http://thisworld.unraveltheweb.com/articles/ en louis@shmuley.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-28T18:24:41+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/jews_must_demand_relationship_of_equality_with_christians/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/jews_must_demand_relationship_of_equality_with_christians/#When:18:24:41Z Jews must demand relationship of equality with Christians Click here for original post. By SHMULEY BOTEACH27/02/2012 No Holds Barred: It is high time that our warm allies in the Mormon Church cease the posthumous baptizing of any and all Jews.     My much-publicized dispute with Canadian TV host Michael Coren last week taught me valuable lessons about the Jewish community and the new relationship with our Christian brothers and sisters.For those of you who missed it, I was invited on to Coren’s Sun TV show to promote my new book Kosher Jesus, or so I thought. Within minutes Coren had made four very troubling suggestions. First, that Jesus completed Judaism, thereby emphasizing classical replacement theology which sees Judaism as a subordinate religion to Christianity. Second, that liberal Jews who strongly dislike Christians are involved in an effort to portray them as unsophisticated bumpkins. Third, proof that this is so comes from Hollywood, which Jews either control or significantly influence, so that they can portray Christians in any negative way they wish. Fourth, and finally, that unappreciative Jews have engaged in an effort to malign Pope Pius XII, the wartime Holocaust Pope whom the Catholic Church is currently seeking to beatify but who is known to the rest of the world as “Hitler’s Pope.”(The full video can be found on YouTube and my two columns on our dispute on my blog at the Huffington Post.) Normally, any of these four insinuations would be seen as highly prejudicial against Jews and even anti-Semitic, something I called on Coren to apologize for. Instead, he disgraced himself further by launching into sharp personal attacks against my appearance, my name, coupled with slanderous allegations that are beneath contempt.Now, Coren does not much matter, given his tiny footprint in the media landscape. But what happened next is  instructive in terms of how desperate we in the Jewish community can sometimes be for allies. A Canadian Jewish organization came to Coren’s defense, saying he has a long history of defending the State of Israel and friendship with the Jewish community, albeit, I assume, with right-wing elements thereof, seeing as he perceived “liberal” Jews to be poisonous in their outlook. I also received e-mails from Canadian Jews saying that while Coren’s comments were repulsive, given that Israel has so few friends we have to be happy with what we have. We dare not alienate friends in the media.For the record I do not believe Coren to be an anti-Semite and can of course accept that his protestations to friendship are genuine.Indeed, we have a mutual acquaintance who now wishes to bring us together and I have extended an olive branch to Coren in the form of a respectful challenge to a professional debate on the record of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust. I await his response. But there can be no question that his comments were slanderous toward Jews and furthered classic anti-Jewish stereotypes about world Jewish dominance, Jewish contempt for Christians, and the lying, unappreciative Jew who will even go after a saintly pope. Yet, in this age when Israel is so utterly marginalized and vilified we are prepared to overlook Christian brothers who look down at our faith and who only dislike some Jews – in this case liberals – to clasp at any hint of friendship.I disagree. I believe passionately in the new Jewish-Christian alliance and wrote Kosher Jesus primarily to advance it. The book seeks to share the Jewishness of Jesus so that a theological bridge can exist between the two disparate faith-communities and I am proud of the global impact it is making on both Jews and Christians. But I do not believe in friendship at any cost. We need not seek the position of superiority vis-a-vis  Christians that was humbly bestowed upon us by that most righteous of popes, John Paul II, when he referred to Jews as “our elder brothers” in the faith of Abraham. But we must insist on a relationship of equality, brotherhood, and mutual respect. We need not, we dare not, embrace Christian friendship toward Israel if it has any hint of condescension toward Jews and Judaism and, of course, from the vast majority of the world’s Christians – including the current pope and outstanding friend of the Jewish people, Benedict XVI – it does not.Yes, Iran, as it never ceases to remind us, is gearing up for a possible war of annihilation against Israel and, of course, we require every media voice possible to sound the clarion call against Iran’s possession of nuclear weapons.Likewise Israel needs every last media ally to remind the world of the existential threat it faces from Iran-funded Hezbollah and Hamas, not to mention the barbarous Syrian regime to the north. Christians in general and evangelicals in particular have become Israel’s most stalwart allies. But that need not mean that we must tiptoe around the relationship, afraid to give offense, when any of those same Christian allies seek to proselytize Jews, as my friend Dr. Mike Brown, and many other Jewish converts to Christianity, still do. We must vigorously oppose them, which is why I have agreed to debate Mike next month in New York. Glenn Beck expressed it best at the Christians United for Israel dinner in Washington last year. Christian support for Israel should be based not on end-of-days theology or a desire to bring back Christ but on simple, unadulterated love for the Jewish people, just as we Jews must reciprocate with unadorned love for our Christian brothers and sisters who stand by the Jewish state through thick and thin.To be sure, in Judaism action is much more important than intention, and whatever the reason for friendship and good deeds, they supersede the motivation. But Jews and Christians have come long enough and far enough to now engage in a mature relationship of mutual affection where we both respect the G-dly calling that each faith poses without engaging in games of one-upmanship.It is for this reason that I also agree with my friend and hero Elie Wiesel that it is high time that our warm allies in the Mormon Church cease the posthumous baptizing of any and all Jews, once and for all. I have been close to the Mormons since my early 20s, have lectured in Utah to Church groups on countless occasions, and took Prof. Wiesel himself to lecture in Utah in 2006. Indeed, I once even believed that posthumous baptizing did not much matter given that it was a private ritual and the public friendship of the Church was much more significant. But friends do not just respect one another in public, they do so in private as well. And it is time that our evangelical, Mormon and Catholic friends respect and learn from the faith that was not only practiced by their savior and redeemer, as I detail in Kosher Jesus, but which he also said, in Matthew 5:18, would be in force for all eternity. That religion, of course, was not Christianity but Judaism.The writer is the international best-selling author of 27 books and has just published Kosher Jesus. The London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium, he is currently mulling a run for Congress from New Jersey’s Ninth Congressional District, running as a Republican. www.shmuleyforcongress.com.   2012-02-28T18:24:41+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/the_michael_coren_christians_who_cowardly_deny_church_history/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/the_michael_coren_christians_who_cowardly_deny_church_history/#When:16:11:03Z The Michael Coren Christians Who Cowardly Deny Church History    By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach   I came on to Michael Coren’s TV show in Canada to simply talk about my new book Kosher Jesus, which has received wide attention throughout the world. I left dazed, having heard from him that Jews refuse to appreciate Christians, depict them negatively, and essentially control Hollywood.   Now Coren has shoved his foot far deeper into his mouth with a personal diatribe against me.   Personal insults are the last refuge of the intellectual coward.   All Coren had to do was apologize for these nauseating insinuations and remarks. Instead, he made the matter worse by complaining that I’m short, that my office had the temerity to request kosher food from the exalted Coren and his staff, and that I refused to exit his studio when he obnoxiously demanded that I exit the very moment the cameras stopped rolling. For good measure, he made sure to gratuitously insult Oprah and Michael Jackson for their mere associations with me, as well.   For the record, there is little I can do about my height, and I apologize to Coren for offending him with my diminutive appearance. Likewise, there is nothing I can do about being kosher. I will never give it up, no matter how much he attacks me for simply asking where I might obtain kosher food since I am not familiar with Toronto. And when Coren’s show asked me to take an early morning flight to Toronto – to talk about my new book Kosher Jesus – where I was traveling for my nephew’s wedding, my office simply asked if a kosher meal could be procured since I would not be eating the whole day and, as a kosher Jew, cannot buy food in most places. Even so, they told my assistant we would have to arrange and pay for it ourselves.   As for Coren’s libel that I threatened him with disclosure of his remarks about Jews and Hollywood, the paranoid claim is laughable given that he had just made his remarks about Jews on national TV in Canada.   It is absolutely true that I refused to leave his studio after his reprehensible treatment of me and his attempt to evict me just as soon as the interview concluded, demanding to see his superiors and finally meeting a man named Matt Wolf, executive producer of Sun TV’s prime time talk shows, who turned out to be quite a gentleman.   