Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionist Israel: Jewish Bigotries at Interfaith Dialogue

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Jewish Bigotries at Interfaith Dialogue

The organized Jewish community and network of Israel advocacy organizations subject Americans to a web of control that Orwell could not have conceived.

On Sunday March 15th I attended an Interfaith Dialogue at the new Islamic Society of Boston Community Center in Roxbury, MA. If I get a chance I will blog about the day's activities, but one incident stuck out in particular. During the breakout sessions, Louise Cohen, MSW and member of the Board of Advisors of the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation (GOLBMF), passed around a document package explaining the need for a bone marrow registry.

While one would not know it from the organization name, the history section on the website fairly clearly indicates that GOLBMF is a Jewish philanthropic organization that is tightly embedded within the organized Jewish community and that is backed by the Bronfmans.

Since the Hep! Hep! riots that took place in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, many Jewish charities have tended to do genuine philanthropic work within the Jewish community while they propagandize, indoctrinate, or otherwise manipulate non-Jews with promises of benefits that rarely materialize. Sometimes Jewish groups are the designated beneficiaries of manipulative charitable efforts albeit with somewhat more genuine carrot.

In the historical Jewish American context, German American Jewish philanthropic organizations often had the explicit goal of rendering Eastern European Jewish behavior more acceptable to non-Jewish Americans while more recent Jewish philanthropic efforts have aimed at forestalling the development of sympathies for Palestinians among African Americans and at demonizing Arabs especially in the context of Darfur activism.

GOLBMF appears to be part of this Jewish tradition of opportunistic charity and philanthropy.Within the document package was a Bone Marrow Foundation Letter that contained the following dishonest anti-Muslim, anti-Christian paragraphs:

There have been questions raised about the willingness of Muslims and Jews to give of themselves (literally) to save another human life.

The words "and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind" appear in the Koran (5:32) and the Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a). Yet early Christians and today Muslim commentators have said that the Talmudic ruling applies to Jews only saving Jewish lives, indicating Jewish selfishness. The [Internet] is rife with accusations that Muslims will not donate blood to others and that they will not accept "filthy Jewish blood" transfusions even to save their own lives.

I am impressed at how many lies she managed to pack into such a short text.

I searched online for the accusation that Muslims are unwilling to give blood, organs, or charity to non-Muslims. Because the charge seems to come mostly from anti-Islamic and Jewish Zionist websites or organizations like Investors Business Daily or Frontpagemag.com and has not found much traction beyond the Islamophobes, I have to wonder why Cohen was trying to spread it at the interfaith meeting.

Because of its distortions, the second paragraph sheds more light on Cohen's intentions.

The Palestinian Talmud was not completed until the 5th century CE and the Babylonian Talmud not until the 8th century CE. Christians were not terribly interested in the Talmud until the 16th century CE. Cohen's accusation that early Christians were somehow misusing the Talmud to slander Jews is simply calumny.

I studied Talmud with Harvard Professor Isadore Twersky (the Talner Rebbe) and can explicate it as well as any Jewish scholar. In this case, the issue is simple translation of the following Mishna from the Talmud Sanhedrin. (Click on image to obtain readable text.)

Here is what the underlined text in Talmud Sanhedrin 37a really says:

"Whosoever preserves a single soul of Israel, Scripture ascribes to him as if he had preserved a complete world"

Yet if I try to be as fair as Louise Cohen is dishonest, I have to admit that the Talmud does not really provide authoritative rulings on such subjects. The main authoritative Jewish legal codes are found in the Mishneh Torah and the Shulhan Arukh or the Shulhan Arukh with Hamappah, and the modern authorities are effectively uniform in treating all life preserving efforts as equally important although the reasons differ for saving Jewish versus non-Jewish lives.

The last sentence of the paragraph is thanks to the phrase "filthy Jewish blood" a sort of a potshot to make sure that readers of her letter view Muslims as crude anti-Semites.

To be frank, the behavior of Cohen and other Jews raises real doubts about the value of interfaith activities with Jews, for Muslims probably need a new type of defense organization that is somewhat more savvy with regard to Jewish and Zionist issues, behavior, and tactics.

Interfaith Dialogue Details

Center for Jewish-Muslim Relations

Public Conversations Project
Watertown, Massachusetts 02472-2832
(617) 279-3126

Where & When
Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009

2:00-8:30 pm

Location:
Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center
100 Malcolm X Blvd.
Roxbury Crossing

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INTERRELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
An Opportunity for Dialogue and Networking

The greater Boston community can take pride in the work of numerous groups, both official and unofficial, that have been outspoken in their commitment to the furtherance of interreligious understanding between the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Whenever voices of bigotry have been raised or acts of violence and inflammatory characterizations directed at one faith or another, they have been met with determined responses.

Yet there have been few opportunities for the leadership of these groups, many unknown to one another, to come together to share ideas and hopes, as well as express fears and concerns and explore the potential for future networking and cooperation. To bridge that gap, the ICPL has arranged a gathering for an exchange of views on the perils and promises of interreligious dialogue and what participating groups should anticipate as they go forward. Invitations to participate have been extended to leaders of interreligious organizations throughout the Boston area. Those attending have been asked to bring with them examples of projects appropriate for inclusion in a program fair from which everyone can benefit.

In planning this event, it was felt that there would be no clearer illustration of the commitment to the ideal of interreligious understanding than to convene at the Islamic Society Cultural Center in Roxbury, which has graciously agreed to host the event.

Schedule

2:00 p.m.

Tour of the Mosque and Cultural Center