Thursday the rabbi got fooled
By Moshe Phillips
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield can be counted among the foolish people who thought that they knew Muzzammil Hassan and what he stood for. "Mo" Hassan is the Islamic TV executive who confessed to murdering his wife and leaving her decapitated body in the offices of the Bridges TV network they created together. Rabbi Hirschfield was fooled by Hassan into believing he was interested "fostering understanding between cultures and diverse populations."
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is a foolish rabbi. Rabbi Brad is the president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL) and wrote the foolish book You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. In that 2008 masterwork Rabbi Brad attempted to overturn thousands of years of Jewish Thought and proclaim that there is no absolute truth. Foolish book. Foolish Rabbi Brad.
Rabbi Brad foolishly decided he wanted to be a TV star. His foolish show is called Building Bridges: Abrahamic Perspectives on the World Today, which began airing on an American Islamic TV network called Bridges TV in 2006. The foolish show is described as "Rabbi Hirschfield is joined by Christian and Muslim leaders to look at world events from their common Abrahemic Roots."
Foolish Rabbi Brad thought that he was working with "moderate" Muslims. On February 12, 2009 Muzzammil Hassan, the founder of the pro-Islamic Bridges TV network, beheaded his estranged wife Aasiya Zubair Hassan. "Mo" Hassan had violently abused his wife when they lived together.
The controversial Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) organization presented Muzzammil Hassan with an award at the first banquet of their Pennsylvania chapter on April 7, 2007. CAIR National Chairman Parvez Ahmed posed with Hassan for pictures at the Hilton Hotel in Philadelphia. Investor's Business Daily in a March 6, 2007 editorial declared CAIR to be "the PR machine of militant Islam."
A second TV series called, American Pilgrimage, was created by Foolish Rabbi Brad for Bridges TV in 2008. It was described as "bringing viewers into the homes and mosques of Muslim leaders across the country..." Rabbi Brad most not have cared about CAIR.
One wonders what Foolish Rabbi Brad thought of the abuse in the Hassan family's home.
Foolishly Newsweek magazine declared Rabbi Brad to be "one of the nation's 50 most influential rabbis." The media loves foolish rabbis. Rabbi Brad has a weekly radio show and has been on PBS many times.
On PBS Foolish Rabbi Brad criticized the "extremist" Jewish Settlers in Judea and Samaria (that he foolishly referred to as the "West Bank"). PBS spoke to Foolish Rabbi Brad for their Frontline pogrom, er program, about the September 11th Islamic terrorist attacks.
For PBS Foolish Rabbi Brad stated: "It's just that when I look at those terrorists, I don't see something wholly "other," because I know from my own life experience what it means to allow your most deeply felt beliefs to motivate you to do violent things to other people. Now, it's true, I haven't done anything even approaching that. I don't even think that Jewish terrorists have done — and there are Jewish terrorists who are using the traditions I hold most dear to justify and to motivate their terror — have done anything approaching that. But I'm not going to sit here and pretend it's wholly other, because it's not. When I look in their faces, I do see the shadow side of what were once some of my dreams and aspirations, and continue to be for some of my teachers from that time."
Foolish Rabbi Brad compared the 9/11 hijackers to fellow Jews. Now that's not just foolish; that's what our forefathers used to call beyond the pale.
FOXNews.com reported on Feb 17, 2009 that Foolish Rabbi Brad stated the following on the day of Aasiya Zubair Hassan's funeral "I will only say to those who leap to the conclusion that this kind of thing is intrinsic to Islam, ask yourselves if you think that drunkenness is intrinsic to Irish Catholics, or cheating in business is to Jews?" The statement came from Rabbi Brad's foolish "Windows & Doors" blog on beliefnet.com.
How can one even begin to respond to such foolishness?
Jews in America have a choice. Be foolish and allow Rabbi Brad to participate in organized Jewish life or shun him as the fool he is and hope that he finds a real job more suited to his intellect. Perhaps as a stable boy cleaning horse manure from barns?
And now let us join in prayer: May G-d bless and keep Foolish Rabbi Brad far, far away from us.
