Jewish prayer ritual alarms Alaska Airlines crew

I sympathize with these Jewish travelers. I had to pray on airplanes on several occasions (especially on long trips and when prayer times would have been missed). I am sure some travelers might have felt nervous around me.

What do you do when you have to pray during travel?

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LOS ANGELES | Sun Mar 13, 2011

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An orthodox Jewish prayer observance by three passengers aboard an Alaska Airlines flight on Sunday alarmed flight attendants unfamiliar with the ritual, prompting them to lock down the cockpit and issue a security alert, officials said.

Alaska Flight 241 from Mexico City to Los Angeles International Airport landed safety at LAX and was met by fire crews, foam trucks, FBI agents, Transportation Security Administration personnel and police dispatched as a precaution.

The three men, all Mexican nationals, were escorted off the plane by police and questioned by the FBI before being released to make connecting flights to other countries, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. No charges were filed, she said.

The three passengers had startled members of the cabin crew with what was interpreted as suspicious behavior shortly after takeoff, airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said.

"The three passengers were praying aloud in Hebrew and were wearing what appeared to be leather straps on their foreheads and arms," she said. "This appeared to be a security threat, and the pilots locked down the flight deck and followed standard security procedures."

It turned out the passengers were engaged in the wearing of tefillin -- small, black prayer boxes containing scripture that devout Jews bind to their foreheads and arms with black leather straps in a daily ritual accompanied by special prayers.

Asked about the authorities' reaction to the alert, Eimiller said: "We're obligated, of course, to respond when the flight calls us to clear up concerns."

(Reporting by Steve Gorman. Editing by Peter Bohan)

Stand Together: Rabbis Speak out against Islamophobia

March 9, 2011
Rabbis for Human Rights
Posted by Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster

Ever since the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, hatred and discrimination against Muslim Americans has been growing. Over the past year, the rhetoric has only gotten louder and more violent. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the freedoms of religion, speech, and assembly. These are also essential American values. Yet across the United States today, we see attempts to prevent the construction of mosques, laws outlawing Sharia law, and the vilification of our Muslim neighbors and friends as un-American.

Jewish historical experience remembers that not too long ago, we too were the victims of suspicion and hatred based on our religion and ethnicity. The actions of the few should not condemn the many, and every religion has its teachings both of violence and of peace. Jewish tradition demands that we remember the heart of the stranger, because we were strangers in the land of Egypt. If one minority can be singled out for congressional hearings or restrictions on places of worship, anyone can be.

These are not American values. These are not Jewish values. It is time to Stand Together and speak out against Islamophobia...

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On the RHR-NA blog are a series of videos from rabbis and rabbinical students explaining why Islamophobia is against Jewish values. We encourage you to watch them and to share them with your community. We also encourage you to create your own video and upload it to YouTube tagged “rabbisagainstislamophobia.” We want to hear from you in your own words why bigotry against Muslims is wrong.

Click here to watch the videos

'Jewish-Muslim ties in Maghreb were good despite Nazis'

By GIL SHEFLER
01/24/2011
Jerusalem Post


When Nazi Germany’s Afrika Korps invaded Tunisia in 1942, panic quickly spread among members of the local Jewish community, many of whom packed their belongings and fled to the countryside, fearing persecution.

Dr. Haim Saadon of the Hebrew University recalled, in an interview with the The Jerusalem Post last week, how his parents had to live in hiding until the French colony was liberated by the allies.

“They remember exactly how they left their houses and lived in a little village with Muslims in the country,” Saadon said.

“They had to pay for their accommodation but they were well treated there.”

Relatively good ties between Jews and Muslims in North Africa during World War II stand in stark contrast to the treatment of their coreligionists by gentiles in Europe at the same time and is the central theme of the English-language lecture Saadon is scheduled to deliver at the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem on Tuesday, on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Whereas in Europe Jews were hunted down by locals – in Lithuania the Jewish community was almost annihilated by nationalist militias without the Nazis lifting a finger – the Jews of North Africa were for the most part left unharmed by Muslims.

“There was no violence towards Jews during the war from Muslims,” he said.

“Even between 1911 when Libya was occupied by the Italians, until 1943, there was a lot of tension between the Italians and the Jews, but the Jews were relatively on good terms with the Muslims...

Muslim-Americans volunteer to serve on Christmas Day

By: Kimberly Craig
12/25/2010
WXYZ.com
 
DETROIT (WXYZ) - Early Christmas morning, hundreds of Muslim-Americans turned out to help their Christian friends by doing the volunteer work that they would normally do. Muslims say this is a way to allow Christians to celebrate the Holiday by stepping in to provide meals to seniors and distributing toys to needy children.

