Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Jan nine, first one of wee the four kass. It's
gonna be mostly cloudy day. Isolated showers may show up afternoon.
It's gonna be high ninety two, low one hundred, heat index, humid,
overnight muggy seventy six, a low and cloudy, partly cloudy.
Tomorrow hot humid ninety four with the heat index low
one hundreds. Tuesday night partly cloudy, muggy seventy three, and
on Wednesday, another partly cloudy day with scattered showers and
storms possible and a high of ninety two seventy six degrees.
(00:29):
Right now, let's turn it to Chuck and get a
traffic update from.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The UCF Tramphing Center, uc Health Weight Boss Center of
Verst Surgical and Medical Obcity Care and Expertise called five
one three nine three nine two two sixty three. That's
nine three nine twenty two sixty three. They cleared the
recks on seventy five both in two seventy five and
earl Linger and above Monroe. Traffic starting to get better
at both seth found seventy five slows just a bit
(00:55):
out of Walkman towards the lateral chuck Ingram on fifty
five krs the talks day.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Say twenty nine, think about here see the talk station.
Happy to look up and see in studio Rabbi Ari June.
He's been here before to talk about some other topics,
and good to see Rabbi. Welcome back, Thank you. It's
nice to be here. It's just always a pleasure engaging
in the elevated conversation with you. Have a tremendous amount
of respect for you. What you do remind my listeners
your position in the community and why it would be
(01:25):
you here discussing this matter, why you would comment about
the Robling suspension bridge, which we'll get to in a moment.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Absolutely so. I'm a rabbi in Cincinnati. I'm the senior
Rabbi of Temple Sholem and have been active in issues
in this community. For gosh, I'm not a real native Cincinnati,
but I've been here about fifteen years now, and there's
been this whole situation going on over the last few
weeks that started with the detention of any mom I'm
(01:54):
in Solomon on some immigration related issues and has sort
of taken on a life of its own, including this
protest over at the Ropeling Bridge.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Right now, I understand that people might protest ice detention
of Aiman Solomon. We were engaged in multiple protests about
immigration enforcement across this country. It's one of the biggest
topics out there politically speaking. Your perception of the detention
of i'man i'm in Solomon initially, where are you? Are
(02:24):
you defending him? Do you think it was an appropriate
detention Before we get to what actually unfolded on the
bridge as a consequence of the.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Protest, absolutely, you know, I will to cheat ahead a
little bit. One of the things I think is really
unfortunate about this protest at the Ropelining Bridge is it
draws attention away from the actual issue, which is you know,
this question about this particular detention of Imm Solomon and
immigration issues broadly. But so I'll pull back from that, right.
We're definitely going to get to that, oh, I know,
(02:50):
but to bring the attention to where I think it
should be. You know, Imm Solomon, we can only really
speak with confidence I think here about who he is
been as a member of our local community. You know,
he's been in Cincinnati for years now, been working as
a chaplain at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and in our community,
which is what we can speak with confidence about he's
(03:11):
been a model member of Cincinnati. You know, he's the
kind of guy who's shown up in the nicu and
working with parents who are in dire situations with children
are suffering. He has been to any member of the
Jewish community, a real ally that's good, showed up at
vigils to support Jews after October seventh, has you know,
(03:35):
been there with rabbis and Cincinnati who run the whole
spectrum from you know, from Reform to Orthodox, and been
a real friend and partner. Doesn't mean we agree on everything.
We don't agree on everything, but that's you know, that's
part of living in a pluralistic society is you can
make friends with people with whom you have disagreements.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So the I'm and obviously obviously not a Jewish person.
He's not a river to the Sea kind of advocate.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I think he's probably a critic of Israel in many regards,
and there are Jews who make the same sort of
criticism that he makes.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well, I have a lot of Jewish friends who also
will make the same pa It's okay to do that,
but he's not the kind of person who's looking to
wipe out all the Jews who live in Israel.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
One of the interesting thing about things about his case
is that he has pushed against people trying to connect
his particular situation right now, his detention and his immigration issues.
He doesn't want that connected to the Israel Palestine debate.
He's been pretty clear about that.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, it shouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, no, look, he's not Palestinian. First of all, he
is an Egyptian citizen who's been here on asylum. He,
like many members of our global Muslim community, has a
connection to the Palestinian community because they consider that, you know,
part of their people, so to speak. But he sees
(04:51):
a difference between some of these things, and yeah, he's
not a River to the Sea kind of guy.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, your point is, I think too many people well,
and I catch myself if I find myself painting with
too broad a brush, as they say, I'll call myself
out on I wait a second, maybe I was paint
with too broad a brush. Because you happen to be
Muslim doesn't mean you hold a particular ideological perspective as
it relates to the existence of Israel, or the eradication
(05:17):
of Israel, or how you feel about the Jewish people.
