Michael Lerner (rabbi)

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Michael Lerner (rabbi) bigraphy, stories - American rabbi

Michael Lerner (rabbi) : biography

1943 –

Michael Lerner (born 1943) is a political activist, the editor of Tikkun, a progressive Jewish interfaith magazine based in Berkeley, California, and the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Berkeley.

Goldstone report and vandalism of Lerner’s home

Lerner is one of a small group of Jewish leaders who supported Judge Richard Goldstone after Goldstone released his United Nations report that accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the winter 2009 Gaza war. After Tikkun magazine announced that it would award Goldstone with its Tikkun Award, Lerner’s home was vandalized several times, with posters caricaturing him as a Nazi.

Television appearances

Lerner has been a guest on Larry King Live several times. On March 5, 2006, he discussed his book The Left Hand of God on C-SPAN. Lerner was part of a panel of religious leaders on Meet the Press with Tim Russert on April 16, 2006. He was interviewed on Jewish reactions to the Christian Zionist movement of Rev. Hagee on the Bill Moyers PBS show on October 7, 2007.

Awards and honors

While at the Seminary, Lerner was elected national president of Atid, the college organization of the United Synagogue of America. In 2005 Lerner received the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders Prize from Morehouse College in Atlanta in recognition of his work in forging a "progressive middle path that is both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine" in his book Healing Israel/Palestine and in his writing in Tikkun magazine.

Lerner’s views

Positive Judaism

Lerner, a rabbi in ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, promotes the concept of Jewish Renewal, a small Jewish movement which he describes as "positive Judaism", rejecting what he considers to be ethnocentric interpretations of the Torah. His publications promote religious pluralism and progressive or liberal approaches to political problems. He has, for example, been outspoken against attacks on immigrant communities in the United States,See especially Tikkun Volume 7 and has attempted to build bridges with Christian, Buddhist and Muslim leaders around such issues.Particularly through the Network of Spiritual Progressives

Lerner’s call for a spiritual transformation of American society was first articulated in Tikkun and then in his book The Politics of Meaning. Lerner developed these ideas further in his books Spirit Matters (2000) and The Left Hand of God (2006).

In 2004 Lerner became chair of The Network of Spiritual Progressives whose mission was to "challenge the materialism and selfishness in American society and to promote an ethos of love, generosity, and awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe." In 2007 he launched a campaign for a "Global Marshall Plan".

Lerner strongly objected to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. He supports the adoption of the Geneva Accords as a basis for an independent Palestinian state.His 2004 book The Geneva accord:and other strategies for healing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict elaborates this position. North Atlantic Books, 2004 ISBN 1-55643-537-1, ISBN 978155643537

In February 2007, Lerner published a column entitled "There Is No New Anti-Semitism," in which he criticized some American Jewish organizations for labeling critics of Israel as antisemites. He was especially critical of the Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which he characterized as "Israel-can-do-no-wrong voices in American politics." Lerner wrote that this mentality, which frequently leads to accusations that Jews who oppose Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians are "self-hating Jews," is alienating young Jews who "say that they can no longer identify with their Jewishness."

Controversy

Lerner describes some of his views as "very controversial," particularly his views about building peace between Israel and Palestine. In 2003, the San Diego Jewish Journal described Lerner as "the most controversial Jew in America," writing that "He is relentlessly critical of Israel. He eulogizes Rachel Corrie. And he’s done more for peace than any conservative we know." That same year, the executive editor of The Jewish Exponent wrote that Lerner "supports every measure against Israel short of its immediate destruction and often makes common cause with those who do plot the eradication of Israel’s Jews."