The volunteers began the day at the Community Access Center on W. Vernor in southwest Detroit, and Saturday's effort came out of an interfaith collaboration by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan and the Jewish Community Relations Council. This year since Christmas falls on the Jewish Sabbath, the need was greater than ever to have Muslim-Americans help deliver the toys and food to Detroit neighborhoods.

Many of the toys being delivered to families today were donated by the organization known as Jimmy's Kids.

"Traveling with Jihad" - Exploring the shared history and common teachings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

When viewed through the lens of a shared history, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam provide differing perspectives on similar themes. Join Jihad Turk as he leads Charles Annenberg Weingarten through the common threads that tie the western faiths with that of Islam.

Leading Israeli Rabbi: Non-Jews exist only to serve Jews

Yosef: Gentiles exist only to serve Jews
By JONAH MANDEL
18/10/2010
The Jerusalem Post

According to Rabbi, the lives of non-Jews in Israel are safeguarded by divinity, to prevent losses to Jews.

The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews, according to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and a senior Sephardi adjudicator.

“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel,” he said in his weekly Saturday night sermon on the laws regarding the actions non-Jews are permitted to perform on Shabbat.

According to Yosef, the lives of non-Jews in Israel are safeguarded by divinity, to prevent losses to Jews.

“In Israel, death has no dominion over them... With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money.

This is his servant... That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew,” Yosef said.

“Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.

That is why gentiles were created,” he added.

Yosef’s Saturday night sermons have seen many controversial statements from the 90-year-old rabbi. In August, Yosef caused a diplomatic uproar when he wished a plague upon the Palestinian people and their leaders, a curse he retracted a few weeks later, when he blessed them along with all of Israel’s other peace-seeking neighbors.

Israeli Rabbis urge Jews to refrain from renting apartments to Arabs

Don't count on the ADL to notice this apartheid-style racism since it is busy opposing American Muslims trying to build mosques in America or busy attacking pro-peace groups.

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Safed Rabbis urge Jews to refrain from renting apartments to Arabs
Rabbis' letter says renting properties to Arabs would deflate value of homes as well as those in neighborhood.
By Eli Ashkenazi
Haaretz
10/20/2010

A group of 18 prominent rabbis, including the chief rabbi of Safed, signed a call urging Jews to refrain from renting or selling apartments to non-Jews.

According to a report which first appeared on Channel 1 television, most of the signatories are from Safed, a city that has seen an increase in its Arab student population that is enrolled at the town's local college.

Safed chief rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who has been criticized in the past for incendiary remarks against Arabs, is the most prominent figure to sign the letter.

Last week, Safed played host to an "emergency conference" which was held under the banner "Quiet War: Combating Assimilation in the Holy City of Safed". The event, which attracted 400 participants, was held at the Yigal Allon House, the municipal cultural center.

Haaretz has learned that the venue was reserved thanks to funding from the city's religious council. Far-right activist Baruch Marzel spoke at the event, as did a representative of the "Lahaba" organization, whose Hebrew acronym stands for "Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land."

Speakers at the conference expressed concern over plans to build a medical school in the city which they said would exacerbate the problem of "the Arab takeover of Safed."

The rabbis' letter, which was originally published months ago, urges Jewish owners of apartments to reconsider renting their properties to Arabs since it would deflate the value of their homes as well as those in the neighborhood.

"Their way of life is different than that of Jews," the letter stated. "Among [the gentiles] are those who are bitter and hateful toward us and who meddle into our lives to the point where they are a danger."

The rabbis also urge neighbors of anyone renting or selling property to Arabs to caution that person. After delivering the warning, the neighbor is then encouraged to issue notices to the general public and inform the community.

"The neighbors and acquaintances [of a Jew who sells or rents to an Arab] must distance themselves from the Jew, refrain from doing business with him, deny him the right to read from the Torah, and similarly [ostracize] him until he goes back on this harmful deed," the letter reads.

Letter prompted by rise in demand

There are currently 1,350 Arab students (out of a total student body of 2,200 ) matriculating at the Academic College in Safed. The increased demand for rented apartments prompted the rabbis to issue their call.

Mahmoud Abu Salah, the Arab representative of the Academic College Student Union, told Haaretz that his primary task is to aid Arab students in finding apartments to rent.

"The entire population in Safed listens to Rabbi Eliyahu, not just the religious public," he said. "Sometimes I present myself as 'Tomer.' That is the only way people will agree to rent out their apartments. In one instance, we managed to find an apartment for rent in the nearby moshav of Biriya. When the neighbors understood that Arabs were moving in, they threatened to set the apartment on fire. The situation has become intolerable. There are students who come here from the Negev, the Triangle, Haifa and Wadi Ara. They have nowhere to live. We will combat this ugly phenomenon."

