Rabbi Meir Kahane
The superintendent of the Montclair, N.J., public schools apologized on Tuesday for an email sent the day before highlighting the convicted terrorist Meir Kahane for Jewish American Heritage Month, saying the selection “was not researched or vetted properly.”
“Moments in history can be very painful, and we deeply regret this eblast,” the superintendent, Jonathan Ponds, wrote in his own e-blast to the entire district’s staff, parents and students. “We are truly sorry for offending our families, staff, and community and thank those of you who reached out and expressed your feelings. The district will learn from this incident.”
New Film Explores Life Of Key Figure In Catholic-Jewish Relations May 12, 2021
Abraham Joshua Heschel, far right, marches with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and others in Selma, Ala., in 1965, which is featured in Martin Doblmeier’s 2021 documentary “Spiritual Audacity: The Abraham Joshua Heschel Story.” Heschel was a moral theologian and expert on the prophets who also played a key role in Jewish-Catholic relations and the Vatican II document on that topic. (Photo: CNS/courtesy Journey Films)
NEW YORK When filmmaker Martin Doblmeier considers the interfaith growth between Catholics and Jews, Pope Francis’ October 2018 Angelus prayer for the 11 victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh comes to mind.
N.J. high school apologizes for honoring controversial rabbi
Updated May 11, 2021;
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Montclair High School is apologizing for including the late Rabbi Meir Kahane in a post commemorating Jewish American Heritage Month, three decades after his assassination in New York City.
The high school’s assistant principal, Reginald Clark, and Montclair Schools Superintendent Jonathan Ponds separately conveyed regret for spotlighting Kahane’s role in founding the Jewish Defense League in 1968.
Ponds, in an email Tuesday afternoon to families, caregivers and staff, said the post from Monday “included information that was not researched or vetted properly.” He did not provide specifics.
It had to be a mistake. Or perhaps some kind of prank? The email from Montclair High School stunned parents in the famously liberal New Jersey enclave Monday afternoon: Its pick to honor for Jewish American Heritage Month was the late ultra-nationalist radical Rabbi Meir Kahane.
The “daily announcements” email sent to students, parents and teachers highlighted Kahane’s founding of the Jewish Defense League a militant organization noted for violence and bigotry and quoted him saying that the group would “do the job that the Anti-Defamation League should do but doesn’t.”
Jewish Montclair parents, appalled by the selection of a far-right figure and convicted terrorist whose followers have been banned from Israeli politics, quickly barraged the school administration with complaints. The assistant principal sent a follow-up email two-and-a-half hours after the original apologizing “to our community members who may have taken offense” but did not explain how the selec
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There’s something about this pandemic that’s causing a disturbing rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes.
That’s one of the reasons the Calgary Council of Christians and Jews is holding a free online event entitled Combating Anti-Semitism, with guest speaker Avi Benlolo, an internationally renowned expert in Holocaust studies and anti-Semitism.
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Rev. Ray Matheson, president of the Calgary Council of Christians and Jews, says dangerous lies and conspiracy theories blaming Jewish people for COVID-19 are growing online and attacks against Jewish places of worship have been increasing in the U.S. and Canada.