Generally speaking, the world's filled with opinions, and within the
Muslim community there are many varied opinions, much in the
same way you just pointed out there are many varied
opinions within the Jewish community.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Absolutely, and I there's something that strange that sometimes goes
on which concerns me, which is sometimes there's this if
you're Muslim, you're presumed guilty of anti Semitism until proven otherwise.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yes, and God, I hate it.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I think it's probably clear to those who know me
that I've dealt with plenty of issues of antisemitism personally
and professionally in my life. I am defensive against anti Semitism. Yes,
it does not mean that every person who's Muslim is
anti Semitic. It doesn't mean every critic of Israel is
anti Semitic. And I Mom, Solomon certainly is not an
anti Semite.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
All right, Well pause right now because we're gonna take
a break. But I'm wondering what is the connection, because
Rabbi I do not understand anti Semitism. To me, it's
like racism. Why would you hate someone merely because of
who they are the race of Jewish people? You just
immediately think they're all bad and evil and they're worthy
(06:25):
of some sort of form of hatred that's anti Semitism.
Is there a direct correlation between this, this concept of
anti Semitism, which I perceive to be the hatred or
the antagonism or evil toward Jewish people generally speaking, or
is it based upon the existence and creation of the
State of Israel. Let's just delve on that. A little
(06:45):
good bridge to the bridge should perfect. I'm glad you
perceive it to be that way. It's eight thirty five.
Rabbi Ari John in the studio will continue after these
brief words.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
This is fifty five karc an iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
It's Summertari Juhn in studio, trying to unpack the problems
of the world. We were talking about anti Semitism generally speaking.
Of course, this on the heels of i' mom Amen.
Solomon's detention by Ice. Obviously a well respected man in
the community. You mentioned some of his attributes. He's very helpful,
he's a bridge crosser, he reaches across the aisle, works
well with the Jewish community and other communities. Has done
(07:19):
some great work. So before we get to his trials
and tribulations. Addressing my question mark because as I say that,
I don't understand the hatred of a person for merely
being of a particular race, and so I can't hate
you for being a Jew just in and of itself.
There are people out in the world who hate black
people just because they're black. That makes no sense to
(07:39):
me either. You know, I'm like a you know, I
never met a man I didn't like kind of guy,
which is sort of you got to take the time
to know somebody before you're allowed to draw conclusions. And
because all these different people exist across broad political sUAS
within any given community, I can't draw a conclusion. It
wouldn't be fair for me to do so. But I'm
kind of curious to know if this concept of anti
(08:01):
Semitism has more of a connection with the creation of
Israel as a state and the displacement of the Palestinian
people or anybody else that got this place when Israel
was created in what nineteen four or nineteen forty seven?
So do you see that as being a sort of
a blurred line or maybe a problematic area.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
There's an intersection, no question. Look, anti Semitism has been
around for literally thousands of years. People call it the
oldest form of hate. You know, in our Western context,
a lot of people think of the Holocaust as being
like the start of antisemitism or something anything. But I mean,
there have been thousands and thousands of years of people
attacking Jews because of their identity. And what's unique about
(08:41):
anti Semitism a form of hate, is that it tends
to mutate throughout history. So generally speaking, in history, people
will target Jews for whatever the perceived gravest evil of
the time is. So, if capitalism is bad, Jews or
the capitalists. If communism's bad, Jews are the communists, you
name it. In the present day, when you know ethnic
(09:03):
nationalism trends are perceived as evil, Jews must be the colonialist, nationalist,
whatever group that's most evil in the world. So Israel's
connected to it, no question. But Israel's more of an
excuse than the impetus.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Right because it has been around for a long time.
Let's face it, the Holocaust came about as a consequence
of Jews getting the blame for the poor economic conditions
in Germany. That was an extension of the thousand plus
years of Jews being blamed for any other economic calamity
or another problem in the world. How is it they
became a target. How is it that that was a
default group? Is it because of the you represent a
(09:41):
minority status in the world in terms of global population.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
So the minority status thing is a huge part of it.
I think Also, Jews have, in different societies for the
last two thousand years, been a minority who was a
homeless group, so to speak. Right until the creation of Israel,
from you know, the year seventy CE until nineteen forty eight,
Jews were existing independently of their own homeland, moving from
(10:07):
place to place as a tiny minority, pretty easy to
pick off and scapegoat and target. You layer on top
of that religious differences intentions that existed between Christianity and
Islam and Judaism, and you've got the recipe for all
sorts of disaster.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Well. And in that context, you know, people who of
like minds tend to dwell together. I mean, it makes
perfect sense. If you're of the same religion, you're the
same race, and you don't have a land that you
can call your own, you're going to congregate in your
own community in any given country. That just makes perfect sense.
But you've also proven to be demonstrably successful. I mean,
(10:41):
I know from my discussions with my Jewish friends and
correct me if I'm wrong. You look out for each other.
