Jewish Funds for Justice: Hundreds Of Rabbis Call On Murdoch To Sanction Beck, Demand Apology from Ailes
January 26, 2011 4:03 pm ET by Media Matters staff
Jewish Funds for Justice announced today that hundreds of rabbis have signed an open letter to Rupert Murdoch requesting that "Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust and Roger Ailes apologize for his dismissive remarks about rabbis' sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air." In the past, Jewish Funds for Justice has been critical of Glenn Beck's attacks on George Soros.
From the Jewish Funds for Justice press release:
NEW YORK - Hundreds of rabbis are taking News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch to task in an open letter to be published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal and the Forward, demanding that he sanction Fox News Host Glenn Beck for his repeated perversion of the memory of the Holocaust. The letter also demands an apology from Fox News Chief Roger Ailes for his characterization of Jewish critics as nothing more than "left-wing rabbis."
The letter signed by rabbis from across the United States -- including the heads of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements as well as prominent Orthodox rabbis - accuses Mr. Beck and Mr. Ailes of diminishing the memory and meaning of the Holocaust.
The letter states, "In the charged political climate in the current civic debate, much is tolerated, and much is ignored or dismissed. But you diminish the memory and meaning of the Holocaust when you use it to discredit any individual or organization you disagree with. That is what Fox News has done in recent weeks, and it is not only 'left-wing rabbis' who think so."
Mr. Beck's three-day series defaming Holocaust survivor George Soros sparked the letter from rabbis. At that time, Mr. Beck claimed Mr. Soros survived the Holocaust as 14-year-old boy by collaborating with the Nazis to send other Jews to the death camps.
Previously:
Jewish Funds For Justice Calls On Murdoch To Fire Beck
Jewish Funds for Justice video calls attention to Beck's unacceptable rhetoric
Jewish Funds For Justice: 10,000 American Jews Signed Petition Calling On Fox To Fire Beck
Jewish Funds For Justice Campaigns To Keep Beck's Radio Show Off The Air In NYC Permanently
The Jewish Funds for Justice Press Release in its entirety, below the jump:
For Immediate Release: Contact: Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications
January 26, 2011 (202) 265-3000; adam@rabinowitz-dorf.com
Hundreds of Rabbis from Across U.S. Call on Rupert Murdoch to Sanction Glenn Beck, Demand Apology from Roger Ailes
Leaders of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Movements Sign Open Letter
NEW YORK - Hundreds of rabbis are taking News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch to task in an open letter to be published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal and the Forward, demanding that he sanction Fox News Host Glenn Beck for his repeated perversion of the memory of the Holocaust. The letter also demands an apology from Fox News Chief Roger Ailes for his characterization of Jewish critics as nothing more than "left-wing rabbis."
The letter signed by rabbis from across the United States -- including the heads of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements as well as prominent Orthodox rabbis - accuses Mr. Beck and Mr. Ailes of diminishing the memory and meaning of the Holocaust.
The letter states, "In the charged political climate in the current civic debate, much is tolerated, and much is ignored or dismissed. But you diminish the memory and meaning of the Holocaust when you use it to discredit any individual or organization you disagree with. That is what Fox News has done in recent weeks, and it is not only 'left-wing rabbis' who think so."
Mr. Beck's three-day series defaming Holocaust survivor George Soros sparked the letter from rabbis. At that time, Mr. Beck claimed Mr. Soros survived the Holocaust as 14-year-old boy by collaborating with the Nazis to send other Jews to the death camps.
Mr. Beck said, that Mr. Soros "used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here's a Jewish boy helping send Jews to the death camps."
Mr. Beck's three-day attack on Mr. Soros was hardly the first time he has misused the Holocaust to incite viewers. The rabbis note Mr. Beck has made "literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom [Beck] disagree[s]." Beck routinely compares American leaders to Nazis, has likened his crusade against progressives to that of "Israeli Nazi Hunters," and has said that putting the "common good" first leads to "death camps."
