Posted on 05/05/2011 12:12:38 PM PDT by presidio9
Passover is over and Shavuot is weeks away. It's a season when Jews traditionally take time for contemplation and reflection.
This year, I've been reflecting on Catholicism. Rather on the complicated interfaith nexuses between Catholics and Jews.
In large part, of course, this is because of the beatification May 1 of Pope John Paul II.
Critics have questioned the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to waive the usual five-year waiting period and fast-track John Paul's road to sainthood.
And JP2 had his faults -- his handling of the priest sex abuse scandals has come under particular recent scrutiny.
But the Polish-born pontiff was the best pope the Jewish world ever had.
"There have been few times in the 2,000 years of Christian Jewish relations when Jews have shed genuine tears at the death of a Pope," the eminent Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum wrote in a recent column. "When Pope John Paul II died, I -- and many other Jews -- cried."
I don't recall actually shedding tears when John Paul died on April 2, 2005 at the age of 84. In fact, I was in the midst of celebrating my nephew's bar mitzvah.
But I did feel deeply touched by his passing -- I had reported on John Paul during most of his nearly 27-year papacy.
In a deliberate and demonstrative way, he had made bettering Catholic-Jewish relations and confronting the Holocaust and its legacy a hallmark of his reign, and I had chronicled milestone after milestone in this process.
There had been frictions and setbacks, to be sure. Key among them was the pope's support for the canonization of his controversial World War II predecessor, Pius XII, and his refusal to open secret Vatican archives to clarify Pius' role during the Holocaust.
He also hurt Jews by welcoming Austrian President Kurt Waldheim to the Vatican after Waldheim's World War II links to the Nazis had come to light. And he upset Jews with his meetings at the Vatican with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
These episodes, however, were far outweighed by positive steps. Some of them were truly groundbreaking measures that jettisoned -- or at least shook up -- centuries of ingrained Catholic teaching and changed Catholic dogma to reflect respect for Jews and the Jewish religion and apologize for the persecution of Jews by Catholics.
They ranged from his visit to Rome's main synagogue in 1986, to his frequent meetings with rabbis, Holocaust survivors and Jewish lay leaders, to his repeated condemnation of anti-Semitism, to the establishment of relations between the Vatican and Israel, to John Paul's own pilgrimage to the Jewish state in 2000, when he prayed at the Western Wall.
It was evident throughout that he was deeply influenced by his own personal history of having grown up with Jewish friends in pre-World War II Poland and then witnessing the destruction during the Shoah.
As Berenbaum put it, John Paul II was "directly touched by the Holocaust" and "assumed responsibility for its memory."
The program director of a Catholic-run interfaith and dialogue center near the Auschwitz death camp agreed.
"Auschwitz was not an abstract tragedy but it formed part of his life," the Rev. Manfred Deselaers told the Catholic news agency Zenit.org. "Auschwitz was the school of holiness of John Paul II."
Given this background, it seemed fitting that the Vatican chose to beatify John Paul on May 1 -- the eve of this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah.
The coincidence, though, was not intentional.
In the Catholic calendar, May 1 this year marked the Sunday after Easter, a feast called Divine Mercy Sunday. And John Paul II had died on the very eve of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005.
Still, the timing sent out a powerful message. And it made me reflect on how very, very radically relations between Catholics and Jews have changed, even in just the past few decades.
Relations between Catholics and Jews are not perfect, of course, and they never will be. There are still anti-Semitic elements in the Church, and John Paul II's teachings have not trickled down to all the world's more than 1 billion Catholics. But we do live in a different world.
For centuries, the popes and the Vatican "worked hard to keep Jews in their subservient place -- barring them from owning property, from practicing professions, from attending university, from traveling freely," Brown University historian David Kertzer wrote in his 2001 book "The Popes Against the Jews." "And they did all this according to canon law and the centuries-old belief that in doing so they were upholding the most basic tenets of Christianity."