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu is the son of the late Mordechai Eliyahu, who once served as the chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel. Shmuel Eliyahu has been indicted in the past for incitement stemming from controversial remarks about Arabs. After a Palestinian suicide bomber killed nine people and wounded 50 on a bus at the Meron junction in northern Israel in August 2002, Eliyahu called on the Academic College to expel its Arab students.

"You can say the word 'racist' 20 times," Eliyahu once told an interviewer. "It doesn't have an effect on me. By the way, Jewish religious law prohibits the selling of apartments to Arabs and the renting of apartments to Arabs."

Officials in the State Prosecutor's Office told Haaretz: "We have yet to receive any complaint on the issue. If and when a complaint is received, the matter will be investigated."

Israeli rabbi: Honey-pot sex is kosher for female Mossad agents

I have to admit, I had some difficulty deciding which photo to attach to this post. After all, what kind of picture can describe "kosher" "honey-pot sex" by "female Mossad agents"?

On a more serious note, how can anyone take any religion seriously when so-called religious leaders or representatives manipulate religious teachings -- a supposed spiritual path to connect with God -- in order to justify immoral actions.  Rabbis (as well as pastors and imams) who could justify such shameful behavior are a disgrace to any religion.  This is a new low, even for Israel.

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Israeli rabbi: Honey-pot sex is kosher for female Mossad agents
Haaretz Newspaper, 10/5/2010
By DPA

Rabbi Ari Schvat's ruling appeared in a study, 'Illicit sex for the sake of national security,' published by the Tzomet Institute, which studies the interface between religion and modernity.


An Israeli rabbi has given his blessing to female agents of Israel's foreign secret service, Mossad, who may be required to have sex with the enemy in so-called "honey-pot" missions against terrorists.

Rabbi Ari Shvat's ruling appeared in a study, "Illicit sex for the sake of national security," published by the Tzomet Institute, which studies the interface between religion and modernity.

But Schvat wrote that honey-pot missions are not just a thing of modern-day espionage - such as the late 1980s capture of Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician who revealed details of Israel's nuclear program, or the January 2010 assassination of terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. Both cases reportedly involved a Mossad female lure.

In fact, honey-pot missions are rooted in Biblical lore.

Queen Esther, who was Jewish, slept with the Persian king Xerxes around 500 BC to save her people, Schvat noted. Yael, wife of Hever, slept with the enemy chief of staff Sisra to tire him and cut off his head, according to tradition.

There is a catch, however, for married honey-pots. "If it is necessary to use a married woman, it would be best [for] her husband to divorce her. ... After the [sex] act, he would be entitled to bring her back," Schvat wrote.

"Naturally, a job of that sort could be given to a woman who in any event is licentious in her ways."

Male agents in Mossad apparently have no limitations on sleeping with the female enemy, as they were not mentioned in the writings.

Schvat's study was praised by Tzomet's director, Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, who added that "women employees of the Mossad are probably not going to come consult with a rabbi" before their missions.

CNN: A synagogue reborn in Beirut, Lebanon

While some right-wing bigots in America are trying to make our country take a turn away from religious freedoms and tolerance, Lebanon (and ironically, Hezbollah) can teach us all something about religious tolerance, about places of worship and where they belong or don't belong.

No religious community and group should be blamed for the acts of a few.

Fareed Zakaria CNN reports this interesting quote:
"We respect Divine religions including the Jewish religion. The problem is with Israel's occupation of Arab lands, not with the Jews" - Hezbollah

Since we are on the subject of tolerance toward places of worship, here is some breaking news from the Middle East:

Palestinian mosque torched by settlers

Haaretz Newspaper
By Avi Issacharoff and DPA

A Palestinian mosque was set alight and vandalized late Sunday night in what police suspected was a "price tag" operation by nearby settlers wishing to protest Israel's West Bank policies.
West Bank mosque arson


Residents of the village of Bayt Fajar near Bethlehem alleged that a group of settlers, apparently from the nearby Gush Etzion settlement bloc, entered the village in the early hours and burnt down the mosque before residents were able to kick them out.

Who is behind the growing anti-Muslim bigotry campaign in America? Some Zionist Groups Stoke Fear Of Islam for Political Profit.

Some Zionist Groups Stoke Fear Of Islam for Political Profit
The Forward, A Jewish weekly newspaper
Opinion
By Matthew Duss
Published September 22, 2010, issue of October 01, 2010.