In the face of mounting criticism by Jewish groups, Fox News chief Roger Ailes dismissed criticism of Mr. Beck in an interview with the Daily Beast as nothing more than "left-wing rabbis who basically don't think that anybody can ever use the word 'Holocaust' on the air."
The rabbis letter concludes with, "It is because this issue has a profound impact on each of us, our families and our communities that we are calling on Fox News to meet the standard it has set for itself: 'to exercise the ultimate sensitivity when referencing the Holocaust.' We respectfully request that Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust and Roger Ailes apologize for his dismissive remarks about rabbis' sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air."
The letter, which was organized by Jewish Funds for Justice, will be published on the same day as the United Nations observance of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, held annually on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
Among those signing the letter, Rabbi Steven Wernick, executive vice president and CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, said, "The ease at which Fox News routinely tramples upon the memory of the Holocaust and likens policies with which they disagree with to those of the Nazis is disturbing. After years in the news business, we hope Mr. Murdoch will not let his legacy be his complacency to Glenn Beck and Roger Ailes."
Rabbi Felicia Sol, spiritual leader at Congregation B'Nai Jeshurun in New York City and a Jewish Funds for Justice board member, added, "The memory of the Shoah is sacred to Jews everywhere and those who were fortunate to survive that time period have earned the right to live out their days in peace and with pride. We call on Mr. Murdoch to stand up to Beck and Ailes and silence their hate-filled rhetoric for good."
Mik Moore, the chief strategy officer for Jewish Funds for Justice who helped organize the letter, said, "In today's post Tucson America, people expect our nation's leaders and media personalities to stop vilifying those they disagree with. We must find more respectful ways to interact with one another and Fox News must be a part of these efforts to change our national discourse."
Below please find the rabbis' letter to Rupert Murdoch in its entirety:
January 27, 2011
Dear Mr. Murdoch:
We are rabbis of diverse political views. As part of our work we are devoted to preserving the memory of the Shoah, and to passing its lessons on to our future generations and to all humankind. All of us have vigorously defended the Holocaust's legacy. We have worked to encourage the responsible invocation of its symbols as a powerful lesson for the future.
We were therefore deeply offended by Roger Ailes' recent statement attributing the outrage over Glenn Beck's use of Holocaust and Nazi images to "left-wing rabbis who basically don't think that anybody can ever use the word, Holocaust, on the air."
In the charged political climate in the current civic debate, much is tolerated, and much is ignored or dismissed. But you diminish the memory and meaning of the Holocaust when you use it to discredit any individual or organization you disagree with. That is what Fox News has done in recent weeks, and it is not only "left-wing rabbis" who think so.
Abe Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, a child survivor of the Holocaust, described Beck's attack on George Soros as "not only offensive, but horrific, over-the-top, and out-of-line." Commentary magazine said that "Beck's denunciation of him [Soros] is marred by ignorance and offensive innuendo." Elan Steinberg, vice president of The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, called Mr. Beck's accusations "monstrous." Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, called them "beyond repugnant." And Deborah Lipstadt, professor of Holocaust Studies at Emory University, says Beck is using traditional anti-Semitic imagery.
"I haven't heard anything like this on television or radio -- and I've been following this kind of stuff," Lipstadt said. "I've been in the sewers of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial more often than I've wanted."
We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News. It is not appropriate to accuse a 14-year old Jew hiding with a Christian family in Nazi-occupied Hungary of sending his people to death camps. It is not appropriate to call executives of another news agency "Nazis." And it is not appropriate to make literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom you disagree.
It is because this issue has a profound impact on each of us, our families and our communities that we are calling on Fox News to meet the standard it has set for itself: "to exercise the ultimate sensitivity when referencing the Holocaust."
We respectfully request that Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust and Roger Ailes apologize for his dismissive remarks about rabbis' sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air.