Here in Rome, the papal rulers kept Jews confined to a crowded ghetto until 1870. In many places Jews would stay indoors at Easter for fear of being caught up in a blood libel accusation or be accused of desecrating the Host.
Less dramatically, I still remember from childhood how Catholic kids in my suburban Philadelphia neighborhood were forbidden to enter synagogue to attend their friends' bar mitzvah services.
Formal dialogue began only in 1965, with the Vatican's Nostra Aetate declaration that repudiated the charge that Jews were collectively responsible for killing Jesus, stressed the religious bond between Jews and Catholics, and called for interfaith contacts.
Two decades later, in 1986, when John Paul became the first pope to visit a synagogue, he embraced Rome's chief rabbi, Elio Toaff, and declared that Jews were Christianity's "dearly beloved" and "elder brothers."
Toaff met frequently with John Paul, and the two established a warm rapport. In fact, Toaff and the pope's longtime secretary were the only two individuals named in John Paul's will. The rabbi called that inclusion "a significant and profound gesture for Jews" as well as "an indication to the Catholic world."
Long retired now, Toaff celebrated his 96th birthday on April 30 -- the day before John Paul's beatification.
The memory of John Paul "remains indelibly impressed in the collective memory of the Jewish people," Toaff said in a statement published after the beatification in the Vatican's official newspaper. "In the afflicted history of relations between the popes of Rome and the Jewish people, in the shadow of the ghetto in which they were closed for over three centuries in humiliating and depressing conditions, the figure of John Paul II emerges luminous in all of its exceptionality."
Not going to let you wiggle out on a semantic point. You "called bull" on post #1 to this thread, and quoted me:
"In fact, Jewish rabbis are just as likely as Catholic priests to engage in pedophilia sexual abuse"
Then submitted asinine reasons for why all Catholic priests were perverts. You personally insulted me, and had the temerity to accuse me of antisemitism. These are the facts: The actual numbers are hard to come by in any religion. You have demonstrated an erroneous and prejudiced belief that there is a high rate of pedophilia among Catholic priests. This is a common misconception, but it is entirely false. Catholic priests are actually far less likely to be pedophiles than the male population in general. Catholicism is the largest religious denomination in the US. It dwarfs the religion of Judaism. Nevertheless, the population of Jewish rabbis has more than its fair share of pedophiles. I point this out not to attack the Jewish faith, of which I hold in the highest regard, but to draw attention to your misconception. Again, try goggling "Rabbi + Pedophile" if this comes as a surprise to you. Perhaps I am more familiar with the issue, because NY has ten times the Jewish population of Maryland and the town I grew up in and still live in is 1/3 Jewish. The next town over is one of the most affluent majority Jewish towns in the country.
Now, none of this is to say that there is a pedophilia problem in among Jewish rabbis. Quite the opposite. I assume that pedophilia there is far below the national average as well. Again, none of this was said to attack the Jewish faith, just to help you with your ignorance. I hope that's what I did. Draw your own conclusions if you like. Just don't start with false assumptions.
BTW, to get back to your original justification of rabbis being less likely to become pedophiles because they are encouraged to marry and have children, it may also surprise you to learn that pedophiles are also more likely to be married.
Thanks for giving me the chance to correct your thinking.
Bull. While I think that anyone who denys himself the release of lovemaking will have a higher chance of sexual deviation, that is not saying that there actually *IS* a higher rate. That said, I do believe it to be a bigger problem in the Catholic faith than in the Jewish faith.
That said, nothing in that indicated that I believe Catholic priest to have a *HIGH* rate of pedophilia. In other words, slightly higher than near zero is still near zero.
Gotcha, the human race has a high rate of pedophilia. I agree with that. OTOH, you continue to base your opinions on "what you think," rather than the facts at hand, including that the rates of sexual deviance among the Catholic clergy is far below the national average, and far below that for married men. What you think about priestly celibacy and its potential effect on sexual deviancy turns out to be wrong. Perhaps it just seems otherwise to you because sexual gratification is just more important to you than to individuals who have given their lives over to the sevice of God and their fellow man. Perhaps this is a foreign concept to you, but I assure you that such individuals do exist.
