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Prince Edward Island
Rabbi Shmuley gives a brief overview of his visit to Prince Edward Island with his family
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Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Rabbi Shmuley gives a brief overview of his visit to Prince Edward Island with his family
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Hugo Chavez calls Israel a “genocidal state”. Rabbi Shmuley discusses the state of Israel’s relationships with the rest of the world, as well as Obama’s lack of support for Israel.
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General McChrystal should Not be Fired
General McChrystal should Not be Fired
Rabbi Shmuley, conferencing in from a vacation with his family, discusses why he feels it is a grave error to have fired Gen. McChrystal.
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
My Meeting with Pope Benedict
I had my meeting with the Pope today at his Wednesday audience. Let me first give you an idea of the setting.
There were approximately fifteen thousand people from all over the world gathered in St. Peter’s Square speaking an untold number of languages. The sun shone very brightly. The day was perfect. The Pope arrived in his pope-mobile to great excitement and fanfare. His vehicle was open-top. I assumed they didn’t need the protective bubble that has become so iconic on TV because there was security screening for each person present. As the Pope drove among the crowd they shouted ‘Viva Papa - Long live the Pope.’ There seemed to be genuine affection and excitement among the Catholic pilgrims who had gathered from all over the world.
The pope drove up the incline and arrived in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. The people who were there to meet him sat on both sides of his dais. There were clergymen from all over the world: Cardinals, Bishops, and priests from the Catholic Church. I sat next to three Anglican Bishops from the UK. With me was my friend Gary Krupp, head of the Pave the Way Foundation, who had arranged the visit and several of his officers.
The Pope read greetings in give languages and an American priest welcomed our group publicly from the Pope’s dais. The Pope waived to us.
When the formal ceremony, lasting about two hours ended, the Pope came off his dais and moved along the receiving line to greet us. Gary introduced me to the Pope warmly with my formal titles. I gave the Pope a special gift we had gotten for him. It was a beautiful dual-time Phillip Stein watch. The Pope lit up when he saw it and said, “Look, it has two faces on it,” which, as it happened, was the perfect introduction for me to share the issues I had prepared. I said, “Pope Benedict, it’s an honor to meet you. This watch has the times of Rome and Jerusalem on it, signifying the eternal friendship between our two faiths. I also hope that when you wear it the future of the Jew people will always be on your mind, as Israel struggles with existential threats, like Iran, who threaten to wipe it off the map. You’re voice against these threats is essential, Your holiness.”
He said ‘Yes,’ nodding his head in agreement, and I continued.
“In addition, Your holiness, the dual clock face is a symbol of my request that you please join us in establishing a global family dinner night which we call, ‘Turn Friday Night into Family Night.’ It involves what we call the triple two. Two hours of uninterrupted time that parents give their kids, inviting two guests, just as I am your guest today, and discussing two important subjects.”
While I said this Pope Benedict again nodded.
I concluded, ‘Your holiness, it’s so important that our two religions work together on this.’ He said warmly, ‘We will work together. We will work together.’ He held my hand while we spoke. The watch we gave the Pope as a gift has special resonance because the owner, Will Stein, is an orthodox German convert to Judaism.
I had invited my close friends David Victor, Chairman of the Board of AIPAC, and Rodney Adler, to the meeting with the Pope. Rodney emphasized to the Pope the importance of partnering with me on creating an international family dinner night and how much he believed in the idea. The Pope again warmly agreed. David then respectfully but firmly pressed the Pope on the need to address the Iran crisis, ‘a regime which denies the holocaust and threatens to destroy Israel and is building nuclear weapons.’ The Pope said, “I have spoken about it and will continue to.”
As soon as the meeting was over, I was granted another meeting with Cardinal Walter Casper, President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity.’ Gary introduced me to the Cardinal and made a strong pitch for the importance of the worldwide Church partnering with us to create our international family dinner initiative. The Cardinal, a very pleasant priest from Germany who has been close friends with Pope Benedict for forty years, strongly endorsed the idea and related his memories of family dinners with his own parents.
