Harvard Interfaith Mumbai Vigil Discussion

From: Zeba Almas Syed <syed@fas.harvard.edu>
To: interfaith-list <Interfaith-list@lists.hcs.harvard.edu>; Ria Tobaccowala <rtobacc@fas.harvard.edu>
Sent: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 9:41 pm
Subject: [Interfaith] Mumbai Vigil - TOMORROW!

Hey Interfaith crew,

Please stop by this event tomorrow... at times like this its crucial that we show our solidarity and support for all those affected (either directly or know of others affected). HCIC is cosponsoring as well.

Zeba

___________________________________________________

Vigil for the Victims of the Mumbai Attacks
Thursday, December 4, 2008
10:30 pm on Steps of Memorial Church
If bad weather condition, vigil will be at 11 pm at Harvard Hillel (52 Mt. Auburn St.)

Please join the Harvard Community as we come together to reflect on the recent tragedies in Mumbai and pay respects to those lost in the attacks. All members of the Harvard Community are welcome.

Co-Sponsoring Organizations: Harvard South Asian Association | Harvard Students of Chabad | Harvard Hillel | Harvard Dharma | Harvard Islamic Society | Harvard Catholic Students Association | Harvard South Asian Men's Collective | Harvard Students for Israel | Interfaith Council | South Asia Initiative | Harvard Pakistan Initiative |South Asian Students Association of the School of Public Health | South Asia Graduate Student Group | Progressive Jewish Alliance

--
*************************************
Zeba Almas Syed
Harvard College '09
syed@fas.harvard.edu
Cell: (914) 374-3387

 

From: thorsprovoni@aol.com
To: syed@fas.harvard.edu; Interfaith-list@lists.hcs.harvard.edu; rtobacc@fas.harvard.edu
Sent: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 10:06 pm
Subject: Re: [Interfaith] Mumbai Vigil - TOMORROW!

With whom would we be showing solidarity?

 

I hope it is not the Chabad organization.

 

It is hardly surprising that Chabad Lubavitch' Dangerous Game has finally cost the lives of some of its staff. The organization has been in bed with murderous genocidal Jewish racists, extremists and fanatics for a long time, and it is already making hypocritical and opportunistic use of the Holzbergs in a very crass fundraiser.

 

I hope there will be a statement in support of the population of Gaza, for Gazans are currently under siege and being starved by the Zionist state.

 

Don't you think that this latest example of Zionist brutality in combination with Zionist outrages over the last 100 years might possibly have contributed to the choice of the Chabad Nariman House as a target by people that identify with the oppression Palestinians suffer because of the suffering of Kashmiri Muslims under oppressive Indian rule?

 

At some point Jewish groups like Chabad have to take responsibility for the crimes that have arisen out of Jewish politics especially when some Jewish groups like Chabad are totally complicit in those crimes and that politics.

From: Jessamin Birdsall <birdsall@fas.harvard.edu>
To: interfaith-list <Interfaith-list@lists.hcs.harvard.edu>
Cc: rtobacc@fas.harvard.edu
Sent: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 11:18 pm
Subject: Re: [Interfaith] Mumbai Vigil - TOMORROW!

Hi everyone,

I apologize for this email that was just sent over the interfaith list. It was sent by someone outside our organization, and I just wanted to let you know that it does not reflect the views of the Interfaith Council. We are grateful for the opportunity to stand in solidarity with all of the co-sponsoring groups tomorrow night on behalf of the victims of the Mumbai attacks. We hope you will join us.


Sincerely,

Jessamin Birdsall
Chair, Harvard College Interfaith Council

From: Matt Cavedon <cavedog14@comcast.net>
To: thorsprovoni@aol.com
Cc: syed@fas.harvard.edu; Interfaith-list@lists.hcs.harvard.edu; rtobacc@fas.harvard.edu
Sent: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 11:30 pm
Subject: Re: [Interfaith] Mumbai Vigil - TOMORROW!

Dear respondent,

Chabad houses have come under fire for some of their policies and associations, including having an open-door hospitality policy and promoting religious orthodoxy. There is, however, no verifiable reason to believe that the Chabad house in Mumbai had any ties whatsoever to violence or to human rights abuses. To attempt to paint an entire religious movement as responsible for the actions of a handful of its members is unfair, biased, and inaccurate. To suggest that the rabbi and his wife who were killed in India are somehow culpable for the suffering of individuals in Palestine is as prejudiced and wrong as it would be to suggest that the Muslim community here at Harvard is responsible for the attacks, or that the Christians here should be made answerable for the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Tomorrow night, members of the Harvard community from all political stances and religious beliefs will come together to show solidarity with everyone who is suffering as a result of the attacks in Mumbai. That means friends and family of six Chabad workers, six Americans, over 200 Indians (mostly Hindus), and everyone else weeping for that ancient city. Our intent is not to politicize this event or any other, but to acknowledge that the murder of civilians and the instigation of terror are never acceptable means of expressing a political point, and to show solidarity with everyone whose hearts are broken because someone believed that families had to die in the name of politics.