You're part of that family of Jewish people. You help
each other in business perspectives, you elevate your fellow jew
And I mean, and because it is I suppose a
race predicated thing, there are people who are not of
(11:02):
the Jewish race Sammy Davis Junior, who can become Jews
by way of religion. It's a very difficult road to hoe.
But there's a sense of the race being a component
of being part of the Jewish faith as well, is
there not? Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So. The technical word for it is it's an ethno
religious group. It's that combination of ethnicity and religion. And
we do as a Jewish people, we try to take
care of one another. Yeah, I mean, I don't only
care about Jewish people. I know a lot of people
beyond the Aws in my community. But but yeah, you
take care of your family. That's that's a value in
our community, and that's been used against us of course
(11:38):
also at plenty of times that because we take care
of ourselves, there must be something wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Well, and the insular sort of perception of that is, oh,
look at that. You know, they're not letting them buddy in.
You know, I want to slice that action. Well, you know,
it's it's not that easy of a challenge to overcome. Yes,
you can become a member of the Jewish faith, but
I can't become a black person just I mean, because
of by virtue of who I am and where I
(12:04):
was born and where I came from.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
No, I mean, there's something, like I said, a little
bit unique about that Jewish identity that you can become
Jewish even if you're not originally part of the ethnic group,
so to.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Speak, I identify as a Jew. How's that I'll take it.
Rabbi GM We're gonna pause, take a minute early break,
because we're going to dive on into what the how
the situation unfolded and the rabbi's comments about the tragic
nature of how it unfolded, because it did take away
from the focus of the protest, which was the treatment
of I'm Aiman Solomon. One more time with Rabbi ri
(12:38):
Jun stick around fifty five KRC dot com. One more
time for the Channel nine first one forecast Heat Advisor
in effectial eight today because it's going to be hot
ninety two with the heat index of low hundreds and
some storms maybe after noon today, over Night muggy, partly cloudy,
low of seventy six. Tomorrow partly cloudy, hot, humid ninety
four and a lowe hundred heat index muggy and partly
(12:59):
cliver night love seventy three and another cloudy. Scattered showers
and thunderstorms possible on Wednesday, but another heat day ninety
two for a high closed out at seventy seven times
for final traffic.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Chuck from the UCL Tramphic Center, UC healthwake loth Center
offers sergeic coy, m medico A, b CD care and
expertise called five month three nine three two sixty three
nine nine twenty two sixty three. Crews just cleared an
accident out of the way eastbound for Washington Way. All
vanes were blocked just a bit ago. Now you can
make the ramp to Columbia Parkway and southbound four seventy
(13:33):
one southbound seventy five.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Slow's just a.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Bit out of black one. Chuck Ingram on fifty five KRC.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
The talk station Hey forty seven Any forty eight fifty
five krc DE talk station g Briyan Thomas here with
Rebbi ri John. He wrote an op ed piece in
the Cincinna Inquired the other day U Robling Bridge protest
turned violent, overshadowed cause. Rabbit and I already talked about
the cause, which was the ice detention of a local
imum Aimon so them on by all accounts, you know,
(14:01):
the I've seen you great citizen benefit to the community,
a big bridge builder, et cetera. But things went awry
at the protests. The bridge was taken over and closed down,
which then resulted in the police apartment showing up. Braw
by your take on that, because that's all I remember.
If you'd ask me before our conversation today what the
(14:22):
Robling Bridge shutdown was all about, I wouldn't have been
able to remember.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
No. I mean, people don't have any clue what the
cause is. It's the spectacle. This was so predictable of
a bad situation. That's part of what frustrates me about it,
which is that I you know, there were rumblings early
on that the goal here was to block the bridge.
I think was the exact phrase folks were using, and
(14:46):
I did a little bit of digging on my own
to try to see has anyone pulled a permit as
this sanction, what's the plan here? And I wasn't able
to find any any evidence one way or another, And
that to me was a red lag enough that I
came to the vigil where faith leaders had gathered before
the folks walked onto the bridge, and I decided I
(15:08):
wasn't going on the bridge myself.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I kind of expect that of you, knowing you as
I do, I try.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
To be reasonable. But look, even before people got onto
the bridge, it was already a mess. You know, you
had people who had been organizing, who were wearing high
vis vests and blocking traffic and things like that. No
police to be seen. So these were just you know,
the Burrier's entry was who can afford a high visvest?
On Amazon? And it's a recipe for disaster. One of
(15:37):
the things about this that I think makes it pretty
striking is that, you know, some situations, everyone messed up,
and actually, I'll leave one group out. CINCINNATIPD did a
fabulous job of managing, you know, trying to restore traffic
and you know, stop people from blocking a bridge, which
is an act of civil disobedience and they have a
(15:57):
right to try to stop and dealing with the protesters effectively.
But the conflict between Covington PD and the protesters was awful.