Now, I refrained from doing this earlier, but now seems like a good time, because you appear to have dug in with your public opinions on the Catholic Church. You are, of course, not a member, therefore your opinions have no value other than personal self gratification. OTOH, as a Jew, you ARE in a position to have an effect on your own faith, and its clergy. Since you would apparently rather live in ignorance than know the truth about your own clergy, I am forced to call the following to your attention. I would prefer not to, because you will, of course, again accuse me of antisemitism. But people in glass houses... and all that. Remember: “In other words, slightly higher than near zero is still near zero.” Whatever the heck that means. Enjoy:
Case of Shlomo Aviner (Rosh Yeshiva, Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva, Rabbi of Beit El, Israel)
Case of Rabbi Lewis Brenner (Convicted of child molestation. The original charges included 14 counts of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He agreed to plead guilty to one count of sodomy in the third degree, a Class E felony, in exchange for a sentence of five years’ probation.)
Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks (Accusations about sexual inappropriate behavior with children started surfacing in the 1980’s. Rabbi Bryks is currently a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. The Vaad is a Rabbinical committee that makes important decisions within an orthodox community.)
Case of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (Accused of several cases of child molestation, and sexual assault of young women)
Case Rabbi Perry Ian Cohen - Montreal and Toronto Canada (Accused of sexual abuse of a seventeen year old. Fired for sexual impropriety with congregants)
Case of Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen (Accused of sexually harassing students at Bar-Ilan University)
Case of Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg - Boca Raton, Flordia (Pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of exposure of sexual organs in a washroom at a Palm Beach Mall.)
Case of Rabbi/Cantor Sidney Goldenberg (Convicted of molesting children. The first complaints came in 1971. He was finally convicted in 1997.)
Case of Cantor Joel Gordon (Convicted of having keeping a house of prostitution and involvement in a prostitution ring.)
Case of Rabbi Israel Grunwald (Accused of molesting a 15 year old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia to LA. The charge against him were dropped after agreeing to perform 500 hours of community service and to seek counseling. Grunwald was the chief rabbi of an Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn, known as the Pupas).
Case of The State of Israel Vs. Sex Offender (Convicted of repeated rape and forced molestation of his graddaughter.)
Case of Yehudah Friedlander - Rabbi ‘s Assistant (Accused of molesting a 15 year old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia to LA. Friedlander was the assistant to the chief rabbi of an Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn, known as the Pupas)
Case of the Rabbi at Hillel Torah, Chicago, IL (A teacher at the Chicago school was accused of child molestation. His name was not released. The school did everything correctly in attempting to keep the children safe once accusations were made.)
Case of Rabbi Solomon Hafner (Accused of sexually abusing a developmentally disabled boy)
Case of Rabbi (Alan J.) Shneur Horowitz (Convicted and sentenced to 10 - 20 years in prison for sodomizing a nine-year-old psychiatric patient. Allegedly, he has assaulted a string of children from California to Israel to New York in the past twenty years. Alan J. Horowitz is an Orthodox rabbi, magna cum laude, M.D., Ph.D. A graduate of Duke University, and was a writer for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association).
Case of Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)
Case of Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum (Accused of child pornography on the internet)
Case of Rabbi Robert Kirschner (Accused of sexually exploited or harassing three congregants and a synagogue employee)
Case of Rabbi Ze’ev Kopolevitch (Convicted of molesting students at Rosh Yeshiva, Netiv Meir yeshiva high school)
Case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner (Convicted - child molestation.)
Case of Rabbi Jerrold Martin Levy (Convicted of two counts of soliciting sex through the Internet and two counts of child pornography. He was sentenced to six years and sex in prison. He was caught in the “Candyman” year-long sting operation by the US government.)
Case of Rabbi Pinchas Lew (Accused of exposed himself to a woman.)
