Rabbi Obama

David Toube in the Jewish Chronicle for this week points out that one of Obama's wife's cousins is a rabbi. A black one, converted from having been in the American Methodist Episcopal Church. From the cross to the draidl he spun. OK, no problem with that. But bear in mind that his brand of Judaism is not exactly what Mamonoides or Ehud Olmert would be into.
Being from the US, I recongnized exactly what kind of synagogue this is - it is akin to the Nation of Israel which claimed real Jews were black. They stood around Times Square in New York trying to peddle this, and no surprise they got little response. Not far removed, physically or ideologically, there were other groups of African-Americans who called themselves the Nation of Islam, and most Moslem groups were not keen to get in with them. For years they preached through loudspeakers in Times Square that the white man was the devil. In prison this group was big, lots of drug dealers suddenly became adherents in the Tombs. Once the handcuffs came off, they were reading the Koran.
Their free speech was not appreciated by most New Yorkers, including fellow Moslems and the many law abiding African Americans who did not want them to represent their community. A non-partisan petition was signed, and finally acted on by Mayor Giuliani in the '90s. Now they are gone, along with the many sex shops that were so much an eyeore in the heart of the Big Apple.
Speaking of Giuliani, I have to admit I was in favor of his bid for presidency, and still do not understand why it got scuppered, but that is history, and McCain is running, so I support him. Especially in light of the strange religious connections that Obama has; on one hand, he seems to hang out with anti-Semites, on the other, he has a rabbi for a cousin; or is his cousin an anti-Semite in disguise - and will he be preaching that the white man, most Jews included, are the devil? I hope simply that I never find out. Some day in the future, I hope, Obama will be but a footnote in history, and he will be sitting at the back of a church, or shul, wiser for his loss.