[was: Lerner and a split in San Francisco demo]
Max writes >... Lerner is organizing jews as jews. For all I know Chomsky is secular. ...<
Most of my knowledge of Rabbi Lerner is hear-say, so I'll drop him. But I do want to comment on the above.
As seems to be the case with Chomsky, most Jews in the U.S. are secular.[*] Lerner is organizing Jews as _religious_ Jews; he's the "go-to guy" for the leftish reform-Jewish community. On the other hand, the folks I see on most Sundays -- the Sholem community and the national & international network they belong to -- are organizing secular Jews as a group (including goys such as myself, because I'm married to a secular Jew). As indicated by the name of the group -- "Peace" -- the group isn't just pushing Yiddish (instead of Hebrew) but is politically active. Many of the members attended the anti-war demos last weekend. The students must be involved in the community in some way. (My son did some work for ACORN.)
[*] For those who don't know, the distinction is sorta like the Italians as an ethnic group versus Italians who are Catholics and Italians who aren't Catholics. The analogy doesn't fit exactly, since almost all ethnic Jews -- to the extent that we can use that phrase, given the wide variety of Jewish ethnicities -- avoid other religions besides Judaism. Unless you consider atheism to be a religion...
Jim
