Rabbi Michael Lerner was accused of speaking out of both sides of his mouth earlier this month, after Bay Area readers discovered vastly different variations of his Beyt Tikkun High Holy Day ads appearing days apart in local weeklies and the Jewish Bulletin.
While the Sept. 14 Bulletin ad is topped by a description of Beyt Tikkun as “A joyous, innovative, intellectually deep, politically progressive, social justice and ecology oriented synagogue,” ads appearing elsewhere earlier that week open with a far different preamble and layout.
Using large bold-face type, three bulleted paragraphs at the top of the ad read: “End the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza — and stop apologizing for Israeli human rights violations”; “Atone for the materialism and selfishness in American society…”; and “Transcend all forms of Jewish chauvinism and goyim-bashing…”
Lerner said it was not duplicity but an administrative mix-up that led to the differing advertisements, and he expressed shock that an ad appeared in the Sept. 14 Bulletin at all.
After reading Lerner’s ad in the Sept. 12 San Francisco Bay Guardian, Dr. Michael Franzblau of Greenbrae was perturbed by a different version appearing in the Bulletin two days later.
“I was surprised to see the same ad excluding material I consider pejorative, inaccurate and dishonest. If he believes in it, why did he take it out?” asked Franzblau, a national commissioner in the Anti-Defamation League. “He was using the technique of guys who sell soap and deodorant to peddle his wares, so to speak. Whether you like him or hate him, Rabbi Lerner is an important player. He’s a very public person, and, in fact, should be held to a higher standard of rectitude. In my opinion, he’s failed.”
Lerner said he has been running ads in roughly 10 local publications, updating them almost every week. He said he chose to use the eye-catching bullet points after he had been told his previous ads were too wordy.
Lerner claimed ads like the one Franzblau read in the Guardian also appeared in the East Bay Express and San Francisco Weekly. Such an ad didn’t appear in the Bulletin, Lerner said, because he and his staff forgot they had reserved space for the Sept. 14 edition.
“I didn’t think we were advertising in the Bulletin that week because that would be money thrown out,” he said. “What’s the point of advertising in a paper people receive Saturday for a Monday night service with a [reader base] that has already made plans?”
Lerner added that he wished the more political Guardian-type ad had appeared in the Bulletin because “people really need to hear those ideas.”
The rabbi dismissed suggestions of possible duplicity, stating his opinions and outspokenness are well-known, and he has no wish to gain favor within the organized Jewish community.
He said Jewish Bulletin readers “know that I speak very clearly against Jewish chauvinism, ending the occupation and ending the racism that exists within some segments of the Jewish community. It’s not as if somehow Michael Lerner is famous for hiding his views. If anything, I am well-known in the Jewish community for being clear and saying in public what so many other Jews only say to each other in private.”
Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, whose name was featured in all of the ads and spoke at Beyt Tikkun’s Sept. 18 Rosh Hashanah service, said she had no idea different versions of the ad appeared in different papers. She was taken aback by some of the language in the Guardian advertisement.
“I had no idea about ‘goyim-bashing.’ ‘Goyim’ is not a respectful word; it’s right up there with ‘shiksa.’ I certainly didn’t come to speak about ending goyim-bashing. It wasn’t as if I said, ‘Oh yes! That’s my field!'”
Remen, a Mill Valley author, physician and UCSF professor, emphasized that she did not appear at the services for political reasons.
“I had no idea a political statement was being made. I came because a group of people were trying to worship God, and I wanted to be a part of it,” she said. “I did not come to make a political statement, and I’m not aware a political statement was made. A spiritual statement was made. I wouldn’t say I’m upset, but I am puzzled.”