Posted on 12/24/2001 4:49:53 PM PST by dlt
BEIT SHEMESH (December 25) - The organization that administers Orot school in Beit Shemesh issued an apology yesterday for publicly burning a copy of the New Testament a student received from Christian missionaries.
"Everybody knows we made a mistake," said Jordana Klein, spokeswoman for Sha'alei Torah. "We wouldn't do it again. We don't think it's the right thing to do."
The book-burning took place in the school courtyard the week before Hanukka, after a teacher in the boys' school found that one of his sixth-grade students had brought in a Hebrew copy of the New Testament.
The student received it from local missionaries who, according to Klein, have been active in proselytizing Beit Shemesh children.
"The teacher said: 'God sent it and He gave us the privilege, and we'll be able to burn the New Testament," said Ariel Lesnick, 11, who is in the class.
The teacher consulted with the principal, Rabbi Yair Bachar, said Klein. After receiving approval, the teacher - whose name Klein refused to divulge - took his class outside.
Then, Lesnick said, "We took a few sticks and we burnt it." The teacher emphasized that the book-burning was an anti-missionary activity and not an anti-Christian one, Lesnick said.
After receiving calls from angry parents, Bachar reconsidered the decision, which Klein described as "too hasty." He consulted rabbinic authorities on the issue and decided to appoint Rabbi David Spector - rabbi of the Givat Sharet neighborhood of Beit Shemesh - as a permanent rabbinic decision-maker for the school.
Spector ruled that missionary material should be burned, but it is the sole responsibility of the owner to burn it and the burning should take place in private.
"It was appropriate to burn the New Testament in private," wrote Spector in his ruling. He cited traditional and modern rabbis, including Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who wrote that he had burned missionary texts, which he called "books of incitement and brainwashing." Such burning is permissible even if the texts include the name of God, Spector said.
The teacher said that if missionary material were found in the school again, it would be thrown into the garbage rather than publicly burned, said Lesnick.
The Education Ministry was not aware of the incident, said spokeswoman Orit Reuveni.
"In principle, the ministry condemns book-burning as an educational act," she said. "We are not aware of this incident, but we will investigate the matter in depth."
Wayne Firestone, director of the Anti-Defamation League here, said the apology is a positive reaction to the school's "inappropriate" decision.
"The issue of conversion obviously is a sensitive one, and school officials are entitled to make requirements to try to protect their students from inappropriate materials entering the school," he said.
"At the same time, the symbolic and actual imagery of burning any books is really an inappropriate reaction to any offensive material. We're encouraged to hear that the school has issued an apology, and we hope that from the apology, they can send a better message to their own students about tolerance of other religions."
Since the burning, Bachar has addressed teachers, parents, and students - particularly the sixth-grade class - about the issue. He emphasized that the school is not against Christians but against Christian attempts to convert Jews, said Klein. The school is also planning programs to increase tolerance, she said.
The student who brought the New Testament in is not the only one missionaries have targeted. After the book-burning, one of the other students in the class said missionaries came to his home and hung a crucifix behind the mezuza, said Lesnick. The family told the missionary they didn't want the crucifix and returned it, he said.
"We obviously have a missionary problem," said Klein. "We weren't even aware of how big a problem it is in our school."
The students that missionaries approach are generally among the native Israelis and immigrants who make up about 40 percent of the student body and tend to live in old Beit Shemesh, said Klein. That section is poorer than the newer section populated mostly by Anglos, who comprise 60 percent of the student body.
The Anglo-Israeli divide may have contributed to a difference in the approach to burning the New Testament. Lesnick, whose family immigrated from New Jersey four years ago, saw that distinction among the boys in his class. "The Israelis thought it was the right thing to do, but for the Americans, you're used to seeing [non-Jews] every day, and you don't do that to somebody that's just a little different than you," he said.
His father, Marc, also noted the difference nationality may have made in the decision. The teacher, he said, is an Israeli who has never left the country. But as an American, he said, "This is not the type of education I want my kids to have. In America, they let you practice your religion, you let them practice their religion, and you kind of coexist."
Book-burning may also invoke different images for Anglos than for Israelis. "The idea of burning in general in our minds has to do with Kristallnacht and the KKK and so on," he said.
But once he brought the issue to the attention of the school, said Marc Lesnick, it "very quickly took the matter really seriously and dealt with it properly afterward."
Lesnick found out about the burning when Ariel came home from school. "My son got home from school that night, and he actually said to me, 'Dad, you know what we did today? Well, we burned the New Testament.' I said, 'You're joking,'" said Lesnick.
He discussed it with the teacher, and a few days later Bachar came to his home to talk about the incident. Lesnick is glad that they have told him they would "definitely not do this again."
Rev. Ray Lockhart, director of the Jerusalem-based Israel Trust of the Anglican Church, said burning the New Testament so publicly was "going over the top somewhat." Lockhart, whose organization focuses on ministry to the Jews, added that it's preferable to get a signed statement from parents before giving Christian scriptures to a minor.
"Clearly no Jewish person would want to see the Tanah being burnt, and would feel that whoever did it, it was an affront to their beliefs," he said.
