When one starts referring to himself/herself as a liberal, undoubtedly they start espousing ideas and slogans so contradictory to what a liberal really is. They don't even know the definition. They start going OFF on Christians and Jews, people they consider "backwards" and foolish. YET, they have the utmost respect for Muslims and frequently align with them in political parties. What happend to liberals backing gay marriage? Ooops, out the window b/c Muslims don't agree. The liberals of today are not very liberal at all. They are in awe of the Muslims and have become their mouthpiece. It is an unholy alliance and I can only imagine the tie that really binds the 2.

I couldn't agree with you more. I consider myself to be extremely liberal on a number of issues and, as such, I can't even fathom supporting these Muslim regimes with their racism, homophobia and misogyny. However, the problem is that, in some cases, the far left has co-opted much of what was true liberalism. And, basically, it boils down to the fact that if your skin is darker than theirs is, you must be an underdog and a victim of colonialism and therefore deserving of their sympathy. That's how you end up with some gays, feminists and human rights activists excoriating a free and democratic country like Israel and treating Muslims like the eternal victims. You can see it with the situation in the Sudan. Why is it that organizations which spoke out vociferously (and rightly so) against apartheid, haven't been screaming bloody murder about the genocide that's been going on for more than twenty years now. It's because, in this case, the oppressors are Muslims, rather than white Europeans, and so the far left feels it's incumbent upon them to be more circumspect in their criticism of that murderous regime.

But intolerance, bigotry and hatred are exactly what Israel's religious community are all about, especially the Haredi community This is exactly the reason why we are still a third world country

Unfortunately, there are fundamentalist versions of all religions and such literalist interpretations tend to lead to hatred and bigotry. A more "evolved" or metaphorical interpretation of holy texts is probably more conducive to encouraging a loving kindness or compassion towards others. There are evolved versions of Islam too, like the Sufis for one. I'm partial to the Kabbalah in the Jewish faith, though personally I guess I'm more of a pantheist. I'm curious, is "traditional Judaism" one that interprets the Bible literallty? Is it open to the Kabbalah? I know of one Jewish professor who has been called Self-hating because he criticizes the Israeli government. But that doesn't make sense to me.

... your comment just show how rabbi Brackaman is right. I don't see a difference between you, who hates judaism, and some haredim who hate the secular people. You are both a danger for the sake and unity of the jewish people.

The self-hating Jew is alive and well and living in the UK. These Jews are the ones who will align themselves to the Palestinians and Hezbollah irespective of whether the behaviour of both fall within any moral compass. Therefore you have Harold Pinter and Gerald Kaufman virulently attacking anything to do with Israel while proclaiming 'but we are Jewish!'; and the so-called academics who wish to boycott Israeli students and institutions; and then there are the '36' who gladly proclaimed their aversion to Israel's right to self-defence. However, there are many, many more who indulge in perpetuating anti-Semitism in their writings because they feel that they have the right to do so as they are 'assimilated'. These people are either stupid or naive - or both.

What an abysmally flawed, worthless excuse of an 'article'. Medinat Yisrael ITSELF is anti-semitic. What right does a person who defends an antisemitic entity have in calling anyone else antisemitic?

I, for the most part, agree with this article. I've actually just recently made a website dealing with this in the hope that we can strengthen Jewish unity worldwide. Feel free to drop by and sign up, it would be great if we could have some help getting the community started. www.globaljewishcommunity.com

Interesting phrase "self-hating'. A person can only become 'self-hating' when he no longer sees himself as a created being. After all, it is God who has created us all, and it is him alone that makes us differ from one another. Everything about us from the colour of our eyes to our 'sex' to what country we are born in, we had no 'say' in what so ever.So I believe the focus is wrong, rather then exalting ourselves or our cultures or religion [which is just a system of worship] we should be exalting God and seeking to do his will which to me is 'love' And you can't put a fence around 'love' and say it is exclusively yours.

Because they are comparable to all the "self-hating" Germans who I am sure the good Rabbi who wrote this article has the greatest praise for. Being a "self-hating" Jew comes as a compliment rather than an insult.

Rabbi Brackman (and some talkback posters) make the mistake of associating the phenomenon he's criticizing with something to do with liberal politics., when in fact it's a social issue. As most people will tell you from experience, it tends to be more conservative types, who are trying to appear WASP-ish, who don't want to be seen associating with a bearded guy in a black hat, and it's in conservative places like Colorado.

