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“How can a good Jew celebrate Thanksgiving?” a fervently Orthodox Jew asked me some years ago. Thanksgiving, he pointed out, is not mentioned in the Bible, the Talmud, or any of the Codes of Jewish Law, and had its origins among Christian Pilgrims in New England.
Seattle-Tacoma airport, this year, was decorated with nine Christmas trees. Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky, who represents the Jewish organization Chabad-Lubavitch, protested. Since the Christmas tree is not a Jewish symbol, he sought to add a Chanukah menorah to the display. Instead, officials removed the Christmas trees from the airport, leaving behind no holiday decorations whatsoever.
Judaism, the Jewish philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz once observed, “recognizes war as a fact of human life because mankind, to which the Jewish people belongs, exists in an imperfect world.”
In an era when Americans ask presidential candidates whether they prefer “boxers or briefs,” a candidate’s personal religious views should surely not be off-limits to questioners.
The great biblical prophets were frequently critical of the people of Israel and the leadership of Israel. Yet they were faithful and loyal Jews. For this reason, invariably, they couched their criticisms in love. They chastised Israel, much as a parent might chastise an errant child, but they did so with great sadness and always in the hope that Israel would eventually repent.
Jerry Falwell played a huge role in the transformation of Evangelical –Jewish relations in the United States.
Prior to World War II, many evangelical ministers were known for their outspoken opposition to Jews and Judaism. They stood among the leading fomenters of antisemitism in the United States. To them, Jews constituted a threat not only to the United States but to the world.
Jerry Falwell, by contrast, forged cordial alliances with Jews, strongly supported the State of Israel, and worked to liberate Jews persecuted in the Soviet Union.
The battle for a Pagan chaplain recalls an earlier effort to make the chaplaincy more inclusive. The story dates back to 1861, during the early months of the Civil War.
The military chaplaincy law, passed in that year, stipulated that a regimental chaplain be a “regularly ordained minister of some Christian denomination.” Interestingly, the parallel Confederate law was more inclusive, requiring simply that the chaplain be a “minister of religion.”
The chaplaincy bill effectively barred Jewish chaplains from the field in the North – this in a war where some 8,000-10,000 Jews were fighting in the field. At least two elected Jewish chaplains were rejected on account of the discriminatory law, placing Jewish soldiers at a great disadvantage to Christian ones, and in effect rendering the Jewish faith illegitimate.
What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions
Gomaa, Fadlallah, Mubarak, Khan, Siddiqi, Ellison, others | On Faith
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