Jewish parents deny Arab girl place in Jezreel Valley daycare

The opposition of a group of parents has caused a daycare in Moshav Merhavia to reject the registration of a young Arab toddler from a nearby village.

Not that Jews are racists or anything like that - it's just that the little Arab girl may grow up to be a terrorist...

Black rabbi in Chicago seeks to bridge racial divide

"I have made it my point, on a personal level, to involve myself in the Jewish community," Funnye said. "I've worked for Jewish organizations. I've graduated from Jewish institutions. My children went to Jewish day school."

All of that and the Jews still don't or won't accept you. Really, Rabbi Funnye, don't you realize that Blacks, or any Goyim for that matter, can never REALLY be Jews? You see, it's not just a religion after all. And, oh yea, if you and your congregation are thinking about relocating to Israel in the future, I suggest you discuss your plans with the "Jews" from Ethiopia first - get their opinion on how Blacks are treated by "God's Chosen People." I think you will find their comments interesting. But, it's not like the Zionists are racist or anything like that...

Related Resources:

WELCOME: A look at Funnye's shul (Video)

HOME PAGE: The Beth Shalom Web site

CHRISTIANS BRUTALIZED IN HOLY LAND

"Besides the fact that Israel has now become a haven for international gangsters—meaning rampant prostitution, drugs, human trafficking and money laundering to name a few—there are other indicators surrounding Israel’s political and social character as well that show she is anything but friendly to the morals and precepts of Christian teachings. Christian churches that were not taxed are now being sent heavy bills. Media outlets featuring Christian programming on television and radio are having their license renewal applications rejected.

More telling though is the fact that physical attacks on Christians, their symbols and institutions continue in Israel unabated, and not by “Islamo-fascists” (so much discussed by the likes of Norman Podhoretz, Daniel Pipes, John Hagee, Bill O’Reilly, et al.) but rather by a more fanatical sect that has nursed a hatred for Christianity since its inception, the people who collectively call themselves “the Israelites” and whom Christians are told to “bless.”"

Segregation at Petach Tikvah religious school

"Four Ethiopian girls isolated from other students in separate classes, recess, and transportation."

But, it's not like we're racists or anything...

Racism on Israeli Airwaves

"A radio interview between an extreme right wing Israeli and a Palestinian journalist, resulted in the 'true colours' of racism coming out loud and clear..."

Rabbi: Cleanse country of Arabs

""We must cleanse the country of Arabs and resettle them in the countries where they came from," head of the Yesha Rabbis Council, Rabbi Dov Lior, declared Monday, adding that, "If this means we have to pay them, we will. Without doing so, we will never enjoy peace in our land.""

Rice compares segregated U.S. South to Palestinians in Israel

"The Dutch representative to the Annapolis Conference, Franz Timmermans told the Washington Post that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a closed-door meeting of 16 Arab representatives and the Israeli envoys at the conference on Tuesday that her childhood in the segregated U.S. South helped her understand the situation of Palestinians in Israel."

What Is This? Rice identifying with the Palestinians? Must be a mis-print.

U.K. Jewish school told to cut ethnic admissions criteria

"The Jewish Free School (JFS) in London has removed from its admissions criteria a clause favoring ethnically Jewish children after the school was accused of breaking state anti-discrimination laws, The Guardian reported on Wednesday."

But, we're Jews ~ we're allowed to discriminate!

Jewgenics: Jewish intelligence, Jewish genes, and Jewish values.

by William Saletan

Are Jews a race? Is Jewish intelligence genetic?

If these notions make you cringe, you're not alone. Many non-Jews find them offensive. Actually, scratch that. I have no idea whether non-Jews find them offensive. But I imagine that they do, which is why Jews like me wince at any suggestion of Jewish genetic superiority. We don't even want to talk about it.

Actually, a bunch of us did talk about it, three days ago at a forum at the American Enterprise Institute. The main speaker was Jon Entine, an AEI fellow and author of a new book, Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People. He was joined by fellow AEI scholar Charles Murray and by Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at Northwestern University. Entine and Zoloth are Jewish. Murray isn't but talks as though he wishes he were. "One of my thesis advisers at MIT was a Sephardic Jew," he announced proudly, turning the old "some of my best friends" cliché upside down.

