Archive for the ‘Jews’ Category

This is something for all those ‘christian’ people who are duped by people like John Hagee into sending their money to the Jews.  This is what you are funding, in part.  You’re funding the enemy, idiots.

Globally speaking, the most serious new tension dividing Jews and Catholics is Pope Benedict XVI’s decision just before Christmas to advance the sainthood cause of Pius XII, the wartime pontiff whose alleged “silence” on the Holocaust has long been a subject of polarizing historical debate.

On the ground in Jerusalem, however, Jewish/Christian animus has a much more prosaic cause: Spitting.

Recently, the Jerusalem Post carried a piece quoting Rabbi David Rosen, a veteran of Catholic/Jewish dialogue, acknowledging that incidents of ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting at priests, nuns and other Christian clergy is “a part of life” in Jerusalem. Such incidents have been occurring for the last twenty years and are now on the rise, according to the story, although they appear to be limited to Jerusalem.

The piece quoted a Texas-born Franciscan, Fr. Athanasius Macora, who heads the Christian Information Center inside the Jaffa Gate, who said that he’s been spat upon by ultra-Orthodox Jews as much as fifteen times in the last six months – not only in the Old City, but also outside his Franciscan friary.

The Rev. Samuel Aghoyan, an Armenian Orthodox cleric, said he’s been spat upon fifteen to twenty times, most recently in November.

“I was walking back from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and I saw this boy in a yarmulke and ritual fringes coming back from the Kotel, and he spat at me two or three times,” Aghoyan said.

“Every [Christian cleric in the Old City] who’s been here for awhile, who dresses in robes in public, has a story to tell about being spat at,” Macora said. “The more you get around, the more it happens.”

Source/Full Story: National Catholic Reporter

9
Oct

Jerusalem set for al-Aqsa protest

   Posted by: joshuah

Thousands of Israeli police have been deployed in Jerusalem as Palestinian groups call for protests over tensions at the al-Aqsa mosque.

The Islamist group Hamas called for a “day of rage”, local media said, while its rival Fatah urged peaceful protests over access to the key holy site.

Sporadic clashes in recent weeks are apparently due to Palestinian fears of extremist Jews gaining entry.

The tensions come as US envoy George Mitchell visits the region for talks.

US attempts to restart peace negotiations appear to have stalled over Israel’s refusal to meet US and Palestinian demands that it freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank.

“We are determined, persevering, and we recognise the complexities and the difficulties,” Mr Mitchell told reporters before meeting Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday.

Israel has made clear that it intends to keep building in East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want the capital of their future state.

Source/Full Story: BBC NEWS
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Roman Catholic and Orthodox Jewish officials in New York are mounting an intense lobbying effort to block a bill before the State Legislature that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations for lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of children.

State Senator Thomas K. Duane, who met on Wednesday with the New York Coalition to Protect Children, is the sponsor of a bill that would suspend the statute of limitations on abuse claims.

A perennial proposal that has been quashed in past years by Republicans who controlled the State Senate, the bill is now widely supported by the new Democratic majority in that chamber, and for the first time is given a good chance of passing.

If signed by Gov. David A. Paterson, a longtime supporter, the bill would at minimum revive hundreds of claims filed in recent years against Catholic priests and dioceses in New York, but dismissed because they were made after the current time limit, which is five years after the accuser turns 18. Similar legislation has passed in Delaware and in California, where a 2003 law led to claims that have cost the church an estimated $800 million to $1 billion in damages and settlements.

But while the Catholic Church is leading the opposition, in recent months a loose coalition of disparate groups has also joined the effort. They include leaders of the Hasidic and Sephardic Jewish institutions in Brooklyn, which could face equally costly abuse claims. The New York Civil Liberties Union and the criminal defense bar oppose lifting statutes of limitation as unfair to the accused, who must defend themselves against claims of transgressions decades old.

Source: NYTimes.com

14
Oct

‘Great Schlep’ pitches Obama to Florida Jews

   Posted by: joshuah

Uh huh…

Source: CNN.com

A Yiddish word meaning to pull, yank or tug, schlep is a good way of describing what it took for Mike Bender to persuade his grandparents to vote for Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Bender’s grandparents, Kenny and Selma Furst, 90 and 87 years old, should have been an easy sell to support the Democratic nominee for president.

Like many of the estimated 650,000 Jews living in Florida, the Fursts are lifelong, passionate Democrats and a crucial vote for any Democratic candidate hoping to win the battleground state.

But when Bender — who is not affiliated with Obama’s campaign but supports him — brought up the idea of voting for Obama over Thanksgiving dinner last year, he was met with an uncharacteristic silence.

“Their reaction was, as they said, ‘I’m a little meschugah,’ ” Bender said, adding that the expression meant “crazy.”

For Selma Furst, voting for an African-American for president seemed unthinkable.

Full Story…