Jewish Week and Rabbi Hammerman Issue Apology (On opinion column about Tim Tebow)

The Lid ^ | 12/15/2011 | Jeff Dunetz

[SeekAndFind]

UPDATE-- I just received this from the Jewish Week:

We apologize for posting an Opinion column on Dec. 14 by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman entitled “My Problem With Tim Tebow,” the Denver Broncos quarterback who is an Evangelical Christian.

The column, in fact, violated our own standards calling for civility in posting comments on our website. The policy statement notes that “name calling in any form will not be tolerated, and comments that denigrate any religion or Jewish religious stream will always be rejected.”

The column was removed from our website later that day.

Rabbi Hammerman is a respected spiritual leader and longtime Jewish Week columnist whose writing over the years has been exemplary. This column, however, was more inciting than insightful, and we erred in posting it, which we deeply regret.

Repentance and forgiveness are cornerstones of all major faiths, as is the recognition that we all make mistakes. We trust that the sincerity of our remorse, as expressed by the rabbi as well, will be taken into account by those whom we offended.

The rabbi’s comment follows:

“I have spent my entire career engaged in dialogue with people of all faiths while speaking out passionately against intolerance and extremism. I have the deepest respect for those who are committed to their faith, including Mr. Tebow. I realize the way in which I attempted to make my points was clumsy and inappropriate, calling to mind the kind of intolerance and extremism my article was intended to disparage. I sincerely apologize to Mr. Tebow, his family, the Broncos and Patriots and all those whom I may have offended.”

Much has been said about Joshua Hammerman, the "Rabbi" who wrote the Tim Tebow article full of venom toward Christians, conservatives, and quite frankly people of all religions whose faith is part of their daily lives. The Rabbi, as part of the J-Street Rabbinical council is part of the George Soros team, pulled the post off his personal blog and the Newspaper it was published in, the Jewish Week pulled it from their site. (Before it was pulled I cut and pasted it here just in case)

Hammerman is not the only "culprit" in this case study in progressive bigotry. The newspaper who published the piece, The Jewish Week, is also culpable. Hammerman could not have picked a more compatible location the Tebow hit piece, the Jewish Week run by Editor/Publisher Gary Rosenblatt has a history of pushing progressive themes and candidates, hit-jobs on political conservatives, and editorializing against people of faith (including Jews).

Here a just a few examples:

• An organization called the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem was for all intents and purposes described as a bunch of right wing Orthodox and politically conservative crazies whose only purpose was to destroy any chance of a negotiated peace. This was part of the Jewish Week's efforts to disparage Orthodox Jews non progressives. As part of the organization's leadership I can attest to the fact that participating organizations ran the gamut of Jewish observance and political leanings (I myself am not Orthodox). Also the group had to be very careful not to stray from its Jerusalem mission because some of the groups felt very strongly about Israel making concessions elsewhere to achieve a two state solution.

•A few weeks later Jewish Week readers were treated to the real reason for the disparaging article as Editor-in-Chief Gary Rosenblatt proclaimed that the division of Jerusalem is inevitable and we should all just deal with it.

•To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Israel and the birth of J-street, the Jewish Week ran an Op-ed by Hannah Rosenthal, who now works in the Obama administration, Ms Rosenthals article accused the American Jewish Community and Israel of not wanting peace, and non progressives as anti-Israel:

•During the Glenn Beck/George Soros kerfuffle last year, the Jewish Week published the opinions of various radical progressive groups such as Jewish Funds For Justice and of course the ADL, but never bothered to seek out the opinion of people who weren't pushing the progressive agenda.

•As the Tea Party movement began to increase in popularity the Jewish Week wrote about how frightened rank and file Jewish Republicans were of the "extremist" Tea Party. Funny thing is they never even bothered to talk to any Jewish Republicans who were part of the Tea Party (and there are many including me).

•Most recently Editor-in-Chief Gary Rosenblatt presented one more reason for Jews to support Obama..If we don't, the President will get pissed off. You can't make this up!

I don't know if its 2,000 years of repressed Jewish guilt, or something bad happened to Jewish Week Editor-in-Chief Gary Rosenblatt when he attended Yeshiva University a school that claims to be responsible for the rabbinic ordination of more rabbis than any other school the 20th century (and all of them Orthodox).

The fact is that the Jewish Week could be much more profitable they fired all of their reporters and ran nothing but press releases from Media Matters, J Street and other progressive organizations. And the best part of it all the readers wouldn't be able to detect anything different.