Entine laid out the data. The average IQ of Ashkenazi Jews is 107 to 115, well above the human average of 100. This gap and the genetic theories surrounding it stirred discomfort in the room. Zoloth, speaking for many liberals, recalled a family member's revulsion at the idea of a Jewish race. Judaism is about faith and values, she argued. To reduce it to biology is to make it exclusive, denying its openness to all. Worse, to suggest that Jews are genetically smart is to imply that non-Jews are inherently inferior, in violation of Jewish commitments to equality and compassion. My friend Dana Milbank, who's a better (if I may use that word) Jew than I am, watched the discussion, went back to his office, and wrote a column in the Washington Post poking fun at all the talk of superior Jewish intellect. The column, as usual, was really smart.

But what if Judaism as a genetic inheritance is compatible with Judaism as a cultural inheritance? And what if the genes that make Jews smart also make them sick? If one kind of superiority comes at the price of another kind of inferiority, and if the transmission of Jewish values drives the transmission of Jewish genes, does that make the genetics and the superiority easier to swallow?

Apparently so.

According to Entine, the rate of Jewish "outbreeding"—procreating with non-Jews—is half a percent. That's the lowest rate of any population in the world today. What drives this phenomenon? Culture. Ten years ago, my childless Orthodox uncle came up to me and said, "I hear you're dating a Jewish girl." When I replied in the affirmative, he added, "If you marry her, I'll come to the wedding." That was pretty much the whole conversation. A year and a half later, he was at my wedding. Today, he's got a grandniece and grandnephew living in my house. I'd like to think he had no influence, but maybe I'm kidding myself. Explicitly and implicitly, Jews have been getting this message for millennia. As Murray pointed out, the Bible is full of instructions to marry within the faith.

A culture that trains its young people to procreate only with one another becomes, over time, a genetically distinct population. And if that culture glorifies intelligence to such a degree that it drives less intelligent people out of the community—or prevents them from attracting mates—it becomes an IQ machine. Cultural selection replaces natural selection. For example, Jews have long emphasized male literacy. For this reason, Murray argued, anyone who was Jewish and stupid 2,000 years ago found "it was a lot easier to be a Christian." Entine called this kind of process a "bio-cultural feedback loop."

The theory still sounds arrogant, until you hear the IQ machine's possible costs. Some scholars now hypothesize that the genes that make Jews smart also give some of them nasty diseases such as Tay-Sachs. Entine finds this plausible. He pointed out that some genes associated with brain growth are also associated with breast cancer, including in his own family. During the question-and-answer session, someone brought up another tradeoff: Supposedly, Jews are deficient in visio-spatial skills, possibly because their brains allot extra space for verbal intelligence. That might explain the average Ashkenazi Jewish score of 122 on verbal IQ tests.

Pondering these nuances and tradeoffs, Zoloth reconsidered her aversion to the idea of Jewish genes and Jewish intelligence. What should we do, she wondered, if we find genes that predispose children both to genius and to early death? And should Jewish biological differences be minimized if they're expressions of—and vehicles for—Judaism as a value system?

Zoloth didn't have answers to those questions. Neither do I. Part of being Jewish, after all, is talking in questions more than answers. Whether that habit is cultural or biological, I don't know. But this much I can tell you: I walked out of the AEI conference room that day with a cut on my nose because, in an attempt to pick something up off the floor, I whacked my face on the chair in front of me. Probably I'm just a moron. But maybe visio-spatial deficiency really is a sign of intelligence, in which case, I'd like to thank my ancestors for making the trade. Including my uncle, who, come to think of it, may not be childless after all.

Jews, and only Jews, for hire

JCC in Lancaster, Pa., which won a lawsuit that allowed them the right to dismiss an employee over her participation in a Jews for Jesus event.

by Jacob Berkman, Jewish Telegraphic Agency - November 2, 2007

Court backs Jewish Community Center's right to fire employee over Jews for Jesus link
A federal court ruling that allowed a JCC to fire an employee who attended a Jews for Jews event could serve as a broader legal guide for Jewish institutions that want to reserve the right to hire only Jews for various positions

Some Jewish institutions may have their own "road map" on hiring practices after a U.S. federal court ruled that a Pennsylvania JCC had the right to dismiss an employee over her participation in a Jews for Jesus event.