Case of Rabbi/Psychologist Mordecai Magencey (lost his license to practice in the State of Missouri because of his sexual misconduct with his patients.)
Case of Rabbi Richard Marcovitz (Convicted of indecent or lewd acts with a child, and sexual battery)
Case of Rabbi Juda Mintz (Convicted - internet sting on child pornography)
Rabbi Yona Metzger (Accused of sexually misconduct with four men)
Case of Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz (Accused of two counts of sex abuse with boys at a special education school in New York)
Case of Cantor Howard Nevison (Accused of molesting his nephew)
Case of Rabbi Michael Ozair (Accused of sexual molestation of a then-14-year-old girl)
Case of Cantor Stanley Rosenfeld (Convicted of molesting a 12-year-old boy he was tutoring.)
Case of Rabbi Charles Shalman (Accused of sexual misconduct toward female congregational members)
Case of Cantor Robert Shapiro (Accused of three counts of rape and four counts of indecent assault and battery to a mentally retarded woman)
Case of Cantor Michael Segelstein (Accused of attempted rape; Chabad - Las Vegas, Nevada)
Case of Rabbi Ze’ev Sultanovitch (Accused of sexually molesting a number of adult yeshiva students at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva)
Case of Rabbi Melvin Teitelbaum (Accused of three counts of sex crimes against two boys under the age of 14, and one count of assault with intent to commit rape against one boy’s mother. The charges were dropped for lack of evidenced)
Case of Rabbi Isadore Trachtman (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)
Case of Rabbi Hirsch Travis (Rabbi in Monsey, accused of posing as a Brooklyn doctor specializing in infertility problems, and allegedly sexually abusing and assaulting a patient.)
Case of Rabbi Matis Weinberg (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)
Case of Rabbi Yaakov Weiner (Accused of molesting boy at Camp Mogen Avraham, New York)
Case of Rabbi Don Well
Case of Cantor Phillip Wittlin (Convicted of molesting two girls)
Case of Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov (Convicted of sexual abuse and committing lewd acts against three boys)
Case of Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman (Violated guidelines concerning “sexual ethics and sexual boundaries,” )
Case of Rabbi Max Zucker (Accused by three women of improperly touching)
And Other Trusted Officals (Parents, Teachers, Camp Counselors, etc.)
Case of Arie Adler and Marisa Rimland, NY (Arie Adler was accused of molesting his daughter. Marisa Rimland murdered her daughter, and then committed suicide).
Case of Simcha Adler - Ohel Counselor, NY (Plea-bargained charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child down to attempted sodomy.)
Case of Eugene Loub Aronin - School Counselor, TX (Convicted in 1984 of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy)
Case of B’Nai Torah Congegation - Hillel Community Day School janitor, Boca Raton, FL (Accused of child molestation)
Case of Chaim Ciment (Accused and charged with first-degree sexual abuse, after allegations were made that he fondled a 17 year old girl in an elevator).
Case of James A. Cohen - Jewish Youth Group Leader (Convicted child molester, sentenced to 9 years for assaulting 4 boys)
Case of Larry Cohen - Soccer Coach, Lake Oswego, OR (Accused of molesting two individuals.)
Case of Lawrence Cohen - School Teacher, NJ (Convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for transmitting child pornography through his home computer).
Case of Phillip “Eli” Cohen, London, England (Accused of 13 charges of indecently assaulting a boy and four offences of indecently assaulting a girl)
Case of Stuart Cooperman, MD - Pediatrican, Merrick, New York (Accused of molesting six female patience).
Case of Delaware Family (Father accused of alleged child molestation)
Case of Mordechai (Morton) Ehrman - Simcha’s Play Group, Brooklyn, NY (Accused of molesting dozens of students).
Case of Hbrandon Lee Flagner (Convicted of the kidnapping and aggravated murder of Tiffany Jennifer Papesh a 8-year-old girl. Flagner also claimed to have molested hundreds of girls during his life. While in prison, Flagner convert to Judaism by an Chasidic rabbi.)
