A Turning Point? A Rabbi's Sermon May Be The Most Important American Jewish Statement of Our Era

By Barry Rubin

You don't have to be Jewish to read the sermon given by Rabbi Shalom Lewis to his congregation in Marietta, Georgia, for the first day of Rosh Hashanah. It is the best example of an earthquake that's been shaking the American Jewish community, a reconsideration of things taken for granted for a very long time indeed.

Lewis speaks frankly about things many are thinking about hard, even if they don't speak of them publicly: Isn't radical Islamism, not resurgent fascism, the biggest threat to Jews today? Why has the left become the main repository of antisemitism and hatred of Israel? Is President Barack Obama really good for the Jews, and for America or the world in general? Is Political Correctness and Multiculturalist ideology a disaster, and not a normal continuation of historic liberal thinking?

It is hard to overstate the importance of this sermon. Lewis's words have gone viral throughout the Internet because they express what many are pondering. And even if they would never say so in public, or even admit it to themselves, this is a powerful force for a new paradigm.

In a real sense, it isn't just Jewish either. For all of those who have considered themselves liberal and Democratic are facing the same paradoxes.  My view is that the far left has achieved today what it tried and failed to do in the 1930s: to masquerade as normative liberalism. Real liberals must form a united front with centrists and moderate conservatives to defeat these threats from Islamism and the far left, just as the World War Two generation had to do so against fascism and its successor had to do against Communism.

Again, if you haven't yet read Lewis's sermon, go and do so. Then, give serious thought to the implications.

PS: We live in such insane times that despite the existence of search engines, people are denying the existence of Rabbi Shalom Lewis of Marietta, Georgia simply because he dared speak, for example, of the antisemitism of radical Islamism and threatening the wisdom of some current U.S. government policies. Here are three links about this courageous man: A picture of him on his synagogue site; his position on kosher regulations in Georgia; and his listing as an Atlanta area rabbi in the Atlanta Jewish newspaper.