Linda LeBoon, an Evangelical Christian, had sued the Lancaster JCC claiming that she was fired in 2002 as its bookkeeper for attending a Jews for Jesus event.

The JCC, LeBoon argued, was a center for Jewish culture and therefore did not qualify for the exemption in the 1964 Civil Rights Act that allows religious organizations to discriminate on the basis of religion when it comes to hiring.

But last month the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to uphold a lower-court decision that the JCC is indeed a "religious corporation, organization, or institution" and had the right to dismiss an employee over his or her religious activities.

"If they would have lost this case," said Marc Stern, general counsel of the American Jewish Congress, "it would have meant that someone from Jews for Jesus could have come into a Jewish organization and could have had a prominent position, and you couldn't have done anything about it legally. That would have been a catastrophe."

In addition to ensuring the right to dismiss employees over affiliations with Messianic groups, the ruling could serve as a broader legal guide for non-synagogue Jewish institutions, like JCCs and federations, that want to reserve the right to insist on hiring Jews for top leadership posts and other jobs.

"This case provides a road map for other JCCs and organizations that have some preference for hiring Jews in particular positions to qualify for this exemption," Stern said. "It has not always been self evident that they have the right to do so."

While Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, Section 702 of the act states that parochial schools and houses of worship are exempt and may hire based on religion.

There has long been a debate about whether organizations affiliated with religious groups, such as camps, nursing homes, social service agencies and community centers, were afforded the same right to discriminate in hiring.

LeBoon argued that because the Lancaster JCC had non-Jewish members, rented space to other religious organizations and held generally secular activities, the institution was not a religious institution. Further, she argued, the JCC was not financially or administratively tied to a synagogue.

The appeals court in Philadelphia ruled, however, that the JCC was entitled to the exemption because "during the period under scrutiny, its structures and purposes were primarily religious."

Drawing on precedents, the court compiled a list of nine criteria to help determine what constitutes a religious institution. Among the questions were: Is the institution a not for profit? Does it offer a secular product? Does it have a stated religious purpose? Does any religious entity participate in its management? Does it include religious instruction? Is it made up of coreligionists?

In LeBoon v. Lancaster Jewish Community Center Association, the court determined that the JCC did have a Jewish mission -- to "enhance and promote Jewish life, identity and continuity." And based on the other eight criteria, it determined that the JCC was working to follow through on that mission.

The court noted that the rabbis of the city's three synagogues were honorary non-voting members of the JCC board whose input played a key role in the firing and hiring of the institution's top professionals, helped with the fund raising and provided religious programming.

In addition, the court said the JCC organized Jewish holiday events, had mezuzahs affixed to its doors, maintained a kosher kitchen and, despite its gloomy financial situation, decided not to rent out its facilities on the Sabbath.

"These characteristics clearly point to the conclusion" that the JCC was "primarily a religious organization," the majority opinion stated.

In her dissenting opinion, Judge Marjorie Rendell argued that the only relevant question is whether the JCC was funded or controlled by a religious group. The JCC, she said, "was not run by a synagogue but by a board independently elected by the center's members."

Both sides claimed that their approach would avoid forcing the courts into the unconstitutional role of arbitrating on religious questions.

The national arms of local JCCs and Jewish federations did not comment specifically about the case. Observers, including Stern, say the decision allows for installing safeguards against proselytizing groups trying to infiltrate Jewish organizations.

Synagogues and Jewish schools have been fairly well protected by Article 702 of the Civil Rights Act and been able to avoid hiring job applicants who belong to groups such as Jews for Jesus, according to the director of Jewish communal affairs for the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Marcia Eisenberg.

But Jewish groups that fall on the more secular end of the spectrum, like JCCs and even less overtly Jewish organizations, have been susceptible to lawsuits involving discrimination claims.

"This gives some interesting comfort for Jewish organizations in that the definition of a religious institution is actually broader than it was before," said Eisenberg, who helps Jewish groups draw up hiring practices. "This is especially helpful when you have big staffs and a lot of employees."

Stern and Eisenberg said the case should give Jewish organizations reason to go back and reassess their mission statements and practices to see if they line up with what is required in the recent decision to qualify for the religious exemption.