It is virtually impossible to imagine anything more reprehensible than the recent spectacle of charedi Orthodox Jewish boys wearing yellow stars of David and simulated striped black-and-white concentration camp uniforms at a demonstration in Jerusalem. Offended by the Israeli authorities’ efforts to curtail the verbal and physical abuse of women and girls in charedi neighborhoods, the demonstrators knowingly and intentionally desecrated the memory of the more than 1.5 million Jewish children whose collective suffering and death will be remembered today (Friday, Jan. 27) at the United Nations’ annual Holocaust commemoration.

“This protest,” said one of the rally’s organizers, “reflects the Zionists’ persecution of the charedi public, which we see as worse than what the Nazis did.”

By right, I ought to thank Rabbi Immanuel Schochet for banning my book “Kosher Jesus,” because doing so further propelled it up the international bestseller lists, even in pre-publication. Bizarrely calling his own views “authoritative,” Schochet declared my book to be heresy, banned anyone from reading it, banned me from speaking about it, banned others from inviting me to speak about it, and refused to offer a single reason or explanation as to why.

This dictatorial edict follows a growing wave of religious fanaticism hitting the world Jewish community all at once with right-wing reactionaries seeking to impose a primitive dogmatism on those who believe Judaism can be Orthodox yet informed, Torah-based yet educated, true to halachic sources yet fearless in the marketplace of ideas. The Jewish community is not Iran and its rabbis are not the Revolutionary Guard. Let the ayatollahs burn books and condemn authors. Jews are the people of the book, not the people who ban books. We have all too much experience with the medieval practice of outlawing books. Schochet’s attack deserves to be pasted on a wall of Meah Shearim, not sent by mail, as it was, to Chabad emissaries around the world.

This past week, we had a reminder of what can happen when truth is bent way out of shape, and the resulting lie then repeated over and again until it gains an unchallengeable veneer of veracity. The just (and justly) resigned publisher of The Atlanta Jewish Times, in an opinion column, clearly and unambiguously suggested that Israel should assassinate the president of the United States.

In his column, the unthinking publisher wrote that assassinating President Barack Obama was an option that had to be considered. It would put Vice President Joe Biden into the Oval Office. Unlike Obama, he said, Biden is a true friend of Israel who cares for its security. In addition, he wrote, Obama is the sole reason why the United States has not acted decisively against Tehran’s nuclear program. Biden would shut down the Iranian threat with all deliberate speed.

The suggestion is despicable in every respect. What lurks beneath it, however, is even more insidious: The publisher is convinced that Obama is Israel’s enemy and cannot be trusted to help prevent its annihilation. It is a belief held by many in and out of the Jewish world.

What the president believes in his heart about Israel is probably known only to the president. None of us is God; none of us can know what is in anyone’s heart but our own.

We can, however, look at the record to see what clues it offers. That record, like it or not, puts this president firmly in the “friend of Israel” column; the myths regarding Obama notwithstanding, Israel itself acknowledges that.

The unprecedented security cooperation between the two countries puts the president firmly in another column — “cares for Israel’s security.” Obama referred to this in his State of the Union message Tuesday evening. “Our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security has meant the closest cooperation between our countries in history,” he said.

That is not a lie. Its truth was demonstrated yet again last Friday, Jan. 20, when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, visited Israel. “We have many interests in common in the region in this very dynamic time,” Dempsey said, “and the more we can continue to engage each other, the better off we’ll all be.” Translated, that means the United States and Israel need to get even closer as the Middle East becomes ever more unsettled.

Earlier this month, The Jewish Standard devoted a considerable amount of space to exploding the myths that dominate the discussion of where Obama stands regarding Israel. Some readers saw this coverage as a pro-Obama piece of propaganda. It was what it was advertised to be — an honest, unbiased comparison of myths to facts. If printing the truth is seen as taking sides, our democracy is in serious peril.

Jews, especially, know the evil that is the Big Lie. It was the most powerful weapon the Nazis wielded in their effort to make ordinary Germans and others complicit in our extermination.

The Standard’s motive was not to help re-elect the president but to begin an effort to “dial down” the rhetoric that depicts him as Israel’s greatest enemy of all time. We began to discuss this coverage in late November, coincidentally around the anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Obama today is being demonized as Rabin was demonized. The demonization cost Rabin his life. On the evening of Nov. 4, 1995, he was cut down by a man who allowed myths to obscure his judgment. Now, a seemingly rational and responsible man has suggested that Obama deserves the same fate.