-END-
And Mr Soros doesn't control 100 Jewish Rabbis who wrote the letter. This group announced the presence of the letter. If you want to go further along this line, you're seriously getting into antisemitism and should re-consider, imo.
Mr. Soros doesn't control all the people who visit this site but most all fully support his liberal agenda.
Jewish americans come from all political camps, questioning the motive of some doesn't make a person anti semetic.
People get their news here so that makes it a news site. People complain about alleged Fox lies but take the MMFA word as gospel.
Seems ridiculous if the mission of MMFA is to monitor misinformation in the media by spreading unreliable info and and half-truths.
Really? Could you find me one of those people?
Accusing a 14 yr old jewish boy of aiding and abetting the nazis in the holocaust ISN'T antsemetic to you?
"Accusing a 14 yr old jewish boy of aiding and abetting the nazis in the holocaust ISN'T antsemetic to you? "
- No. By definition this is not anti-semitic.
Really? Cause you said so? Got a link to that definition?
I see this person thinks differently...
And this proves you to be an idiot that has no idea about the world around you.
--MagCync's Intern
Country clubs denied memberships to Jews, and a Jewish friend of mine was asked to entertain at a club and to promptly leave as soon as she finished. You obviously have lived a limited intellectual life.
The point is he is transmitting anti-Semitic stereotypes of the worst kind almost on a daily basis for the psycholgical manipulation of his audience.
They accusing him of trivializing the holocaust by frequently invoking Nazi imagery to disparage his political foes. Not to mention his wild-eyed conspiratorial attacks on a 14-year old George Soros.
What the JFJ is actually saying is that how Beck has portrayed Soros' individual Holocaust experience is completely inappropriate. He is misrepresenting what Jews had to do in order to survive, twisting it to mean Soros went against his kin for person gain, in some evil way.
Beck is wrong about that, it is slander, and his boss needs to hold him responsible.
Beck isn't just "wrong", he totally distorted the episode from Soros' youth.
Soros accompanied his guardian to the former home of wealthy Jews who had fled the country and he did none of the things Beck accused him of - NONE!
Beck is doing exactly what Roger Ailes hired him to do and Beck's actions have probably earned him more than one bonus.
As vile as Beck is, he can't hold a candle to Ailes.
Beck hates. Period. His viewers need to understand this.
Like the typical right wing authoritarian, Beck is religious, views everything as black and white and VICIOUSLY attacks anyone who opposes his masters.
(...if he had one)
I'm going with the Rabbi's.
I am afraid it is just a very tricky situation. I dunno if they have tried in private or through channels to adress the matter.
The whole thing about Beck is that no matter what anyone says he will use it for his purposes. The psychological manipulation works. There is no doubt he would be able to use the letter as another prop in his show, turn it around and fit it into his conspiracy theory and say basically the Jews are trying to shut him down.
Given Becks status, the 2012 election and Fox obvious important role I am sceptical the letter will change much. Beck is a reference point for many people, even if he would be fired by Fox he will continue his work on radio and the internet.
But in the end, there comes a time, you simply need to stand up say something. The time has arrived now as the broad support of the letter shows and the more than justified complaint about Beck.
Beck has NEVER faulted the actions of the BOY (Soros) to survive when he was 14 YO. Watch the ENTIRE episode and it is crystal clear. In addition, Beck speaks against Soros, the MAN, and the BEHAVIORS of Soros. Beck has NEVER attacked Soros for the sole reason that Soros is Jewish. Don't believe everything you read and even less of what you hear.
Do your OWN research and don't swallow soundbites or headlines simply because they are easy.
At this point one would have to be both deaf and dumb to follow Beck into madness.
The Prince says, "I will stick to the not so swallowee "sound bites" above and I will read the headlines above."
You Arturus can swallow what Fox feeds you all day. And then you can use the shallow headlines which you have swallowed.
Did Beck NOT say the things above??
