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The Chief Bee Whisperer, a leftist UCLA ‘rabbi’ who kicked a pro-Israel Jewish woman, the lecturer behind ‘an Introduction to Islam for Jews’ and a rabbi who claimed Hamas is ready for ‘peaceful coexistence’ signed a letter attacking Israel’s campaign against Hamas after Oct 7.
The ‘open letter’, billed as a “Jewish Orthodox response” and a “call for moral clarity” against Israel has been written up by anti-Israel outlets like the New York Times, JTA and The Forward is mostly made up of anti-Israel activists and leftists, appeasers and the completely deluded.
“In my assessment it is possible to make peace with Hamas,” Rabbi Michael Melchior, the fourth signatory (his sons Jair and Joav are also signatories) had argued, claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood was open to co-existing with Israel but “that of course has never been reported here, because it doesn’t fit into our picture of Islam” and insisted that Hamas had “always kept their parts of the agreements”.
After Oct 7, Melchior claimed to be “shocked and disappointed” by the atrocities, but went on defending Hamas. “It was a personal disappointment because I know that there were very strong forces within Hamas who didn’t want the attack.”
Another of the signatories is ‘Rabbi’ Chaim Seidler-Feller, a former UCLA Hillel boss, currently with the fringe leftist Shalom Hartman Institute, whose own moral clarity manifested when he, in his own words, “hit, kicked and scratched” female pro-Israel journalist Rachel Neuwirth.
“I saw my rabbi take swings to Neuwirth’s face and kicks to her legs,” one eyewitness described after the assault provoked by the woman’s support for Israel and opposition to terrorists. Seidler-Feller had to be pulled off the diminutive woman by “three or four large college men.”
Since then, Seidler-Feller has continued signing letters condemning Israel for defending itself.
While Seidler-Feller had attended an Orthodox seminary at Yeshiva University in 1971, he stopped being an Orthodox Rabbi a few years later and was not actually ordained until he was later sent an ordination certificate in appreciation for soliciting money from Barbara Streisand.
This still makes Seidler-Feller more of an ‘Orthodox rabbi’ than many of the signatories.
A quarter of the ‘rabbis’ signing on to the letter, like ‘Rabba Amalia Haas’, the Chief Bee Whisperer of a company that “teaches about climate change through Jewish texts”, Rabba Aliza Libman Baronofsky, Rabbi Dina Najman, Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez, Rabbi Emily Goldberg Winer, among 20 female ‘Rabbis’ signing on, were never Orthodox rabbis at all.
Orthodox Judaism does not ordain or maintain female rabbis as a basic matter of Torah, tradition and law. A significant number of the signatories to the letter are therefore non-Orthodox clergy posing as Orthodox clergy in order to undermine Israel’s fight against terrorism, and to make it appear that there is actual opposition to the fight within the Orthodox community.
Who’s actually behind the letter which falsely claims that Israel is responsible for “starvation” and complains that “Israeli extremists” responded to Oct 7 (which was backed by the vast majority of the enemy population) with “blanket suspicion of the entire population of Gaza”?
The anti-Israel letter was posted on the website of Torat Chayim, a front group for Uri L’Tzedek, a radical leftist spinoff of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a non-orthodox social justice seminary pretending to be Orthodox which is responsible for ordaining many of the signatories.
Uri L’Tzedek was set up by ‘Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz’, a leftist activist who had converted to Judaism, who had previously laid out his vision for “an Orthodox Judaism rooted in social justice” and who has claimed credit for working to produce the anti-Israel letter while claiming that he has concerns about Israel’s “moral compass” and the “humanitarian crisis in Gaza”.
Yanklowitz had held study sessions with ‘Rabbi’ Jill Jacobs, the head and member of anti-Israel groups, including J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet and T’ruah which promotes boycotts of parts of Israel. Some signatories of the anti-Israel letter like ‘Rabbi’ Jonah Winer (He/Him) of T’ruah, are also members of anti-Israel hate groups. (Jonah’s wife, ‘Rabbi’ Emily Goldberg Winer of Beth Sholom is also a signatory.)
The anti-Israel letter tears the mask of Uri L’Tzedek which after Oct 7 had pretended to be pro-Israel. The group even fielded a ‘slate’ for the World Zionist Congress under the completely misleading name of Dorshei Torah Ve’Tzion (Seekers of Torah and Zion) which on a field of waving Israeli flags laid out a platform that claimed to include ‘Zionism and Support for Israel’ (alongside “LGBTQ Inclusion” and a call for “security and dignity” for the “Palestinian people”.)
