The Jewish Chronicle of London reports:
An American rabbi will join an extreme right-wing anti-Islamic-fundamentalist group in a protest outside the Israeli Embassy in London next week.
Rabbi Nachum Shifren, from California, said he was supporting the English Defence League because he opposed multiculturalism, and promised to act with “full force” against shariah law.
But his plans have been roundly criticised by Jewish community organisations. The Community Security Trust said that Jews who believed they could shape the EDL, or find shelter in the group, were “utterly deluded”.
Board of Deputies chief executive Jon Benjamin said: “Rabbi Shifren displays breathtaking naivety and ignorance in associating himself with the EDL and in the way he characterises the British Jewish community.
“Whatever the dangers of radicalisation in the UK, they apply just as much to the right as to the left and to Islamism.”
Posted by Duncan MacGillavary, Pasadena Patriot Tea-Party
on October 13, 2010 at 3:30pm
“Hello Pasadena Patriots:
Last night at our strategy meeting at the Green Hotel, we had the pleasure of listening to a passionate American Patriot, Rabbi Nachum Shifren, speak to us briefly about his candidacy for the California State Senate Seat – 26th District. After his talk, he received a rousing standing ovation by everyone in attendance. He is a model of the values and goals of Pasadena Patriots TEA PAC.
The good Rabbi left no doubt about his passion and love for America and its traditional values, freedom and liberty. He is a true American warrior and the only California public office candidate who is speaking-out publicly about the danger of Shariah Law being imposed on America by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose long-term objective is to abrogate / usurp the U.S. Constitution.
I would like to ask everyone who reads this blog help Rabbi Shifren anyway you can. If you know anyone who lives in his LA-area District (Hancock Park, Culver City, West LA areas) please let them know about his candidacy and his website below, following the article from “The Iconoclast”.
Thank you!”
Excerpts from The Iconoclast – Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Is Rabbi Nachum Shifren an “extremist”? – by Jerry Gordon
Rabbi Nachum Shifren, known as the ‘surfing Rabbi’, is a candidate for a California Senate Seat in District 26 in West Los Angeles. He is an Orthodox Rabbi, a product of the Chabad Movement that captured his attention at UC Santa Barbara and lead to his spiritual conversion. He ran away from his San Fernando home at age 12 to Malibu and became enamored of watching the strength and grace of surfers. He ultimately became a Los Angeles County lifeguard, surfer and an accomplished triathelete.
As he told us in a recent interview, he is the only declared California State Senate candidate who has come out against Sharia. He has spoken at Tea Party and Republican conventions. He considers members of the Tea Party movement and other Republicans as “the salt of the earth”. They are concerned about the direction in which the country is heading in under the Obama Administration. Among his admirers is Nevada GOP US Senate candidate, Sharron Angle who heard him speak at a national GOP meeting in Reno.
But in the midst of the final weeks of his California Senate campaign he is traveling to the UK to show solidarity with the anti-Islamic English Defense League. This has caused The U.K. Guardian to portray Shifren as part of an international web involving the US Tea Party Movement and the anti-Sharia cause. That in turn has made the British Jewish establishment uneasy about Rabbi Shifren’s appearances and speeches in Britain. But privately that is Shifren’s objective in making this trip to the UK.
He said as much in this quote from The Guardian Observer ‘investigation’:
Shifren, a Californian senate candidate, said Britain’s Jewish community should rally behind the EDL: “The Jewish community is paralyzed with fear, exactly what most radical Muslim agitators want. The people of England are in the forefront of this war – and it is a war. One of the purposes of this visit is to put the kibosh on the notion in the Jewish community that they cannot co-operate with the EDL, which is rubbish.”
This is far from his origins as a surfing San Fernando Valley guy who worked in the McGovern campaign in 1972. He frequently quotes Churchill about the transformation of liberal youth to conservative adulthood: “If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”
In 1991 he was able to secure teaching credentials in the Los Angeles school system because of his special skill, he could speak Spanish. That lead to a 22 year stint in what he characterized as a dysfunctional Los Angeles school system contending with Hispanic and African American gangs. Among his supporters in the California State Senate race are African American pastors who recognize his valued contributions during his career as an educator.
So is Rabbi Shifren an ‘extremist’. I think the answer can be found in the famed quote from the late Conservative and Libertarian Sen. Barry Goldwater in his 1964 GOP Convention Presidential nomination acceptance speech: “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
Why is Sharia Law relevant to voters in my district?
If we lose our freedom and individual liberties, if our culture becomes deleted and transformed into an alien apparition where our lives hearken back to a Middle Age darkness, all the great jobs and opportunities in the world are for naught. REMEMBER: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran have FULL EMPLOYMENT, WITH PLENTY OF BENEFITS!!
The video below will show my dedication to our Constitution and my fight to keep California, and America, free and safe:
Rabbi-for-Senate-State-Dist-26–Nachum-Shifren