After the last several months, it should be clear that the controversy over the Park 51 Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero is about more than sensitivity to the families of the 9/11 victims and the sacredness of the site where their loved ones were murdered. In places as far from Lower Manhattan as Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Temecula, Calif., Muslim houses of worship, and the people who pray in them, have come under attack by conservative activists as representing an American beachhead for Muslim extremism.

Whether it’s Newt Gingrich peddling false stories of “creeping sharia” (strict Islamic law) to an audience of very serious people at the American Enterprise Institute, or the Washington Times running endless editorials and op-eds from conspiracy theorists like Frank Gaffney warning that President Obama “may actually still be a Muslim,” or Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney shamelessly and falsely asserting that Park 51 leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has “terror-related connections,” it’s clear that quite a few conservative elites see political profit in stoking Americans’ fear of Islam.

Such hostility toward Muslims is unfortunately not marginal in the pro-Israel community — unless one is prepared to define the huge annual policy conference of one of Washington’s foremost lobbies as “marginal.” At an AIPAC conference in March 2009, to take just one example, terrorism expert Steve Emerson spent 40 minutes stoking the worst fears of the mostly elderly attendees with a talk called “Tentacles of Terror: The Global Reach of Islamic Radicalism.” It could just as easily have been called “Scaring the Living Crap Out of Bubbe and Zayde.” As long as Jews are encouraged to believe that scary Muslims are hiding under every American bed, the idea is perpetuated that support for the Jewish state is a zero-sum contest between favoring Israel and favoring Arabs and Muslims. For too many American Jews, smearing Islam is seen as a legitimate expression of Zionism.

Groups like The Israel Project, the Middle East Media Research Institute and Middle East Forum seem to exist for no other reason than to spotlight the very worst aspects of Muslim societies. Magazines like Commentary and the Weekly Standard regularly traffic in the crudest stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims, and promote the harshest measures for dealing with them. Musing over the appropriateness of targeting Palestinian civilians during the Gaza conflict, Standard contributing editor Michael Goldfarb wrote approvingly, “To wipe out a man’s entire family, it’s hard to imagine that doesn’t give his colleagues at least a moment’s pause.”

Martin Kramer, a fellow at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, president of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and frequent AIPAC panelist, took things even further, suggesting that Israel’s siege on Gaza, could, by depressing population growth, “crack the culture of martyrdom, which demands a constant supply of superfluous young men.”

In 2007, in what could be seen as a precursor to the current uproar over the Park 51 Islamic cultural center, Middle East Forum Director Daniel Pipes played a key role in flaming controversy over the Khalil Gibran International Academy, a planned New York City public school emphasizing the study of Arabic language and culture. Pipes asserted that such a school represented a potential threat simply by virtue of teaching Arabic.

It would be wrong, however, to pretend that these sorts of smears have been the work solely of conservatives. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, a liberal who promotes himself as Israel’s leading public defender, regularly rehearses the most clownish calumnies against Israel’s adversaries, real and perceived. Citing the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini’s collaboration with the Nazis, Dershowitz wrote, “the Palestinian leadership, supported by the Palestinian masses, played a significant role in Hitler’s Holocaust.” The obviously ahistorical stupidity of that claim aside, it hardly needs pointing out that a similar attempt to lay collective blame upon Jews would be immediately — and rightly — condemned, by Dershowitz and others.

Hatred of Arabs has also had a home in one of America’s oldest and best-respected liberal magazines, The New Republic, for over three decades, courtesy of owner and editor-in-chief Marty Peretz, who never seems to tire of identifying ways in which Arab society is “hidebound and backward,” as he wrote in 2007. Observing the devastation in Iraq, Peretz wrote: “I actually believe that Arabs are feigning outrage when they protest what they call American (or Israeli) ‘atrocities.’ They are not shocked at all by what in truth must seem to them not atrocious at all. It is routine in their cultures.” Peretz reiterated that view in September of this year. “Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims,” he wrote. “This is a statement of fact, not value.”

While it’s tempting to dismiss Peretz as a racist old kook, he does serve as editor-in-chief of a major magazine, and he has been able to help define the boundaries of acceptable liberal discourse for 30 years. And he has chosen through those years to place the most retrograde anti-Arab, anti-Muslim bigotry — including constant denials of Palestinian nationhood — within those boundaries.

It wasn’t so long ago that Jews in America were targets of similar slander and knee-jerk opposition. Liberal American Jews have been at the forefront of all of America’s struggles against bigotry, but they need to do a better job of calling out the hate in their own communities. Moderate Muslims are often called upon to condemn the extreme rhetoric of their co-religionists. It is not too much, at long last, to call upon moderate Zionists to do the same.

