Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, Outspoken Scholar & Civil Rights Advocate, Is Dead

(Sorry, the full head line wouldn't fit. Though I had no direct knowledge of his works, sounds like he was another one of "the peace makers."

Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, Outspoken Scholar and Civil Rights Advocate, Is Dead at 84

By JOSEPH BERGER
Published: April 18, 2006

Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, a provocative scholar of Judaism whose contrarian religious and political views and dedication to civil rights found prolific expression in books, articles and essays, died yesterday. He was 84 and lived in Englewood, N.J.

The cause was complications of heart failure, said Eli Epstein, a friend. Mr. Epstein said Rabbi Hertzberg died en route to Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, N.J.

Rabbi Hertzberg seemed to savor taking on partisans from opposite sides of the same issue. After Israel's victory in the Six-Day War of 1967, for example, he rankled many Jews by proposing the creation of a Palestinian state. Yet when the Rev. Daniel J. Berrigan, the Jesuit antiwar activist, accused Israel of "militarism" and "domestic repressions" of Palestinians, saying they echoed those of the Nazis, Rabbi Hertzberg condemned him for "simplistic moralizing." "Let us call this by its right name: old-fashioned theological anti-Semitism," he wrote in an article.

As president of the American Jewish Congress from 1972 to 1978 and vice president of the World Jewish Congress from 1975 to 1991, Rabbi Hertzberg was in the forefront of efforts to protect the civil rights of Jews. Marc D. Stern, who is assistant executive director of the American organization today, said Rabbi Hertzberg "reveled in his iconoclasm."

(more at link)

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/nyregion/18hertzberg.html?ex=1145505600&en=154bfb8ee2984ed1&ei=5087%0A>

How can a rabbi not live with doubt? The Bible itself is a book of doubt.
Arthur Hertzberg

More:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/arthurhert186520.html



New Clergy Group to Push Liberal Causes

by Mark Tooley
Posted Jan 09, 2004

Frustrated that they continue to be overshadowed by conservative religious leaders, a new association of politically liberal clergy has emerged. Mostly comprised of old National Council of Churches (NCC) types, the Clergy Leadership Network (CLN) will focus on opposing U.S. military action and fighting for a larger federal welfare state, while criticizing religious conservatives.

Several of CLN's leaders were also formerly leaders in the Interfaith Alliance, another liberal religious group founded ten years ago with the nearly identical purpose of counteracting the "Religious Right."

"We're reaching beyond non-partisanship to engage issues of public life," declared the Rev. Albert Pennybacker, a former leader in both the NCC and the Interfaith Alliance. He said the CLN, of which he is chairman, will model itself after the Hebrew prophets, the "champions of justice in Muslim history," and the "man from Nazareth."

<snip>

CLN's unveiling, over which Pennybacker presided, was recently held in Washington, D.C. Members of the CLN's national committee include the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, and former NCC chief Joan Brown Campbell.

More:
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=2778

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