March 16, 2010, Dallas, Texas
Americans condemn the attacks on Rabbi Lerner.

The  entire humanity must condemn the attack on Rabbi Lerner, a man who is committed to building bridges and doing what his religion Judaism teaches him; to stand up for truth and justice.

Evil exists not because of evil people, but because good people do nothing about it. It is however changing now; the good people are indeed speaking up and hope the bullies learn that they cannot bully any more.

A part of the human equation is to have a range of people in its collection; the right wingers, the lefties and the silent majority of moderates.  The right wingers operate out of the imaginary fears that the world is out to get them and they pre-empt to silence the opposition. Some of them have figured out making money out of this racket.

The Goldstone report was conducted by a Jewish judge about the excesses of Israel in Gaza. The right wing Jewish group is in denial, and not only is intolerant but un-democratic to use violence to silence the truth.

I pray that the right winger Jews understand that criticizing the policies of Israel is not a criticism of Israel, Jews or Judaism. If they can get this in their thick heads, peace is imminent and I pray that they do but also pray that we all speak up.

We still have a few gutsy Journalists will write and talk about it, but a majority of them and particularly Fox gang will perhaps present it as though the rape victim asked for it. This may be the sign of decline of Right wing Media, their shying away from the truth will take the media business out of their hands and put in the hands of the public.

Rabbi Lerner continues to work on nurturing goodwill and we stand by you and hope every American does.

Mike Ghouse is president of Americans Together and Muslims Together Foundations and is committed to building cohesive societies offering pluralistic solution on issues of the day. He will speak at your work place, place of worship or seminars and conferences on the subjects of pluralism, cohesive societies, Islam, interfaith, India and Peace; he is a speaker thinker and a writer on the topics. His work is indexed in 4 websites and 27 Blogs at http://www.mikeghouse.net/# # #
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Zionist Extremist Hate Crime Against Rabbi Lerner: 3rd Attack on His Home and the limits of “freedom of the press”
3/17/2011, Berkeley, California

Only one day after Rabbi Lerner presented the Tikkun Award to South African Justice Richard Goldstone, at a celebration of Tikkun’s 25th Anniversary attended by over 600 people at the University of California, Berkeley, Rabbi Lerner’s home was again assaulted by extremist Zionist haters who plastered posters over his home once again. This is the 3rd assault on his home since Lerner announced the award to Justice Goldstone whose report on Israel’s human rights violations during the Israeli assault on Gaza in Dec. 2008 and Jan.2009 was denounced by the State of Israel and by the AIPAC-dominated House of Representatives last year. You would not have known about the 2nd attack, which was reported to the police but not to the media because Lerner had been advised that not giving the attackers attention might make future attacks less likely. That strategy failed.

Each time the posters have sought to display Lerner as either a tool of an evil Goldstone trying to hurt Israel. The current posters were done more professionally than the previous ones, and present a picture of Nazi officers carrying away a Jew. Lerner’s name is put on one of the Nazis and “Islamic extremists” is written on the other Nazi, and the innocent Jew is identified as the State of Israel. The perspective of the attackers is clear: “Rabbi Lerner is a Nazi assaulting Israel.” That is why the police have labeled this a “hate crime.”

What “freedom of the press” is there if an editor is subject to this kind of personal harrassment for expressing his views in his editorials and in the gatherings sponsored by the magazine? Anyone concerned about civil liberties should be concerned about this pattern of attacks on the private home of a magazine editor.  And for those who believe that there is a new tone of civility in the Jewish world, well….it obviously has not impacted on right wing Zionist extremists. Please note, however, that we do not want to imply in any way that all Zionists are responsible directly or indirectly for this attack. The Zionist community in the U.S., while often demeaning Rabbi Lerner, has not shown any tendency toward violence or physical assaults on his person or property, and in our view would not likely do so. These have been the acts of a small group of extremists, and while the demeaning of Rabbi Lerner and Tikkun may have contributed to the climate in which these extremists believed they could get away with these assaults, there is no reason to believe, and we do not believe, that American Zionists as a whole either intended or approve of this kind of activity. And the Board of Rabbis of Northern California publicly critiqued the last attack on Rabbi Lerner’s home as did other Jewish leaders.

Assaults on free speech are best met by encouraging more speech. The obvious goal of these attacks is to intimidate and  silence Tikkun, and since Tikkun is the largest circulation liberal/progressive Jewish magazine on-line and in print in the entire world, silencing Tikkun would be a huge victory for these extremists. People can assure that Tikkun stays alive by subscribing to Tikkun at www.tikkun.org, joining Tikkun’s interfaith education and social action organization The Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org, making a tax-deductible contribution to Tikkun (checks can be sent to Tikkun, 2342 Shattuck Ave #1200, Berkeley, Ca. 94704–our mailbox, not the actual address of the magazine’s office), and/or creating a local study group to read and discuss Tikkun articles every week, every two weeks, or once a month. You can also read Tikkun-on-line by going to our new web magazine each week to read the latest articles. You can also support us by joining other organizations that seek peace and reconciliation between Israel and Palestine, including J. Street, Jewish Voices for Peace,  Americans for Peace Now, The New Israel Fund and B’tselem.

Thank you for your support.
Tikkun Magazine