups. Some of them, like Jewish Voice for Peace, exist to serve as fig leaves for antisemites. Some, like J Street, were formed to legitimize anti-Zionism among American Jews and push mainstream Jewish groups away from their traditional support for Israel.

Over the past few weeks, the leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements have chosen to deal with these challenges by delivering their flagship institutions – and through them, their movements – into the hands of Jewish antisemites. That is, they have placed their movements on the fast track to self-destruction.

On May 14, Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles held its annual graduation ceremony. HUC, with its campuses throughout the US and Jerusalem, is the flagship institution of the Reform movement. HUC ordains Reform rabbis, cantors and professionals. Its curriculum and priorities determine the direction of the entire movement.

This year, HUC’s leadership conferred an honorary degree on novelist Michael Chabon and asked him to deliver the annual commencement address….

The pinnacle of Chabon’s anti-Jewish screed to newly ordained Reform rabbis revolved around his revulsion at the Passover Seder. Insisting that the whole story of the Children of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt and subsequent liberation was a lie (“It seems pretty clear that we just made the whole damn thing up”), he explains that God is immoral because he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, “ensuring the slaughter of thousands of innocent Egyptian boys.”

And of course, Israel is the evil, modern equivalent of Pharaoh’s Egypt.

Chabon then exhorted the new Reform religious leaders that their job is to transform Judaism into Chabon’s image. They must essentially completely reject its teachings. They must reject Israel. They must transform Judaism into something indistinguishable from the radical leftist mélange that inhabits Chabon’s hometown of Berkeley, California.

When a few Jewish writers condemned the HUC for inviting Chabon, the college’s interim president Rabbi David Ellenson and the dean of its Los Angeles campus Joshua Holo published an article where they did more than just defend having provided an antisemite with their most prestigious platform in the name of open discourse and diversity – they defended Chabon’s positions.

In their words, “Chabon… articulated deeply Jewish and Zionist commitments (not merely abstract or literary in nature, but specifically religious, communal and even tribal).”

If there was ever a better articulation of “white is black and black is white,” it’s hard to think of one.

Chabon articulated a deep desire to destroy Judaism and Zionism and replace them both with anti-Judaism and anti-Zionism, in the name of destroying the tribe, community and religion through intermarriage.

By defending Chabon’s message, and pretending it was the opposite of what it was, Ellenson and Holo adopted it as HUC’s message.

Chabon’s message is now the position of the Reform Movement.

This brings us to the Conservative movement.

Last week, the radical group IfNotNow held a workshop in Boston for young activists who will work this summer as counselors at Jewish summer camps affiliated with Reform and Conservative Judaism. Several of the participants will work as counselors at the Conservative movement’s Camp Ramah.

Camp Ramah, whose eight-week session costs nearly $10,000 per camper, is one of the most important institutions in the Conservative movement. With nine camps throughout the United States, 9,000 campers a year and some 200,000 alumni, Camp Ramah has played an outsized role in engendering and maintaining Jewish identity, Zionism and communal attachment and commitment among young American Jews.

Aside from sports, drama and other standard summer- camp fare, campers at Ramah have daily Hebrew classes and Torah classes. The camps are kosher and keep Shabbat. Israel and Zionism have always played central roles as well in Ramah’s daily routine.

According to the JTA write-up, IfNotNow’s workshop was the brainchild of a Camp Ramah alumna. Its goal is to bring the group’s ideology into Camp Ramah.

IfNotNow met with Ramah Director Rabbi Mitch Cohen in March. Several workshop participants have been hired by Ramah.

The very fact that IfNotNow members have been hired by Ramah means that the camp – and through it, the Conservative movement – has embraced Israel hatred, and indeed, hatred of Judaism, as a legitimate position.

IfNotNow is a spin-off of J Street. It was formed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Its members organized violent protests outside the offices of major Jewish groups in New York and Boston demanding that they end their support for Israel and support Hamas terrorists.

IfNotNow members said kaddish for Hamas terrorists.

The group has placed the cessation of US support for Israel among its top goals.

HUC’s decision to honor Chabon was shocking in and of itself. Chabon is an outspoken hater of Israel and Israeli Jews. His books Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, and The Yiddish Policeman’s Union are, each in their way, major assaults on Israel’s very right to exist, not to mention on the inherent morality of its existence.

So by inviting Chabon to speak, HUC wasn’t merely inviting a “controversial” speaker – it was inviting a speaker who openly hates Israel.

At the commencement, while he laced his address with Israel hatred – and a particularly vicious abhorrence for Jews who live beyond the 1949 armistice lines – Chabon did not focus his remarks on the Jewish state.

Most of his speech was a diatribe against Judaism. Chabon began his speech with an assault on endogamous marriages. When a Jew marries a Jew, he explained, they create “a ghetto of two.”

The Jewish marriage ceremony is hateful because “it draws a circle around the married couple, inscribes them – and any eventual children who come along – within a figurative wall of tradition, custom, shared history, and a common inheritance of chromosomes and culture.”

In contrast, intermarriage “is the source of all human greatness.”

Judaism is hateful in Chabon’s views because it is all about drawing lines, distinctions and boundaries. And he thinks boundaries and lines – up to and including the separation of the heavens from the earth – are evil.

Chabon took his audience on his journey from Jew to anti-Jew and explained that it would be no tragedy at all if Judaism would disappear altogether.

In his words, “On the day that the last Jewish couple dies, after watching their children marry Hindus, Lutherans, atheists, Sunnis, Buddhists, the fault for that extinction will lie squarely with Judaism itself – and not because Judaism failed to enforce its teachings against intermarriage but because it was necessary… to have such teachings in the first place. Any religion that relies on compulsory endogamy to survive has, in my view, ceased to make the case for its continued validity in the everyday lives of human beings.”…..continue reading the horrendous truth here…..

NOW, with the latest (communal/tribal) dirty laundry hanging out, what’s the upshot? 

UNLIKE others who prefer to either close their eyes and ears to the truth, or attempt to create a silk purse from a sow’s ear, this address is more confrontational.

IN other words, to Jewish and Christian supporters of Israel: the more that these flagships and their leadership are exposed for what they really represent (effectively, demonstrating that the Reform and Conservative movements of yesteryear no longer exist, the ADL alike), the more likely their highly derelict and dangerous stewardship will collapse. In two words: bankrupt them!!

IN so doing, duly qualified non-traditional Jews who really care about their people’s survival will be forced to step up into positions of leadership, with the understanding that doing nothing is akin to a slow suicide – tribal-wise, spiritually, familial-wise, and personally. 

INESTIMABLY, according to the glorious words of Hillel The Elder (110BC – 10AD) in Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14, its authentic meaning cries to the heavens for action:

If not us, who? If not now, when?