I make no apologies for my actions. I am somewhat who fights anti-Semitism and holds those who malign my people accountable. Coren can claim from here to kingdom come that he is a friend of the Jewish community, and that may be true. But that does not excuse his odious remarks. His comments about lack of Jewish appreciation for Christians and the connection between Jews and Hollywood are the very stuff of negative Jewish stereotypes and if he was not prepared to retract them – as Marlon Brando did years ago when he too insinuated on Larry King Live that Jews control Hollywood – then I will bring the matter to his superiors. And his claim that he was only speaking about ‘liberal’ Jews matters not a toss. For the record I am a Republican who is currently seeking our party’s nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s Ninth Congressional District. But I will stand with my people, whatever their political persuasion, and will not allow them to slandered.   As for the Jewish intern of whom he speaks, how sad that some Jews appear to turn the other cheek even when their people are maligned in order to remain in the good graces of superiors.   More troubling still is Coren’s praise for Pius XII and his attempt to hold the Jews accountable for misrepresenting this most ignominious of Popes. Indeed, Sun TV cut Coren’s remarks about Pius from their online post of the broadcast. Why? And why isn’t the interview posted unedited? The public has the right to see it in its entirety.   I stand by my comments about Pius, a religious hypocrite who remained silent while six million Jews died and never once protested. Decent people the world over are repulsed by the memory of a man who disgraced a great Church by showing a total absence of moral leadership, refusing to even once condemn Hitler and the Nazis through all the years of their monstrous murders and tyranny.   An autocrat who told the Roman curia repeatedly that their job was not to give him advice, but to follow his orders, there is ample evidence for Pius as a collaborator with the Nazi government in their occupation of Rome. When the Nazis committed the heinous war crime of executing 335 Roman citizens – many of them Jews but most of them Catholic – in reprisal for a partisan attack against Nazi troops, Pius was implored to publicly protest and protect his personal flock. As usual, he refused to say anything that might upset the Nazis. It seems that neither the love of God nor the love of his fellow man could ever move Pius to publicly condemn Hitler, with whom he had famously negotiated, as papal nuncio, the 1933 treaty which the Fuhrer praised to his cabinet on July 14th of that year as being “especially significant in the urgent struggle against international Jewry.” Pius even granted a secret audience to Supreme SS Polizeifuhrer Wolff, who had served Himmler as chief of staff and was, in 1943, serving as the chief of German persecution apparatus in occupied Italy. That Pius realized he was doing something that others would regard as scandalous is attested to the fact that the meeting took place in great confidence, and Wolff came dressed in disguise. Years later, Wolff had this to say about the meeting: “From the pope’s own words I could sense the sincerity of his sympathy and how much he loved the German people.” The coup de grace, of course, was how Pius XII literally watched as the Germans, on Oct. 16, 1943, rounded up more than 1,000 Jews of Rome, nearly all of whom would perish by gas a few days later at Auschwitz. A special SS contingent had been brought in for the roundup, and since many of them had never seen the great city, used the roundup of the Jews as a partial tourist excursion. This brought them to St. Peter’s Square, where many of the trucks actually parked, not more than 300 feet from Pius’ window. Even as the Jews were herded aboard cattle trains and taken to their death, Pius dared not upset the Germans by offering any kind of protest. His strict policy of neutrality was upheld as the Jews of his diocese were literally turned into ash. But while he did not prize the lives of Jews, there was one thing that Pius did esteem, and that was the bricks and mortar of his churches. As the British and American armies geared up for a massive offensive in the spring of 1944 to capture Rome, Pius suddenly found his voice. He condemned the allies for bombing the eternal city and ordered his American bishops to launch public relations offensives in the United States to pressure the Roosevelt government not to cause destruction to the sacred monuments of the city. This while the Nazis were gassing more than 10,000 people per day.   Not all Christians are like Coren. The vast majority are prepared to honestly study painful moments in the Church’s history, take responsibility for moral failures, and move on to a more Godly future with the Jews as brothers. That was the purpose of my writing Kosher Jesus, which is now a bestseller on many Amazon subcategories. My intent was to educate my Christian brothers and sisters about the Jewishness of Jesus so as to bring our two peoples closer and I am moved by the untold numbers of devout Christians who have written to me thanking me for the book.   What a shame that the moral courage required of such honesty eludes Michael Coren. And how unfortunate that rather than rising to the occasion of building bridges between Jews and Christians, he resorts instead to shameful personal attack.     Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, whom Newsweek calls ‘the most famous Rabbi in America,’ was the host of TLC’s Shalom in the Home, which won the National Fatherhood Award, was the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium, and received the American Jewish Press Association's Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. The international best-selling author of 27 he has just published Kosher Jesus. He is currently mulling a run for Congress from New Jersey’s Ninth Congressional District, running as a Republican. www.shmuleyforcongress.com   2012-02-24T16:11:03+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/canadian_tv_host_insinuates_to_rabbi_shmuley_jews_control_hollywood/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/canadian_tv_host_insinuates_to_rabbi_shmuley_jews_control_hollywood/#When:15:19:19Z Canadian TV Host Insinuates to Rabbi Shmuley Jews Control HollywoodBy Rabbi Shmuley BoteachToday I had what was probably the most unpleasant TV interview of my life on Canada’s Sun News Network (national). Interviewed by host Michael Coren about my book Kosher Jesus, I expected to be asked about the book’s content. The interview started that way. But then Coren quickly got to a question that seemed to be bursting from within. You’ll have to see the exact show, airing tonight at 7pm, for complete accuracy, and I am writing this about an hour after.Coren essentially asked me why Jews depict Christians so negatively. He went on about how much the Catholic Church and Christians in general have done for the Jews of late. Yet the Jews continue to be so unappreciative, always questioning Christian motivation, always finding fault with Christians no matter what.I asked him to justify his claim that Jews depict Christians negatively. He said something like, “What do you mean? Just look at Hollywood.”Hollywood? I was confused. Weren’t’ we just talking about Jewish-Christian relations? Where did Hollywood come in, unless, for Coren, Jews and Hollywood were synonymous.What was the connection between Hollywood’s depiction of Christians and the Jews, I asked. The show went downhill from there, with the anti-Semitic stereotype of the Jews controlling and influencing Hollywood dominating the interview. I defended my people against this disgusting slur, a tributary of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that the Jews control whole segments of society, in this case the motion picture industry, which they use to negatively depict Christians as a bunch of illiterate and primitive bumpkins.From there Coren went on to speak about the negative Jewish depiction of Pope Pius XII, which I battled him on further. This was amazing. The Jews were defaming the saintly Pope Pius? For the record, I have written a great deal on Pius XII, the man John Cornwell, a non-Jewish British journalist, famously called Hitler’s Pope in his best-selling 1999 biography of the same name. Pius was the wartime Pope who never once condemned the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews through all the years of the holocaust and who, after the war, allowed the mass kidnapping of Jewish children who had originally been given by their families to Christians in order to save their lives. Pius advised, in the form of a typewritten directive discovered in a French church archive and dated Oct. 23, 1946, that church authorities not return to their relatives Jewish children who had been baptized. They must remain Christian and should not be returned to Jewish families.He was the Pope who famously refused, amid unmistakable evidence of thousands of Jews being shipped to slaughter in Nazi concentration camps, to ever speak out against the Holocaust. This followed Pius' successful efforts to prevent the publication of an encyclical commissioned by his dying predecessor to condemn Nazi anti-Semitism. This is also the Pope who sent Hitler birthday greetings every single year and who refused to excommunicate Hitler or any other top Nazis who were on official Catholic rolls (to give this context, the singer Sinead O'Connor was excommunicated). He ignored the pleas of President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to denounce the Nazis. He later refused to endorse a joint declaration by Britain, U.S and Russia condemning mass murder of Europe's Jews, claiming that he simply could not condemn "particular" atrocities. The most he ever did was a single pronouncement during the war on the murder "of hundreds of thousands." By then, of course, there were millions, and he did not mention Hitler, Nazi