These folks live in a world of reversed Occam's razor logic where the most convoluted and least apparent answer (so long as it supports their agenda) is considered the most likely.
Do your own research they will say, parroting those who actually do their own research instead of just taking the words of the conspiracy cash cow crowd. In this case only so much research can be done. You see and hear someone make these statement, and you hear the response. What else can be researched? This is not a story about CBO numbers or Woodrow Wilson, this is a story about someone who made a specific accusation while on the public airwaves and on record on videotape that was broadcast to millions of homes.
No, Arturus, I think I'll believe my eyes and ears.
But, now that I'm armed with your newly-released secret info, maybe that's what I'll hear THIS time around. I'll let you know. ;)
Same story with his "reclaiming the civil rights legacy of MLK" for himself. I'm sure he personally believes MLK was an agent of the "jewish communist conspiracy" and as such his legacy is ripe for co-option and exploitation.
This garbage needs to be publicly confronted and disgraced whenever it rears it's ugly head. If you have a problem with unrestrained financial capitalism then regulate it, don't profit to the max off of it and then go after easy scapegoats when it fails.
It worries me honestly a lot that his manipulation machine is running every day, he reaches millions of people day by day and I dare to say most of them are so totally captured in the perfectly executed manipulation and are averted towards reason.
He is one of the sources to keep the pressure high in the pot.
As you said the scapegoating is already visible. Not good, not good at all.
Beck is doing nothing more than providing the public with information. He uses their own words, on video, on paper and at various sites.
He is no hater of the Jewish people. If anyone cared to watch and/or listen to him, they would know how he reveres and respects those of the Jewish faith and the land of Israel..
It would just be nice to see Beck have a Ted Haggard-esque sudden downfall into obscurity. Unlike Beck himself, and his followers, I am above wishing violence or death on others, but I will wish that he is brought out of power in a non-violent way. It would be funny to see a scandal break out one day that Beck got busted booty-bumping Fred Phelps and everything is over for him, and he can't subject people to death threats or assassination attempts ever again.
roflmao
This would be better if they published the named of all 400 rabbis.
Glenn has been a headache ever since he stepped foot at Fox News Channel. He's not liked by some of his colleagues and he knows it.
If Bossman Murdoch is smart, he pay off Glenn's remaining contract and show him the exit door. At least that's one headache gone.
It would be natural in the current crisis that angry crowds slay the "banksters", that we would see a left wing uprising. Instead they got Beck as a cheer leader to protest something else: Socialism of Obama healthcare, Obama will take all the blame when his stimulus would fail (which is going to happen as we all know). But the "banksters" still feel the heat, so they sacrifice their left wing independent mind, George Soros, a known critics of the banking system he is a part of.
He continues to push his narrative.
It's your boy George Soros. I need you to do me a favor, I will give you 50 million dollars. All I need you to do is write a letter to Rupert Murdoch of Fox New's and let him know how offended you and other rabbis are with Glenn Beck's portrayal of me. It is really hard to do business with people when they know I am trying to take over the world. So all I need you to do is to try and make Fox News look like the bad guy, so that way my quest won't be derailed. I already have my servants at Media Matters ready to post the letter. So if you are willing to do this for me that would be much appreciated, and again, I will pay you A LOT of money.
Your boy,
George Soros
P.S. Welcome to the team!!!
I will write to George Soros. He will be glad to know his clones are acting in accordance to his plan.
*truth reversed to meet right wing irony and hypocrisy requirements
Do we choose the Star of David or the 1st Amendment?
ABORT... ABORT...START FLAGGING...TERMINATE REASON BEFORE KNOWLEDGE SPREADS....
But, it's useless to even try to explain the obvious to the clueless.
That comment got removed.
That's what these people are copy-right enforcers.
His theme: Is America on the way to Serfdom?
Liberals talking about Conservatives is acceptable, it is referred to by the clones as "truth."