But the school's apology, said Lockhart, mitigates the offense. "I think it shows that it's sometimes good to have second thoughts, and to recognize that we can all make mistakes in the way we make a response off the cuff without really thinking through all the implications."
No Middle Eastern bazaar trader can be more chosen than me.
It wasn't organized by foreign $$$ and mullahs as it is now.
I should ask all the Jews I've known in Russia, whether they are circumsized and HOW they managed to get that. LOL!
Now you are being stupid.. Being able to go to someone's house who does it, and having an official in the city's main hospital who does it are 2 different things.
There wouldn't be a regular flight from Israel to Bryansk, would there be? Since you are being slow, there is a large Jewish community in Novosibirsk and it's not "still left", there is a regular flight, get it?
You have a twisted logic. Bryansk is not that big first of all to have many international flights. Is there a flight from let's say Haifa to Novosibirsk? Jerusalem to Novosibirsk? Tel-Aviv to Okhotsk?
Ask those Jews in Novosibirsk, what they think about the idea of living in Tashkent.
How would they know? They never lived there.. What do you think of living in Luxumburg?
Odessa Mama? Sure. Odessa was famous for a lot of things. Humour, feisty girls, etc. Nothing funny about that story btw.. He was truly an evil person.. Not just a criminal who was out there to get some $$$.. He was truly sadistic.. I just called up my friend who went to my school, sent her the link, you should've heard her reaction :). Comes out that some kid punched her in the face in jr HS, and Nathan beat him up for that... What a gentleman ;). Thank G-d he is off the streets though. That P.....' guy whose name I am not going to mention. Anyway, his 2 friends followed some kid from school and robbed his apartment. Came out that the guy's grandfather was some top guy in the russian mafia. They were given one week to live New York state. From what i heard they went to Nevada. There are plenty of stories.
All that's needed to turn a peaceful and loving people in short time without any dislike for any particular group, into maraudering crowd, is $$$$ and mullahs?
ow would they know? They never lived there..
Yes indeed, how would anyone know anything without living there.
Brooklyn is Brooklyn. That's what it famous for.. being a ghetto.. Russian crime is usually insurance fraud and extortion.. Violent felonies are very rare, and are done by novie russkie. Go to the black part of town if you want to see some real action ;)
At someone's house with a rusty knife? LOL!
I am not aware of how they got it done in Novosibirsk, but I have never heard them complaining about it. Do you suppose the fact that muslims get their dicks trimmed there too played a role?
Regarding "tolerance" in Central Asia, they just don't give a shit about anything. I personally saw people playing cards for money at the frontyard of the Ministry of Education in one of the republics, with "ministers" not payig attention.
Well, maybe not rusty, but you get the drift.
I am not aware of how they got it done in Novosibirsk, but I have never heard them complaining about it. Do you suppose the fact that muslims get their dicks trimmed there too played a role?
Exactly. Thus muslims were more tolerant of Jews in those republis, then russians were. The point I was making all along.
I remember an exchange with a poster who took grace offence when I used the word "ghetto" when refering to the place where Jewish "refugees" live in San Francisco. People have no idea, LOL!
Has nothing to do with Odessa. Most of these criminals are not from Odessa, either. Just because brighton is called little Odessa, doen't mean that everyone who lives there is from Odessa, or that everyone who is a criminal lives on brighton beach. Nathan wasn't from Odessa. Growing up in Odessa has nothing to do with being a criminal or not. Check crime statistics of the soviet Odessa and Moscow, or any other major city.
…the book-burning was an anti-missionary activity and not an anti-Christian one…; "It was appropriate to burn the New Testament in private,"; The teacher said that if missionary material were found in the school again, it would be thrown into the garbage rather than publicly burned.
You mean the fact that they trimmed both Abdullah and Misha makes them more tolerant? Intolerance is trying to suppress someone else's customs, like that Jewish writer demanding the usage of politically-correct version of the date. If the customs are the same, or similar enough, it's not tolerance.
*shrug*
Ghetto is from yiddish.. but it doesn't just apply to Jews.. Brooklyn is ghetto.. You have blacks living together, latinos in a different section... Italians/Jews get a long quite well.
Ok. So would you say that Christianity is tolerant, when one of its main points is to convert everybody on the planet? Is that real tolerance?
Yeah, I'd like to see the stats, but whenever a story breaks out about "Russian" mafia, most of the time there are Jewish names. But they could be not from Odessa, LOL!
Which religion is more tolerant:
1. The one that says "We love everyone so much that we want to make sure that they are saved and have eternal life; or,
2. The one that says "Screw everyone else, we are the chosen ones, let's not tell them about our little secret."
Before everyone goes crazy, I do not think that the religion in #2 is intolerant, however it is an appropriate defense when relgion #2 calls religion #1 intolerant simply because they are trying to share salvation with everyone.
Mmm.. NAMBLA will have you know that they are doing little boys a favor, how do you respond to that?
2. The one that says "Screw everyone else, we are the chosen ones, let's not tell them about our little secret."
Unlike Christianity, Judaism doesn't differentiate between Jews and non Jews in afterlife. All you have to do is be righteous in life.
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