Germany, or the Jews in the statement. Most infamously, he was silent when the Germans rounded up Rome's Jews in October 1944 for slaughter. They were being processed for extermination in a military school a few hundred yards from his window in St. Peter's. An Italian princess, Enza Pignatelli, forced her way into the Pope's study and warned him about the imminent assault on the city's Jewish citizens. "You must act immediately," she cried. "The Germans are arresting the Jews and taking them away. Only you can stop them." The Pope assured her, "I will do all I can." He made no protest and nearly all were later gassed in Auschwitz. Curiously, amid the Pope's inability to find his voice to condemn the extermination of European Jewry, when the Catholic archbishop of Berlin issued a statement mourning Hitler's death, the Pope did not reprimand him.Those who have read my writings, and especially those who have read Kosher Jesus, will know that I have unbridled love for my Christian brothers and sisters, a deep respect and affection I have written and spoken about on countless occasions. They will also know that I was given the great pleasure and honor of being greeted by Pope Benedict in Rome in 2010. They will further know that I am invited to address Christian audiences the world over, including in Israel. And I wrote Kosher Jesus in response to the great Christian yearning to discover the Jewishness of Jesus.But people like Coren who perpetuate the anti-Semitic canard that Jews both control Hollywood and have contempt for Christians are a serious obstruction to the new era of Jewish-Christian brotherhood and rapprochement. It is an absolute lie that Jews have contempt for Christians. It is likewise a lie that Christians are victims of Jewish hostility, as Coren implies. The truth, of course, is that Jews have suffered mightily at the hands of Christianity for nearly two millennium. But thankfully a succession of great Christian men and women in modern times, led by Pope John XXIII, the greatest of all popes, and then by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, both outstanding friends of world Jewry, and joined especially by the 80 million born-again Christians in the United States, the vast majority of whom are phenomenal friends of Israel, have reversed this trend and made Catholicism and Christianity stalwart allies and friends of G-d’s chosen people.Denying the past is not going to increase our friendship just as being limited by it will not either. This is a new time for Jews and Christians. Let’s forgo the old animosities, the old prejudices, and especially the old and ugly stereotypes. Michael Coren owes Jewry an apology. If he’s man enough to give it I will overlook his foul treatment of me, both during the interview and after it was over.Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, whom Newsweek calls ‘the most famous Rabbi in America,’ was the host of TLC’s Shalom in the Home, which won the National Fatherhood Award, was the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium, and received the American Jewish Press Association's Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. The international best-selling author of 27 he has just published Kosher Jesus. He is currently mulling a run for Congress from New Jersey’s Ninth Congressional District, running as a Republican. www.shmuleyforcongress.com   2012-02-24T15:19:19+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/the_republican_primary_trifecta_of_abortion_contraception_and_gay_marriage/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/the_republican_primary_trifecta_of_abortion_contraception_and_gay_marriage/#When:21:11:22Z The Republican Primary Trifecta of Abortion, Contraception, and Gay Marriagehttp://www.algemeiner.com/2012/02/23/the-republican-primary-trifecta-of-abortion-contraception-and-gay-marriage/ By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach The Republican party has been dominated of late by a discussion of the sexual-trifecta of gay marriage, abortion, and contraception. But are these the only values that matter? America lives with the profound contradiction of a nation that is at once incredibly religious but increasingly decadent. In the United States 92% of Americans believe in G-d. But given the deep spiritual orientation of the American people, how are we to understand the even deeper materialistic impulses that had us spending $52.4 billion on Black Friday weekend shopping alone? And given the American people’s strong disposition to family, what could account for the inability of approximately one of two couples to stay married? Every four years the presidential election cycle lends a glimpse as to the answer, and we saw it the past few weeks especially. It lies with the American religious obsession with gay marriage and abortion to the exclusion of all other values. Yes, America is a religious nation but it is one whose religious convictions have been hijacked by sexual morality issues that have dominated the political landscape for decades. While approximately seven percent of the American population is gay more than fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce. And this was happening years before gays came out in significant number, let alone demanded the right to marry. In fact, gays seem to be the only men in America who are still passionate about marriage. While 74% of heterosexual couples choose to live together before marriage and a pew research poll recently found that the average age for an American straight man to marry has climbed to 30 from 23 in the 1950’s, homosexual men are marching in the streets and petitioning the United States Supreme Court for the right to tie the knot. Straight people don’t need help from gays to destroy the institution of marriage, having a done a mighty fine job of it ourselves, thank you very much. And rather than pastors pushing real policies that might stem the tide of divorce – like making marital counseling tax-deductible so that couples can afford the help they need –we have instead chosen a repeated distraction. In 1999 I published Kosher Sex which, although it became a best-seller, was instantly pilloried by Jewish and Christian clerics for the explicit erotic advice offered as to how to make the marital bedroom passionate again. Yet the number one cause of divorce in America is erotic disinterest and sexual boredom, with the Washington Post reporting that one out of three American couples is entirely platonic. Were pastors more willing to teach, say, the Song of Solomon, with its deep erotic secrets, rather than obsessing over gay marriage, millions of American children might not end up as yo-yos shuffling between parents’ homes on weekends. In 2008 the American economy nearly collapsed due to avaricious bankers and insatiable consumers whose homes were never big enough and cars never new enough.  If ever there was a time where American religious and political leaders could engage in a national conversation about materialism, gluttony, and greed, it was then. But my Evangelical brothers responded not with a conversation about filling one’s inner void with spiritual purpose but with Proposition 8, a national campaign to overturn gay marriage in California. Abortion has also become a major distraction ignoring the values that underlie it.  Ninety-nine percent of all abortions are single women who have been impregnated by men in an out-of-wedlock relationships. Yet where is the national conversation on the part of pastors about a culture that degrades woman and portrays them as the libidinous man’s plaything, which is responsible for the high rate of abortion in the first place? Tim Tebow is pilloried for the unseemly act of prayer in the secular cathedral of the stadium. But women jumping up and down in lycra to the accompaniment of pompoms and cleavage creates no offense. From the 4.2 million porn websites in the United States, to the female recording industry becoming soft porn itself, to wafer-thin models on magazine covers indirectly affecting 7 percent of all American girls with eating disorders, the dream of women being appreciated as much for the their brains as for their bust is being strongly undermined. Yet we see no push to mandate school uniforms that would inculcate the value of modesty and respect for the body among teenagers at America’s public schools. In the African-American community nearly seventy percent of all marriages are out-of-wedlock births resulting in single mothers raising children on their own. But aside from Bill Cosby’s courageous speeches on the subject, pastors largely ignore men’s obligations to their children in favor of the Supreme Court’s obligation to the unborn. Then there is our growing narcissism. While two percent of the American population protect our freedom in the military, the remainder do scant public service. In a recent survey, when asked what they wished to do when they grew up seventy-eight percent of High School students responded, “Be famous.” Yet even as our self-centeredness grows, pastors have yet to advocate a year of national service, prior to college, the discussion of life-at-conception all but muting any discussion about life-with-purpose.  Shmuley Boteach, ‘America’s Rabbi,’ was the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium and received the American Jewish Press Association's Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. The international best-selling author of 27 books and award-winning TV host, he has just published "Kosher Jesus." Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley. His website is http://www.shmuley.com. 2012-02-23T21:11:22+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/gratitude_to_my_rival_rep._rothman_for_my_sons_nomination_to_west_point/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/gratitude_to_my_rival_rep._rothman_for_my_sons_nomination_to_west_point/#When:16:36:37Z Gratitude to My Rival, Rep. Rothman, for My Son's Nomination to West Point   By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach   Read and comment at the Huffington Post Here   If I run for Congress in New Jersey's Ninth district, I will be squaring off against either Congressman Steve Rothman or Congressman Bill Pascrell, who have been squeezed into the same district and who are competing against each other for their party's nomination.Rothman and I have fought some tough, public battles against one another, primarily over the Libyan embassy, which is my immediate next-door neighbor in Englewood, New Jersey. I have also been critical of his support for President Obama on Israel, even when the president's positions put unfair and unjust pressure on Israel.But today I am writing not to attack a potential political rival but to thank him. I have already declared that if I run I want to be the values voice in Congress. In Judaism gratitude for an act of kindness is among life's highest virtues. So here I present a much-deserved thank you to Rothman that I am not running by any political advisors or consultants, who would presumably tell me is ill-conceived given my potential battle against him this autumn.Congressman Rothman recently nominated my son Mendy to West Point. To be sure, Mendy is an outstanding young man and earned the nomination through personal merit. At just eighteen he is currently serving in his second year as a Chabad student emissary in Frankfurt, Germany, where he is helping to rebuild Jewish life after the devastation of the Holocaust. He also began visiting with American service personnel stationed on bases in Germany to cater to their religious needs and, having been highly impressed with officer graduates of West Point, decided he wanted to serve his country and applied to The United States Military Academy. To be accepted you have to be nominated by your Congressman.This is where things could have gotten a little hairy.Congressman Rothman knew I might run against him. But that did not stop him from rewarding my son's application with the nomination to West Point. Rothman's decision to put merit before political consideration showed character and integrity and I salute it. It also demonstrated a willingness to populate our officer corps with deserving men and women, whatever the political consequences.Having been nominated, Mendy may join his elder sister Chana, who has now volunteered for two years of army service in Israel -- training male soldiers for combat -- to help an embattled democracy survive against brutal enemies. Mendy is now down to 4000 applicants from which 1500 will be chosen as cadets for the West Point Class of 2016.He faces an uphill battle.Mendy has to be incredibly physically fit, even though his Yeshiva in Frankfurt has no gym facilities and he therefore has to daily improvise for all his physical activities, and this while having a grueling daily regimen of Torah study that begins at 7am, ends at 10pm, and is only interrupted for hours of spiritual work with the community. Still, he wants to serve his country and is convinced that the greatest force for good in today's world is the US military consisting of the bravest men and women who are prepared to fight for the freedom and rights of total strangers the world over.For recognizing Mendy's commitment and character, I am taking the opportunity to thank Congressman Rothman in writing. Even if Rothman and I end up later doing battle in the fall, it will never be as dangerous as any of the battles that our service men and women fight daily in hellish warzones against evil terrorists like the Taliban in Afghanistan.I pray to G-d for the safety of all our service men and women, especially my children, who may be placed in harm's way. And I thank G-d for the opportunity they have been afforded to serve, and for the people through whom such service comes about.Shmuley Boteach, whom Newsweek calls 'the most famous Rabbi in America,' is an award-winning national TV and radio host and international best-selling author of 27 books. He has just published Kosher Jesus. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley. 2012-02-17T16:36:37+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/should_pop_stars_be_celebrated_with_flags_at_half-staff/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/should_pop_stars_be_celebrated_with_flags_at_half-staff/#When:16:32:51Z Should Pop Stars Be Celebrated with Flags at Half-Staff?By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Read an comment at the Huffington Post HereGovernor Chris Christie of New Jersey is a bold man who has that single most important characteristic of leadership, namely, moral courage. Without a preparedness to be hated for pursing the courage of your convictions you simply cannot lead. Christie has that courage in spades. He’s saving our state from the oblivion of out-of-control taxes and he’s been prepared to challenge the unions to make concessions on contracts that can otherwise bankrupt us. New Jersey has huge problems and people are leaving, as is reflected in how we just lost a Congressional seat. Christie is slowly tackling the challenges and making considerable progress. It’s no wonder he’s being widely regarded as possessing presidential timber.But much as I admire our great governor, I’m not with him on flying flags at half-staff for Whitney Houston. Now let me be clear. The issue is not the biggest deal and I don’t want to make too much of it. We Americans have far greater problems to address right now. Moreover, I regard the untimely death of the pop diva as a terrible and sorrowful blow. Whitney Houston’s death is an American tragedy and she should be rightly mourned.But flags at half-staff should be reserved principally for those who have made great sacrifices in the pursuit of selfless, patriotic service. Our celebrities get plenty of attention. Our soldiers barely get any at all. We mostly pay lip service to our support of the troops. Don’t believe me? Ask the average American how many Grammys Adele won the other night and a huge number would know the answer is six. Ask them how many soldiers died in Afghanistan since 2011 and I’d be surprised if even five percent of the population knows. (I myself had to look it up. According to Wikipedia it’s 2765 Coalition deaths as of 31 December, 2011.)Our soldiers get paid little for their service. Our celebrities get paid a whole lot more. And just about the only acknowledgment our service men and women receive is the knowledge that their patriotic commitment is appreciated by a grateful nation, that there are certain great honors – like the flying of flags at half-staff should a soldier G-d forbid pay the ultimate price – that is reserved almost exclusively for them. The same is true of other Americans who distinguish themselves by great service to our nation.Celebrities entertain us. They take the edge off of life. Their music inspires us and uplifts us. Their sitcoms make us forget our troubles. Their movies transport us to a more exciting time and place. We are grateful for the amusement and inspiration they can bring to our lives. But that’s not the same as patriotic service to the flag.I can completely understand flying the flags at half-staff for a celebrity very dedicated to the USO, someone who is out there visiting our troops in Afghanistan and the like on a regular basis. I can see the flag at half-staff for a celebrity who dedicated their life to highlighting genocide or helping to end world hunger. But making a considerable contribution to the arts is not the same as serving the flag.This is not a criticism of Ms. Houston. No doubt there are countless acts of kindness she undertook in her life that enriched the downtrodden and the poor. Still, she is known primarily for her incredible voice and capacity to entertain through music. But that does not rise to the level of a marine whose young life is snatched away for stopping the Taliban from beating women in the streets.There is something else. One of the only courageous celebrities who spoke of the corrosive and dangerous nature of fame in the wake of Ms. Houston’s tragic death was Celine Dion. She was roundly pilloried for doing so. But she is right. I watched Michael Jackson’s fame slowly rob him of a healthy life. More recently it did the same to Amy Winehouse. And now it has claimed Whitney Houston.Now fame, in and of itself, is neutral, just like money and drugs. All can be used for blessed purposes or they can become a curse. It all depends on how it they are handled and to what use they are employed. But the reason that so many celebrities die under fame’s influence is that fame teaches them they don’t have to play by the rules of mere mortals. They are worshipped by the masses. They develop a sense of invincibility. Nothing can hurt them. They are living gods, immortal, until one day they tragically die at a young age and the aura of immortality is dimmed forever. And the only way to save oneself from this fate while being a celebrity is to understand that fame is nothing but the attention one earns from a large amount of people for having a particular skill that draws a crowd. That’s it. You’re not a god. You’re not superman. You are human and frail and you have to lead a healthy life, like anyone else.But when we make the mistake of elevating our celebrities to national icons when they haven’t necessarily earned that exalted status, it somehow perpetuates the myth that just because you can sing and dance you are performing something of vast global significance.The great men and women are those who are born for service rather than adventure, living for the needs of others, possessed of such a strong and radiant inner light that they their actions need not always be highlighted by fame’s bright glare.Shmuley Boteach, ‘America’s Rabbi,’ was the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium and received the American Jewish Press Association's Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. The international best-selling author of 27 books and award-winning TV host, he has just published "Kosher Jesus." Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley. His website is www.shmuley.com.   2012-02-17T16:32:51+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/does_death_of_klinghoffer_romanticize_terror/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/does_death_of_klinghoffer_romanticize_terror/#When:23:26:00Z Does ‘Death of Klinghoffer’ romanticize terror?   