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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Michael Lerner, liberal rabbi and harsh critic of Ariel Sharon, finds himself blacklisted by ANSWER, the group co-sponsoring Sunday's big antiwar rally in San Francisco.
Feb 12, 2003 | Even as other members of the democratic left have denounced the hardcore Maoists and Stalinists behind much recent antiwar organizing, Michael Lerner, the dovish San Francisco rabbi and editor of the liberal Jewish magazine Tikkun, has defended the role of sectarians in the movement. When members of his congregation complained about the stridently anti-Israel rhetoric at demonstrations sponsored by ANSWER, a front group for the Workers World party, he urged them to turn out anyway, and Tikkun sent busloads of people to both Washington and San Francisco. He co-signed a letter to Salon criticizing Salon's criticism of ANSWER and Not In Our Name, which is connected to the Revolutionary Communist Party.
So Lerner was understandably outraged to learn that he'd been banned from speaking at the San Francisco rally ANSWER is co-sponsoring on Sunday. The reason for his banishment remains murky. This much is clear: Organizers from the four groups collaborating on the rally -- ANSWER, United for Peace and Justice, Not In Our Name and Bay Area United Against War -- agreed that any one partner could veto a proposed speaker who had publicly criticized it, and ANSWER vetoed Lerner.
Some say that's because Lerner, while urging people to work with ANSWER on peace movement issues, also has denounced the group's rabidly anti-Israel, pro-Saddam politics. But Lerner says that the agreement giving ANSWER veto power over its critics was merely a pretext used by the group as an excuse to keep him off stage. The real reason for his exclusion, Lerner believes, is that, while he is unrelenting in his opposition to Ariel Sharon's government and his call for Palestinian statehood, he supports Israel's right to exist and condemns Palestinian terrorism. An ANSWER spokesman seemed to confirm Lerner's theory when he told WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer that the group wouldn't allow a "pro-Israel" speaker at its demonstrations. A Tikkun press release framed the decision this way: "Progressive Rabbi Banned From Speaking at Peace Rally Because of His Pro-Israel Stance."
Lerner knows better than to equate criticism of Israeli policy, no matter how harsh, with anti-Semitism. But he believes ANSWER crosses the line into bigotry. "It is anti-Semitic to make it sound as though Israel's repression of human rights is the worst instance of repression of human rights going on in the world today," he says. "It is not racist to criticize black crime, but it is racist to criticize black crime when you're not criticizing much greater white crime."
As it turns out, two other rabbis, David Cooper and Pam Frydman-Baugh, are scheduled to speak at the rally, as is a representative from Jewish Voices for Peace. They were invited by United for Peace, and ANSWER didn't challenge them. That's why Liat Weingarte, director of campaigns and programs at Jewish Voices for Peace, insists that anti-Semitism wasn't a factor in the Lerner affair. ANSWER didn't return Salon's call seeking comment.
Still, Lerner says the protest's organizers would never have allowed anyone to be banned from speaking for criticizing racism or homophobia in the peace movement and asks, "Why should anti-Semitism be treated differently?"
Thus while the antiwar demonstration in San Francisco will likely feel perfectly welcoming to Jews, ANSWER's blackballing of Lerner has quickly emerged as a symbol of the authoritarian and anti-Semitic tendencies that have left many grumbling about the group.
By Monday night, Michael Berube, a Penn State English professor who writes frequently about cultural politics, and Marc Cooper, a contributing editor at the Nation, had started a petition saying, "At a time when the antiwar movement needs as broad a platform and as broad an appeal as possible, ANSWER has chosen instead to put the interests of sectarianism ahead of the interests of all those who oppose this foolish and unnecessary war.
"We believe this is a serious mistake," continued the petition, "and that it exemplifies ANSWER's unfitness to lead mass mobilizations against war in Iraq." It was signed by some of the leading lights of the democratic left, including Todd Gitlin, Ellen Willis, Stanley Aronowitz, Robert McChesney and Katha Pollitt. On Tuesday, Tikkun started circulating it.
