Meshuga, also Meshugge, Meshugah, Meshuggah: Crazy (Yiddish משגע meshuge, from Hebrew məšugga‘) (OED, MW). Also used as the nouns meshuggener and meshuggeneh for a crazy man and woman, respectively. From Wikipedia’s list of English words of Yiddish origin
It takes a lot of study to become a Rabbi. It’s a degree level course and is followed by extensive on the job training either as a Congregational Rabbi or onto further study to become someone who researches Judaism or Jewish law. To be a Rabbi you need to be learned, be good with people and have integrity. But, as in so many other areas in life, having a degree or some other qualification doesn’t exempt people from being foolish or saying monumentally stupid things. Rabbonim, just like any other person are sometimes all too human and subject to human failings and these failings include being enamoured of some pretty dangerous ideological positions.
This blog has carried several criticisms of Rabbonim from the British Liberal Judaism movement including criticism of a Rabbi who decided that sharing a stage with a known Islamic extremist at a ‘refugees welcome’ event was a good idea, which in my view it was not. It was foolish and helped to bring the entirety of the Jewish community, not just a small group of Liberal Jews, into disrepute. When you use the term ‘Rabbi’ to describe yourself you are, to a certain extent at least in the minds of the majority non-Jewish general public, a representative of the entire Jewish community and should therefore conduct yourself in a manner that doesn’t bring your role into disrepute or invite opprobrium onto Britain’s Jews.
The Rabbonim of the Liberal Judaism movement were once truly and classically liberal. It was a movement that respected the concepts of debate, of individual conscience and religious and political freedom, but under its current leadership regime it has become anything but liberal in nature. It is now an organisation thoroughly dominated by the political Left and one that is also heavily influenced by the left wing, pro-mass migration and pro-Islam ‘community’ group, Citizens UK. I have little doubt in my mind that it is now an organisation which would be unrecognisable to the founders of this once great entity. Sadly, Liberal Judaism in the UK has turned into something akin to the Socialist Workers Party at prayer and therefore is often used by leftist groups, like Citizens UK, as a religious cover when leftists are trying to defend their often indefensible ideas.
Unfortunately the Leftist rot in Liberal Judaism is not confined to clerical outliers or mavericks, it is something that has infected Liberal Judaism from the bottom to the top. Leftist extremism used to be an issue that only really could be used to describe a few off the wall Rabbonim who used the culture of liberalism inherent in LJ to voice their odd opinions. Now, sadly the cult of Leftism has now apparently taken over the Liberal Judaism organisation in its entirety.
There is no greater indication of how badly Leftism has infected Liberal Judaism than the recent statements on President Trump and the issue of ‘refugees’ by Rabbi Danny Rich the Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism. Rabbi Rich waded into the story of illegal migration into the United States with heavy criticisms of President Trump and made statements that were in my view highly supportive of the dangerous leftist policy of open borders. It is because of the outrageousness of Rabbi Rich’s words on a recent issue of the BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme, which I will reproduce and comment about below, that I feel I have little alternative to refer to Rabbi Rich, at least with regards to this open borders lunacy, as Rabbi ‘Meshuganer’ or in English ‘Rabbi Crazy Person’.
Here is the statement put out by Liberal Judaism along with my comments on this statement. As is usual policy for this blog the original quoted text is in italics whereas my comments on the content of this statement, are in plain text.
Liberal Judaism said:
Liberal Judaism’s senior rabbi, Rabbi Danny Rich, has said the world needs to let American President Donald Trump know that his policies on refugees are “immoral and dangerous”.
Let’s examine the opening statement by Liberal Judaism and Rabbi Rich. First of all we need to look at the use of the term ‘refugees’. The vast majority of those attempting to cross the US southern border are not genuine refugees, they are economic migrants, chancers, ponces and all too often those with criminal inclinations. The illegal migrants attempting to enter the USA are not the equivalent of the genuine refugees of the past such as the Kindertransport children or the Huguenots or the Germans, of Christian, Jewish or atheistic persuasion, who fled to the UK from political upheavals in the 19th century or from Hitler in the 20th. There is ample evidence that illegal migrants have caused problems for US citizens and in some cases these illegals have behaved in a thoroughly murderous manner.
