Tikkun founder's home vandalized

Trespassers glue right-wing hate posters on Lerner's door, property.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The home of the American editor of a progressive Jewish and interfaith magazine has been vandalized, Berkeley police announced on Monday.
In Sunday night's attack on the home of Rabbi Michael Lerner, the assailants used a powerful form of glue to attach posters to his door and around his residence. The posters attacked Lerner personally and as well as left-wingers as supporters of terrorism and "Islamo-fascism."
They posted a printed bumper sticker saying, "Fight terror – support Israel" next to a caricature of Judge Goldstone, who led the UN probe into Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last year. In the caricature, Goldstone talks about being kept away from his grandson's bar mitzva, and Rabbi Lerner responds by saying, "Any enemy of Israel is a friend of mine."
The vandalism follows a week in which Lerner and Tikkun staff have received hate mail, prompted apparently by Tikkun's announcement before the bar mitzva that if "the South African Zionists" succeed in preventing Judge Goldstone from attending the event, Rabbi Lerner would gladly hold the bar mitzva in the SF Bay Area instead.
It also follows Tikkun's announcement that it would honor Goldstone with its award in 2011 at the event celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Law enforcement officers said say two elements about Sunday night's attack were cause for concern: 1. It took place at Rabbi Lerner's home, which is a way of conveying the message, "We know where you live, we know your house is vulnerable, so don't ignore our threats." 2. By linking Lerner to terrorism, they provide for themselves and other extremists a justification to use violence against him.
Tikkun's announcement covers Lerner's record of committed unbiased advocacy of non-violence.
"He has criticized Palestinian acts of violence when they occur, including the shelling of Israeli towns by Hamas," Tikkun said. "Just as he has criticized the Israeli occupation, the US war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the occupation of Chechnya by Russia, the occupation of Tibet by China, the human rights violations against their own people by the rulers of Iran, the acts of violence of those resisting the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the violence against women and homosexuals in many Arab and African countries (and in the US and Israel as well), the genocide in Darfur, the violence against Jews in some parts of Europe, and the list goes on."