Matthew Duss is National Security Editor at the Center for American Progress.


Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/131502/#ixzz10V32gw00

CAIR's PSA: 'We Have More in Common than We Think', Interfaith

Rabbi Arthur Waskow along with Muslim and Christian leaders describing the "golden rule" as expressed by their respective faiths.

At the Death Camps, Muslim Leaders Grapple With Jews’ Pain

By A.J. Goldmann
Published August 11, 2010
The Jewish Daily FORWARD

Krakow, Poland — It was a perfect summer day at the Dachau concentration camp. The clear skies and pleasant breeze seemed almost offensive. And there, beneath the main monument, a bronze sculpture of writhing bodies intermeshed with barbed wire, was an uncommon sight: a group of Muslims leaders prostrate in prayer.

At the end of the service, prayer leader Muzammil Siddiqi, imam of the Islamic Society of Orange County, California, offered up an additional prayer: “We pray to God that this will not happen to the Jewish people or to any people anymore.”

Siddiqi was one of eight American Muslim leaders on a study tour to Dachau and Auschwitz that was co-sponsored by a German think tank and the Center for Interreligious Understanding, a New Jersey-based interfaith dialogue group. The delegation’s sole female member was Laila Muhammad, daughter of the late American Muslim leader W.D. Muhammad and granddaughter of Elijah Muhammad, the late leader of the Nation of Islam...

Read Full Article

Read: Denying the Holocaust is immoral and un-Islamic

Open the Gates: A Rabbinical Response to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Tragedy

The silent majority is speaking out.

This is taken from the website of "The Jewish Fast for Gaza" which is an ad hoc group of rabbis, Jews, and people of conscience who have committed to undertake a monthly daytime fast in support of the following goals:

1. To call for a lifting of the blockade that prevents the entry of civilian goods and services into Gaza;

2. To provide humanitarian and developmental aid to the people of Gaza;

3. To call upon Israel, the US, and the international community to engage in negotiations without pre-conditions with all relevant Palestinian parties - including Hamas - in order to end the blockade;

4. To encourage the American government to vigorously engage both Israelis and Palestinians toward a just and peaceful settlement of the conflict.

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Here is an open letter from so many heroic rabbis. I am proud to count many of them as personal friends and mentors who have inspired my social justice activism.

God bless them.

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Open the Gates: A Rabbinical Response to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Tragedy

Dear Friends,

In the wake of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla tragedy, we once again feel the need to raise our voices as rabbis in the Jewish community.

According to press reports, we now know that at least 9 people have been killed and many more have been injured when Israeli Navy Seals boarded a boat that held 600 people in the middle of the night – conducting a military operation against civilian activists in the midst of international waters.

We also know that the essential aim of the Freedom Flotilla was to carry humanitarian aid to those who have been severely suffering under the effects of Israel’s crushing blockade of Gaza. We call upon our community not to turn away in denial or blame those of good will and good purpose who risked their lives to relieve the beleaguered people of the Gaza strip.

We lift up our voices and call upon Israel to conduct an independent, transparent, and credible investigation of this incident. We also call upon the government of Israel to open the gates of compassion and allow these ships to dock so that they may deliver humanitarian aid to the 1.5 million citizens of Gaza. In so doing, we note the overall context of oppression in which this incident has occurred and call upon the government of Israel to turn away from the policies of occupation, siege and indifference to international law.

Our silence now is an act of betrayal to the values we purport to live by and to the words of the prophet we read every Yom Kippur:

Is this the fast I desire? A day for people to starve
their bodies? Or bow their heads like a bulrush
or wear sackcloth and smear oneself with ashes...
No! This is the fast the Lord desires:
Unlock the fetters of oppression
Untie the cords of the yoke
Let the exploited go free, break off every chain.
share your bread with the hungry,
Shelter the poor in your own house
clothe the naked and do not ignore your own kin.

As rabbis, we believe all human beings are our kin. We cannot abide the suffering inflicted upon the people of Gaza.

We lift up our voices and say: Unlock the fetters of oppression. Untie the cords of the yoke. Open the gates.

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Rabbi Brian Walt
Rabbi Alissa Wise
Rabbi Rebecca Alpert
Rabbi Marjorie Berman
Rabbi JB Sacks
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Rabbi David Mivasair
Rabbi Chava Bahle
Rabbi Eyal Levinson
Rabbi Nina Mandel
Rabbi Margaret Holub
Rabbi Rebecca Lillian
Rabbi Gershon Steinberg-Caudill
Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Rabbi Naomi Steinberg
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Rabbi Victor H. Reinstein
Rabbi Phyllis Berman
Rabbi Linda Holtzman
Rabbi Andrew Gold
Rabbi Michael Feinberg

(List in formation)

The silent Jewish majority

By Marwan Bishara, June 2nd, 2010
Aljazeera English

Read full article

Marwan Bishara asks if those in whose name Israel commits its crimes are going to act and speak out against it.
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The Israeli military operation against the humanitarian Gaza convoy has provoked an outcry around the world and within Israel itself...