We hope that you will be in attendance.

Matt Cavedon

Harvard College Interfaith Council, Dialogue Chair

From: thorsprovoni@aol.com
To: cavedog14@comcast.net
Cc: syed@fas.harvard.edu; Interfaith-list@lists.hcs.harvard.edu; rtobacc@fas.harvard.edu
Sent: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 12:06 am
Subject: Re: [Interfaith] Mumbai Vigil - TOMORROW!

With whom will we be standing in solidarity?

 

Here is a report from Marcy Newman in Ramallah on the murder of three Palestinians by the IDF over the weekend: shades of hawkish duplicity.

 

I am part of the Harvard community.

 

Why aren't we standing in solidarity with murdered and besieged Palestinians?

 

I read about IDF murders of Palestinians every few days.

 

Is this ceremony orchestrated by Harvard Chabad to reinforce the notion of Jewish victimhood while Zionists murder and starve Palestinians?

 

It is particularly important that Harvard Chabad take a forthright stand against Jewish/Zionist racism and genocidalism before we stand with this organization because Chabad in Israel is aligned with the most racist, recalcitrant, and genocidal parties in the Knesset.

I have worked on and off in Israel and the occupied territories since 1990.

There is a lot of competition, but probably the most vile racist genocidal rabbi over there is Lubavitcher Rabbi Wolpe.

Now I am perfectly aware that Chabad leadership in Crown Heights has distanced itself from messianists like Wolpe, but non-Messianist Chabad allies itself with the most anti-Arab and racist parties in the Knesset, and it definitely does not distance itself from supporters of settlement building and Zionist terrorism like Lev Leviev.

Chabad has to own and take responsibility for the violence, murder, genocide, terrorism, and racism that has grown out of the Jewish politics in which it takes part.

Krinsky has to start facing up to the danger in which the political choices of the Chabad leadership (with regard to Russia and Israel) are putting shluchim.

Jews (not just Chabad) expect Germans to take responsibility and show remorse for the crimes that have grown out of German politics.

As far as I am concerned, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Chabad and Jews in general have to start taking responsibility and show remorse for the crimes that have grown out of Jewish politics especially when they are as complicit in those crimes as so many members of Chabad are.

Will Harvard Chabad stand in solidarity and support for Palestinians murdered by the IDF or settlers as well as for the people of Gaza that are under brutal Zionist siege?

It is an important question.< BR>

 

From: Manjari C. Miller <mchatter@fas.harvard.edu>
To: Matt Cavedon <cavedog14@comcast.net>
Cc: thorsprovoni@aol.com; Interfaith-list@lists.hcs.harvard.edu; rtobacc@fas.harvard.edu
Sent: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 10:04 am
Subject: Re: [Interfaith] Mumbai Vigil - TOMORROW!

I am Indian. I spent the days of the attacks frantically trying to get in touch with my friends and family in Mumbai. I know nothing of Chabad House policies but I can tell you this: NOTHING justifies the murder of parents in front of their two year old toddler. NOTHING justifies the bruises on 2-year old Moshe's back where the terrorists hit him or the blood of his parents that covered his clothes. I have a two year old son--I hurt just thinking of this orphaned little boy. 

From: thorsprovoni@aol.com
To: mchatter@fas.harvard.edu; cavedog14@comcast.net; syed@fas.harvard.edu; birdsall@fas.harvard.edu
Cc: Interfaith-list@lists.hcs.harvard.edu; rtobacc@fas.harvard.edu
Sent: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 10:31 am
Subject: Re: [Interfaith] Mumbai Vigil - TOMORROW!

Nothing justifies killing an innocent family with an attack from the sky, but the IAF does it all the time as does the USAF in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Interfaith is all well and good, but it is probably time for an honest discussion of Palestine and Kashmir.

Emerson raised money for John Brown in Harvard Yard.

Do you know what John Brown did?  He had living slavers hacked to pieces in Bleeding Kansas.

Here in Massachusetts we consider John Brown  to have been a hero.

American history and precedent supports terrorism against state sponsored violent racism.

Zionism is a crime against humanity ethically equivalent to Southern slavery.

I really don't like this worthy victim stuff.

We should be having a vigil in support of Palestinians murdered or besieged by Zionist forces and for innocent Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistans murdered by the USA.

I am not the only specialist in Jewish studies that has problems with Chabad hypocrisy in claiming to oppose Zionism while the organization at the same time

• clings to a vicious anti-goyism (anti-gentilism),
  
• supports the most racist, most recalcitrant and most murderous Zionist political parties in the State of Israel, and yet
  
• refuses to take any responsibility for the crimes associated with Chabad's politics.

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