Jewish Biden backers and lawmakers make a push for Robert Wexler to be the ambassador to Israel jta.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jta.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Bret Stephens at a Christians United for Israel summit in Washington on July 13, 2015. (Alex Wong/Getty Images via JTA)
JTA An open letter published Wednesday and signed by about 50 prominent Jewish Americans is warning of the rise of “social justice ideology,” which is described as a “pernicious” force that is “antithetical to Judaism” and threatens to stifle free debate and democratic values in the United States.
The group that organized the letter and many of its signatories say they were inspired by last year’s Harper’s letter, which made a similar argument about censorship of unpopular opinions in the public sphere.
Jewish Harpers Letter Signers Stand Behind Tradition of Debate, Community s Leaders Say
On 5/5/21 at 8:57 PM EDT
By late afternoon on Wednesday more than 200 notable thinkers, intellectuals and activists from the American Jewish community expressed their support for freedom of expression and the condemnation of alleged suppression of dissent among Jews.
They did so by signing what s been dubbed the Jewish Harper s Letter, a document organized by the newly formed Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, which addresses the growing threat to the liberal principle of free expression of ideas. The name refers to A Letter on Justice and Open Debate, also known as the
Rabbi Paul Kipnes watched helplessly as 11 of his congregants died over the span of 11 days in January from COVID or COVID-related illness. The losses along with another five congregant deaths that same month compelled him to pour out his grief in a blog post titled “After 11 Deaths in 11 Days, I Had it Out with God.”
Synagogues touched by COVID adapt to serve grieving congregations (Wikimedia Commons)
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(JTA) Rabbi Paul Kipnes watched helplessly as 11 of his congregants died over the span of 11 days in January from COVID or COVID-related illness. The losses along with another five congregant deaths that same month compelled him to pour out his grief in a blog post titled “After 11 Deaths in 11 Days, I Had it Out with God.”
“I’m so angry. At You, All Powerful One,” Kipnes wrote. “God damn You, God! … What kind of Divine develops a world defined during the 21st century by the deaths of so many people?”