Secondly, it is not immoral for a nation to want to defend its own citizens or to prioritise the safety of its citizens over and above those of outsiders. It has been a long established fact that the first duty of a government is to protect its citizens and in order to do that a government needs to protect its borders. The reason that the citizens of the United States or Russia or Israel or any other nation can walk their streets safely is because they have borders that are guarded and where illegal entrants to these countries are swiftly removed and punished.
Thirdly I’d like to challenge Rabbi Rich on his description of President Trump’s border policy as ‘dangerous’. President Trump’s policy is not dangerous it is eminently sensible. Would Rabbi Rich I wonder leave his front door unlocked and open at night or would he shut the door to keep out those who may wish to burgle his home or do harm to him and his family? I would guess that Rabbi Rich, like any other sensible person would lock his doors to protect those whom he loves. All President Trump is doing is protecting American citizens from those who may not be entering the USA with either the best of intentions or with a desire to become Americans with all the rights and responsibilities that this American citizenship status entails
Danny was quizzed about the US President by Victoria Derbyshire on her BBC Two show earlier today.
Knowing how the Victoria Derbyshire programme leans very much to the Left I do not believe that Rabbi Rich was questioned on his beliefs as robustly as maybe he should have been.
He said: “The policies are immoral, because we are supposed to be one big human family. Where we are citizens is largely an accident of birth.
This statement by Rabbi Rich is pure, unadulterated naivety. Whilst I concur that all humans are fundamentally, at least on a physical level roughly identical, that does not mean that all humans or all human activity is equal or of equal value. For example a surgeon is more admirable than a burglar and crime is less valuable to a society than social responsibility. Rabbi Rich compares humanity to a family but being a family man himself as am I, he must know that not everyone in a family holds to the same views or attitudes or even to the same code of morality. As a Rabbi surely Rabbi Rich must be aware of the stories in the Tanakh that emphasise the fact that members of families can behave as independent individuals and as such can make decisions that are either good or bad. We are all human and therefore capable of following either the good or evil inclination that all parts of humanity possesses. Not every individual human is alike to another and similarly not every culture or nation is either. Whilst I agree that where we are born and to whom we are born to is to a large extent random that does not mean that America or Israel or France or anywhere else for that matter should have open borders. We the citizens or subjects of Western nations should as a priority be protected from those from the violent and often vile cultures that make up the bulk of the illegal migrants that seek to enter our nations.
“Secondly, his policy of America First is dangerous in the sense that we are in a global world and we have to look and think globally about the movement of people. That needs to be managed by the global community, not by one country putting its interests first.”
This is the sort of monstrous open borders naivety of a sort promoted by Citizens UK and other groups on the left of British politics and it is a policy that if implemented would destroy the very nations that for various reasons are attracting migrants. Rabbi Rich talks about something called ‘the global community’ but has he ever given any thought to the sort of people and cultures that make up this ‘community’? I doubt that he has. If he had he would quake in the face of some of the horrific nations that make up this ‘global community’. Would he really, to give a couple of examples, like the Chinese to determine Britain’s migration policy or the violent thugs of Hamas to tell Israel who they should allow to settle among Israelis? Of course he would not. A nation securing its borders is not dangerous, what is dangerous is calling for nations to have open borders which is what Rabbi Rich is apparently calling for here. The ‘international community’ is not a group of holy tzadiks it is a group of people pushing for ideological or national advantage for themselves or their own groups at the expense of others. I’m Jewish and I’m a Trump supporter and I have no moral problem with that particular position, I understand that every nation has a right to self determination and also a right to defend itself from those who would do it harm. That does not mean that I am deaf or blind to the needs of those displaced by war or civil conflict and I do believe that such people deserve help, but such help should not take the form of bringing incompatible people to Western nations where they can be a danger or potential danger to the rest of us. I would prefer to see assistance given to such people in or near to the area where the conflict is occurring. Not only would this assistance be better value for money for the donor nations but would also keep potentially dangerous ‘refugees’ away from us and our families.