Read and comment at the jpost here   By SHMULEY BOTEACH 02/13/2012 23:19No Holds Barred: English National Opera is set to begin staging a production based on the tragic Achille Lauro hijacking by the PLO. By REUTERSAt the end of the month the English National Opera will, in London, begin staging The Death of Klinghoffer, a production that revolves around the tragic Achille Lauro hijacking by the Palestine Liberation Front of October, 1985. I have only seen Penny Woolcock’s TV-film adaption, and I’m guessing that this column isn’t going to score me any free tickets to the upcoming staging. But I write here not about the artistic merit of the production but about its much-discussed content. No doubt any production directed by Tom Morris, lately of War Horse fame, is going to be memorable.But the question really is why this production, and why now? The leading powers of the Western world are currently engulfed in a global war against terror that has at its center the following two questions: first, are civilian non-combatants fair targets in a guerrilla war waged by aggrieved “militants” (as they are described in the National Opera literature), and second, is there moral equivalence between democratic powers killings these terrorists and terrorists killing civilians? The morality of Western democracies hangs on the answers to these questions being no and no. If civilians are fair game and if terrorists targeting children can claim to be as moral as, say, American marines targeting the Taliban, then morality has no meaning and values-based democracies are nothing but a cruel farce. Once “militants” murder civilians they are terrorists.And yet this is precisely the objection that has been raised against The Death of Klinghoffer ever since its first performance in Brussels in March, 1991. Composer John Adams and librettist Alice Goodman repeatedly claimed that their purpose in the production was to afford equal voice to both Palestinian and Israeli suffering.What they forgot, however, was that they were doing so within the context of a horrific historical event in which an innocent, wheelchair- bound Jewish-American passenger, with no connection to the political events purportedly behind the hijacking, was shot in cold blood, in the forehead and chest, as he sat in his wheelchair, his body then being dumped into the sea at the command of the terrorists by the ship’s barber and waiter. One can hardly imagine a more evil deed than the brutal murder of a truly helpless victim who had taken his wife on a cruise to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary.Whatever points could be raised here over the rights and boundaries of art, one question is begged: what value is derived from reliving this horrific event, albeit in a beautified form? Is the murder interesting or simply monstrous? Is it taboo-busting or voyeurism? The opera has been written. It has been performed.Was that not enough for Adams to resurrect the amorality of a play that equates murderers and victims? Why go through it all again? I write this not as an advocate for censorship, something I passionately oppose. Let the production proceed. But let people be educated about its glaring flaws lest they fall into the trap of drawing a moral equivalence between those who live to kill and those who are forced to kill because they wish to live.When the Brooklyn Academy of Music (which, incidentally, is run by a highly respected friend of mine) first staged Klinghoffer in 1991, Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer, the daughters of Leon Klinghoffer, attended anonymously. Disgusted at the idealistic portrayal of their father’s killers, they issued a statement: “We are outraged at the exploitation of our parents and the cold-blooded murder of our father as the centerpiece of a production that appears to us to be anti-Semitic.While we understand artistic license, when it so clearly favors one point of view it is biased.Moreover, the juxtaposition of the plight of the Palestinian people with the cold-blooded murder of an innocent disabled American Jew is both historically naive and appalling.”This, of course, was written a full decade prior to the unforgettable events of September 11, 2001. And here we are, two decades later, about to embark on the artistic enterprise of once again providing a lyrical justification for murder from the standing point of terrorists.When Damien Hirst clumsily compared 9/11 to a work of art he – rightly – faced a storm of criticism, which led not to censorship, but to him actually reconsidering and retracting his comments. I find it inexplicable that a full opera, the result of months and years of writing, planning and performance, is being welcomed by a highly respected institution into the post-9/11 cultural landscape.Writing just three months after 9/11 in The New York Times, Richard Taruskin powerfully captured this pivotal criticism of the production: “If the events of Sept. 11 could not jar some artists and critics out of their habit of romantically idealizing criminals, then nothing will.... If terrorism – specifically, the commission or advocacy of deliberate acts of deadly violence directed randomly at the innocent – is to be defeated, world public opinion has to be turned decisively against it.The only way to do that is to focus resolutely on the acts rather than their claimed (or conjectured) motivations, and to characterize all such acts, whatever their motivation, as crimes. This means no longer romanticizing terrorists as Robin Hoods and no longer idealizing their deeds as rough poetic justice.”Then there is the question of Israel and the plight of Jews in all this. For eleven years as I served as rabbi to the students of Oxford University where I hosted four Israeli prime ministers and countless pro-Israel speakers. To be sure, they were protested against and the sympathies of the students – always championing the perceived underdog – were primarily with the Palestinians. Nevertheless, our speakers were accorded the basic decency of being heard. And when their arguments were perceived to be convincing, they were even given standing ovations. No longer.Pro-Israel speakers on British campuses are lucky to make it out whole, that is, if they are ever afforded an opportunity to speak in the first place. There is an outpouring of open anti-Israel hostility that belies the simple truth of the Middle East, which is that Israel remains its only open and fully functioning democracy, albeit with a seemingly intractable problem of having a large and hostile Palestinian population who of course deserve full rights but who seem intent on using those freedoms to ensure that Israel no longer exists.As an American who spent 11 years living in Britain, the British people, long famed for their tolerance and decency, must be made aware that they and their media organs are increasingly perceived as being biased beyond all reason against the Jewish state, and the resurrection of the Klinghoffer production will cement that view among many.But whatever one’s feelings are on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not much matter. There is no excuse to ever target civilians as part of one’s terror war. And one can only imagine how the coming production of Klinghoffer will serve to further distort the simple message that only pathetic cowards shoot a man in a wheelchair, however justified they feel their rage to be.Shmuley Boteach, whom Newsweek calls “the most famous rabbi in America,” was the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium and received the American Jewish Press Association’s Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. The international best-selling author of 27 books and award-winning TV host, he has just published Kosher Jesus. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley. His website is http://www.shmuley.com.     2012-02-14T23:26:00+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/in_the_discussion_of_jesus_jews_should_go_on_offense/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/in_the_discussion_of_jesus_jews_should_go_on_offense/#When:00:22:16Z In the Discussion of Jesus, Jews Should Go on Offense Published 1 February, 2012, Official Launch Day of Kosher Jesus By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach   By the time the dust settles on the ferocious battle over Kosher – and it will settle – the reputation of several people will have been affected. Rabbi Yitzchok Wolf of Chicago, who started the controversy by writing that both the book and I should be banned from Chabad while admitting he had never read it, will have compromised his standing as an educator. After all, what kind of educator doesn’t believe in making educated statements? Rabbi Immanuel Schochet, I predict, will be known over the next few years for the book he banned more than any book he wrote, so devastating was his declaration of Kosher Jesus to be heretical without offering a single argument to back up his claims. His son, Rabbi Yitzchok Schochet, whose two-decade obsession with me would be flattering if it weren’t so disquieting, will have undermined his credibility further with his invention of three judges at his father’s debate declaring him the victor over Dr. Michael Brown. And while this construction out of whole cloth was well-intentioned – designed as it was to make his father appear better – all it did in reality was make all Rabbis look worse. His issue is no longer with me but now with the many Christian missionaries attacking him for his fabrications about the debate with Brown. Then there is the cowardly Rabbi who seemed to attack me without having the courage to even mention my name.  He was always friendly to me and we even talked about a number of large-scale educational projects we could work on together.  He never once voiced a word of complaint about my books or actions.  