An increasing number of Jewish activists in Europe and the US are expressing their displeasure - and even anger - over the way in which Israel has evolved in recent years. Some have joined - and even led - solidarity initiatives that aim to lift the siege of Gaza and to end the occupation of Palestine.

But as Israelis begin to question, criticise and even condemn wrong headed Israeli policies, one wonders: Where is the silent Jewish majority in whose name Israel acts?

...A recent article in the New York Review of Books has shed more light on the increased detachment of the influential international Jewish community from Israel and its alienation from the unconditionally pro-Israeli Jewish establishment.

However, the majority of Jews remain silent about the "controversial" policies Israel carries out in their name as a self-declared "state of the Jewish people"...

To gain the moral high ground, Israeli leaders consistently defended their state's "humane" and "democratic" nature.

The best expression of Israel's 'surplus morality' reached the heights of chutzpah when late prime minister Golda Meir defended Israeli crimes by blaming them on the Arabs: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children ... we cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children."

But colonial Zionism's attempt to monopolise Judaism and claim its humanism was exposed by some of the most authoritative religious Jewish voices in the country.

The most outspoken critic of Israel, its values and polices was the late Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz. A deeply religious man, he staunchly condemned the Israeli occupation and reportedly accused Israeli soldiers of possessing a Nazi-like mentality.

Avraham Burg, an observant religious Jew who was the head the Jewish Agency and the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has also emerged as a bold critic of destructive or the "eschatological" form of Zionism, suggesting in his eye-opening book, The Holocaust Is Over, that Jews must now rise from its ashes...

Recent events in Israel/Palestine magnified the difference, even the contradiction, between Jewish intellectuals inside and outside of Israel...

Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Laureate along with his close friends Peres and Henry Kissinger, and Bernard Henri Levi, the French 'philosopher', have been vocal in expressing their "love" for Israel and "attachment" to Jerusalem.

They generally defend the practices of the Israeli military in the occupied territories as a "democratic army" who attaches great importance to "purity of arms".

Four decades of military occupation, tens of massacres and tens of thousands of killed Palestinians have done little to dissuade them.

Henri-Levi has been particularly vocal in defence of Israeli and US policies since he became the laughing stock of the Paris intellectual community for his gaffs, not to say hoax as an "impostor". His flip flops in Tel Aviv this week were quite telling.

Likewise, Wiesel, who one Israeli intellectual referred to as the "Holocauster" - the guru of the Holocaust industry - has been staunchly - some say blindly -supporting illegal and bloody Israeli practices in the occupied territories, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem.

Interestingly, the sharpest criticism of the resident New Yorker Wiesel came from Jewish residents of Jerusalem...

Diametrically opposed stand the universalists. Richard Falk is a professor of international law and the UN's special rapporteur on Palestine and eminent philosopher Noam Chomsky is considered to be one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century.

(Photo: Hedy Epstein, a Holocaust survivor, was part of the recent Gaza flotilla)

Both have consistently stood up and spoken against war crimes everywhere, regardless of the identity of their perpetrators. And they have not shied away from taking a moral stand when that concerns Israel or the US.

They are two of the most vocal liberal humanist voices in the West, indeed the world, condemning the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as Israel's wars in Lebanon and Palestine.

Wiesel and Henri-Levi have consistently emphasised their Jewish and Zionist credentials, while Falk and Chomsky uncompromisingly underline their liberal humanism and opposition to colonial Zionism.

Most interestingly, while Wiesel and Henri-Levi get the VIP treatment in Israel, Falk and Chomsky were both denied entry into the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories!

The contrast could not be sharper for the silent and not so silent Jewish majority and, indeed, Western and international public opinion.

Not in our name!

I heard a young Jewish woman activist yesterday on Al Jazeera saying that Israel should no longer be allowed to carry on with its crimes in the name of the Jewish people.

True. What about the silent and alienated Jewish majority!

Many Jews do not want their identity, politics or worldview limited to or identified strictly with their religion and rightly so, especially when they are secular or unbelievers.

But that leaves the door open for those who underline their Jewishness and Zionism as one and the same to be more vocal "representatives" of the Jewish people on Israel.

