| On Sunday, November 8, at 6:00 p.m., Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park is welcoming former National Security Advisor, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to speak as part of its National Speaker Series -- at $50-$180 a pop and four figures for a private reception.
Phil Freshman, a Beth El member went public with his objections in a local weekly, the American Jewish World. His op-ed was re-published at tcdailyplanet.net, with a shorter version appearing in the Startribune.
OPINION Beth El should not have invited Condoleezza Rice
By PHIL FRESHMAN, American Jewish World
September 18, 2009
I was appalled and saddened recently to learn that Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park - the congregation to which I belong - will host former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Nov. 8, as part of its National Speaker Series.
A major fund-raising tool for the synagogue, the series has brought in the likes of Colin Powell, Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak and Dan Rather for brief speeches from the bima, followed by a question and answer period. Tickets range from $50 to $180 - and $1,000 for those who want to dine with the speaker and have a photo op before the presentation. The atmosphere is heimish, like having a guest at home. Typically, speakers offer no real challenges to mainstream notions about Israeli and U.S. government policies, and audience questions are relatively tame.
So, given this innocuous - if spendy - set-up, what's my beef?
By "proudly presenting" Rice in its sanctuary, Beth El is implicitly condoning her deeply immoral actions while in office. She continued to promote it enthusiastically and lied to Congress about it, as she did about the Bush administration's failure to respond to well-documented terror threats that preceded the 9/11 attacks.
Rice thus shares direct culpability for many thousands of American and Iraqi deaths, for the grief and ruin the war has brought, for the hundreds of billions it has cost (making it far harder than it otherwise would be for the U.S. to address its crucial domestic needs), and for related problems that Bush-Cheney policies have caused here and around the globe, including the further destabilization of the Middle East. Israel arguably is far less safe today because of the iniquitous mayhem Rice, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith stirred up.
Publicly, Rice helped fabricate the pretext for the war out of whole cloth. She stoked Americans' fears of "the next mushroom cloud," repeatedly offered "evidence" for Iraq's nonexistent WMD and testified to the "established connection between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein," all the while knowing there was none.
Maybe you can see why I'm appalled. Why am I also saddened?
By extending this invitation, Beth El suggests that the true implications of Rice's visit are secondary to her stature as a celebrity and her ability to draw a high-paying audience. More, it suggests a willingness to continue passively consuming routine thinking about the Middle East rather than engaging well-known speakers with a broad range of views who might jostle preconceptions and stir nonhomogenous thinking and discussion.
Rice likely will grab 20 minutes' worth of canned remarks from her desk, and make sure to oil the audience's anxieties about Hamas and Iran. The Q-and-A promises to be similarly superficial. Even if one or two hard questions happen to be asked, should anyone expect truthful answers?
Like many synagogues, Beth El needs considerable cash to pursue its mission and serve its congregation well - a need that is very hard to meet in this dire economy. Yet one vital service we expect synagogues to provide, perhaps especially in tough times such as these, is moral leadership.
Displaying tolerance - and it would seem respect - for a warmonger and abuser of numerous American legal values, and core Jewish principles, is hardly a sign of moral leadership. Entering the Days of Awe, Beth El congregants should mull the meaning of giving a platform (plus a hefty check) to Condoleezza Rice and think about the tarnishing message it sends.
Dr. Gary J. Krupp, the president of Beth El, responded in a Startribune opinion piece on Oct. 7, 2009.
MY VIEW Beth El hosting Rice as part of public dialogue Beth El's series aims to support range of views Public should embrace debate on hard issues
By Gary J. Krupp
This Nov. 8, Beth El will be the proud host of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. A fellow congregant recently spoke out against the invitation in an op/ed published in the West Extra section on Sept. 23. As president of the board of trustees of Beth El, I believe that a synagogue is the perfect venue to address difficult topics and that religious communities and institutions have a responsibility to engage with today's issues in a respectful, honorable manner.