I have to add that for Rabbi Rich to continue to naively bang the ‘refugees welcome’ drum is also politically foolish. The world is changing, the narrative that the illegal migrants and invaders who are assaulting the borders of both the United States and of European nations are ‘refugees’ is being increasingly rejected by the populations of those nations that have suffered increasing levels of violence and social upheaval because of these often fake ‘refugees’. I can understand the moral position that Rabbi Rich is coming from but I reject his path to expressing his moral position. I can’t help but feel that when we look back on this period in our history, if that is the Western civilised culture survives, that those like Rabbi Rich who have taken this pro ‘refugee’ position will be seen as being as much on the wrong side of history and just as mistaken as those in the 1920’s and 1930’s who thought that Fascism or Communism were the correct paths to take.
Speaking as part of a panel responding to President Trump’s recent language and actions on refugees, Danny added: “We need to find a way to talk about immigration without dehumanising people.”
A nation securing its borders is not ‘dehumanising’ people in fact in many cases it is preventing those who would dehumanise others from settling in nations that are relatively liberal and democratic. It is not dehumanising people to not want criminals or violent thugs or those who will not contribute to our societies or who wish to destroy our societies, imported to our nations by the crazy people of the open borders movement. Those of us who have had to live alongside the sort of people and cultures from which the ‘refugees’ that Rabbi Rich champions know to our own personal cost that some cultures are incompatible with others. Maybe Rabbi Rich would like to take his open borders nonsense to the families of those Americans who have been killed by illegal migrants to the USA. I don’t believe that he would find support for his open borders naivety if he spoke to the family of the American woman Felicia Ruiz who was murdered by an illegal Venezuelan migrant to the USA or the family of Joshua Wilkerson an 18 year old boy who was tortured and killed by an illegal migrant classmate from his school. It is the height of stupidity and indeed arrogance to continue to promote a policy that is hurting the citizens of the countries that are receiving these ‘refugees’.
The Liberal Judaism statement then pointed people to the link where people can view Rabbi Rich’s ‘performance’ on the Victoria Derbyshire show.
Watch today’s episode here. The discussion featuring Danny starts at 1:27:00.
Rabbi Rich speaks of various dangers but he fails to understand that one of the greatest dangers for Jews is for our clerics to be seen supporting policies that are rejected by a growing number of citizens of our countries. The vast majority of Americans polled in a recent Harvard – Harris poll wish to see their nation’s borders secured and not to have an open borders policy. Rabbi Rich by his statement has set his face against those Americans who both want and deserve security. Rabbi Rich’s statement makes it look as if a lot of Jews, rather than merely the small number of Jews of the Left, want open borders and also want all the calamity that this will cause for the countries which will become the destination of choice for these migrants.
To be quite frank, Rabbi Rich, who amazingly stood and won a council seat for the Labour Party despite that party having a deep seated problem with anti-Semitism, has opened his mouth and let the world know that he beliefs that are foolish. It would be better if he confined himself to religious matters and not make statements that promote policies that endanger the security of nations and the security of such nation’s citizens whether they be Jew or Gentile. I feel sorry for Britain’s Liberal Jews I really do. I know from speaking to some LJ members that not all of them are in favour of this open borders idiocy but they have the misfortune to be led by a cabal of Leftists who are promoting this policy. Britain’s Liberal Jews deserve better leadership than that currently given by a man who promotes open borders, who wants the nebulous ‘international community’ to decide on population movements and who supports a party that is increasingly in hock to anti-Semites. I’d like to conclude by respectfully reminding Rabbi Rich that one of the duties of a Jewish person is to ‘seek the peace of the city’ in which one finds yourself. I fail to see how importing potentially dangerous people who may follow dangerous ideologies contributes to the idea of ‘seeking the peace of the city’?