One of those officers from Covington p D has been
placed on leave, I believe since because of the concerns
about what came out. And as someone who was there
(16:21):
when people started coming off of the bridge, I had
a fellow clergy member who got back after being in
the midst of all of the conflict, and he didn't
know what it was about to happen. He had been
suckered into it, like a lot of people had been
kind of co opted who just thought they were there
to demonstrate properly. They figured, you know, permits had been
polled or whatever planning was supposed to have happened had happened.
(16:43):
So my clergy friend, who you know, he's wearing his
Roman collar and everything. So the police didn't do anything
to him, but he showed me a video right after
the fact that he took on his phone and I
was I was appalled by what I saw. Meanwhile, you know,
the people trying to block the bridge, it's irresponsible, it's
reckless to pull people into a cause that they don't
(17:04):
understand fully and they don't know the risks of you
got to give people the you know, the information to
consent to that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
They're engaged. Yeah, it's almost an incitement to mob violence.
You know, most people went there to do a peaceful protest.
The vigil, they supported this IMOM. That was the only
message they wanted to get across. Then when you invade
the bridge space, you take over the bridge, you block traffic,
obviously engaging in a crime. But I would it sounds
(17:32):
to me like the protest was invaded. And I've seen
these organized agitators. I mean they're all over in every instance.
You know, they're all dressed the same. Sometimes they're funded
by outside organizations. But it's as if and perhaps the
motive is to invite police over reaction. That's the image
(17:52):
they want to show and project to the rest of
the world. Has nothing to do with the condition of
the IMOM, has everything to do with the police. And
look at the brutality that's been unleashed here. That's the
visual moment they want.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
I think that there is a good chance of that
that they were looking for the escalation, And like I said,
both groups probably are responsible here. Covington PD probably could
have handled this without as much escalation as occurred, and
the protesters weren't upset to have escalation. I mean, I
doubt they wanted to be injured in the way that
they were injured. They probably didn't enjoy it, but they
got the you know, they got the social media videos
(18:26):
that they probably were looking to create out of it.
So who loses all of the reasonable people who want
to see attention brought to a case that matters. Look,
I'm not opposed to civil disobedience within the right parameters.
You can choose to shut down a bridge, but their
consequences that are going to happen, and people need to
(18:46):
know what the consequences they've signed up for are.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But if they want to shut the bridge down, they
have to understand that that is going to invite perhaps
a reaction they don't want. This is no longer about
discussing the issues and ICE's treatment of the IMOM. It's
about people reacting to the bridge being shut down. So
you might have some otherwise sympathetic people to your message,
but then we all get pissed off when roads are
(19:11):
shut down and the traffic's backed up, and we hear
about the EMS vehicle who couldn't get through with the
you know, the the close to death injured victim, and
all these horror stories come out.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
No, I think you use the word infiltrators, and you
have these these bad actors who try to take over
other causes and they turn people off. Yes, and I
have no patience for it. I don't think any of
us should have patients for people who try to take
what should be a peaceful setting and turn it into
a sideeshit of good attention for their own thing.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Yeah, and I really do believe that's what's going on,
and it's a widespread reality. And let's face it ain't
nothing like social media to bring that reality up very easily.
You put us posts out there, somebody's going to show
up right one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And this is an example of that.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Red by Ari John. It is such a pleasure having
you in studio to talk about this, and you know,
I mean it's a message for all groups out there.
If you're going to organize some activities, you need to
be painfully aware that you might have some of these
outside agitators come in and ruin the point of your message.
You need to be calm, cool and collected and don't
follow the quote unquote heard into the street if that's
(20:14):
not what you're about. If you want to engage in
that type of protest, recognize there are going to be consequences,
but in the final analysis, it's probably not going to
do your message any good.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Eyes on the price. You got to do what you've
set out to do strategically. In this case, it's bringing
attention to this me mom and the detention that he's facing.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Rabbi, always a pleasure to see you and talk to you,
and I hope to have you in and again on
maybe perhaps some other topics. I know there's luck going
on in the world that you're involved with, and you
always have a spot here. On the fifty five Cassee
Morning Show this morning, Ken Cobra, FLP President on the
violence downtown over the weekend, tragic and awful. That was
Christopher Smitheman on the same topic. Boy, he was on
(20:50):
a tear this morning for the Smith event Money Money
with Brian James, and of course my conversation just now
with Rabbi Ari Jen Podcast fifty five Casee dot Com
Get your iHeartMedia app Brightbart Inside Scoop tomorrow at eight
oh five, followed by the Daniel Davis Deep Dive on
the heels of my appearing on the Daniel Davis Deep
Dive last week. Rather interesting reaction given some of my comments.
You've got alienated. A few of Daniel Davis's friends will
(21:13):
talk about that tomorrow. Thank you, Joe Strecker, executive producer,
for all that you do. God bless you, sir. Folks.
Have a wonderful day, and don't call way. Glenbeck's coming
right up Today's top stories at the top of the hour.
