Sparing no expense, I have just rushed back on the last steamboat to Secure Undisclosed Locationville after spending the week in Los Angeles. There I gave four talks and had the privilege of spending some time with a great many courageous people, including Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs and Tashbih Sayyed of Pakistan Today (Tashbih and I gave two talks as part of a panel.)
Yesterday I had the honor to speak during Yom Kippur services at Temple of the Arts in Los Angeles, where one of the other featured speakers was Senator Hillary Clinton. I have long maintained that the struggle against jihad is not a liberal or conservative issue, but a human rights issue, but I have generally been pigeonholed, as have many others with a similar perspective (no matter how preposterous some of these classifications have been), as being of the Right. Thus it was gratifying to speak at a place that could have both me and Hillary speaking.
Even more encouraging was the fact that two people in the crowd, which was full of Hollywood glitterati, prefaced questions to me by saying that they were already familiar with the points I was making about Islam and jihad. I have been traveling all over the country this year, speaking at synagogues, churches, civic clubs, bookstores, political meetings, and other settings, and usually the entire audience is flabbergasted. But I think word is getting out.
Here is part of the New York Post‘s story: “Hill Observes High Hollywood Days”:
October 14, 2005 — WASHINGTON – Before ramping up for Tinseltown fund-raisers this weekend, Sen. Hillary Clinton stuck to the serious yesterday by delivering a solemn Yom Kippur “living sermon” to a crowded Beverly Hills synagogue.
Clinton dedicated a memorial candle to the victims of Hurricane Katrina after addressing the congregation at the Temple of the Arts in Beverly Hills.
“A living sermon means instead of quoting them or their books, I can present them in person,” Rabbi David Baron, who invited Clinton after being touched by her 2003 memoir “Living History,” told the Jewish Journal.
I was part of Rabbi Baron’s Living Sermon as well, and I thank him for that. (Oh, and don’t ask what Hillary thought of my talk; she left before I spoke.)