Denver Synagogue Vandalized(Passion of Christ Blamed)

9News .com (Denver) ^ | 3/6/2004 4:44:35 PM | Paola Farer

[woofie]

DENVER - A Denver synagogue was damaged with graffiti overnight. Swastikas were drawn on the synagogue on south Monaco Parkway.

The graffiti was in the doorway and across a sign. There were also several symbols drawn on the back wall of the building.

A holocaust survivor who saw the graffiti says it was almost too much to take. There was no official response available from the congregation Saturday, although several people who called 9NEWS to report the damage said that they blamed Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ” for rekindling anti-Semitism.

Members of the congregation will gather Sunday morning to start cleaning off the graffiti.

[Yaelle]

Seems like there is always a holocaust survivor around to quote. Do they store one in every synagogue, just in case they're needed?

You make me sick. You make me cry. I am absolutely, horribly offended by your post and I have NEVER been offended by a post on Free Republic before. I am the most tolerant, Christian-loving Jew, who probably agrees with you on nearly every political subject, and you have just made me so deeply hurt I wish I never logged onto this thread.

You are cruel and lack basic sympathy.

[malakhi]

I would say that there is a lot more anti-Christian sentiment out there than anti-Jewish... Funny, you don't here the Christians whining.

Have you read these threads???

[Cold Heat]

I wouldn't expect you to see the movie the same way a Jew would.

You are putting words in the mouths of many Jews who liked the movie.

Have you seen it?

[woofie]

Interesting case




ADL must pay in Evergreen case
Denounced as anti-Semites, pair is owed millions

By Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News
March 2, 2004

The Anti-Defamation League must pay a former Evergreen couple it denounced as anti-Semites more than $10 million, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review the lawsuit.

"This is the end of the case," said Bruce DeBoskey, director of the league's Mountain States Region, which includes Colorado and Wyoming.


Denver attorney Jay Horowitz, who won the case for William and Dorothy "Dee" Quigley, said the couple was "extraordinarily delighted" when he told them the news Monday.

The widely publicized court battle drew friend-of-the-court briefs from a variety of national advocacy organizations worried that the danger of huge legal liabilities threatened their ability to work for good causes.

"There were 15 other human rights organizations that filed briefs in support of our legal position," DeBoskey said.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not explain why it declined to review the case.

"We're all disappointed," DeBoskey said. "But as a practical matter, through the entire process, we have continued to serve the community."

"We do remain committed to our fight against hatred and racism and bigotry and extremism and anti-Semitism," he said.

The dispute that raged for nearly a decade through the federal courts began when the Quigleys' dog fought with a dog owned by their Jewish neighbors, Mitchell and Candice Aronson, in their upscale foothills neighborhood.

The Aronsons called the ADL in 1994, after overhearing the Quigleys' telephone remarks on their Radio Shack police scanner. They said they heard the Quigleys discuss a campaign to drive them from the neighborhood with Nazi scare tactics, including tossing lampshades and soap on their lawn, putting pictures of Holocaust ovens on their house and dousing one of their children with flammable liquid.

The Aronsons were advised to record the conversations. Based on the recordings, they sued the Quigleys in federal court, Jefferson County prosecutors charged the Quigleys with hate crimes, and Saul Rosenthal, then the ADL's regional director, denounced the Quigleys as anti-Semites in a news conference.

The Quigleys got death threats and hate mail.

Later, everyone found out that the recordings became illegal just five days after they began, when President Clinton signed a new wiretap restriction into federal law.

The hate charges were dropped, and Jefferson County paid the Quigleys $75,000 after prosecutors concluded Dee Quigley's remarks to a friend were only in jest. Two lawyers on the ADL's volunteer board, who had advised the Aronsons, paid the Quigleys $350,000 to settle a lawsuit.

The Quigleys and Aronsons dropped their legal attacks on one another, and neither family paid the other anything. The Aronsons divorced. The Quigleys moved to another state.

But a federal jury found in 2000, after a four-week trial before Denver U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham, that the Anti-Defamation League had defamed the Quigleys. The jury awarded them $10.5 million.

The ADL appealed, and the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the jury's award stood.