It's information that matters to me. Fifty five krs the
talk station. This report
Jan nine, first one of wee the four kass. It's
gonna be mostly cloudy day. Isolated showers may show up afternoon.
It's gonna be high ninety two, low one hundred, heat index, humid,
overnight muggy seventy six, a low and cloudy, partly cloudy.
Tomorrow hot humid ninety four with the heat index low
one hundreds. Tuesday night partly cloudy, muggy seventy three, and
on Wednesday, another partly cloudy day with scattered showers and
storms possible and a high of ninety two seventy six degrees.
(00:29):
Right now, let's turn it to Chuck and get a
traffic update from.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The UCF Tramphing Center, uc Health Weight Boss Center of
Verst Surgical and Medical Obcity Care and Expertise called five
one three nine three nine two two sixty three. That's
nine three nine twenty two sixty three. They cleared the
recks on seventy five both in two seventy five and
earl Linger and above Monroe. Traffic starting to get better
at both seth found seventy five slows just a bit
(00:55):
out of Walkman towards the lateral chuck Ingram on fifty
five krs the talks day.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Say twenty nine, think about here see the talk station.
Happy to look up and see in studio Rabbi Ari June.
He's been here before to talk about some other topics,
and good to see Rabbi. Welcome back, Thank you. It's
nice to be here. It's just always a pleasure engaging
in the elevated conversation with you. Have a tremendous amount
of respect for you. What you do remind my listeners
your position in the community and why it would be
(01:25):
you here discussing this matter, why you would comment about
the Robling suspension bridge, which we'll get to in a moment.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Absolutely so. I'm a rabbi in Cincinnati. I'm the senior
Rabbi of Temple Sholem and have been active in issues
in this community. For gosh, I'm not a real native Cincinnati,
but I've been here about fifteen years now, and there's
been this whole situation going on over the last few
weeks that started with the detention of any mom I'm
(01:54):
in Solomon on some immigration related issues and has sort
of taken on a life of its own, including this
protest over at the Ropeling Bridge.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Right now, I understand that people might protest ice detention
of Aiman Solomon. We were engaged in multiple protests about
immigration enforcement across this country. It's one of the biggest
topics out there politically speaking. Your perception of the detention
of i'man i'm in Solomon initially, where are you? Are
(02:24):
you defending him? Do you think it was an appropriate
detention Before we get to what actually unfolded on the
bridge as a consequence of the.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Protest, absolutely, you know, I will to cheat ahead a
little bit. One of the things I think is really
unfortunate about this protest at the Ropelining Bridge is it
draws attention away from the actual issue, which is you know,
this question about this particular detention of Imm Solomon and
immigration issues broadly. But so I'll pull back from that, right.
We're definitely going to get to that, oh, I know,
(02:50):
but to bring the attention to where I think it
should be. You know, Imm Solomon, we can only really
speak with confidence I think here about who he is
been as a member of our local community. You know,
he's been in Cincinnati for years now, been working as
a chaplain at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and in our community,
which is what we can speak with confidence about he's
(03:11):
been a model member of Cincinnati. You know, he's the
kind of guy who's shown up in the nicu and
working with parents who are in dire situations with children
are suffering. He has been to any member of the
Jewish community, a real ally that's good, showed up at
vigils to support Jews after October seventh, has you know,
(03:35):
been there with rabbis and Cincinnati who run the whole
spectrum from you know, from Reform to Orthodox, and been
a real friend and partner. Doesn't mean we agree on everything.
We don't agree on everything, but that's you know, that's
part of living in a pluralistic society is you can
make friends with people with whom you have disagreements.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So the I'm and obviously obviously not a Jewish person.
He's not a river to the Sea kind of advocate.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I think he's probably a critic of Israel in many regards,
and there are Jews who make the same sort of
criticism that he makes.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well, I have a lot of Jewish friends who also
will make the same pa It's okay to do that,
but he's not the kind of person who's looking to
wipe out all the Jews who live in Israel.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
One of the interesting thing about things about his case
is that he has pushed against people trying to connect
his particular situation right now, his detention and his immigration issues.
He doesn't want that connected to the Israel Palestine debate.
He's been pretty clear about that.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, it shouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, no, look, he's not Palestinian. First of all, he
is an Egyptian citizen who's been here on asylum. He,
like many members of our global Muslim community, has a
connection to the Palestinian community because they consider that, you know,
part of their people, so to speak. But he sees
(04:51):
a difference between some of these things, and yeah, he's
not a River to the Sea kind of guy.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, your point is, I think too many people well,
and I catch myself if I find myself painting with
too broad a brush, as they say, I'll call myself
out on I wait a second, maybe I was paint
with too broad a brush. Because you happen to be
Muslim doesn't mean you hold a particular ideological perspective as
it relates to the existence of Israel, or the eradication
(05:17):
of Israel, or how you feel about the Jewish people.
