[Peace-discuss] Michael Lerner

[C. G. Estabrook]

Funny and I think quite accurate. 


On Fri, 14 Feb 2003, David Green wrote:

> My 2 shekels: Michael Lerner has relatively decent instincts regarding
> human rights and social justice, including for the Palestinians. But
> he's also rather full of his rabbinical self, and has a weak political
> analysis with a flawed emphasis on mental and spritual health--not
> that I'm opposed to those things, and not that I couldn't use more of
> them, if anyone has some extra that they're not presently using. But
> what sort of philosophy could it be if he was trying to peddle it to
> Hilary Clinton? In spite of his basic regard for Palestinian rights,
> this lack of a solid historical/political critique causes him to say
> ridiculous things. In the book Jewish Renewal, his major philosophical
> statement, he refers to the need for Israelis and Jews to acknowledge
> the "unintentional" pain that they have caused to the Palestinian
> people. I find this statement remarkable, in the same sense that my
> wife would describe my cooking as remarkable. Lerner looks good too
> many Jews mostly because mainstream Jewish institutions are so bad. I
> analogize my feelings about Lerner to those about Cornel West,
> especially since they published a dialogue regarding Jewish-black
> relations, in which their egos fittingly purport to represent their
> respective groups. It's an interesting book in some ways, but at
> another more pseudo-charismatic level they also deserve each other.
> Not my ideal Jewish-black relationship, but I suppose better than say,
> Joseph Lieberman and Maya Angelou. So let him speak, and then let's
> work for a world in which Lerner will have the obscurity he deserves,
> and Jews like me can be complacent enough to go back to learning
> philosophy from bad Woody Allen movies.