I received an email today from Martin Oliner, chairman of the Religious Zionists of America (RZA), and organization whose motto is “The Land of Israel for the People of Israel according to the Torah of Israel.” In the interest of disambiguation, I should point out that to my knowledge there is no connection between Mr. Oliner’s organization and this RZA.
Although I recently learned there may be a family connection between us — my father’s mother’s mother was an Oliner from Galicia (Galitzia), which is where Mr. Oliner said his parents were born — before today the only messages I’ve received directly from Mr. Oliner’s RZA edress (email address) were the organization’s weekly Torah portion commentary emails.
Today’s message from Mr. Oliner’s RZA edress, however, was not a Torah commentary; it was this Jan. 21 anti- “Obamacare” column from the Washington Post by Charles Krauthammer headlined, “Everything starts with repeal.” The RZA email’s only content besides the column was the message’s subject line which said, “Krauthammer: Saying OCare reduces the deficit is a ridiculous joke”
In view of the nature of the RZA’s email, I hit “reply” and wrote:
How does this blatant partisan U.S. domestic political propaganda conform to what I assume is your non-profit and perhaps tax-exempt religious or educational purpose?
It didn’t take long for me to receive this response:
Thank you for your note. Our domestic policy portends our foreign policy. Distribution of the article is not meant to endorse any positio[n.]
Now I get it! The RZA probably supports President Obama’s health care plan — after all, the State of Israel has long had universal national health care — but just can’t say so openly because of the ramifications that might have for the organization. Silly me. I must not be very bright.
Luke (aka Levi) Ford, blogger-in-chief and owner of this website, highlighted an excerpt from the same Krauthammer column here under the headline “Repeal Obamacare,” an act which now makes no sense to me because Luke, like Krauthammer, apparently strongly opposes “Obamacare.”