Conservatives talking about Liberals is unacceptable, clones refer to them as "bigots" and "racists."
It is all part of the Evil Emperor's(George Soros) Plan.
Media Matters - Darth Vader
liberals on this site - Clones
George Soros comes up with the ideas (Evil Emperor). Media Matters enforces the ideas (Darth Vader). You just say, "yes master" (Clone).
Best analogy you have ever heard? I think so?
You know, somebody who repeats verbatim what Beck says has no place to call other people "clones".
In other words........that's a big NO.
Most members of a society migrate to other societies that have belief systems similar to their own, or where they see opportunity. I think portions of Europe would better suit most everyone in here.
How is your research going? Found evidence a 14-year old jewish boy living under Nazis has sent other Jews to death camps and took their land? Yes?
Only an idiot can believe a 14-year old boy could and would be able to do these things.
And maybe, just maybe you have so much reason left in you that you do understand that 14-year old boys didnt take land away from anyone or sent people to death camps because there existed executive organs, you know, with adults who were assigned to these tasks.
Really, how stupid, can you be, not to understand the difference between adults and children, betweeen a jewish boy and the organization HJ?
No kidding, and what makes you think that they don't, the fact that you just don't like what they have to say?
Darth Vader knows everything about the Evil Emperor.
This is just illustration # 1,239,475 of the perceived power and threat that Glenn Beck and Fox News are to the dying progressive movement.
these leftist Soros funded Rabbis
Please go ahead and prove that. How many of the 400 Rabbis are leftists? How many of them are funded by Soros?
the irony in using Nazi and Holocaust sensationalism to smear Glenn Beck and Fox News in response to what they claim is an insulting use of Nazi and Holocaust sensationalism by Glenn Beck and Fox New
Yeah, so ironic that they are as- any reasonable person - pointing out the abuse and misrepresenting of history in Glenn Becks programm and they dare to voice their opinion about a subject they care about. What a joke, right. How can they even quote the things Beck and Aisle
have said?
the useful idiots of MMFA. Idiots right, that is a really strong argument than you describe them as useful.
This is just illustration # 1,239,475 of the perceived power and threat that Glenn Beck and Fox News are to the dying progressive movement
Define progressive movement? Who and what is this progressive movement? I dont mind fact in that context.
My question is, and I am sure it will come out eventually, are we sure that Soros wasn't actually a communist? Why did Soros applaud the election of "ex-communists" in Hungary?
I am not denying my beliefs. Could you get please a little more absurd than comparing me and Soros? He isnt a communist, btw.
As always I advice gathering informations, understanding terms, educating yourself, could happen you might actually learn something. Dont be scared of it. It is fun.
Their greed has no bottom, and you enable them by your stubborn inability to see through their diversionary tactics.
This is perhaps displayed most revealingly in his constant "Star Wars" analogies, which have also been taken up by some of his acolytes who are posting here. Such metaphors are then expounded on, like mathematical formulae to make points that are even self-defeating from the point of view of the propounder.
e.g.
1. George Soros = bad
Revolution = bad
George Soros + Revolution = very bad
(Thus, logically, the revolution in Czechoslovakia and the fall of Communism in that country = very, very bad?)
2. Communists = bad
Nazis = bad
Progressives = bad
Therefore, Communism + Nazism = Progressives, and Communism = Nazism = very bad. (Which explains why Hitler banned the Communist party in 1933, sending its members of to concentration camps and invaded the USSR who then received support from the "progressive" President of the US. Thus fighting against Hitler = bad?)
People who think so simplistically will always lead themselves down the garden path of hate to visit the weeds of violence.
As regards antisemitism, despite Beck's veneer of prosemite ramblings, in his treatment of Soros he clearly uses antisemitic imagery and concepts; "the puppet master", the rich and avaricous Jew", "the mendacious Jew who betrays his own people" and the most bizarre one of all "the revolutionary who is therefore a communist and simultaneously a capitalist.