The Uri L’Tzedek, Eshel (LGBTQ), JOFA (feminist) and Yeshivat Maharat (a feminist seminary) slate included multiple signatories to the anti-Israel letter including ‘Rabbi’ Aliza Libman Baronofsky, Rabbanit Leah Sarna, Rabbi Max Davis and Rabbi Barry Dolinger.
Uri L’Tzedek, like other post-Orthodox groups, claim that it draws support from an underrepresented part of the Orthodox Jewish community, but who’s really funding it?
The list of sponsors for Uri L’Tzedek consists of non-Orthodox leftist groups and includes the Nathan Cummings Foundation, tied to the Soros network, and was the funder for a variety of anti-Israel groups including J Street, the Israel Policy Forum and Americans for Peace Now.
Other backers include liberal the Koch’s Stand Together Foundation. The Koch libertarian network does not normally back Jewish groups with the exception of anti-Israel ones.
Finally, Uri L’Tzedek is funded by one of the most notorious backers of the most extreme anti-Israel groups: the Puffin Foundation. Puffin, which blatantly celebrates Communism as an ideal, funds Jewish Currents, a spinoff of the old Communist Party’s Yiddish paper, which accused Israel of “genocide” and described Hamas atrocities as “resistance”.
Simone Zimmerman, a former employee of Uri L’Tzedek and a founder of the anti-Israel hate group If Not Now, wrote in the publication, calling for a communal endorsement of BDS and declaring that “Jewish communities should ask themselves ‘What would you have done to stop the annihilation of the Jews of Europe?’ and should do just that for Palestinians now. You are either for genocide or against it.”
Uri L’Tzedek vet Zimmerman had described immigration authorities as “the American Gestapo” for deporting Hamas supporters and slurred Jews fighting antisemitism as “Nazi collaborators” for supporting Jewish students being assaulted by antisemitic mobs on college campuses.
This is the money and the real agenda lurking behind the latest anti-Israel letter.
Despite the media hype, the anti-Israel letter does not represent Orthodox Jews or any kind of legitimate rabbinic movement. Many of the ‘rabbis’ signing the letter are not qualified to be Orthodox rabbis, their ordination disproportionately comes from the non-Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah social justice institution, or from Yeshivat Maharat, which had been set up by the YCT network to ordain female rabbis. Many are not practicing rabbis, but are academics and activists who use a ‘rabbi’ title to bolster their credibility. Some have entirely different professions in medicine or law. Few actually have functioning congregations. A number are ‘campus rabbis’ or teach at various non-Orthodox institutions where there are no religious standards.
Their views are not those of Torah or the Orthodox Jewish religious tradition.
Despite claiming to be Orthodox rabbis, a number are affiliated with non-Orthodox institutions like ‘Rabbi Wendy Zierler, PhD she/her’ who teaches Feminist Studies at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College. Rabbi Dr. Michael Chernick also teaches at HUC.
As the Coalition for Jewish Values, an actual Orthodox Jewish organization notes, the signatories include “several openly gay clergy” like Steven Greenberg, a gay man, as well as Rabbi Daniel Landes who had ordained a gay man, also incompatible with traditional Jewish practice. Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez serves on the National Council of Jewish Women’s (NCJW), a group that defended collaborating with anti-semitic and anti-Israel activists Rabbi’s for Repro Advisory Board and has advocated for abortion as a “Jewish right”.
The list is full of fringe leftists involved in feminist theory, gender theory and queer theory like Tyson Herberger, who studies “queer issues in Judaism”. Rabbi Dr. Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz is a feminist scholar who offers online courses such as ‘An Introduction to Islam for Jews’. Rabbi Dr. Joshua Feigelson runs the Institute for Jewish Spirituality which promotes mindfulness and meditation. Rabbi Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein has promoted using Hinduism to “stretch Jewish thought”. Rabba Aliza Libman Baronofsky claims to be the parent of a “non-binary child”.
All of these are fringe views that are as representative of Orthodox Judaism as a ham sandwich.
The vast majority of Orthodox Jews stand with Israel. Just as the vast majority support President Trump. Unlike the majority of American Jews, they do not believe that Judaism must defer to liberalism and that it must adopt leftist definitions of justice to be a moral foundation. And the more they stand strong, the more the Left, under its various guises, tries to get in.
The New York Times may promote the lie that these leftist front groups taking a stand against Israel represent Orthodox Judaism, but actual Orthodox Jews will always know better.