Remember, just as there is nothing Muslim about terrorism and nothing Christian about genocide, there is also nothing Jewish about colonialism. All religions and peoples should, first and foremost, stand against all crimes carried out in their name.

So once again, where is the silent Jewish majority around the world in whose name Israel commits war crimes and who have a great contribution to make to bringing peace and justice to Israel/Palestine - indeed to the Middle East region?


Also Read:
Message to Muslims and Jews: Political Debate, Yes. Bigotry, No
US progressive Jews condemn Gaza war
Why aren't Jews outraged by Israeli occupation?
Is criticism of Zionism and Israel equivalent to anti-Semitism?

Video: The Simon Wiesenthal Museum of "Tolerance" Desecrating Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem

The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights is petitioning various United Nations offices, of Palestinian families whose ancestors are buried in the Mamila Cemetery.

The cemetery better known as Mamilla, has been a Muslim burial ground since the 7th century, when companions of the Prophet Muhammad were reputedly buried there.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles based non-profit association, began to build a Museum of Tolerance on the grounds of the Maaman Allah cemetery in Jerusalem.

It is also houses the remains of soldiers and officials of the Muslim ruler Saladin from the 12th century, as well as generations of important Jerusalem families and notables. The cemetery grounds also contain numerous monuments, structures, and gravestones attesting to its hallowed history, including the ancient Mamilla Pool, which dates back to the Herodian period, or the 1st century B.C.

See:
"Museum of Tolerance" not so tolerant of Muslims nor their graves (including Prophet's Sahabas/companions)

L.A. Times Commentary: Desecrating a Muslim cemetery with a Center for Human Dignity

Project helps Jewish and Muslim teens cooperate, form friendships

Los Angeles Daily News
By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer
04/04/2010

VAN NUYS - Danielle Feuer and July Aye both study hard, share Facebook friends and worship the same God.

But one is Jewish, the other Muslim, working side-by-side among a dozen interfaith teens on Sunday to sort food at a Van Nuys food bank.

"The whole point of our group is to not be confrontational, but to learn about each other and to discuss issues in a friendly way," said Feuer, 16, of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills.

"We're not just learning about religions," added Aye, 15, of King Fahad Mosque in Culver City. "We go to each others' houses. We go to each others' places of worship. We go on Facebook."

After six months of praying, meeting, going to the movies and serving to help the poor together, the Teen Interfaith Project of both congregations has formed bonds between faiths at historical odds overseas.

The project - the first known group of its kind in Los Angeles - follows a national "twinning" movement to bring mosques and synagogues together, organizers say.

Both faiths share similarities, including values of required charity. And teens from both have worked to mutually respect their differences...

Muslims join Jews in celebrating Passover and striving for deliverance from Pharaoh's oppression

Passover is the holy day and festival commemorating the biblical event of the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt.

Many Jews and Christians might be surprised to know that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) instructed Muslims to also commemorate the Exodus of the Hebrews out of Egypt by fasting on the tenth day of the month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar. The event is called Ashura, referring to the Arabic word for “ten.”

Muslims revere Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) as one of the most important Islamic figures and one of the five most important prophets in the history of humankind chosen by Allah/God.

The Quran details the stories of many of the Hebrew prophets and their early followers. In fact, Islam considers those early followers to be among the first muslims -- in the sense of the literal meaning of “ones who submit themselves to God.”

The Quran and Islamic teachings praise Moses and reminds Muslims and all people to learn from his courage, commitment to speaking the truth, and standing up for justice. Several verses in the Quran also emphasize Moses’ mother's strong faith and trust in Allah/God.

While Muslims and Jews, both tracing their roots to Abraham, commemorate this joyful occasion on different days, our common heritage and history should bring us together in expressing gratitude and thankfulness to our Creator, Allah/God Almighty for saving Moses and his people from the oppression of Pharaoh, and directing them to freedom in the Holy Land, in Palestine, over 3,300 years ago.

Sadly, it is the same Palestine and its long-standing indigenous people that are now subjected to a new form of oppression and bondage. The new Pharaoh is Zionism and its tools of occupation, ethnic cleansing, separation walls, siege, settlements, and land confiscation. This new Pharaoh is not only victimizing Muslims and Christians in the Holy Land, but also Jews by creating animosity and hatred among these three groups.

May the courage and faith of our shared and beloved prophet Moses (peace be upon him) inspire us to strive for justice and freedom for all people, especially those in Palestine.

May our common love for Allah/God and His prophets bring us together as one human race that strives for peace, dignity, and prosperity for all people.

On this day, I am wishing my Jewish friends and neighbors a peaceful and joyful Passover for them and their loved ones.

