Argh. Screw you, too, Pat Robertson.

[arib]

As worldwide Jewry is still reeling from Mel Gibson's stinging blockbuster
film of graphic violence and gratuitous bloodshed, which portrays the Jews
as conspiring, blood-thirsty Christ-killers, Rev. Pat Robertson's Christian
Broadcast Network (CBN.com) has launched a stunning assault on the Jewish
faith.

"It is hard to believe that anyone would be using a vast media empire to
attack Judaism at a time when Jewish communities are feeling intensely
vulnerable. But that's precisely what Robertson's organization is doing,"
says Rabbi Tovia Singer, the New York-based radio show host of Israel
National Radio, who was formally thrown off New York's WMCA for being "too
Jewish." Singer is also the founder of Outreach Judaism, a
counter-missionary organization that fights against Christian missionaries.

A misleading article prominent on Robertson's CBN.com makes the stunning
claim that the Jews manipulate their Sabbath services so that synagogue
worshipers reject Jesus. The article, "The Passion According to Isaiah",
claims that the weekly recitation of verses from the Prophets (haftara) in
synagogues worldwide were specifically designed to avoid a passage in
Isaiah that Christians interpret as a reference to Jesus.

"This is a serious charge against Judaism for which there is not a single
shred of evidence…. The absurdity of this claim lies in the fact that the
selections for the weekly reading of verses from the Prophets, including
those from Isaiah, predate Christianity by two centuries. What motive did
Jews have for preventing worshipers from converting to Christianity, when
at the time the custom to read from the Prophets was created, Christianity
and Jesus didn't even exist?" asks Singer.

The CBN website asserts that a portion of Isaiah, used as a front piece to
Mel Gibson's The Passion, was withheld from the ears of Jewish congregants
because of what "Jews might think" of the passage. In essence, the Jews are
charged by the 700 Club's founder with conspiring to manipulate the
synagogue service in order to prevent uneducated Jews from believing in
Jesus. "In fact," states Singer, "only a very tiny portion of the Book of
Prophets is even read in the synagogue."

"This preposterous claim not only slanders the Jewish faith, but is an
affront to any Jewish organization that has presented Robertson any
recognition," states Singer. "Most Jews do not realize that the ultimate
goal of fundamentalists like Pat Robertson is a 100 percent Christian
America, which is why he supports predatory cults that seek to destroy the
Jewish faith. Doesn't he understand that militant Islam is a far greater
danger to America than Judaism?"

"This unwelcome development is particularly shocking given that people like
Robertson are zealously defending Mel Gibson's film against the charge of
promoting anti-Semitism. Robinson's CBN.com is collaborating with some of
the most offensive organizations dedicated to attacking the Jewish faith,
while deceptively targeting vulnerable Jews for conversion to
Christianity," says Rabbi Singer.

Singer is more concerned with the danger misleading and slanderous
propaganda poses to the Jewish people. "If either Pat Robertson or Mel
Gibson ever wish to be regarded as a friend of the Jews," declares Singer,
"they must abandon their obsession with converting them."

Comments

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

Well, he's losing against the gays, so he had to find someone to pick on.

(only half joking)

[arib.livejournal.com]

Hey, he's a member of the Christian Right, antisemitism of some sort's almost their official pastime.

[cellio]

That old chestnut? I thought we did the haftarah cycle/Isaiah thing years ago... looks like Robertson didn't get the memo.

And anyway, <snark> Robertson should want to encourage uneducated Jews to stay that way (with respect to their religion), 'cause he won't be able to convert the educated ones </snark>.