And yet when it became fashionable to attack me, he retroactively decided to condemn – in the most vicious language imaginable – both me and my past work. I will reciprocate his compliment by leaving him to his own nameless oblivion. Now we have Michael Skobac, the education director of Jews for Judaism attacking Kosher Jesus and beginning with an unfortunate, gratuitous, personal, cheap shot that only undermines his argument, saying that I revel in the attention my book is receiving and that I am “desperate.” I really have to wonder, is there no one who can discuss this book without getting personal? Judaism does not fear intelligent discussion. It is not a closed-minded religion. So let’s leave the personal invective out of this and go back to the issues. Indeed, I am grateful to Skobac for at least offering his reasons for fearing my book and for tacitly breaking with Schochet by not declaring the book heretical because he knows the suggestion is ludicrous and cannot be sustained. Indeed, given Skobac’s fairness, I would appeal to him and Jews for Judaism to please refrain from the dissemination of a pirated PDF copy of the book to others for comment, not only because it is illegal and unethical, but because it is an earlier version and is riddled with errors. As Rabbi Gil Student tweeted after being sent a bootleg copy of Kosher Jesus by another party, “Woe to the generation in which rabbis send each other illegal copies of books.” Now let’s consider Skobac’s points. Skobac first writes that the pamphlet of his which I quote where he entertains the possibility that Jesus was a Torah-observant Jew who never sought to invent a new religion was “written with a counter-missionary agenda, directed primarily to Jews who have embraced Christianity. The goal was to provoke them to consider the possibility that Jesus did not deny the binding nature of the Torah and did not claim to be divine.” Unfortunately, this argument just doesn’t work. When you put something on the internet, it is there for the entire world to see, and the idea that there is an intended audience becomes completely irrelevant.  Furthermore, it is deceptive to claim that your pamphlet applies to one group of people but not to another. Indeed, one of the foremost anti-missionary arguments against Paul of Tarsus is that he seems to do precisely this: “… And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law, that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.  Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.”(1 Corinthians 9:20-23) People like Rabbi Skobac regularly criticize Paul for seeming to change his arguments based on whom he is addressing. But truth is truth. It does not change no matter whom your audience is. Rabbi Skobac cannot say that the letter he quotes from Rabbi Yaakov Emden where the basic theory of my book is endorsed only applies when addressing “Jews who have embraced Christianity.” I could easily have hid behind the same argument and said that Kosher Jesus is written primarily for a Christian audience – which it is – and that Orthodox Jews are not its intended readership. Still, the book must have universal application and I have therefore defended the book vigorously in Orthodox Jewish forums and against Orthodox Jewish attack. Skobac then says that there is “no evidence” that Jesus was a devout Rabbi or holy man, when the whole purpose of Kosher Jesus is to demonstrate precisely the opposite. He is well aware of the fact that many scholars who have preceded me, most notably Hyam Maccoby whom I quote extensively, believe precisely the opposite to be true and that many scholars have provided abundant evidence to support this conclusion, a great deal of which I synthesize in Kosher Jesus. I suggest the reader read Kosher Jesus and decide for themselves.But Skobac’s main complaint is “Boteach’s implication that Jesus was a prophet and that the Christian scriptures were divinely inspired.”  So let me be clear. Kosher Jesus has three principal purposes. The first is to educate Christians as to the Jewishness of Jesus so as to deepen the authenticity of their own faith. The book maintains that Christians cannot fully understand or appreciate their religion without examining its Jewish origins. Embracing the Jewishness of Jesus will, of necessity, force Christians to focus on the humanity rather than the divinity of Jesus, something the Noachide covenant demands. Though there are many halakhic, Jewish legal opinions as to what is required of a Noachide, I would just point to what Rabbi Isaac Herzog, the second Chief Rabbi of Israel, wrote in his book T’chuka L’yisroel al Pi Hatorah.  In it he concludes that Moslems have the status of gerei toshav – in this context, people who live by the Noachide covenant –  and after a long discussion in the matters of the Trinity, he explains that Christians have this same status.  According to this line of thought, if Christians sees Jesus as a teacher and prophet, but not divine, then they join in the Noachide covenant.  Islam, as well, sees Muhammad as a prophet and, while Judaism would disagree and reject the prophecy of Muhammad, there is nothing wrong with Muslims believing in Muhammad as prophet, and Judaism, of course, respects Islam as a monotheistic faith. Second, the book argues that the light of Judaism has permeated the world but is seldom given credit for doing so. Hence, Jews rarely take pride in their tradition. They see how huge Christianity is compared to how tiny we are when the truth is that Jesus’ teachings are based almost entirely on the Torah and to the extent that they were modified it was done after Jesus’ death by Paul and others mostly in an effort to appease the Romans. Third, the book offers the textual proofs as to why Jews reject the divinity and messiahship of Jesus so that both Jews and Christians are well aware of what we can never embrace about Jesus. Based on this, was Jesus a prophet? Not to the Jews, of course.  As Kosher Jesus argues forcefully and with many proofs, he was another rabbi and a martyr for his people whose memory was later ripped away from us and whom we should reclaim. If the evidence points to his being a devout member of his people, why should we allow him to be taken from us without resistance? But can non-Jews who have discovered the existence of G-d and some of the essential teachings of the Torah from the teachings of Jesus see him as a prophet who brought the knowledge of G-d to the masses? As long as he is not deified, then yes, of course. Why would Skobac be concerned with my labeling Jesus a prophet to the non-Jews? It’s his deification that is the problem. Indeed, the term prophet is regularly used even in modern times for people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and it is in this overall sense that I use the word. Here it is important to note the opinion of Rabbi Yaakov Emden. Rabbi Emden was one of the greatest Talmud scholars of the past millennia and held that Christianity was mistaken in rejecting the laws of the Torah and believing Jesus to be divine, and hoped for the day when all would recognize Judaism to be G-d’s revealed religion. Nevertheless, in his commentary to Ethics of Our Fathers, as translated by Blu Greenberg (Judaism 27:3 1978 p 351-363) Rabbi Emden goes even a step beyond my conclusions in his understanding of Christianity. I quote: “In his commentary Eitz Avos (40b-41a) on Pirkei Avot (4:11), Emden describes Christianity as a ““religion in the service of God,” a religion which God sees as good and, therefore, He sustains it; it came to spread the word of God to those ‘who, until then, had worshipped wood and stone, who denied the existence of God altogether, who did not believe in good and evil, or in the afterlife. Christianity spread the notion of one God, one Ruler of all the universe who metes out justice to His creations. Christians accept the seven Noachide Laws and many other mitzvot which they voluntarily take upon themselves. In addition to these good qualities, God also gave them prophecy through their righteous ones, and through these prophets gave them laws and commandments by which to live.  Because of all this - because they met these tests of a holy community - their religion was upheld and maintained by God.” Emden continues: these two families, Christianity and Mohammedanism, which God selected as vehicles to bring faith into the world, were never brought under the yoke of mitzvoth (commandments) of the Torah; their fathers never gave it to them, nor did they stand at Sinai; neither were they slaves in Egypt; therefore, they are not obligated for the 613 mitzvos and are thus exempt from the prohibition of shittuf (loosely translated here as the Trinity).  Emden concludes with the repetition of a previous theme: though some of their evil ones cause us sorrow with their violent actions and false accusations, there are righteous ones who protect us from those who rise up against Jews, and wise ones among them who search for truth in our works and find no fault in our faithfulness to our Torah and mitzvot.” Similar views regarding the righteous deeds of Christians are expressed by great rabbis such as Menachem Ha-Meiri, Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz, Rabbi Moshe Rivkes, among others.  In a statement adopted by the Rabbinical Council of America in 1964—though it discouraged many aspects of interfaith dialogue—it in part states, “Each religious community is endowed with intrinsic dignity and metaphysical worth.”  