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January 12, 2011

Exclusive Interview With Giffords' Rabbi Debunks Rumors

By Rob Kall

An interview discussing the Loughner family's connection to Synagogues, between Rob Kall and Gabrielle Giffords' rabbi

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Rumors are buzzing around the Internet that the mother of Tucson suspect, Jared Loughner, is Jewish and a member of the same synagogue as Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

In an exclusive interview with OpEdNews.com, Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, Giffords' rabbi at Congregation Chaverim said, "We have never had any contact with the Loughner family. They are not members of the congregation and never have been members of the congregation. And I've been with the congregation for 40 years, since it's inception, since I was very young."

Responding further to the question of whether Loughner or his family are Jewish, Rabbi Aaron stated, "We had a meeting of the Tucson Board of Rabbis. We all looked at our rosters from many years back. No one has ever heard of the family - him, his parents, any of them. I can say with absolute certainty that we do not know him in pretty much the entire affiliated community."

Today, many Jews are not affiliated with a synagogue. But, this interview does put an end to the rapidly escalating rumor that Loughner's mother, Amy Joanne Loughner (according to JTA , Totman is her maiden name), is a member of the same synagogue as Representative Giffords.

Commenting on the Mother Jones article in which Jared Loughner's friend, Bryce Tierney, reported that Loughner's mother was Jewish, Rabbi Aaron said that she did not know Tierney adding "I would be curious about that information, how he got that information, what he knows, how he knows it."

Questions have also been raised as to whether anti-Semitism played a part in Saturday's shooting spree. Rabbi Aaron said that she was unaware of any problems that Rep. Giffords may have had with anti-Semitism in Tucson but added, "We would really have to speak to her staff. I never heard that. I haven't seen it in the press, that there's been a problem with anti-Semitism. In Tucson, the kinds of really overt signs of anti-Semitism have not been huge in our community at all."

"Of course," she explained, "there's been anti-Semitic graffiti, but it hasn't been something that's been on the front burner. It's always on the back burner in Jewish life. It feels like...I hope this isn't it, rearing it's ugly head. It's scary."

Asked about how the congregation has responded to the tragedy, Rabbi Aaron replied,

"We've been devastated by what happened to Gabrielle Giffords and to the members of the Tuscon community who were murdered and the ones who were wounded.

We've all drawn closer together and the Jewish community is sponsoring a blood drive at the Jewish Community Center and all the synagogues are participating. I was just in an interfaith service...with Bishop Cacanas praying for our city and our country.

There's a sense of coming together, very much... a lot of positives are coming out. I'm not sure why negative things need to be said that are erroneous. It's nice to move to the postive, especially the outpouring for all of the families from all over the world. There are emails, vigils being held. It's just been a very strong outpouring. The Tucson community is feeling that they want to send a message of thank you to the world for the outpouring of sympathy that has been expressed."


See this article for more information:
Loughner Jewish? Member Same Synagogue as Giffords?


OpEdNews.com writer Cheryl Biren contributed to this report.


Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.


Check out his platform at RobKall.com


He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity


He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com


more detailed bio:


Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.


Rob Kall Wikipedia Page


Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel


Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel


Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.


Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.


To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.


For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.


Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..


To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.


Follow Rob on Twitter & Facebook.


His quotes are here

Rob's articles express his personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.


Join the conversation:


On facebook at Rob Kall's Bottom-up The Connection Revolution


and at Google Groups listserve Bottom-up Top-down conversation





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