Jewish Community Angry With "Outed" Bush Official

Some in the Jewish community are reacting angrily upon learning that the Bush White House's liaison to the Jewish community is a closeted gay man who has worked against gay civil rights. Jeffrey Berkowitz was recently outed by blogger Michael Rogers, who is a Jewish gay man, on his blogsite, blogactive.com. Jewsweek reports on the outing in a story headlined,
"Out. Right. Hypocrisy." The report includes the following:

The campaign by BlogActive brought Berkowitz critics out in force: "Jeff Berkowitz should be shunned by the gay and Jewish communities as a traitor," Michael Ractor of LA wrote: "How dare this Jewish gay man sell out himself and all gay and lesbian citizens of the US. Let's see how he defends himself. This ought to be fun."

Claudia Luria wrote that "As a Jew I am deeply ashamed of the hypocrisy of Jeff Berkowitz who as a gay man serves as liaison the GOP liaison to the Jewish Communtiy.. Berkowitz has helped to prevent our country from providing equal rights to gay people. Berkowitz is also a member of the National Honor Society of the Boy Scouts, a group that bars gays from joining. . . My father always reminded me that gays suffered and died alongside Jews in the concentration camps. He taught me tolerance since childhood. Berkowitz in his own well cushioned position is foolish not to know how his GOP party detests him in private. One wonders how he can look at himself in the mirror?"

The article speculates that that the "revelation of [Berkowitz'] homosexual connections probably was not part of his personal career planning." No kidding! That must have been a tough day at the office.