In a democratic society, votes should be cast based on facts coupled with gut instinct. “Whenever people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government,” Thomas Jefferson said. Ignorance is not an acceptable substitute for informed opinion. We must not allow ourselves to be swayed by fantasies merely because we are too busy or too lazy to search out the facts.

It is okay to look at those facts and say that, nevertheless, we cannot vote for someone because we do not trust his or her sincerity.

It is not okay — not now, not in 1995, not ever — to so distort the truth that a target is painted on the forehead of another.

Next Saturday evening, Feb. 4, the North Jersey Board of Rabbis will present “Sweet Tastes of Torah III.” On this night, people from all across northern New Jersey will come together to study topics of Jewish interest as taught by our community’s talented and knowledgeable rabbis. Among the offerings this year are: “Do you believe in magic: What happens when the demons all go away?”; “Anti-Semitism: The sound of silence”; “Let me behold your presence: How do we relate to God?”; “Lost in translation: Issues in translating the Bible”; and “Made by hand: the concept of personal touch in Jewish religious and social life.”

If you attended either or both of the two previous “Sweet Tastes” evenings, you surely know what an amazing experience it is and why it is you should attend again this year. If you have never attended, let this be the year you give it a try.

“Sweet Tastes of Torah” proves that Jewish learning can be fun, as well as informative. For more information, go to http://www.jfnnj.org/page.aspx?id=210525.

I think that Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer’s understanding of the Lubavitcher rebbe’s statement about the theological “explanation” of the Shoah is flawed.

It is my understanding that the Torah does teach the principle that the pursuit of mitzvot promotes good fortune and the (relative) failure to do so promotes the opposite. Among several references see Devarim: 28-30.

However, to claim understanding that any particular mitzvot leads to any particular blessings (or vice versa) any particular failure(s) leads to any; particular misfortune(s)  for any individual or groups or nations across the flow of time represents the most egregious hubris. It is the highest level of self worship and disrespect for God.

This was surely not the intent of the rebbe. I believe that he was merely pointing out mankind’s astonishing ignorance of God’s

See Isaiah 55:8-9.

To hear the relentless bashing of President Obama’s record on Israel, then read Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer’s almost glowing support of it (“What is Obama’s record on Israel?” Jan. 6), one has to wonder if we are talking about the same president. I suspect the reality lies somewhere in between. 

From all I’ve heard and read, the security cooperation and U.S support of Israel’s defense under the Obama administration is superb. Likewise, I agree with Rabbi Engelmayer’s assessment of incidents such as the off-the-record conversation between Obama and France’s President, Nicholas Sarkozy, which was essentially much ado about nothing. Sarkozy was the only one in need of explaining. That said, there was no mention in the article of an issue that for me, and I suspect many others, was of major concern and likely set the tone for the negativity. Perhaps it will also serve as a response to last week’s letter writer who was looking for concrete examples.

Early in his term, in his desire to jumpstart the proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Obama put enormous pressure on Israel to freeze building projects meant to address natural growth within the settlements, which soon morphed into demands to cease construction in Jerusalem as well. No such pressure was put on the other side. The Palestinians pounced on this apparent show of support, became more intransigent than ever, and thus began a very ugly and damaging chain of events culminating in the Palestinian demand for statehood at the U.N. In other words, by his early actions, everything Obama did afterwards was viewed as suspect by many, whether justified or not. He has no one but himself to blame for that. 

Your Jan. 13 issue expressed justified indignation at the charedi Israelis who trivialized the Holocaust by comparing themselves to its victims. Yet this very same issue then published a letter that compared Israeli charedim to Iran. While recent charedi behavior has indeed been abominable, they do not throw acid on women’s faces nor do they kill their daughters for allegedly shaming the family, nor do they torture, hang, or shoot homosexuals. Just as the charedim trivialized the Holocaust, the letter-writer trivializes the sufferings of millions of Iranians tortured, murdered, and repressed under that satanic regime, and it unnecessarily exaggerates the already intolerable excesses of the charedim.

JERUSALEM – The Muslim Brotherhood did not initiate the current upheavals in the Middle East, but the Islamist parties in Egypt, as in Tunisia and Libya, are the chief beneficiaries of the collapse of North Africa’s authoritarian repressive regimes.

In Egypt itself, the two largest Islamist groups — the Brotherhood and the Salafists — overwhelmingly won the second round of legislative elections held in December, battering the secular and liberal forces.

The Brotherhood (with over 40 percent of the vote) was founded in 1928. It has never deviated from its central axiom: “Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Koran is our law; jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”