honoring a racist rabbi

Passed along in email was this pointed and well-written article,  "Why is the US Honoring a Racist Rabbi?" by Alison Weir (not the British historian). You have to scroll down below the promotional material that precedes it.

If things proceed normally, President Barak Obama will soon proclaim April 11, 2014 “Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.” Despite the innocuous name, this day honors the memory of a religious leader whose lesser-known teachings help fuel some of the most violent attacks against Palestinians by extremist Israeli settlers and soldiers.
The leader being honored on this day is Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, charismatic head of a mystical/fundamentalist version of Judaism. Every year since 1978, a Presidential Proclamation, often accompanied by a Congressional Resolution (the 1990 one had 219 sponsors), has declared Schneerson’s birthday an official national day of observance.

Apparently there are a number of Jewish teachings that remain untranslated or sloppily translated in English and yet their impact is nothing short of profound. The fiery distinction between Jews and non-Jews is just one of them.

What is it about these spiritual top-guns that sees them infected again and again -- Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu. what-EVER -- by the supremacy bug. OK, it's a power trip ... how's that for a smarmy, uninformative answer?