© Moshe Phillips
February 25, 2009
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield can be counted among the foolish people who thought that they knew Muzzammil Hassan and what he stood for. "Mo" Hassan is the Islamic TV executive who confessed to murdering his wife and leaving her decapitated body in the offices of the Bridges TV network they created together. Rabbi Hirschfield was fooled by Hassan into believing he was interested "fostering understanding between cultures and diverse populations."
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is a foolish rabbi. Rabbi Brad is the president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL) and wrote the foolish book You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. In that 2008 masterwork Rabbi Brad attempted to overturn thousands of years of Jewish Thought and proclaim that there is no absolute truth. Foolish book. Foolish Rabbi Brad.
Rabbi Brad foolishly decided he wanted to be a TV star. His foolish show is called Building Bridges: Abrahamic Perspectives on the World Today, which began airing on an American Islamic TV network called Bridges TV in 2006. The foolish show is described as "Rabbi Hirschfield is joined by Christian and Muslim leaders to look at world events from their common Abrahemic Roots."
Foolish Rabbi Brad thought that he was working with "moderate" Muslims. On February 12, 2009 Muzzammil Hassan, the founder of the pro-Islamic Bridges TV network, beheaded his estranged wife Aasiya Zubair Hassan. "Mo" Hassan had violently abused his wife when they lived together.
The controversial Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) organization presented Muzzammil Hassan with an award at the first banquet of their Pennsylvania chapter on April 7, 2007. CAIR National Chairman Parvez Ahmed posed with Hassan for pictures at the Hilton Hotel in Philadelphia. Investor's Business Daily in a March 6, 2007 editorial declared CAIR to be "the PR machine of militant Islam."
A second TV series called, American Pilgrimage, was created by Foolish Rabbi Brad for Bridges TV in 2008. It was described as "bringing viewers into the homes and mosques of Muslim leaders across the country..." Rabbi Brad most not have cared about CAIR.
One wonders what Foolish Rabbi Brad thought of the abuse in the Hassan family's home.
Foolishly Newsweek magazine declared Rabbi Brad to be "one of the nation's 50 most influential rabbis." The media loves foolish rabbis. Rabbi Brad has a weekly radio show and has been on PBS many times.
On PBS Foolish Rabbi Brad criticized the "extremist" Jewish Settlers in Judea and Samaria (that he foolishly referred to as the "West Bank"). PBS spoke to Foolish Rabbi Brad for their Frontline pogrom, er program, about the September 11th Islamic terrorist attacks.
For PBS Foolish Rabbi Brad stated: "It's just that when I look at those terrorists, I don't see something wholly "other," because I know from my own life experience what it means to allow your most deeply felt beliefs to motivate you to do violent things to other people. Now, it's true, I haven't done anything even approaching that. I don't even think that Jewish terrorists have done — and there are Jewish terrorists who are using the traditions I hold most dear to justify and to motivate their terror — have done anything approaching that. But I'm not going to sit here and pretend it's wholly other, because it's not. When I look in their faces, I do see the shadow side of what were once some of my dreams and aspirations, and continue to be for some of my teachers from that time."
Foolish Rabbi Brad compared the 9/11 hijackers to fellow Jews. Now that's not just foolish; that's what our forefathers used to call beyond the pale.
FOXNews.com reported on Feb 17, 2009 that Foolish Rabbi Brad stated the following on the day of Aasiya Zubair Hassan's funeral "I will only say to those who leap to the conclusion that this kind of thing is intrinsic to Islam, ask yourselves if you think that drunkenness is intrinsic to Irish Catholics, or cheating in business is to Jews?" The statement came from Rabbi Brad's foolish "Windows & Doors" blog on beliefnet.com.
How can one even begin to respond to such foolishness?
Jews in America have a choice. Be foolish and allow Rabbi Brad to participate in organized Jewish life or shun him as the fool he is and hope that he finds a real job more suited to his intellect. Perhaps as a stable boy cleaning horse manure from barns?
And now let us join in prayer: May G-d bless and keep Foolish Rabbi Brad far, far away from us.
© Moshe Phillips
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