Generally speaking, the world's filled with opinions, and within the
Muslim community there are many varied opinions, much in the
same way you just pointed out there are many varied
opinions within the Jewish community.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Absolutely, and I there's something that strange that sometimes goes
on which concerns me, which is sometimes there's this if
you're Muslim, you're presumed guilty of anti Semitism until proven otherwise.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yes, and God, I hate it.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I think it's probably clear to those who know me
that I've dealt with plenty of issues of antisemitism personally
and professionally in my life. I am defensive against anti Semitism. Yes,
it does not mean that every person who's Muslim is
anti Semitic. It doesn't mean every critic of Israel is
anti Semitic. And I Mom, Solomon certainly is not an
anti Semite.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
All right, Well pause right now because we're gonna take
a break. But I'm wondering what is the connection, because
Rabbi I do not understand anti Semitism. To me, it's
like racism. Why would you hate someone merely because of
who they are the race of Jewish people? You just
immediately think they're all bad and evil and they're worthy
(06:25):
of some sort of form of hatred that's anti Semitism.
Is there a direct correlation between this, this concept of
anti Semitism, which I perceive to be the hatred or
the antagonism or evil toward Jewish people generally speaking, or
is it based upon the existence and creation of the
State of Israel. Let's just delve on that. A little
(06:45):
good bridge to the bridge should perfect. I'm glad you
perceive it to be that way. It's eight thirty five.
Rabbi Ari John in the studio will continue after these
brief words.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
This is fifty five karc an iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
It's Summertari Juhn in studio, trying to unpack the problems
of the world. We were talking about anti Semitism generally speaking.
Of course, this on the heels of i' mom Amen.
Solomon's detention by Ice. Obviously a well respected man in
the community. You mentioned some of his attributes. He's very helpful,
he's a bridge crosser, he reaches across the aisle, works
well with the Jewish community and other communities. Has done
(07:19):
some great work. So before we get to his trials
and tribulations. Addressing my question mark because as I say that,
I don't understand the hatred of a person for merely
being of a particular race, and so I can't hate
you for being a Jew just in and of itself.
There are people out in the world who hate black
people just because they're black. That makes no sense to
(07:39):
me either. You know, I'm like a you know, I
never met a man I didn't like kind of guy,
which is sort of you got to take the time
to know somebody before you're allowed to draw conclusions. And
because all these different people exist across broad political sUAS
within any given community, I can't draw a conclusion. It
wouldn't be fair for me to do so. But I'm
kind of curious to know if this concept of anti
(08:01):
Semitism has more of a connection with the creation of
Israel as a state and the displacement of the Palestinian
people or anybody else that got this place when Israel
was created in what nineteen four or nineteen forty seven?
So do you see that as being a sort of
a blurred line or maybe a problematic area.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
There's an intersection, no question. Look, anti Semitism has been
around for literally thousands of years. People call it the
oldest form of hate. You know, in our Western context,
a lot of people think of the Holocaust as being
like the start of antisemitism or something anything. But I mean,
there have been thousands and thousands of years of people
attacking Jews because of their identity. And what's unique about
(08:41):
anti Semitism a form of hate, is that it tends
to mutate throughout history. So generally speaking, in history, people
will target Jews for whatever the perceived gravest evil of
the time is. So, if capitalism is bad, Jews or
the capitalists. If communism's bad, Jews are the communists, you
name it. In the present day, when you know ethnic
(09:03):
nationalism trends are perceived as evil, Jews must be the colonialist, nationalist,
whatever group that's most evil in the world. So Israel's
connected to it, no question. But Israel's more of an
excuse than the impetus.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Right because it has been around for a long time.
Let's face it, the Holocaust came about as a consequence
of Jews getting the blame for the poor economic conditions
in Germany. That was an extension of the thousand plus
years of Jews being blamed for any other economic calamity
or another problem in the world. How is it they
became a target. How is it that that was a
default group? Is it because of the you represent a
(09:41):
minority status in the world in terms of global population.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
So the minority status thing is a huge part of it.
I think Also, Jews have, in different societies for the
last two thousand years, been a minority who was a
homeless group, so to speak. Right until the creation of Israel,
from you know, the year seventy CE until nineteen forty eight,
Jews were existing independently of their own homeland, moving from
(10:07):
place to place as a tiny minority, pretty easy to
pick off and scapegoat and target. You layer on top
of that religious differences intentions that existed between Christianity and
Islam and Judaism, and you've got the recipe for all
sorts of disaster.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Well. And in that context, you know, people who of
like minds tend to dwell together. I mean, it makes
perfect sense. If you're of the same religion, you're the
same race, and you don't have a land that you
can call your own, you're going to congregate in your
own community in any given country. That just makes perfect sense.
But you've also proven to be demonstrably successful. I mean,
(10:41):
I know from my discussions with my Jewish friends and
correct me if I'm wrong. You look out for each other.