Mis-reading the Bible/Torah to Promote Terrorism and the Killing of Babies!

Meet the ideology that inspired the suspected extremist Jewish settlers who were involved in the torching of a mosque in the West Bank in Palestine last month and in other earlier cases of terrorism.

The Jewish Daily Forward wrote a revealing article that exposed the growing influence of extremist Jewish institutions and figures that are promoting teachings of violence, hatred, and genocide on the basis of radical biblical interpretations.

So far, such groups have had little success in recruiting supporters in the US, with the exception of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), which was characterized as "a right-wing terrorist group" by the FBI. Well, to be accurate, the JDL's founder, late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane appears to have one last loud supporter and follower. This follower is none but Joe Kaufman, the virulent Islamophobe from Florida.

Of course, extremism is not exclusive to the Jewish religion. All religions have their share of extremists. It is a must that the peaceful moderates from all religions work together to expose and isolate such radicals who wish to drag the world into their narrow-minded vision of division, hatred, and violence. Collectively and genuinely working toward justice and a culture of mutual respect will surely bring peace and harmony.

Read an earlier article that I wrote: Bible, Quran easily quoted out of context

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Excerpts from the Forward article:

Rabbinic Text or Call to Terror?

The Jewish Daily Forward

By Daniel Estrin
Published January 20, 2010

Click to read the full article.

Jerusalem — The marble-patterned, hardcover book embossed with gold Hebrew letters looks like any other religious commentary you’d find in an Orthodox Judaica bookstore — but reads like a rabbinic instruction manual outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults.

“The prohibition ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’” applies only “to a Jew who kills a Jew,” write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us.”...

The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, suspects five of those arrested were involved in the torching and vandalizing of a Palestinian mosque last month in the neighboring Palestinian village of Yasuf...

In 2008, author Shapira was suspected of involvement in a crude rocket attack directed at a Palestinian village. Israeli police investigated but made no arrests...

In 2003, the head of the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, was charged by then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein with incitement to racism for authoring a book calling Arabs a “cancer.”

In 2006-2007, the Israeli Ministry of Education gave about a quarter of a million dollars to the yeshiva, and in 2007-2008 the yeshiva received about $28,000 from the American nonprofit Central Fund of Israel.

“The King’s Torah” reflects a fringe viewpoint held by a minority of rabbis in the West Bank, said Avinoam Rosenak, a Hebrew University professor specializing in settler theology. Asher Cohen, a Bar Ilan University political science professor, thought its influence would be “zero” because it appeals only to extreme ideologues.

But the book’s wide dissemination and the enthusiastic endorsements of prominent rabbis have spotlighted what might have otherwise remained an isolated commentary...

CAIR-LA Condemns Shooting at North Hollywood Synagogue

(LOS ANGELES, CA, 10/29/09) - The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today condemned a shooting incident in the parking garage of a North Hollywood synagogue in which two worshipers were injured. The worshipers are reported to be hospitalized in good condition.

A motive for the shooting has yet to be established, but a bias motive is being investigated.

SEE: Police Search for Gunman in North Hollywood Synagogue Shooting (LA Times blog)

In a statement, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said:

"We condemn this attack near the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Orthodox synagogue in the strongest possible terms and offer our prayers for the victims and their families.

"No worshiper -- whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, or other -- should be made to feel unsafe or intimidated at a house of worship. We also appreciate the LAPD's investigation and enhanced security in response to the attack."

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Calif. Muslims Condemn Neo-Nazi Harassment of Jewish Worshipers

(ANAHEIM, CA, 10/8/09) - The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), along with the Islamic Center of Riverside and the Islamic Society of Corona/Norco, today condemned the racist harassment of Jewish worshipers at Temple Beth El in Riverside.

According to media reports, neo-Nazis recently displayed flags with Nazi swastikas to harass and intimidate worshippers attending services at Temple Beth El. CAIR-LA says it will join more than 20 other organizations that plan a counter-protest to a neo-Nazi rally on October 24.

SEE: Groups Plan Rally Against Neo-Nazis (Press-Enterprise)

"We condemn any attempts to intimidate or harass peaceful worshipers who were practicing their right to freely worship at Temple Beth El," said Hussam Ayloush, CAIR-LA executive director. "We stand by our Jewish neighbors and reiterate our offer of sympathy, support and friendship."

Ayloush said Muslim community leaders and representatives also plan to visit Temple Beth El to show their support for the congregants.

"The City of Riverside and its residents remain united in the face of such bigotry," said Dr. Mustafa Kuko, religious director of the Islamic Center of Riverside.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.