Maimonides, in examining the life of Jesus, though he disagreed with Rabbi Emden in many ways, says something similar, even as he rejects the Christian teachings taught in the name of Jesus as false: [Jesus’ purpose] was to straighten out the way for the King Messiah, and to restore all the world to serve God together. So that it is said, “Because then I will turn toward the nations (giving them) a clear lip, to call all of them in the name of God and to serve God (shoulder to shoulder as) one shoulder.” (Zephaniah 3:9). How is this? The entire world had become filled with the issues of the anointed one and of the Torah and the Laws, and these issues had spread out unto faraway islands and among many nations uncircumcised in the heart, and they discuss these issues and the Torah’s laws. These say: These Laws were true but are already defunct in these days, and do not rule for the following generations; whereas the other ones say: There are secret layers in them and they are not to be treated literally, and the Messiah had come and revealed their secret meanings. But when the anointed king will truly rise and succeed and will be raised and uplifted, they all immediately turn about and know that their fathers inherited falsehood, and their prophets and ancestors led them astray.” (Laws of Kings 11:10–12.) As for Maimonides’ strident criticism of Jesus as a heretic who led the Jews astray, I explain in Kosher Jesus that the Talmud’s Jesus’, upon whom Maimonides bases himself, is not the Jesus of the gospels, as Rabbi Yechiel of Paris, and other authoritative Jewish sources, have maintained.  It is a known fact that the name Jesus had been exceedingly common in Second Temple times. Rabbi Gil Student recently published an informative piece on this issue entitled Three Easy Steps to a Kosher Jesus which is well worth reading.http://torahmusings.com/2012/01/three-easy-steps-to-a-kosher-jesus/. “Finally,” Skobac writes, “I never wrote or implied that Jews should reclaim Jesus or embrace him. These are meta-themes of Boteach’s book and a tremendous cause for concern… [Jews will] think of the Jesus praised by Tim Tebow! For an Orthodox rabbi to urge Jews to embrace Jesus is incredibly irresponsible, as it will inevitably facilitate the slide by some down the slippery slope toward Christianity.”This is perhaps my principal point of departure from Skobac. Today there are tens of thousands of Jews who have converted to Christianity in the US and the tide of assimilation is increasing. Perhaps the swarm of Jewish anti-missionaries who have ganged up to malign my book ought to consider a new approach to combat the problem. Kosher Jesus is that new approach. It argues that rather than Jews always playing defense it is time for us to go on the offensive. Jews convert to Christianity? For what? The real religion of Jesus was Judaism, not Christianity. Jesus taught the Torah, kept all the mitzvot, and preached to all his students that they must do the same or they would be the least in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:18). Our argument to our Christian brothers and sisters – and especially to Christian missionaries – must be that every time they convert a Jew to Christianity they diminish from themselves the opportunity to discover the truth about Jesus, what he taught, and how he lived. Christians need Jews to discover the truth about their faith rather than the reverse, a point I have made in countless lectures before Christian audiences. We must teach Christians about the Jewishness of Jesus rather than Christians teaching Jews about the Christianity of Christ. Jesus was always a Jew and never a Christian. Period. It has become very evident that Kosher Jesus is not just a “soundbite and headlines” as Skobac derisively writes. It is already, in pre-publication, a best-seller on many of Amazon.com’s lists. It is now receiving, thank G-d, glowing reviews from disinterested parties. Library Journal has just written, “Boteach writes with clarity, force, and intelligence, and his Kosher Jesus is an excellent resource for parish libraries, Jewish worship communities, individual seekers, and all interested in the historical Jesus.” Publisher’s Weekly reviewed the book as an “informed and cogent primer on Jesus of Nazareth. Boteach, rabbi and author of the international bestseller Kosher Sex, takes a brave stab at re-evaluating Jesus through an intensive look at the New Testament and historical documents. This well-researched analysis will certainly reopen intrafaith and interfaith dialogue.” It must also be pointed out that anti-missionaries, through no fault of their own, often employ a myopic view of Christians whereby our principal interaction with them is when they come to convert us. This is not the case and this sort of thinking must change. Christians are our best friends today. A tiny, tiny minority are missionaries. Rather than allowing the relationship to be based on fear where we never ever engage in dialogue out of a concern that they may convert us, I believe precisely the opposite is true. It is time for the Jewish community to stop playing defense and go on offense. We should stop fearing assimilation and start sharing with the world the universal wisdom and values of Judaism, beginning with demonstrating the Jewish sources of Jesus’ teachings The political bridge of support for Israel is not enough. A theological bridge between Jews and Christians must exist as well. Kosher Jesus proposes that Jesus the Jew, rather than Christ the Christian, be that bridge. It is not for Christians to teach the Jews about Jesus, as has been attempted for so many centuries, but rather, for the Jews to teach Christians about how Jesus lived, prayed, worshipped, and died as a Jew. This book is written principally for Christians who hunger to learn more about the Jewishness of Jesus, even as they disagree significantly with my conclusions. And it is written for Jews to finally be knowledgeable about the real story of Jesus so that they can engage in this relationship authoritatively and with an immunity to missionizing efforts. In an age of Jewish-Christian rapprochement, ignorance of Jesus is no longer an option. Skobac and others seem to evince little faith in the Jewish community. For them, Jews are for the most part uneducated and therefore susceptible to missionary charms. But if that is the case, then stop attacking books like Kosher Jesus that seek to teach them. Indeed, write more of your own books to educate our nation and let our people know! This is the reason you’re seeing so many anti-missionaries attack the book. They want us to fear Christians. And yes, we have to stop missionaries. In Oxford, New York, and countless other venues, I worked to do precisely that. And in this book there is an entire section which will offer the Jewish reader invaluable textual proofs to counter missionary encroachment. But that is no longer the essence of the relationship between Christians and Jews. It has changed. Skobac, Schochet, and others risk becoming dinosaurs if all they focus on is how much Christians want to convert us. Today, Christians want to learn from us.But there is a problem. At so many public Christian events in support of Israel, pastors refer to Jesus haltingly if at all, afraid to offend Jewish sensibilities, while the Jews likewise are on guard to ensure that they are not accused of being used as props for a covert Christian evangelizing effort. If Jesus can never be mentioned we risk the relationship between Jews and Christians being a fraudulent one, with mutual suspicion growing on both sides. We are at a stage where the light of Judaism can finally shine through to the entire world, if only we have the courage to embrace the opportunity. And this is what you’ll continue to see in this debate on Kosher Jesus. Two world views. One says that Jews today are not very religious or knowledgeable and therefore highly susceptible to missionaries and there goes Shmuley Boteach opening the door to missionaries to proselytize us.But then there is another group who value the new Judeo-Christian relationship of allied friendship and want the Jews to be the ones to take their rightful place as, in the words of Pope John Paul II, “elder brothers and sisters in the faith”. Shmuley Boteach, whom Newsweek calls ‘the most famous Rabbi in America,’ was the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium and received the American Jewish Press Association’s Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. The international best-selling author of 27 books, this week he will publish “Kosher Jesus.” Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley. His website is http://www.shmuley.com Rabbi Shmuley wishes to thank his assistant Daniel Abraham for contributing source material to this column. The column is dedicated to the memory of Machla Debakarov, a close friend of Rabbi Shmuley, who died last year. May her memory be an eternal blessing.   2012-02-02T00:22:16+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/why_american_religion_isnt_refining_american_values/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/why_american_religion_isnt_refining_american_values/#When:23:00:29Z   Why American Religion Isn’t Refining American Values   By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Read and comment at the  Huffington Post  Here At the heart of the American experience is a profound contradiction: How are we so incredibly religious and yet so seemingly decadent?   While only 35% of Britons believe in God and 43% say they have no religion, 92% of Americans are believers and 80% are church-goers. Those same Americans, though, also make 68 million pornographic search engine requests every day, spending more than $3,000 on pornographic websites every second.   How are we to understand the materialistic impulses that had us spending $52.4 billion on Black Friday weekend shopping alone, and the bizarre accompanying stories like the woman who injured 20 shoppers by firing pepper spray into a crowd to clear her path to an Xbox?   Every four years, our presidential election cycle suggests the answer: Our public figures are obsessed with gay marriage and abortion to the exclusion of all other values.   Watch the Republican debates on television and you would think that America faces not a single social challenge other than stopping gays from marrying and women from aborting fetuses. America is a religious nation whose religious convictions have been hijacked by these twin issues, even though they have little to do with most Americans.   