You're part of that family of Jewish people. You help
each other in business perspectives, you elevate your fellow jew
And I mean, and because it is I suppose a
race predicated thing, there are people who are not of
(11:02):
the Jewish race Sammy Davis Junior, who can become Jews
by way of religion. It's a very difficult road to hoe.
But there's a sense of the race being a component
of being part of the Jewish faith as well, is
there not? Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So. The technical word for it is it's an ethno
religious group. It's that combination of ethnicity and religion. And
we do as a Jewish people, we try to take
care of one another. Yeah, I mean, I don't only
care about Jewish people. I know a lot of people
beyond the Aws in my community. But but yeah, you
take care of your family. That's that's a value in
our community, and that's been used against us of course
(11:38):
also at plenty of times that because we take care
of ourselves, there must be something wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Well, and the insular sort of perception of that is, oh,
look at that. You know, they're not letting them buddy in.
You know, I want to slice that action. Well, you know,
it's it's not that easy of a challenge to overcome. Yes,
you can become a member of the Jewish faith, but
I can't become a black person just I mean, because
of by virtue of who I am and where I
(12:04):
was born and where I came from.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
No, I mean, there's something, like I said, a little
bit unique about that Jewish identity that you can become
Jewish even if you're not originally part of the ethnic group,
so to.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Speak, I identify as a Jew. How's that I'll take it.
Rabbi GM We're gonna pause, take a minute early break,
because we're going to dive on into what the how
the situation unfolded and the rabbi's comments about the tragic
nature of how it unfolded, because it did take away
from the focus of the protest, which was the treatment
of I'm Aiman Solomon. One more time with Rabbi ri
(12:38):
Jun stick around fifty five KRC dot com. One more
time for the Channel nine first one forecast Heat Advisor
in effectial eight today because it's going to be hot
ninety two with the heat index of low hundreds and
some storms maybe after noon today, over Night muggy, partly cloudy,
low of seventy six. Tomorrow partly cloudy, hot, humid ninety
four and a lowe hundred heat index muggy and partly
(12:59):
cliver night love seventy three and another cloudy. Scattered showers
and thunderstorms possible on Wednesday, but another heat day ninety
two for a high closed out at seventy seven times
for final traffic.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Chuck from the UCL Tramphic Center, UC healthwake loth Center
offers sergeic coy, m medico A, b CD care and
expertise called five month three nine three two sixty three
nine nine twenty two sixty three. Crews just cleared an
accident out of the way eastbound for Washington Way. All
vanes were blocked just a bit ago. Now you can
make the ramp to Columbia Parkway and southbound four seventy
(13:33):
one southbound seventy five.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Slow's just a.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Bit out of black one. Chuck Ingram on fifty five KRC.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
The talk station Hey forty seven Any forty eight fifty
five krc DE talk station g Briyan Thomas here with
Rebbi ri John. He wrote an op ed piece in
the Cincinna Inquired the other day U Robling Bridge protest
turned violent, overshadowed cause. Rabbit and I already talked about
the cause, which was the ice detention of a local
imum Aimon so them on by all accounts, you know,
(14:01):
the I've seen you great citizen benefit to the community,
a big bridge builder, et cetera. But things went awry
at the protests. The bridge was taken over and closed down,
which then resulted in the police apartment showing up. Braw
by your take on that, because that's all I remember.
If you'd ask me before our conversation today what the
(14:22):
Robling Bridge shutdown was all about, I wouldn't have been
able to remember.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
No. I mean, people don't have any clue what the
cause is. It's the spectacle. This was so predictable of
a bad situation. That's part of what frustrates me about it,
which is that I you know, there were rumblings early
on that the goal here was to block the bridge.
I think was the exact phrase folks were using, and
(14:46):
I did a little bit of digging on my own
to try to see has anyone pulled a permit as
this sanction, what's the plan here? And I wasn't able
to find any any evidence one way or another, And
that to me was a red lag enough that I
came to the vigil where faith leaders had gathered before
the folks walked onto the bridge, and I decided I
(15:08):
wasn't going on the bridge myself.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I kind of expect that of you, knowing you as
I do, I try.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
To be reasonable. But look, even before people got onto
the bridge, it was already a mess. You know, you
had people who had been organizing, who were wearing high
vis vests and blocking traffic and things like that. No
police to be seen. So these were just you know,
the Burrier's entry was who can afford a high visvest?
On Amazon? And it's a recipe for disaster. One of
(15:37):
the things about this that I think makes it pretty
striking is that, you know, some situations, everyone messed up,
and actually, I'll leave one group out. CINCINNATIPD did a
fabulous job of managing, you know, trying to restore traffic
and you know, stop people from blocking a bridge, which
is an act of civil disobedience and they have a
(15:57):
right to try to stop and dealing with the protesters effectively.
But the conflict between Covington PD and the protesters was awful.
