He Shouldn't Have Gone to an Extremely-Reform Synagogue

In Arizona, Representative J.D. Hayworth has been accused of antisemitism for saying something favorable about Henry Ford. (My personal opinion is that it's a bad sign when a supposed conservative is as ignorant of history as most liberals … but that's another rant.) In order to combat that, he sent Jonathan Tratt, one of his a Jewish supporters, to defend his record at a candidates’ forum at Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale:

Jonathan Tratt, a real estate investor and political fund-raiser, made the remark while defending Hayworth’s opposition of abortion rights. Tratt, who is Jewish, was referring to the fact that although ancient rabbinic law does not ban abortion, it restricts it to instances when the health of the mother is in danger.

The term “health” is too fuzzy. They mean the life of the mother. The remark produced an odd reaction:

The comment by Jonathan Tratt, a spokesman for the Hayworth campaign, drew loud and angry boos and caused nearly three-quarters of the crowd of more than 200 to walk out in disgust. After the walkout, another Hayworth surrogate, Irit Tratt, stood on the Temple's bimah as she told members of the audience who gathered to ask questions, "No wonder there are anti-Semites."

It's about time one of us anti-abortion Jews spoke out.

On the other hand, I don't think “No wonder there are anti-Semites.” was an ideal response. They should have said “Your attempt to convert us to Christianity did not work.”

It should not be astounding that a Baptist was closer to Jewish tradition than Extremely-Reform Jews. After all, Orthodox Jews are more Catholic than the Catholics. They don't approve of the rhythm method and they're more thorough about insisting that scripture can only be interpreted in the light of tradition.

I will, of course, remember that this has been described as obvious evidence that conservatives are antisemitic the next time somebody makes that claim. I consider such claims to emanate from the Jewish equivalent of CAIR.

Speaking of the Jewish equivalent of CAIR …

I recently accused Debbie Findling, one of the people in the “We Had Abortions” petition, of having an inappropriate career as a philanthropic foundation executive. Her job is not so inappropriate. It turns out that she's the Deputy Director of the Goldman Fund, an organization devoted to keeping Jews liberal and abortion unrestricted.