While approximately 7% of the American population is gay, more than 50% of all marriages end in divorce. In fact, gays seem to be the only men in America who are still passionate about marriage. Straight people don’t need help from gays to destroy the institution of marriage, having a done a mighty fine job of it ourselves, thank you very much. But rather than pastors pushing real policies that might stem the tide of divorce – like making marital counseling tax-deductible – they dwell on a politically divisive distraction.   In 1999 I published a book, Kosher Sex, which was pilloried by Jewish and Christian clerics for offering explicit erotic advice about how to make the marital bedroom passionate again. Yet the No. 1 cause of divorce in America is sexual boredom and lack of erotic interest, with the Washington Post reporting that one of three American couples is entirely platonic. Were pastors more willing to teach, say, the Song of Solomon, with its deep erotic secrets, rather than obsessing over gay marriage, millions of American children might not end up as yo-yos shuffling between parents’ homes on weekends.   In 2008, the American economy nearly collapsed. For bankers and consumers, homes were never big enough and cars never new enough. If ever there were a time for American religious and political leaders to examine materialism, gluttony and greed, it was then. But my evangelical brothers and sisters responded instead with Proposition 8, a national campaign to overturn gay marriage in California.   Abortion has also become a major distraction ignoring the values that underlie it. Almost all abortions are sought by single women who have been impregnated by men in an out-of-wedlock relationships. Yet where is the national conversation about a culture that degrades woman and portrays them as the libidinous man’s plaything?   Tim Tebow is pilloried for the unseemly act of prayer in the secular cathedral of the stadium. But women jumping up and down in lycra to the accompaniment of pompoms and cleavage creates no offense. From the 4.2 million porn websites in the U.S. to the recording industry peddling soft porn and magazines idealizing dangerously thin models, the dream of women being appreciated as much for the their brains as for their bust is undermined. Yet we see no push for school uniforms, for example, that could inculcate values of modesty and respect for the body among American teenagers.   In the African-American community, nearly 70% percent of all children are born out of wedlock, resulting in single mothers raising children on their own. Aside from Bill Cosby’s courageous speeches on the subject, pastors largely ignore men’s obligations to their children in favor of the Supreme Court’s obligation to the unborn.   It’s a cruel failure of leadership on the part of our religious, political and cultural icons. And this campaign year already looks like it’ll only perpetuate the problem.   Rabbi Shmuley’s newest book, Kosher Jesus (Gefen), examining the Jewish life of Jesus, will be published on February 1st. In 2010 he published “Renewal” which detailed the 7 universal Jewish values that could bring healing to America. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.   2012-01-23T23:00:29+00:00 http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/an_authoritative_rabbi_bans_kosher_jesus/ http://www.thisworld.us/index.php/site/an_authoritative_rabbi_bans_kosher_jesus/#When:22:53:39Z   An “Authoritative” Rabbi Bans Kosher Jesus   By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach   By right I ought to thank Rabbi Immanuel Schochet for banning my book Kosher Jesus which further propelled it up the international bestseller lists, even in pre-publication. Bizarrely writing of his own views as “authoritative”, Rabbi Schochet declared the book heretical, banned anyone from reading it, banned me from speaking about it, banned others from hosting me, and refused to offer a single reason or explanation as to why (if only he could have at least told them it was still OK to buy it!).   This dictatorial edict follows a growing wave of religious fanaticism hitting the world Jewish community all at once with right-wing reactionaries seeking to impose their primitive dogmatism on those who believe Judaism can be orthodox yet informed, Torah-based yet educated, true to Halakhic sources yet fearless in the marketplace of ideas. The Jewish community is not Iran and Rabbis are not the Revolutionary Guard. Let Khomeini burn books and condemn authors. Jews are the people of the book rather than the people who ban books. We Jews have all too much experience with the medieval practice of outlawing books and Rabbi Schochet’s attack deserves to be pasted on a wall of Meah Shearim rather than mailed, as it was, to Chabad emissaries around the world.   Kosher Jesus is a work of scholarship which Publisher’s Weekly just reviewed as an “informed and cogent primer on Jesus of Nazareth…. a brave stab at re-evaluating Jesus through an intensive look at the New Testament and historical documents… and a well-researched analysis that will certainly reopen intrafaith and interfaith dialogue.” It goes back to the original gospel source materials to uncover the real story of Jesus and portray him for whom he was prior to later Christian editors significantly modifying the story to accommodate the Romans. Jesus was, as many, especially Hyam Maccoby, have argued before me, a Torah-observant Jew whose mission it was to restore Jewish observance fully among his brethren and fight Roman persecution and paganism. For doing so he was turned over by the Roman collaborator, High Priest Caiaphas, who owed his office to the Romans, and was murdered by the Roman prefect Pontias Pilate. Jesus was a martyr for his people who never claimed to be divine, who never changed the Torah, and who would be scandalized to see his teachings – nearly all of which Kosher Jesus traces back to their earlier Jewish sources – misused to persecute his people. It was Paul, who never met Jesus, who later deified him and said he came to get rid of Torah practice.   Far from this theory being heretical, as Schochet libelously claims, it is expressly conveyed by Rabbi Jacob Emden one of the greatest Rabbis of the past thousand years, who wrote in 1757: Therefore, you must realize – and accept the truth from him who speaks it – that we see clearly here that the Nazarene and his Apostles did not wish to destroy the Torah from Israel, God forbid; for it is written so in Matthew (5:17-19), the Nazarene having said, “Do not suppose that I have come to abolish the Torah. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. I tell you this: So long as heaven and earth endure, not a letter, not a stroke, will disappear from the Torah until all is accomplished. If any man therefore sets aside even the least of the Torah’s commandments, and teaches others to do the same, he will have the lowest place in the Kingdom of Heaven, whereas anyone who keeps the Torah, and teaches others so, will stand high in the Kingdom of Heaven.” This is also recorded in Luke 16:17. It is therefore exceedingly clear that the Nazarene never dreamed of nullifying the Torah.” Michael Scobak, the Director of Education for the orthodox Jewish anti-missionary group Jews for Judaism, similarly notes in his pamphlet The Da Vinci Code: A Jewish Perspective:   “The Torah-positive stance taken by Jesus was maintained after his death by his disciples based in Jerusalem under the leadership of his brother James… What a stunning example of history being written by the victors! For all intents and purposes, Christianity as we know it today is an invention of Paul.”   But in reality the battle over my book is about something far bigger than me. Rabbi Schochet came of age when Christians were seen primarily as proselytizers and enemies of our people. Today, however, they are the State of Israel’s most reliable allies and stalwart friends. Still, there are Jews who are not convinced and seek to undermine the relationship between Jews and evangelicals. That is the principal purpose of Schochet’s attack, resting as it does on the belief that any Jew who seeks to educate Christians about the Jewishness of Jesus must have gone over to the other side. No matter how much someone like Glenn Beck – who beautifully endorsed my book – or Pastor John Hagee supports Israel, fringe Jewish critics will accuse them of ulterior motives. I disagree. Jewish evangelical support for Israel is real. The information contained in Kosher Jesus grants Jewish readers an immunity to missionary efforts at proselatizing but is written primarily for my Christian brothers and sisters – whose praise the book has justly earned – who hunger to learn more about the Jewishness of Jesus, even as they disagree profoundly with my conclusions that Jesus never claimed to divine, cannot be the Jewish Messiah, and insisted on the eternity of Torah law. And why shouldn’t Judaism get the credit it deserves for the values it has disseminated to the world through Christianity. We gave the world G-d. Today his name is Jesus Christ. We gave the world the Sabbath. Today it’s called Sunday. We gave the world the Ten Commandments. Today it is called morality. And we gave the world the Biblical insistence that all humans are created equally in the image of G-d. Today it’s called democracy. Virtually all Jewish ideas that have shaped the world have been taken from our people without attribution, so that Judaism is treated today as a discarded relic with little contemporary relevance. It’s time these universal Jewish ideas that have so influenced the world be traced back to their original source. It’s time that the Jewishness of Jesus be rediscovered by Christians. And it’s time for the wisdom of Judaism to brighten the world so that the Jews to live up to their ancient Biblical mandate as a light unto the nations.   Rabbi Shmuley Boteach was the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium and received the American Jewish Press Associations’ Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary as well as the National Fatherhood Award for his national TV Show Shalom in the Home. The international best-selling author of 27 books, his newest work Kosher Jesus will be published on February 1st. Follow him Twitter @RabbiShmuley.   2012-01-23T22:53:39+00:00