Reform Rabbinical Leader Speaks At Liberty University

Earlier this week, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, spoke at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. The liberal rabbi stressed those things that his Reform Jewish Movement believes in common with fundamentalist Christians. These include support for Israel, love for America's religious vitality, and concern about America' moral crisis. Yoffie's talk (full text) also emphasized the importance of church-state separation in the United States:

It is understandable, perhaps, that we may feel victimized and under attack and look for quick fixes. And so we hear calls, sometimes from evangelicals and sometimes from others, for prayer in the schools and lowering the wall of church-state separation. But let us beware of simple answers. As a Jew, I don't like it when other Jews find an anti-Semite under every bed; I don't believe that Judaism is seriously imperiled, and I don't think that Christianity is under siege either. Neither do I want to ask the government to solve our problems by imposing its will. Government coercion generates resentment, not godliness, and it is never a good idea to put the government in charge of our thinking.

Today's Forward has an excellent article on the talk that was given at as part of a Wednesday morning prayer service that is mandatory for students and faculty at the University.