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Friday, January 28, 2011

A Note From Rabbi Steven Wernick One of The 400 Rabbis Who Slandered Glenn Beck

In response to the article I wrote yesterday,Latest Attack on Glenn Beck Shames The Rabbinical Profession and Desecrates God's Name I received a Facebook note from Rabbi Steven Wernick who was not only one of the 400 rabbis signing the "open letter" against Glenn Beck, but his was one of the lead signatures, larger than the others used by Jewish Funds For Justice used to promote the advertisement.




Below is his note which seems to indicate that this Rabbi does not 'get it," along with my response. 

Rabbi Steven Wernick Interesting perspective on Lashon HaRa. I think a stronger case can be made using the same texts against Glenn Beck's inappropriate use of the Shoah to desecrate the memory of those who were murdered kiddush Hashem. The Hafetz Hayim would argue that when such desecration and Lashon HaRa occurs, one has a duty to respond, point out the infraction in order to give the offender an opportunity for teshuva...that's what we rabbis have done. We hope that Murdoch and Beck will do.

Jeffrey Dunetz
Rabbi You are not understanding my point. The letter you signed said that Beck made," literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom he disagrees" Before you signed the letter, did ...you see evidence of Hundreds of on-air references? I doubt it because its not true.

Did you look at the entire Soros show to see Beck comments about Soros in context?

If you didn't then not are you guilty of Loshen Hora, but you ignored the little thing in Parsha Yitro about not bearing false witness. And because you did it as a Rabbi, a teacher of how we are to run our lives in the way God desires, it is a Chillul Hashem, I am not talking politics here, I am talking process. And you know how important process is in Jewish tradition.

Along with not examining the evidence to see if the charges you were making were true, did you examine the Jewish Funds For Justices rationale for making these charges? Again I doubt it, because based on the evidence I found in five minutes and related in the article,there is at least the possibility that Jewish Funds For Justice's motivation was to get more money from George Soros, and/or because of politics as Beck disagrees with their political stance that government responsibility should substitute for personal responsibility.

Speaking of the Jewish Funds for Justice's political stances. Did you read the articles on their site that I linked to? The ones in their library which say all Whites (especially White Men) are racist oppressors, or that by definition any call for people to take personal responsibility is racist? I doubt you did because that is not the Message of Judaism. If you did read it do you agree with that? If you didn't why would you lend your name and the name of the Conservative movement to a group you did not research?

When you signed that letter with your USCJ title, you not only signed it for yourself but for my Rabbi and my Shul. And I assure you that my Rabbi would never sign that letter without asking some questions and based on what he has taught me, I would never sign such a letter with out asking questions either.

Here's one thing we agree on, the Hafetz Hayim would argue that when such desecration and Loshen Hora occurs, one has a duty to respond, point out the infraction in order to give the offender an opportunity for teshuva. That's why I wrote the article and continue to press the point.

Its is hard for a Gentile like Beck to speak out against 400 rabbis without appearing bigoted. Its like the old Archie Bunker line "in the court of law you can't argue with a station wagon full of nuns." I argue for him because, as a fairly observant Jew no one will ever accuse me of being an anti-Semite. And I named you personally because you are a senior member of the flavor of Judaism which I follow.

Thank you for answering my first post and I look forward to you showing me that you did do the necessary research and investigation to make sure that the charges were true before you signed that letter. Nothing would make me happier than to be proved wrong.

One More Thing..Did you sign a letter when Soros Called Pres Bush a Nazi?


How about Keith Olbermann said that Hitler passed laws just like George Bush?



Did you complain when the Soros-funded MoveOn Created a TV commercial comparing Bush to Hitler?



Or when Margaret Cho said Pres.Bush would be Hitler if he only F**king applied himself at an MoveOn event



If you didn't I invite you to examine your own motivation.  Was it that you signed a letter without knowing the facts, or was it that you signed a letter because you didn't like Glenn Beck's politics.   The answer to that is between you and HaShem.

Maybe you could think about that during Shabbos. Once you come up with your answer, please let me know.  More importantly if you are honest with yourself and find that true answer, I suggest you call Mr. Beck and apologize.

Good Shabbos Rabbi



Note: In my response to Rabbi Wernick I did not embed the videos, rather I provided him with links. As the Sabbath begins in less than 90 minutes, it is doubtful that I will relieve an answer from the Rabbi today. When an answer is recieved, I will pass it along.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for standing up for what is right and truthful. I four Rabbis can no longer do that then we must do it for ourselves.

Steve said...

Yes, it also really bothered me that these supposed learned and "pious" men resorted to this slander in my name. I would love to see some upheaval in the conservative movement, though I'm not sure we have the numbers. After years of indoctrination by ultra-leftist rabbis, many congregations equate Judaism with progressive politics. Though I may not have used the term gonif correctly, I did a post on the Jewish Gonifs for Justice, http://thoughtsbysteve.blogspot.com/2011/01/jewish-gonifs-for-justice.html