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Sunday, June 7, 2020

I am a Rabbi Who Attended George Floyd’s Memorial Service

This is the face of a "putz" ..... Yup ....
He calls himself Rabbi Aaron Weininger, and says in the post below that he is an "observant Jew" but then in his very first sentence he picks up his phone on Shabbos which also happened to be Shevuois, and adds that the phone call was minutes before his "Zoom service." Then he drives to the church holding a memorial service for a convicted felon,
His service to his own shul was on Zoom, but to attend a memorial service on the anniversary of Matan Torah,for a guy who held a gun to the stomach of a pregnant lady, he goes in person ....
Instead of officiating to his very own kehilah on a day of "Yizkor" for those murdered in the holocaust, he attends in person a memorial with a bunch of "galachim.!
How low can a guy go?
When I received a phone call last Saturday morning from the governor and lieutenant governor’s office, I sensed it would be a Shabbat and Shavuot unlike any other.
They were organizing a press conference with a small group of clergy and other community leaders that afternoon. “Rabbi, would you attend?” It was minutes before our Zoom service, a phrase that would have felt odd typing three months ago.
As an observant Jew, a rabbi leading community in prayer, and co-chair of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association, I felt the decision was painful and obvious. More than ever, the biblical call to pursue justice has guided my ears to listen more closely to the experiences of black Americans and Jews of color. They have moved my feet in protesting with other rabbis and cantors in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
And they opened my heart in new ways at the family memorial service for George Floyd. Rabbi Jill Crimmings and I, co-chairs of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association, were humbled and honored to represent the Jewish community.
In the sanctuary, at the family memorial service for George Floyd, we stood in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. That was how long the police officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck.
“How will I pray?” I asked myself at a loss for words.
But then a cry pierced the silence. “I can’t breathe.”
A few moments later, another cry rose. “I can’t breathe.”
And another and another. Black men cried out in the sanctuary, their voices full of anguish and resolve. I heard each as a modern-day psalmist in our midst, challenging, “Let every breath praise you God” (Psalm 150).
They know too well how it might not be so for people of color, especially when a knee is kept on your neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
Each voice pierced the sanctuary like blasts of the shofar. They called me from my sleep, challenging me to reflect on my own spiritual leadership, and how I as a white Jew am making space for every breath of every person of color. Or simply taking breath for granted.
“How will I pray?” I gave up on my own words. The spontaneous cries pierced my soul and became prayers themselves.
I thought about the Jews of color in my congregation, in the larger community, and around the world. Those who pray Psalm 150 day after day and hear those same shofar blasts year after year. But unlike me, they could have been crying like George Floyd, “I can’t breathe.”
I will never forget the piercing sounds of all the black men who cried that day like the psalmist. And all the people of color across the Jewish community and beyond. They are my prayer leaders and teachers. Their breath is my prayer.
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7 comments:

jancsibacsi said...

Putz is an understatement

Ma Rabbi said...

Unfortunately to many liberal Jews will go all out for blacks but are not there when fellow Jews need help. This "rabbi" sounds like a typical conservative Jew.

cyrano said...

I am in the process of reading and rereading "Final Solution" by the late Professor David Cesarani. He documents that there were Jewish groups in Nazi Germany who voted in a referendum in support of Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations. This was their attempt to demonstrate their loyalty to the German fatherland in the hope that this might mitigate the Nazi's Anti-Semitism. It was a dismal failure, of course, as was any other attempt to curry favor with the German establishment.

When will we ever learn?

Karl Marx is quoted as saying that a capitalist will sell you the rope that you will hang him with. Does not Weininger realize that no matter how much he will pander to Black leaders, they will be the first to target him as a racist and an enemy of black people everywhere, no matter how often he will take a knee. Does he not listen to how Black leaders vilify Jews at every opportunity? What does he think, they don't really mean it, it's just political rhetoric? That was what the world thought about Hitler's Mein Kampf, and you see how that turned out.

Racism against Blacks' is not systemic among law enforcement, but Anti-Semitism among Blacks is ubiquitous. Just look at the slogans of the protesters and the graffiti on synagogues made by protestors. Stop excusing these evildoers by saying ,"Oh, most of the protesters are peace-loving." That is absurd as saying that Police Officer Chauvin is mostly non-racist because he only choked George Floyd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, while NOT being engaging in choking him for a lot longer period of time.

Listen to the response of the Black residents of Jersey City after 3 Jews were killed by Black gunmen. "They don't support the killing of Jews, but they understand the resentment of Blacks to the Jews moving into their neighborhood." The silence of Black leadership in response to this sentiment is deafening.

Can you imagine the hue and cry that would result if in the South someone would say, "Oh, I'm against lynching, but I can understand how someone would resort to it in response to Blacks moving into a white neighborhood.

Wake up Weininger, this is not our struggle.

NEwyoka said...

Rabbi Aaron Weininger serves as a rabbi of the Adath Jeshurun Congregation, where he has held the Berman Family Chair in Jewish Learning for eight years. He earned his BA in Anthropology and Jewish Near Eastern Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and received ordination and an MA in Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2012. In 2007 he became the first openly gay person admitted to rabbinical school in the Conservative movement, and he studied at JTS as a Schusterman Rabbinical Fellow. Trusting in the power of Jewish community to transform, Aaron believes in connecting the spark of each person to the warmth of relationships. He is entering his third year as co-chair of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association

Chavivei Whora said...

Whiningger is Conservative.

The Open Schmorthodox liars from National "Synagogue" in DC joined the savages near the White House. That would be "rabbi" Herzfeld & the ugly fatty maha-RAT Friedman. She lied that they were compelled to join the rag tag mob because Trump had roughed up "peaceful" protesters at the Episcopal tiflus. The facts are that the Secret Service removed them after DC churches were vandalized for the last few days & then the specific crowd that Friedman bellyaches about were THROWING BRICKS. They are murderous rioters, not "peaceful protesters"

Frankels Shul Felon said...

Hey koifer Weenie boy, tell you what ...

Go get arrested with your beloved Schwartzas and do 10 days in jail for disorderly conduct or the like. We'll see how much you are still mesmerized by them after you drop your soap next to Bubba in the prison showers.

Anonymous said...

He is also a gay putz