Rabbi Brad Hirschfield responds to the heated debate surrounding Park51. "If you're more animated by the date September 11, 2001, you're probably going to be opposed to [the Park51 project]. If you're more animated by July 4, 1776, you're probably going to be in favor of it."

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By Rick Carrol from The Aspen Times, 8/30/10

"We seem to have a love affair with comparisons to Nazis and Hitler these days, at least when it comes to finding analogies for those with whom we disagree..."

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From Brad Hirschfield’s blog in the Washington Post-Newsweek’s "On Faith" Column

Rabbi Irwin Kula looks at Islamophobia with hosts John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee. Said Rabbi Kula, "What we have to be on the lookout for is not the bigots and the racists. See that we always know, there's always a strand of that in the culture. It's the good people, the decent people who begin to say all billion and six Muslims are dangerous. Or the stuff, 'they're going to take over.' Those kinds of tropes are what we have to be on the lookout for."

Rabbi Irwin Kula looks at Islamophobia with hosts John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee. Said Rabbi Kula, "What we have to be on the lookout for is not the bigots and the racists. See that we always know, there's always a strand of that in the culture. It's the good people, the decent people who begin to say all billion and six Muslims are dangerous. Or the stuff, 'they're going to take over.' Those kinds of tropes are what we have to be on the lookout for."

"...Whether one opposes the mosque or not, this proposed Koran burning is obscene. Tragically and ironically, this is an expression of Christianity which parallels the parts of Islam which represent a genuine threat to the human race. I guess it's an irony Pastor Jones misses, but reminds us all that it's not the faith which kills; it's the fanatical attachment to it..."

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield discusses the controversy surrounding the mosque near Ground Zero with Mario Solis Marich.

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The Mario Solis Marich Show, Progressive Talk AM 760, KKZN, Denver, 8/23/10

Also spoke on this topic on Aaron in the Afternoon, on KLFD, St. Cloud, Minn.,8/13/10

Rabbi Irwin Kula was a guest on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN, discussing the mosque and the anger it has generated in the country. He pointed out that the issue is really a container for a much larger anger permeating the country, and that it goes way beyond the mosque. (Video not available)

From "Anderson Cooper 360" CNN, 8/23/10

"Romania’s central bank on Thursday said it would not withdraw from circulation a coin featuring an image of a prime minister who stripped Jews of their citizenship before World War II, stressing it had not intended to send an anti-Semitic message..."

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By Brad Hirschfield from Patheos.com’s Rabbi Hirschfield on God, Life, and the Universe

"...Rabbi Irwin Kula of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York...say[s] that ‘the distinction between the right to build and the
wisdom to build is a very, very, very dangerous distinction.’..."

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By Haroon Siddiqui, opinion, from Toronto Star, 8/22/10

"Romania's central bank on Thursday said it would not withdraw from circulation a coin featuring an image of a prime minister who stripped Jews of their citizenship before World War II, stressing it had not intended to send an anti-Semitic message..."

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From Windows & Doors, Brad Hirschfield’s daily blog on Beliefnet