UPDATE: Unhinged Rabbi Reacts to Dr. Bostom Lecture in Barrington – Attorney Responds/Video
This story was updated on December 17th with an ‘open letter’ response to the offending Rabbi by Karen D Hurvitz, Legal Council for Education Without Indoctrination, an organization dedicated to ridding K-12 curricula of foreign-influenced propaganda.
Further below is the original story. Here is the open letter:
OPEN LETTER TO RABBI HOWARD VOSS-ALTMAN
I am writing to respond to your wildly unfactual letter to Lisa Daft and Jacob Brier in which you claim that Dr. Bostom’s ”hateful views on Islam” are not meant to be edifying but rather “intended to demonize a religious minority…” and in which you urge them to focus not on the rise in Islamic antisemitism, which has been “a given for generations,” but instead on the “glorification of Donald Trump” which you claim has somehow been responsible for antisemitism.
Dr. Bostom is an immensely respected physician and scholar. His body of work is painstakingly documented and is a richly comprehensive study of Islamic history and doctrine – which yes, for generations, has been unwaveringly anti-Jew. Steven T. Katz, Director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University has praised Dr. Bostom’s corpus of work and said that after the publication of The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism “the oft-repeated but erroneous misunderstandings of a tolerant Islam…will need to be permanently retired.” If Rabbi Voss-Altman studied Dr. Bostom’s research, he would learn that Dr. Bostom is not demonizing anyone; he is presenting a factual history which Jews and others would be wise to educate themselves about.
As for Rabbi Voss-Altman’s equally baseless, defamatory remarks about President Trump, he might, again, pay attention to the facts: Trump has reversed long-standing US policies on several critical security, diplomatic and political issues to Israel’s favor. These include the Iran nuclear accord, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, stopping payment to UNRWA because of their vilely anti-Israel textbooks which incite violence, stopping payments to the Palestinian Authority unless they renounce their “Pay-For-Slay” policy (which they refuse to do), treatment of Israel at the UN, and the status of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Unlike the current administration, which immediately restored those payments and released billions to Iran, and has delayed arms sales to Israel, Trump has threatened Hamas, not Israel, and will give Israel what it needs to win the war in Gaza.
Rabbi Voss-Altman disagrees with some of these pro-Israel polices (see his column at
https://www.jewishrhody.com/stories/we-need-to-speak-with-candor,70824) and favors a two-state solution, which Trump will leave up to the parties to negotiate. But disagreement with Trump does not merit name-calling and the facts show that it is beyond ridiculous to say that Trump is an anti-semite.
No, Rabbi, Dr. Bostom does not have “heinous views”. And yes, he does represent the Jewish community – especially those Jews who love Israel and have been educated to the dangers of Islam.
Very truly yours,
Karen D. Hurvitz, Esq.
DECEMBER 16, 2024 STORY
The organizer of a lecture this Wednesday evening, “Antisemitism By The Numbers” by Dr. Andrew Bostom, received a “rather nasty email” in response to invitation to attend from the local Rabbi of the Temple in town.
Nasty is an understatement … “completely unhinged” would be more apt.
The lecture will explore that data behind the theological drivers of antisemitism since the October 7, 2023 terror attacks in Israel.
The December 13th email (below) from Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman, spiritual leader of Temple Habonim in Barrington, RI, is addressed to one of the leaders of the host committee, and is replete with virtually all of the typical woke left-wing tropes and ignorance of real-world events … that many have come to expect from an individual suffering from TDS.
The Rabbi further further sought to sew local division by copying the radical-left former town councilman, Jacob Brier, on the email.
Said the event organizer in a promotional email, “I am hoping you will all consider joining me for this informative lecture Wednesday night. I would like to show our jewish neighbors and friends that we support them. Antisemstiism is on the rise even in the US. Dr. Bostom has written a book on the matter and was recently on Newsmax discussing recent protests and events.”
The lecture, open to the public is Wednesday, December 18th, at 7:00pm at the Barrington Public Library and is sponsored by the Barrington Republican Town Committee. The committee promises that additional independent validating data will also be reviewed.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Dr. Bostom has agreed to be guest this Thursday on #InTheDugout with Mike Stenhouse at 4pm on the Current.
The full email can be read below. Agree or disagree with the Rabbi? Reader comments can be sent to OceanStateCurrent@RIFreedom.org
Dear Lisa,
Perhaps we haven’t met, and I certainly don’t know your background at all, but speaking as a Jewish leader in the East Bay, I consider this event to be contrary to fundamental Jewish values and, quite frankly, basic decency. Dr. Bostom’s hateful views on Islam are not meant to be edifying: they are, instead, intended to demonize a religious minority in our community. This is not something we do in our Jewish community. We do not demonize other religious minorities, especially those who have stood with us on many sorrowful occasions. When 11 Jews were murdered in Pittsburgh by a right-wing white supremacist, our Muslim allies were there standing with us. When the white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville in 2017 shouting “Jews will not replace us,” our Muslim allies stood with us in solidarity. The Republican Town Committee’s decision to invite a radical anti-Islamist (not to mention a physician whose views about masking and public gathering during Covid are considered well outside the mainstream medical consensus) demonstrates a severe lack of judgment and discretion about our community and the values that define us.
Has there been a rise in Islamic antisemitism in the Middle East and in Europe? Yes, I’m sure there has been. But that’s been a given for generations, and Dr. Bostum’s lecture isn’t about what’s going on in Europe or the Middle East (And if you claim that his talk is about Europe and the Middle East, why do Republicans in Barrington find this issue so urgent?) Instead of focusing attention on Islamophobia (our Muslim neighbors enjoy little power or influence so they are an easy target for demagogues like Dr. Bostum), the antisemitism we need to be concerned with is the future occupant of the White House. The President-elect dines with antisemites.The President-elect appoints Nazi sympathizers to important positions in his administration, e.g. Sebastian Gorka; the President-elect said (to a gathering of Jews) that if he lost the election it would be the fault of the Jews. One of the President-elect’s closest advisors, Tucker Carlson, amplified the “Great Replacement” theory (a vicious antisemitic canard) not dozens, but hundreds, of times on Fox News. If you want to address the rise of antisemitism in the United States, it begins with the glorification of Donald Trump in 2016, his support from right-wing vigilante groups (the Proud Boys), and the authors of Project 2025 (his advisors and associates) who seek to end the First Amendment’s establishment clause and wipe away the single most important protection for every American Jew – the separation of church and State.
Please know that I will be there – in respectful protest and dissent – of this man’s heinous views. Rhode Island’s Jewish community is aghast that this man has been invited to speak in Barrington. He does not represent us. He does not represent our fight against antisemitism, and his views will only further inflame the divide that is currently undermining our nation.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman
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