Jewish Groups Denounce Sarah Palin's Usage Of The Term "Blood Libel"

Think Progress reports that Jewish groups are denouncing Sarah Palin's usage of the term "blood libel." As most of you doubtlessly know, "blood libel" refers to the anti-Semitic claim that Jews use the blood of Christian babies to make matzoh. Such claims have been used to murder hundreds of Jews.

From the Jewish lobbying group, J Street:

J Street is saddened by Governor Palin’s use of the term “blood libel.” The country’s attention is rightfully focused on the memorial service for the victims of Saturday’s shooting. Our prayers continue to be with those who are still fighting to recover and the families of the victims. The last thing the country needs now is for the rhetoric in the wake of this tragedy to return to where it was before. We hope that Governor Palin will recognize, when it is brought to her attention, that the term “blood libel” brings back painful echoes of a very dark time in our communal history when Jews were falsely accused of committing heinous deeds.

From the National Jewish Democratic Council:

Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a “blood libel” against her and others. This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries—and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today.

Most are noting that Palin's claim is especially offensive considering that Rep. Giffords is Jewish.

BROOKLYN: Hasidic Jews Get Vodka Ads Yanked From City Buses

The MTA has caved to pressure from Brooklyn's Hasidic Jews and yanked the ad campaign from a vodka company that features a woman's butt in a bikini. An MTA rep tells Gothamist:

"At the request of community leaders, the Georgi vodka ads were removed from buses that are likely to serve Brooklyn's Hasidic neighborhoods. It has been our longstanding practice, when and where possible, to be sensitive to neighborhood concerns about potentially suggestive advertising. Although it is not always practicable, we try to limit more suggestive ads upon neighborhood request."

Last year Brooklyn's Hasidics protested the creation of new bike lanes because "provocatively dressed female bikers" might ride through their neighborhood.

Jews For Jesus Founder Dies

Moishe Rosen, founder of the controversial group Jews For Jesus, died this week at the age of 78.

Jews for Jesus was officially founded by Mr. Rosen in San Francisco in 1973. In the decades since, its missionaries have been a familiar presence on street corners in cities around the United States and elsewhere. Mr. Rosen was the group’s first executive director, a post he held until 1996. The organization’s central tenet is that it is possible simultaneously to be Jewish and to accept Jesus as the Messiah. “We certainly identify ourselves ethnically as Jewish, and with certain aspects of the religion that don’t conflict with our belief in Christ,” Ms. Perlman explained on Friday. Though Jews for Jesus enrolls no members per se, Ms. Perlman estimated that it has “a constituency” of about 200,000 interested Jews and Christians, a figure she said was based partly on subscriptions to the group’s print and online newsletters.

Jews For Jesus has chapters in ten countries, including Israel. Its members can be found annoying the fuck out of NYC's subway riders just about every day of the week.

Italian Bishop: It's The Jews' Fault

Italian Bishop Giacomo Babini continues the Catholic Church's pedophilia blame game:

The latest attempt to deflect culpability and accountability and protect Pope Benedict XVI is drenched in vile anti-semitism and represents a new low — even for the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Giacomo Babini, an emeritus bishop of Grosseto, Italy, believes recent criticism of Pope Benedict XVI’s failure to deal with known pedophile priests, he believes is a “Zionist attack.” Speaking on the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: “They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers.”

Here's the original article in Italian.

Vatican Priest: Catholics Are Being Persecuted Like The Jews

A Vatican priest stepped in it yesterday when he compared the global rash of child molestation investigations to the systemic persecution of Jews.

Speaking in St. Peter’s Basilica, the priest, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, took note that Easter and Passover fell during the same week this year, and said he was led to think of the Jews. “They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence, and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms,” said Father Cantalamessa, who serves under the title of preacher of the papal household. Then he quoted from what he said was a letter from a Jewish friend he did not identify. “I am following the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful by the whole world,” he said the friend wrote. “The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt, remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.” Good Friday has traditionally been a fraught day in Catholic-Jewish relations. Until the liberalizing Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, Catholic liturgy included a prayer for the conversion of the Jews, and Catholic teaching held Jews responsible for the Crucifixion.

The Vatican immediately distanced themselves from the remarks, but Jewish groups are livid.

Jewish leaders around the world used words like repugnant, obscene and offensive to describe the sermon, particularly, as Di Segni noted, it came on the day that for centuries Christians prayed for the conversion of the Jews, who were held collectively responsible for Jesus’ death. “How can you compare the collective guilt assigned to the Jews which caused the deaths of tens of millions of innocent people to perpetrators who abuse their faith and their calling by sexually abusing children?” demanded Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the international Jewish rights group.

Jewish Group Sets Up "Urgent Fund" To Support LGBT Ugandans

The American Jewish World Service has created a fund to help grassroots LGBT groups in Uganda. Fantastic.

In response to the terrible human rights violations against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Uganda, AJWS has created the URGENT LGBT UGANDA FUND to support local, grassroots organizations working to protect and advance human rights for sexual minorities.

Your donation today will enable AJWS to help LGBT people in Uganda live free, safe and dignified lives. AJWS upholds the standard that every life is of equal value. No one should live in fear, and it is our duty to respond to injustices now and always.

Via the Advocate: "AJWS's work is propelled by a very basic value: the essential dignity of every human being," AJWS president Ruth Messinger said in a release. "Through the creation of the 'Urgent LGBT Uganda Fund,' in conjunction with our broader advocacy efforts, AJWS is taking the lead in the Jewish community and in the broader faith-based community to ensure that all people — regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity — can realize their full, true selves."