During the past few days people have been legitimately criticizing Mr. Hammerman for his bigoted column, allow me to suggest that some of your "venom" be saved for the newspaper that regularly gives a platform for Hammerman-type columns--the Jewish Week.

[SeekAndFind]

More here

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A few days ago I posted an article about an anti-Christian screed written by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman. The premise of Hammerman’s article was Christians would burn mosques, bash gays and deport immigrants if Tim Tebow led the worthless Denver Donkeys to a Super Bowl victory.

No, really.

If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.

I’d like to link to the original article, but it’s been taken down, both on The Jewish Week and on Hammerman’s blog. In fact, Hammerman as deleted his entire site.

Jeff Dunetz has posted a statement from both Hammerman and The Jewish Week. First, the Rabbi’s:

“I have spent my entire career engaged in dialogue with people of all faiths while speaking out passionately against intolerance and extremism. I have the deepest respect for those who are committed to their faith, including Mr. Tebow. I realize the way in which I attempted to make my points was clumsy and inappropriate, calling to mind the kind of intolerance and extremism my article was intended to disparage. I sincerely apologize to Mr. Tebow, his family, the Broncos and Patriots and all those whom I may have offended.”

Apology accepted. That’s how we Christians roll. You can do that 489 more times, then, I’m not forgiving you for it any more.

Here’s what The Jewish Week put out:

We apologize for posting an Opinion column on Dec. 14 by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman entitled “My Problem With Tim Tebow,” the Denver Broncos quarterback who is an Evangelical Christian. The column, in fact, violated our own standards calling for civility in posting comments on our website. The policy statement notes that “name calling in any form will not be tolerated, and comments that denigrate any religion or Jewish religious stream will always be rejected.”

The column was removed from our website later that day.

Rabbi Hammerman is a respected spiritual leader and longtime Jewish Week columnist whose writing over the years has been exemplary. This column, however, was more inciting than insightful, and we erred in posting it, which we deeply regret.

Repentance and forgiveness are cornerstones of all major faiths, as is the recognition that we all make mistakes. We trust that the sincerity of our remorse, as expressed by the rabbi as well, will be taken into account by those whom we offended.

Forgiven.

Now, let’s talk about your liberal politics…

[SkyDancer]

Why don’t they think first about what they’re going to put out in public before hand? Why have to come back and say “oooopsie”. Maybe I should not have said that?

[ripley]

“Jewish Week and Rabbi Hammerman Issue Apology”

Maybe they can longer get away with hiding behind the skirts of Jews of faith. (And maybe Jews of faith are tired of their hiding behind them.)

IMHO

[reagandemocrat]

Soros = busted.

Never would have happened had Jeff not screen-captured the offensive article.

Nice work.

[B.O. Plenty]

,,,,".....and all those whom I may have offended.”

....can't these people caught in a bigoted rant just issue a blanket apology to everybody???....even the ones who happen to agree with his rant....maybe they are offended that he apologized to the offended....

[Godwin1]

A bigoted intolerant publication and a bigoted intolerant rabbi. He wrote what is in his heart. The editors welcomed it and only withdrew it after a firestorm of criticism. Despicable.

[Old Sarge]

Apology? Not good enough.

Jewish Week needs to have its assets seized and taken to court for wilfull libel.

This racist rabbi bigot must have HIS name tarred and feathered as well.

[Responsibility2nd]

The Rabbi is still a bigot. And still a liberal.

But you know who would be the first to sincerely accept his apology and not think twice?

Tim Tebow.

[hinckley buzzard]

What has been said, cannot be unsaid. This "teacher" of the jews obviously spoke from the heart. And the editors who endorsed him by publishing his spew did likewise. If this puke is indeed a "respected spiritual leader" of the jews then jews are nothing to me.

Next time they need ten million American Christians to save them from extinction, I'm afraid I will have better things to risk my life for than what my father did in WWII.

[cloudmountain]

Why don’t they think first about what they’re going to put out in public before hand? Why have to come back and say “oooopsie”. Maybe I should not have said that?

It's that age-old human malady called "Foot-in-mouth."
I do it occasionally. An occasional lapse is to be expected as long as we have BIG MOUTHS.

Remember Ralph Kramden on THE HONEYMOONERS? At the end sometimes he would say: I HAVE A BIG MOUTH!!!
I always had to smile at that. At least he, and others who are ADULTS, admit fault, apologize and try not to do it again. Foot-in-mouth...you've never heard of it? :o):o)