DeBoskey said the long legal proceedings allowed the ADL to set aside funds to pay the judgment if necessary. Some the money will come from insurance and some will come from other sources, including donors, but none will come from the ADL's operating budget, DeBoskey said.

Horowitz estimated the judgment now totals more than $12.5 million, once interest is included.

He said the Quigleys suffered greatly because they were branded as anti-Semites. William Quigley's career in the motion picture industry was virtually destroyed, Horowitz said.

"They cannot express how life-altering the ADL's actions have been," Horowitz said.

The Quigleys' children were affected because "they grew up during some of the most trying circumstances of this case," he said.

At one point, the family hired bodyguards. They received a box of dog feces in the mail. Their own Catholic priest criticized them from the pulpit.

[oyez]

There are those who have a certain jealousy about Christians. They don't quite "get it" about the faith so in order to compensate they unload anything negative they can think of to bring a superior feeling to them selves..

[woofie]

dittos..it was out of line

[DestroytheDemocrats]

To All:

In my post #95 where I said, "That's those Jews for you" I meant to indicate that it was sarcasm directed at the poster.

[babygene]

" Would that be because we are better than they are?"

Don't be silly, of course not. More mature maybe, more grown up maybe... But not better. Christ himself was a Jew.

[DestroytheDemocrats]

"There are those who have a certain jealousy about Christians. They don't quite "get it" about the faith so in order to compensate they unload anything negative they can think of to bring a superior feeling to them selves.."

Oh do shut up.

[patriciaruth]

I wouldn't expect you to see the movie the same way a Jew would.

This film was made by a Christian for other Christians, and it was taken in the most part from our Holy Scriptures, which we consider to be the Word of God.

No Christian would do anything anti-Semitic after viewing this film. But the hype may bring in non-Christians who may not understand our reasons for doing/seeing this film--to do mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa....

It is very personal for us, and as I would never trash your religion, which I once considered converting to, I ask you to respect our religion, and let us do our confessions by experiencing this movie.

I don't recommend it for anyone not a Christian.

[malakhi]

You are putting words in the mouths of many Jews who liked the movie.

No I'm not. Its obvious that Jews and Christians would view this movie differently. It would not have the theological significance to me that it would to a Christian.

Have you seen it?

I have not. The religious director from my synagogue did see it this past week, and I had a chance to talk with him about the film after Shabbat services on Friday. His take on the movie was much different than Antoninus's.

[malakhi]

There are those who have a certain jealousy about Christians. They don't quite "get it" about the faith so in order to compensate they unload anything negative they can think of to bring a superior feeling to them selves..

Oh please. Could you be more condescending?

[3catsanadog]

We've also seen, here and there, false charges of racism. A black family gets racist graffiti on their homes and vandalism. After some good investigation, it turns out it is the blacks who are doing the damage so they can get some victim bennies of some form or another and keep the racial fires burning.

[babygene]

" Have you read these threads???" Yes, of course. But if you want to hear Christian bashing, just tune in the network news...

[woofie]

You know all this acrimony can be traced back to Mel Gibson's movie

(Im joking ...Im joking) ....we all need to lighten up

[oyez]

Could you be more condescending?

And you?

[ApplegateRanch]

There's not the slightest thing anti-Semitic about it

I'm not surprised that is your perspective. I wouldn't expect you to see the movie the same way a Jew would.

Not all Jews are Semites...but some Palestinians are.:)

Antisemitism is a meaningless term, though still a great button-pusher.

[af_vet_1981]

A black family gets racist graffiti on their homes and vandalism. After some good investigation, it turns out it is the blacks who are doing the damage so they can get some victim bennies of some form or another and keep the racial fires burning.

That can happen. It is very important in an isolated instance to get the evidence and find the perps before jumping to any conclusions. The act was a crime. There is at least one perp. We simply don't know at this point who it was. Historical evidence in this country would probably point to teenagers.

[Cold Heat]

I hope that this film somehow bridges these things.

Until recently, I had no idea that they existed.

In other words, I knew that Jews faced antisemitic feelings. A terrible thing, but largely one of the past in this country.(not so in Europe)

I did not know that the feeling was mutual.

[3catsanadog]

are they sure it wasn't an SUV that did it?

No, it's Bush's fault.