Posted on 12/04/2014 6:33:18 PM PST by Coleus
The Orthodox Union, the umbrella organization for Orthodox Jewish congregations throughout the United States, has responded to an Internet blog post by a Teaneck rabbi and criticized it for what it called “wholesale demonization” of Muslims.
The rabbi, Steven Pruzansky of the Bnai Yeshurun congregation, the largest orthodox synagogue in Teaneck, had posted a blog calling for a harsh response by Israel to Palestinian terrorists, including the destruction of entire villages found to be the homes of two or more attackers.
“We cannot countenance a response to terror that resorts to wholesale demonization, advocates for the collective punishment of Israeli Arabs or calls for the destruction or dismantling of Muslim holy places,” the Orthodox Union said in a statement, dated Tuesday, that did not mention Pruzansky by name but addressed specific comments he had made.
“Such rhetoric is anathema to the Jewish religious tradition and has no place in civil society,” it added. “Such rhetoric is wrong and must be repudiated, whether it is voiced by lay leaders, community leaders or rabbis.”
In a later blog post, which he titled “Clarification!” Pruzansky said: “Let me be absolutely clear: The ‘savages’ referred to in ‘Dealing with Savages’ were terrorists such as those who perpetrated the horrific massacre in Har Nof last week.
“But I certainly did not, nor did I intend to, call all Arabs or Muslims ‘savages,’ nor do I, obviously, believe that to be so,” he said. “I condemn those who support those savages, and I include in their number those who aid them, assist them and even — as happened last week — those who raucously celebrated the dismemberment of four rabbis and the death of the Druze police officer.”
However, Pruzansky said, “to extrapolate from that sentiment and apply it to all Arabs or all Muslims is repugnant to me, and a complete distortion of what I wrote and intended to write. To the extent that my words could be misinterpreted, I take full responsibility and regret the lack of clarity.”
Pruzansky’s original blog post was in reaction to an attack in West Jerusalem last week in which two terrorists armed with knives and guns burst into a synagogue and massacred four orthodox men as they prayed. Three of the men were rabbis and all four were dual American-Israeli citizens. Both attackers and an Israeli officer were killed in a subsequent firefight.
In his original blog post, which Pruzansky said he had deleted because of “unspecified threats,” he had written that Arabs “must be made to feel that that they have no future in the land of Israel — no national future and no individual future.” And he wrote that anyone throwing a stone at a Jew “should be shot — with real bullets,” adding that “rubber bullets and tear gas should be sold to the Amish.”
The rabbi said he was starting with “a single premise: that there is a war for the land of Israel that is being waged, and the Arabs who dwell in the land of Israel are the enemy in that war and must be vanquished.”
He had also called for the removal of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, saying “the mosque and the dome can be uplifted intact and reset in Saudi Arabia, Syria or wherever it is wanted.”
However, at one point in his essay, Pruzanky also said: “Of course, those who wish to stay and be peaceful, acknowledging the sovereignty of the Jewish people in the land of Israel, are welcome to stay.”
Wow! somebody ate their Wheaties today! More power to him.
Pruzansky is a guy I could support...a clear eyed observer.
Rabbi Meir Kahane said much the same. After so many years and much suffering many are coming to the same conclusions
How does one Demonize a Death Cult....accuse them of thoughtful compassionate behavior???
Islam is evil.
Apparently, the murder of four saintly rabbis by Islamic terrorists yelling allahu akbar has made no impression on the Orthodox establishment.
Its sad.
I say give him a gun and several thousand rounds of ammunition, and send him over there himself. That should do the trick.
Problem is, the PA is essentially Hamas these days—very dangerous to all. They’re loose cannons, even in the eyes of several neighboring nations that don’t agree with Israel on everything.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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