Beth El's National Speaker Series was established more than a decade ago as a way to bring provocative leading voices to our community to address important and potentially controversial issues of the day. It is all about providing nationally recognized speakers for our community to engage in dialogue and discussion within a respectful setting.
The previous letter helps underscore why this type of discussion is so critical. We live in an increasingly polarized society where demonization poisons our ability to engage in civil, public discourse. We all see it every day in discussions about politics, health care and the handling of the economy. Our public debate is limited to only listening to those whose views are identical to our own. We each tend to limit our access to voices that mirror our own on the Internet, hundreds of television channels and through a broad range of publications. We are talking among ourselves rather than to others.
But how will we ever learn to understand each other if we listen only to ourselves? Among the many values of Jewish tradition is strong support for a diversity of viewpoints, opinions and perspectives that encourage dialogue as a pathway to tolerate differences. We seek those windows in our society through which we can see different ideas as a starting point for understanding. We believe strongly that our current political polarization should be addressed within communities of faith such as ours through events such as our National Speaker Series.
There are many in our community who are interested in hearing Dr. Rice and her perspectives on United States foreign policy. She was, after all, central to foreign policy decisions during the Bush administration, was President Bush's national security adviser during the Sept. 11 attacks, and an accomplished foreign policy scholar before that. There are others who are not as interested in an exchange of ideas with Dr. Rice, but the National Speaker Series remains open to our community to wrestle with our society's important issues through thoughtful and open discussion.
Here's my reply to Dr. Krupp, which appeared at tcdailyplanet.net and in a slightly altered version in the Startribune on Oct. 14, 2009.
Tolerance has its limits
Gary J. Krupp, president of Beth El Synagogue, in defense of Sec. Condoleezza Rice's invitation to speak in its National Speaker Series, argues against political polarization and demonization of those with opposing viewpoints. He writes of the Jewish tradition's "strong support for a diversity of...perspectives that encourage dialogue as a pathway to tolerate differences." (West Extra section, Oct. 7, 2009)
Tolerating differences is good. But surely there are lines that should not be crossed. I would be utterly shocked if Beth El Synagogue invited a national neo-Nazi leader to speak so we can hear from those with a differing viewpoint. It wouldn't do so, and it shouldn't do so. There are limits to toleration.
The question is whether Sec. Rice crosses that line. I think she does. She was intimately involved in decisions that led to torturing detainees, in violation of international law by any rational measuring stick. She sat in meetings where this was discussed, she conveyed authorizations to participate in such practices, and she still refuses to say that waterboarding is torture, against the judgment of virtually every international jurist. Make no mistake about it: In future years, Sec. Rice will do considerable advance work to determine where and when she will be able to travel abroad. Legal authorities in many countries will not be as tolerant as Beth El Synagogue.
Moreover, Sec. Rice was complicit in dozens of misstatements of facts, gross exaggerations, and outright lies leading up to the invasion of Iraq. That has led to several hundred thousand deaths. She continues to be an apologist for the Bush administration with false statements about the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Security in Europe calling Guantanamo a model medium security prison, and misleading claims that the ICRC made no allegations about interrogations at Guantanamo. She still says that we did not torture, in spite of ICRC reports, contrary claims by F.B.I. interrogators, Bush administration withdrawals of Office of Legal Counsel torture memos, and statements of dismissal by our own Military Commission judges.
I realize Beth El Synagogue leaders do not feel they can disinvite Sec. Rice at this time. However, if they were truly interested in having a dialogue on "difficult topics," they could easily invite a second speaker to appear along with Sec. Rice. Locally, we have an internationally renowned expert on torture issues in Dr. Steven Miles, a University of Minnesota bioethicist. I am sure he would be willing to discuss these "difficult topics" with the Secretary at a fraction of the price she must have required.
Fifty years ago this December I was bar mitzvahed at Beth El Synagogue. I expect more from it than to traffic in war criminals to assist in its fundraising efforts. I apologize for the demonization.
Be forewarned, war criminals being harbored by a variety of coastal institutions: we Minnesotans will welcome you with the appropriate greeting. |