Case of Arnold and Jesse Friedman (Capturing the Friedmans) (Convicted sex offender)
Case of Richard “Steve” Goldberg (Allegedly engaging in sex acts with several girls under 10 in California. He is on the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives list)
Case of Ross Goldstein (Convicting of sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance. He was Sentenced to four concurrent indeterminated terms of 2 to 6 years imprisonment. Also see: Case of Arnold and Jesse Friedman)
Case of Several Child Sex Offenders in Har Nof 0 Jerusalem, Israel (Outlines several cases of alleged child sex offenders in the charedi town of Har Nof)
Case of David B. Harrington - School Principal / Big Brother, Rockville, MD (Convicted sex offender. Cases from the 1960’s - 1980’s.)
Case of State of Israel Vs. a Sex Offender (Convicted - 68 year old Israeli religious man pled guilty to repeated molestation of his granddaughter, was sentenced to 19 years in jail.
Case of Eric Hindin - Jewish Big Brother Volunteer, Newton, MA (Convicted of 35 counts of child rape. He was sentenced to 20-22 years in prison).
Case of Judge Ronald Kline, CA (Accused of possessing child pornography and for allegedly molesting a neighborhood boy 25 years ago).
Case of the Kosher Butcher in Chicago (Accused of molesting children for over 30 years)
Case of Lawrence Nevison - (Convicted of molesting his nephew. He is the brother of Cantor Howard Nevison)
Case of Stuart Nevison - (Convicted of molesting his cousin. He is the brother of Cantor Howard Nevison)
The Case of the Students of Ner Israel Yeshiva in the 1950’s (Students accused of sexually molesting a younger student)
Case of the New York Society for the Deaf’s Home (Accused of treating disabled patients ``like animals,’’ beaten, drugged and robbed of their government checks).
Case of Ozzie Orbach, M.D. (Accused of molesting his daughter)
Case of the Rogers Park JCC, Chicago Illinois (This was the first case of alleged mass molestation recorded in Illinois to involve accusations of sexual abuse by a group of adults, consists of 246 allegations that staff members abused children enrolled at the center, according to the Illinois Department of children and Family Services).
Case of Jonathan Rosenthal - Community Police Liason, London, England (Acquitted of sexually assaulting a few children, after a jury used ancient common law right, deciding evidence wasn’t strong enough.)
Case of Adam Theodore Rubin - Teacher, Coach and Girl Scout Coordinator (Accused of using a computer to solicit sex with a minor, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of drug paraphernalia).
Case of Georges Schteinberg - Teacher, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Accused of possession of child pornography. Charges dropped when Schteinberg fled the country).
Case of Aryeh Scher - Israeli vice-consul, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Accused of possession of child pornography. Charges dropped when Scher fled the country).
Case of David Schwartz - Camp Counselor, Culver City, CA (Convicted and sentenced to one year in residential treatment and five years’ probation for molesting a 4-year-old boy in his care at summer camp. A six-year prison sentence was suspended).
Case of Jerrold Schwartz - Scoutmaster, NY (Convicted and sentanced to 8 years in prison for multiple counts of sodomizing his former scout ).
Case of Irwin Silverman - Chief Counsel to U.S. secretary of interior 1933-53 (Accused of molesting his daughter Sue William Silverman. )
Case of Paul Slifer - Teacher (Accused of sexually assaulting a several students, and impersonating a doctor. )
Case of Ari Sorkin - Synagogue Youth Worker, Elkins Park, PA (Accused of molesting a 16 yr. old girl)
Case of Tel Aviv Arts School, Tel Aviv, Israel
Case of Dr. Saul and Judith Wasserman (Accused of molesting their daughter)
Case of David Douglas Webber - Mashgiach (Kashrut Supervisor), Canada (Convicted and sentenced to six years for possessing child pornography and molesting seven boys over the past eight years).
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