Bra-vo!
Well, it seems some Jewish leaders aren't afraid of reminding the American public that the crimes of Hitler actually DO have lessons for present day America. America's Taliban is going to flip over these comments.
Get ready for the war of words - this Jewish leader is going to need our support, because he's right, Hitler DID start with the gays, and the religious right and conservatives in America seem to have taken a page out of the playbook of every effective dictator in the past - slowly use the law to legislate your political opponents, especially minorities, out of existence. You start with their basic human rights, then end up getting rid of them.
And anyone who doesn't think it could happen in America, have a talk with a Japanese-American who spent time in a US internment camp, or a black-American who got to drink out of a separate drinking fountain, or an Arab/Mulsim-American who got thrown in jail without access to an attorney or a court of law or any due process at all because we were "convinced" he was a terrorist so there was no need for a trial, or a gay-American who has had their child taken away from them simply because they're gay.
The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them "zealots" who claim a "monopoly on God" while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler's.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, said "religious right" leaders believe "unless you attend my church, accept my God and study my sacred text you cannot be a moral person."
"What could be more bigoted than to claim that you have a monopoly on God?" he said during the movement's national assembly in Houston, which runs through Sunday....
He used particularly strong language to condemn conservative attitudes toward homosexuals. He said he understood that traditionalists have concluded gay marriage violates Scripture, but he said that did not justify denying legal protections to same-sex partners and their children.
"We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations," Yoffie said. "Yes, we can disagree about gay marriage. But there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires of anti-gay bigotry."