I'm glad that Rabbi Brackman has courageously opened this discussion, but I take issue with the cynical use of claims of "intolerance" and bigotry by Orthodox Jews. This claim is ridiculously used by religious people when secular Jews don't accept religious coercion. I hate to break it to religious people, but women wearing tank tops and Jews eating pork and seafood is not "being intolerant", it's simply living life differently. Too often religious people use the false charge of "intolerance" to their sensitivities, to hide their own intolerance of legal behavior, which should be tolerated in a democracy, Instead of letting secular people live their lives as they wish by driving on Shabbat and marching in gay pride parades, religious people all too often use PHYSICAL VIOLENCE to try and stop these activities. But beyong throwing stones, dirty diapers and stabbing people, Orthodox Jews have the chutzpah to claim that secular people are being "intolerant". Secular Jews go out of their way to tolerate religious people and religious coercion, but the respect is not returned. Secular people don't go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and try to stop religious services. The same cannot be said of religious people, who organize hate marches and violent protests against gay pride parades. It's not the secular people who are spreading hate and inciting violence. Does Rabbi Brackman remember how in the 1980s Chabad tried to prevent the City of New York from passing human rights laws to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination?

The fact that this man is infused with so much hate towards the homeland of his own people - only proves the interesting fact, that academic brilliance can coexist in a man's brain, in complete harmony with badly-degraded perception of reality (or in other words, stupidity).

NO, rabbi. NO. You are twisting facts for the impact of exaggeration - a slippery slope mastered by the sworn, eternal enemies of Jews. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you are not so ignorant as to not understand that it is the psuedo-facist ultra-orthodox practices others find disturbing. Jewish intellectuals object to any extremism that limits basic human rights, productivity, and enlightenment in the absolute sense.

Most people would never understand the lies told by Zionized Judaism or Zionized Christianity without the perspective of the self-hating Jew. Bravo to them all.

Yr comment was not correct. I do not hate Judaism. It is one of the most intelligent religions there is. I hate what it has been turned into by Haredim etc. We have seen the world over what extreme religion does

Along with his disciple, Uri Avneri.

With reply to mis-informed Rabbi Levi.Most BNP voters support the Jewish Community, Israel and their valiant cause.We in the UK are facing daily terrorist threats and like Israel are fighting a rear guard action against Islam.You should make an effort to know your Allies as well as your Enemies...............signed....BNP voter, Catholic,Nationalist and friend of Israel.

In this guy you find a typical others-hating "jew" (I don't think he's jewish, he's just a zionist)

So there are two others-hating "jews" in tis page.

I'm sure that some self-hating Jews are capable of dealing with their bigotry by education and an outreach by the Jewish community. Young self-haters may also be influenced by learning about the religion. However, I fear that the majority of self-hating Jews, nothing will change their points of view because they have signicant personality disorders or mental illness. Its a shame that many of the responders, like Marlene, have been overt Jew-haters or antisemitic Jews. Unfortunately, some of the writers cannot get over their liberal/conservative political agenda to really understand this syndrome.

from a serious mental instability In fact Their Liberalism in denouncing their own roots - is a sydrome = 'Stockholm Syndrome' Self-Hating Jews Work to Destroy Jews and Israel! Why don't they ALL convert since They LOVE and support Islamic Fascism

WHY I'M PROUD TO BE A JEW (author unknown) With war raging in the Middle East, with global terror reaching new heights, with global anti-Semitism on the rise, I thought it might be a good time to reflect on why I'm proud, more than ever, to be a Jew. I'm proud to be a Jew because Jews don't kidnap. I'm proud to be a Jew because Jewish education does not consist of teaching martyrdom and hatred. I'm proud to be a Jew because my religious leaders and religious services don't whip me into a frenzy to kill others. I'm proud to be a Jew because in the middle of a war, Jews still demonstrate and protest to protect the rights of the Arab-Israeli minority to voice their opposition to the war. I'm proud to be a Jew because even when Israel is wrongly and falsely accused of killing innocent civilians, Jewish leaders apologize immediately for any loss of life—instead of celebrating these deaths by passing out candy and shooting celebratory gunshots into the air. When the world accuses Israel of massacre in Jenin—when the world accuses Israel of bombing civilians on a Gaza beach—when the world accuses Israel of shooting a child cowering against a wall—when the world accuses Israel of bombing a Lebanese apartment building killing 56 civilians—when all of these accusations turn out to be totally false—to be vicious anti-Semitic lies—and when all along I knew in my heart that these stories just could not be true—and I'm later proven to be right—then I'm proud to be a Jew. I'm proud to be a Jew when my army, the Israeli army, drops leaflets and makes calls to Lebanese citizens on their cell phones to warn them to evacuate before bombing begins. I'm proud to be a Jew when the democracies of the world talk about fighting the war on terror, but only Israel is left alone to bear the burden of eradicating Hezbollah, the proxy army of Iran and Syria. I'm proud to be a Jew when entire Israeli towns in the north—Nahariya, Kiryat Shimona, Safed, are reduced to ghost towns due to the constant shelling, and yet not one looter has appeared to empty out the property of others. I'm proud to be a Jew when the Edinburgh Scottish film festival tells an Israeli director to stay home although his film is being screened and the director says "No, I'm coming." I'm proud to be a Jew because Mel Gibson is not a Jew. I'm proud to be a Jew when the UN's Human Rights Commission consists of countries like Syria, Libya and Iran and Israel is not asked to join. I'm proud to be a Jew when magician David Blaine announces his trip to Israel next week to entertain the children living in bomb shelters and tells the press he's doing it to encourage other performers to stand up for Israel and its right to defend itself. I'm proud to be a Jew when a Russian/Israeli businessman single-handedly creates not one but two tent cities on the beach to house Israelis fleeing the North and provides shelter, bedding, food and drink, showers and bathrooms—all done without red tape in a matter of 24 hours—to house over 6,000 Israeli's, one of whom described it as a "poor man's Club Med." I am proud to be a Jew when Israelis on the left and on the right support the government's decision to fight—when 97% of the country is united in its own defense—when Israeli's from Jerusalem give shelter to families from Haifa—when food from the Negev is donated to feed soldiers at the front—when the IDF deploys soldiers on special assignments to deliver diapers to shelters and to entertain and calm the frightened children. (...) Am Yisrael Chai.