Jews Outraged: Palpatine Wants Holocaust Pope Pius XII To Be Named A Saint

Jewish groups are furious over Pope Palpatine's announcement that he is submitting Pope Pius XII, infamously known as "Hitler's Pope," for beatification.

Jewish leaders from around the world expressed their outrage today after the Pope opened the way for his controversial wartime predecessor to be made a saint, with some calling the possible beatification of Pius XII as "inopportune and premature". Benedict signed a decree last Saturday on the virtues of Pius, who has been criticised for not doing enough to stop the Holocaust. The decree means he can be beatified once a miracle attributed to him has been recognised. Beatification is the first major step towards sainthood. But Benedict, who has long admired Pius, continues to draw fire for ignoring concerns over the controversial pontiff. Among those to criticise him was the World Jewish Congress, whose president, Ronald Lauder, said: "As long as the archives about the crucial period 1939 to 1945 remain closed, and until a consensus on his actions ‑ or inaction ‑ concerning the persecution of millions of Jews in the Holocaust is established, a beatification is inopportune and premature."

The Vatican has long claimed that Pius 12 worked "behind the scenes" to lessen the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. The degree to which that may have happened has been disputed by Jewish and other historians. The Jewish Virtual Library contains numerous accounts of refused pleas for Pius 12 to intercede or at least condemn the actions of the Nazis. The site does note several instances where Pius 12 helped Jews obtain foreign passports, but maintains that he did so only under pressure from the Allies and very late in the war after it was clear that the Axis powers would lose. The Vatican has consistently declined to open its Holocaust-era archives.

The Oldest Story In The World

By now you've likely heard that the world's most famous anti-Semite, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had Jewish parents.

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots. A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver. The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth. The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad's birthplace, and the name derives from "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior. Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.

"An overcompensation to hide his past." Now where have we seen that kind of behavior? Answer: In the actions, lies, and insults of virtually every hate-filled homophobe in the history of the world. The rest of the planet may be shocked to learn of Ahmadinejad's Jewish heritage. But for us on this here website thingy, it's just a slightly different version of the same old story.

Day Of Atonement

Anybody working today? The subway was the ghost town it always is on Yom Kippur. Even as a non-believer, I like the concept of a special day for forgiving your enemies and apologizing to those you've wronged, although it does feel somewhat 12-steppy. I like it, but not as much as the Airing Of Grievances. That's more me, really.

Westboro Baptist Protest Raises $10K For Gay NYC Synagogue

And again, the Westboro nutters prove their value to the LGBT movement.

A Manhattan synagogue turned a visit from hate-spewing demonstrators into a lucrative fund-raiser Sunday. Leaders of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, a West Village synagogue that caters to gays and lesbians, didn't want to ignore a planned visit by members of the rabidly anti-gay and anti-Semitic Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church. Instead, they asked supporters to pledge a dollar or more for every minute that six protesters stood near their synagogue hurling epithets and holding signs that read "God Hates Fags" and "Jews Stole the Land." The final haul after 50 minutes: $10,000. "Their very presence will actually raise money for the mission of this community," said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of the synagogue, which now holds services in rented space. "The synagogue wants a building so we're hoping this will help us get a building."

NY1 has great video of the protest and counter-protest.

Westboro To Picket Gay NYC Synagogue

Westboro Baptist Church claims that it will picket NYC gay synagogue Congregation Beth Simchat Torah this Sunday at its Bethune Street location. The synagogue responds:

CBST will be holding a non-violent prayer vigil and service during the time of their protest. We cannot allow this group to go unchallenged as they engage in hateful speech at our synagogue. The most powerful response to such hatred is our demonstration of what makes us strong and powerful in the face of bigotry. We will not engage in any confrontational action or shouting matches. They would love it if we were to lose our composure. We will present who we are in a strong and meaningful way.

If you have a tallit, please bring it. If you would like to make colorful signs, please consider using:

"We are all created in God's image"
"God loves all of us"
"God made me gay"
and similar messages

8:45 AM on Sunday, June 21st at our Bethune location

As often is the case when Westboro appears, the targeted group is turning the protest into a fundraising opportunity. Furniture mogul Mitchell Gold has pledged a donation for every minute that Westboro protests the CBST. Others are encouraged to join in.

Hatred Makes Strange Bedfellows

I thought I heard a shofar being blown at yesterday's anti-gay marriage rally. "Our accountants will have to do TAXES for married homosexual couples!!!" (Way to hit those stereotypes, Rabbi.) "Next year the perverts will come to you and demand that uncles can marry nephews!" I'd love to annotate this clip with a lie counter. Lie. DING. Lie. DING. Lie. DING.

Mormons Are Posthumously Baptizing Dead Jews, Living Jews Not Amused

From the You Can't Make It Up file:

Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice. Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say they are making changes to their massive genealogical database that will make it more difficult for names of Holocaust victims to be entered for posthumous baptism by proxy, a rite that has been a common Mormon practice for more than a century.

But Ernest Michel, honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, said that is not enough. At a news conference in New York City on Monday, he said the church also must ''implement a mechanism to undo what you have done.''

''Baptism of a Jewish Holocaust victim and then merely removing that name from the database is just not acceptable,'' said Michel, whose parents died at Auschwitz. He spoke on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-incited riots against Jews. ''We ask you to respect us and our Judaism just as we respect your religion,'' Michel said in a statement released ahead of the news conference. ''We ask you to leave our six million Jews, all victims of the Holocaust, alone, they suffered enough.''