One of those officers from Covington p D has been
placed on leave, I believe since because of the concerns
about what came out. And as someone who was there
(16:21):
when people started coming off of the bridge, I had
a fellow clergy member who got back after being in
the midst of all of the conflict, and he didn't
know what it was about to happen. He had been
suckered into it, like a lot of people had been
kind of co opted who just thought they were there
to demonstrate properly. They figured, you know, permits had been
polled or whatever planning was supposed to have happened had happened.
(16:43):
So my clergy friend, who you know, he's wearing his
Roman collar and everything. So the police didn't do anything
to him, but he showed me a video right after
the fact that he took on his phone and I
was I was appalled by what I saw. Meanwhile, you know,
the people trying to block the bridge, it's irresponsible, it's
reckless to pull people into a cause that they don't
(17:04):
understand fully and they don't know the risks of you
got to give people the you know, the information to
consent to that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
They're engaged. Yeah, it's almost an incitement to mob violence.
You know, most people went there to do a peaceful protest.
The vigil, they supported this IMOM. That was the only
message they wanted to get across. Then when you invade
the bridge space, you take over the bridge, you block traffic,
obviously engaging in a crime. But I would it sounds
(17:32):
to me like the protest was invaded. And I've seen
these organized agitators. I mean they're all over in every instance.
You know, they're all dressed the same. Sometimes they're funded
by outside organizations. But it's as if and perhaps the
motive is to invite police over reaction. That's the image
(17:52):
they want to show and project to the rest of
the world. Has nothing to do with the condition of
the IMOM, has everything to do with the police. And
look at the brutality that's been unleashed here. That's the
visual moment they want.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
I think that there is a good chance of that
that they were looking for the escalation, And like I said,
both groups probably are responsible here. Covington PD probably could
have handled this without as much escalation as occurred, and
the protesters weren't upset to have escalation. I mean, I
doubt they wanted to be injured in the way that
they were injured. They probably didn't enjoy it, but they
got the you know, they got the social media videos
(18:26):
that they probably were looking to create out of it.
So who loses all of the reasonable people who want
to see attention brought to a case that matters. Look,
I'm not opposed to civil disobedience within the right parameters.
You can choose to shut down a bridge, but their
consequences that are going to happen, and people need to
(18:46):
know what the consequences they've signed up for are.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But if they want to shut the bridge down, they
have to understand that that is going to invite perhaps
a reaction they don't want. This is no longer about
discussing the issues and ICE's treatment of the IMOM. It's
about people reacting to the bridge being shut down. So
you might have some otherwise sympathetic people to your message,
but then we all get pissed off when roads are
(19:11):
shut down and the traffic's backed up, and we hear
about the EMS vehicle who couldn't get through with the
you know, the the close to death injured victim, and
all these horror stories come out.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
No, I think you use the word infiltrators, and you
have these these bad actors who try to take over
other causes and they turn people off. Yes, and I
have no patience for it. I don't think any of
us should have patients for people who try to take
what should be a peaceful setting and turn it into
a sideeshit of good attention for their own thing.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Yeah, and I really do believe that's what's going on,
and it's a widespread reality. And let's face it ain't
nothing like social media to bring that reality up very easily.
You put us posts out there, somebody's going to show
up right one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And this is an example of that.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Red by Ari John. It is such a pleasure having
you in studio to talk about this, and you know,
I mean it's a message for all groups out there.
If you're going to organize some activities, you need to
be painfully aware that you might have some of these
outside agitators come in and ruin the point of your message.
You need to be calm, cool and collected and don't
follow the quote unquote heard into the street if that's
(20:14):
not what you're about. If you want to engage in
that type of protest, recognize there are going to be consequences,
but in the final analysis, it's probably not going to
do your message any good.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Eyes on the price. You got to do what you've
set out to do strategically. In this case, it's bringing
attention to this me mom and the detention that he's facing.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Rabbi, always a pleasure to see you and talk to you,
and I hope to have you in and again on
maybe perhaps some other topics. I know there's luck going
on in the world that you're involved with, and you
always have a spot here. On the fifty five Cassee
Morning Show this morning, Ken Cobra, FLP President on the
violence downtown over the weekend, tragic and awful. That was
Christopher Smitheman on the same topic. Boy, he was on
(20:50):
a tear this morning for the Smith event Money Money
with Brian James, and of course my conversation just now
with Rabbi Ari Jen Podcast fifty five Casee dot Com
Get your iHeartMedia app Brightbart Inside Scoop tomorrow at eight
oh five, followed by the Daniel Davis Deep Dive on
the heels of my appearing on the Daniel Davis Deep
Dive last week. Rather interesting reaction given some of my comments.
You've got alienated. A few of Daniel Davis's friends will
(21:13):
talk about that tomorrow. Thank you, Joe Strecker, executive producer,
for all that you do. God bless you, sir. Folks.
Have a wonderful day, and don't call way. Glenbeck's coming
right up Today's top stories at the top of the hour.
It's information that matters to me. Fifty five krs the
talk station. This report
Brian Thomas News
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