Long Island synagogue marks High Holidays with thanks to Israeli soldiers in Gaza war

This flyer was handed out today at Temple Israel in Great Neck, Long Island. It is more evidence, if any is needed, of the moral deterioration of mainstream American Jewish institutions: They don’t even think twice about passing out militarist propaganda to worshipers at a High Holiday service.

The flyer thanks Israeli soldiers for carrying out Operation Protective Edge a year ago. By any objective measure, this “operation” was a veritable massacre; it killed 2200 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including 500 children. In many cases, entire families were wiped out– 89 of them. Seventy-two Israelis also died during the war, all but a handful soldiers.

Temple Israel ought to know how disgusting this kind of appeal is to Jews who are cognizant of and care about Israel’s human rights violations. I’m aware that Temple Israel says on its website that one of its missions is to promote and support Israel, as is the case with all mainstream conservative synagogues. But it really ought to hear and care about  the voices of Jews who say, Just don’t go there, don’t bother with Israel. Give us your service. You’re not supposed to be a political organization.

This is pure conflation of Judaism and Zionism. And it leaves no space for me, or like-minded Jews, who would like to participate in our religion without engaging in odious moral compromises. The last time I attended a service at Temple Israel was nine years ago, I’ve stayed away because I found its politics to be problematic, (a Rabbi wished us all a happy new year and wished suffering on all “enemies” of Israel), apparently nothing much has changed.

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Zionist Jews have converted most synagogues from houses of worship to US bases of Israel’s fifth column. Does anyone care?

Since the IDF gets billions from their government and the US why would they need money from John and Mary? Because it’s a way for them to feel that they are part of SOMETHING BIGGER THAN THEMSELVES.

Meanwhile IDF soldiers loot from Palestinians or go AWOL because the pay in the army is so bad. Priorities.

I’ve heard — anyone know? — that synagogues depend on big contributions and get them from very, very rich members. These members frequently turn out to be fiercely pro-Israel and so the rabbis and others know that they must toe the pro-Israel (or pro-hard-line-Israel) line. And so they do. And the present report is no surprise.

They don’t care what the membership wants — and propaganda does a good job of keeping the membership “in line” as well — any more than the USA’s government cares what the people want on any question of interest to the big money oligarchs. And often the American people think they want what the oligarchs want — read Chomsky on “Manufacturing Consent”. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a 1988 non-fiction book co-written by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, wherein the authors argue that the mass media of the United States “are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion”.

The title derives from the phrase “the manufacture of consent,” employed by essayist–editor Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) in his book Public Opinion (1922). Chomsky has said that Australian social psychologist Alex Carey, to whom the book was dedicated, was in large part the impetus of his and Herman’s work. The book introduced the propaganda model of the media. A film, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, was later released based on the book.

Does this sound like a model of how synagogues and other Jewish institutions are run?

The remaining question is this: Why do the very, very rich Jews who run things think that way? To what extent are they merely acting like herd animals, following the pack and afraid to stick out like a sore thumb by questioning or opposing this pro-hard-line-Israel party line? I know, I know, a lot of their best friends are hard-line-Zionists, how could they oppose them?

Very ill individuals. Clinically ill

Don’t feel bad. I’m a Catholic. The Church I attend is like a combo VFW Hall and place of worship. A couple of times a month we sing patriotic songs; in the back of the Church is a wall festooned with pictures of “our heroes,” how many of them drone operators, I don’t know. When I wrote to the Bishop and said I didn’t think conflating patriotism and religion was a good thing, I got a nastygram from the Bishop’s #2.