I made the case to the Cardinal that the pedophile priest scandal has many influential American commentators skewering the Church for being an all-boys club, seemingly anti-family. It was essential, I argued, that the Church recapture its reputation as one of the world’s foremost champions of the family. He agreed emphatically and said he agreed that the Church should partner with us.
My friend David Victor then again brought up the threat that Iran poses to Israel. The Cardinal said that Iran’s nuclear program is a threat to the world. He asked David to write to him and Cardinal Bertone, the Cardinal Secretary of State, with suggestions of what could be done.
It was an exciting day. Five of my nine children were with me, as well as both my parents.
I’ll share more later, G-d willing.
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Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Ami Toben
I was absolutely appalled while reading Rabbi Shmuley’s last article about his plan to meet with the pope. in the article, the rabbi discusses how some very basic Jewish laws and traditions could “bring healing to the church” amidst the child abuse scandals that are gripping it. The simple yet effective advice the rabbi offers centers on the Jewish principal that just as an unmarried man and woman are forbidden to be in a locked room together, so should this extend to a priest and a child. By following this simple Judaic law the church could avoid future scandal and embarrassment. The rabbi even gives us an example of how he had applied this principal to Michael Jackson when he was his personal rabbi. “I told him that the only way he could rehabilitate his reputation after the pedophilia accusations was to simply forswear ever being alone with a child”. This advice, according to the rabbi, had served Michael Jackson quite well for the two years he “stuck to the script”. It was only when he made the mistake of admitting on TV that he had just shared a bed with a child, that he was arrested.
Such simple advice indeed.
Why is it that the good rabbi’s advice only seems to center on the healing of reputations? Michael Jackson was advised to forswear, not stop, ever being alone with a child. In much the same way, the Catholic Church is also now advised to forbid its clergymen from secluding themselves with a child behind a locked door. The reasoning for this, according to the rabbi, is that “there must always be the possibility that they can be intruded upon”. Never is it even suggested that a clergyman be mortified by the mere thought of raping a child. Just because this goes without saying, does not mean it is needless to say – it certainly isn’t to the priests. Indeed it would seem that the good rabbi is only concerned with the reputation of the perpetrators rather than the safety and wellbeing of their innumerous under aged victims. The rabbi’s advice never gets near the proposition that the church screen its clergymen for psychological disorders and pedophiliac tendencies. Instead, parents are expected to feel comfortable entrusting their children to a pedophile, as long as the rectory door remains unlocked. The rabbi writes that this could “significantly curb the potential for child molestation, and might even discourage pedophiles from entering the priesthood”. How gentle, meek, and mild. I challenge the rabbi to entrust his own children to a discouraged pedophile.
One must also take note of the fact that the good rabbi had applied the Jewish law regarding sexual seclusion of a man and a woman to the sexual seclusion of a man and a child. What should we infer from this regarding the good rabbi’s views on the legal, and moral, age of consent? The good rabbi seems to suggest that, when it comes to sexual matters, under aged children should be treated as adult women. And all this from the self proclaimed “America’s Rabbi”.
Joseph Ratzinger (better known as Pope Benedict XVI) has, himself, been implicated in the cover-ups of at least three horrible cases of child abuse and rape (Munich, Wisconsin, and Oakland), where his signature is on the incriminated clergymen’s transfer papers; supplying them with a new lease on raping children in other parishes. Shear immorality is one thing, obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting criminal activity is quite another. Strengthen relations with this? Go right ahead rabbi. What a good Catholic priest you would make indeed.
Luckily, we do not need to depend on the misguided advice of religious leaders to protect our children from sexual abuse; inflicted on them by other religious leaders. The age of reason and enlightenment has enabled us to put in place a number of very effective laws regarding the screening of individuals who work with children, the punishment of those who would abuse them, and the social care that is given to the children in an attempt to heal their traumas. The good rabbi writes that “it is time for Jews and Catholics to work together to promote new values in America”. I propose that we work together to teach Jewish and Catholic religious leaders a very old value – sexually abusing children is wrong. Thankfully, our secular legal system makes this more than a mere recommendation. Robin Williams, in his live on Broadway show, phrased it best when he said “because you have to remember, it’s not just a sin, it’s a felony”.
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