Whether voters of the BNP are anti-Semitic or not is completely irrelevant. The BNP is a racist anti-Semitic organization and that’s BNP policy. For a self proclaimed voter admitting to not knowing BNP policy is a grave incitement of both their ignorance and lack of intelligence. Where I do see an advantage is that everyone understands what the BNP stands for. The most despicable people are so called liberals who fall over backwards not to offend Muslim sensibilities whilst not caring what so ever about normal working class people and creating a group of people who believe themselves to be dispossessed.

Tahi, How is Noam Chomski indictating that he has hate for his people?

I am a non-observant diaspora Jew who reads the Mishnah and Shakespeare with equal passion. The reason I am contempuous of and embarrassed by my Haredi brothers is because I do not believe we Jews, who are the Chosen People, should be defined by religious ritual anymore than we should be defined by the Zionist attachment to land. I support the State of Israel just as much as I support the yeshivot, however I am sick and tired and disappointed that we Jews as a people are represented on the world stage by religious teachers and IDF generals. The Jews are not condemned to religion anymore than we are defined by land. Recall that our role is to be the Light onto the Nations, and as such we are represented by the secular enlightened Jewish establishment - by the likes of Freud, Schoenberg, Kafka, Marx, Einstein, Herzl, Zammenhof, Anielewicz, Chagall, Kissinger, Gilbert, Libeskind (psychoanalyst, composer, writer, economist, physicist, journalist, linguist, warrior, painter, politician, historian, architect, respectively). These are the true representatives of the Jewish People - visionaries in their own fields and inspirations to the whole world - who are united by only one thing: their belief in a radical new path for humanity. This radical faith in innovation and the world is the true "tradition" of the Jews! And this is the path of those "free radicals" from the Torah - of Abraham, of Moses, and the Prophets - these are the true Jews: the avant-garde of humanity. And this is what the Holocaust destroyed: not Jewish religion or Jewish nationalism, but Jewish culture in all its beauty, power and glory. Never forget that when the Meshiach comes all the righteous gentiles will become Jews and that the "Jewish Homeland" is not Israel but the world itself or that the written Torah is just a shadow of the oral one - which is nothing less than the Book of Life itself: "God" and "Israel" are just footnotes - just as the Patriarchs ceded to the Kings and the Kings ceded to the Prophets and the Prophets ceded to the Priests and the Priests ceded to the Rabbis, so to the Rabbis will cede to the Everyman...

http://www.gilad.co.uk Read for yourself. I also like to propogate my hatred under the guise of music and "left" wing politics and the BBC give me awards for it as well. Read on and feel free to email me and tell me what you think.

Are these Jews then "self-hating" by your definition? They have a petition at www.jewishsolidarity.info/petition.php We, Jews of Conscience, demand that the U.S. government: 1. Require Israel to stop its brutal siege on Gaza and on Lebanon and call for an unconditional cease fire. 2. Require Israel to stop the expansion of the Israeli Wall of Separation, dismantle the completed sections, and completely withdraw from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 3. Support the United Nations resolutions demanding that Israel uphold international law and support the sanctions against Israel necessary to enforce these resolutions. 4. End military and economic aid to Israel. 5. Support reparations for the Palestinian and Lebanese people for the death and destruction they have suffered and for aid towards the rebuilding of their countries.

Well, my dear, self-hating Germans were also depicted as mentally unstable, and not good Germans, who were working to undermine Germany and the Aryan people. No racist state should be supported where one particular identity reigns supreme over others. The fact that you support Israel merely gives your validation to all forms of other despicable racism. Previously, I said being called a "self-hating Jew" was a compliment, now I add being called "mentally unstable" for not supporting Israel as a compliment as well.