Rob Eshman writes in the Jewish Journal:
Bill Clinton, Ann Coulter, James Carville — over the years American Jewish University’s top-notch lecture series has hosted plenty of people who have infuriated plenty of people.
But evidently, when it comes to being infuriating, Karl Rove is in a class unto himself.
How else to explain the barrage of e-mails and phone calls that series organizer Gady Levy received when he announced Rove would be the second speaker in the 2008 season? The thrust of the complaints: How dare Levy give a forum to this man?
Levy was shocked.
"Bottom line, the purpose of the Public Lecture Series is to engage the community in an honest discussion about the issues, which includes both sides of the debate," he explained to me in an e-mail. "I wanted to include Rove specifically because he does not represent the voice of the majority of our community. I felt (and still do) that it is critical for us to gain insight into his perspective on the current administration and the issues of the day."
Both sides of an issue — how dare Levy. Something has happened in the Jewish community, all across the political and religious spectrum, and it isn’t good.
Somehow too many people in the Jewish community have become stuck in a very dangerous place: their comfort zone.
They are loathe to confront and really hear ideas that differ from their own, and they cleave to the company of voices that echo their preconceived ideas and long-formed opinions.
I don’t think this problem is symetrical. James Carville is every bit as much on the Left as Karl Rove is on the Right yet I doubt Republicans flooded the American Jewish University with complaints over Carville’s selection as a speaker.
