Riverdale rabbi: Don't blame Islam for terror plot to bomb synagogues

NY DAILY NEWS ^ | May 23rd 2009 | Tanyanika Samuels and John Lauinger

[neverdem]

Schwartz for News

Rabbi Avi Weiss speaking at an earlier event in support of Israel. He told congregants at the the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale Saturday not to blame Islam for the recent plot to bomb synagogues.

In the Bronx neighborhood targeted by a terror plot, a prominent rabbi cautioned Sabbath worshippers Saturday against condemning the Muslim religion.

"We dare not condemn Islam over this one act," Rabbi Avi Weiss told congregants at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale.

Weiss' temple was not targeted in the alleged conpsiracy, but two other Riverdale synagogues were.

The four Jew-hating suspects were homegrown jailhouse converts to Islam - not hardened extremists trained in some Middle Eastern camp.

Weiss said that fact "reminds us that Islamic fundamentalism has spread here and attracted congregants."

Using an informant, authorities secretly monitored the cabal for more than a year, providing them with phony bombs and a disarmed missile.

They were busted Wednesday as they tried to carry out the plan to blow up the temples and a military plane.

Despite the success of the sting operation, Weiss said he was worried authorities are unaware of other mass murder plots.

"This cell was caught, but how many others are out there?" he questioned.

The foiled attack should send a sobering message to people of all faiths, Weiss said, noting the suspects appear to have randomly selected their targets.

"It could have been any synagogue. It could have been any temple," he said.

"We dare not forget that an attack against any house of worship is an attack against every house of worship."

[buccaneer81]

Blame Canada!

[IbJensen]

American jews are in the tank for Obomba and they're not just turning the other cheek, they're completely overlooking islam as a serious threat to their existance.

There's certainly something radically wrong with how American jews look at the current political and terrorist threats to their short-term future.

[katiekins1]

Enjoyed the link you pasted
Thank You.

[kalee]

I suppose he blames President Bush.

[eleni121]

Dear rabbi: It's a short path to this:

[andy58-in-nh]

Some people need to be mugged more than once before they start seeing a pattern.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Thanks for explaining that! <3

[Biggirl]

Some people just never learn.

[ken5050]

If he was forced to admit the truth, he couldn’t handle it, bec ause it would mean that everything that he had been taught, believed, and taught to others is pure crapola..

[sageb1]

""We dare not condemn Islam over this one act 1400 years of this BS....""

[Clintonfatigued]

Should we also not blame National Socialism for World War II?

[dervish]

I used to respect this man. Now he has gone so far left he may fall off the side ... and drag the Jewish community with him.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

To me it seems pretty arrogant for a rabbi to claim to understand Islam better than Muslims.

[Piranha]

Rabbi Weiss is an Orthodox Rabbi, not a Reform one. He also used to call his synagogue an Orthodox Synagogue for Jews of all denominations, and it was in his synagogue that I first moved to the Orthodox way of religious practice.

He was the Rabbi who led demonstrations against the Soviet Union for its persecution of the Jews, and appeared wearing his talis and blowing his shofar in front of the Russian consulate on many occasions. He was arrested at an anti-Soviet demonstration at Lincoln Center and suffered a heart attack shortly after his arrest. Following that, he and the NYPD worked out a rapprochement through which he would be peacefully arrested at future demonstrations.

He was the Rabbi who flew to Vienna to disrupt the ceremony in St. Stephen’s Cathedral where the Pope was going to give honor to ex-Nazi Kurt Waldheim, and he led demonstrations against efforts to dilute the identification of the Auschwitz concentration camp with its Jewish victims.

Rabbi Weiss always has strived to build bridges to those who disagree with him on certain issues.

He was scheduled to debate the late Rabbi Meir Kahane the night that he was assassinated by Muslim terrorists. He also had a close relationship with Sister Rose Thering, a Catholic Nun who expresseed her love for the Jewish people and her support of the State of Israel.

I think that by his statement about Islam reported in the article at the top of this thread he probably was trying to leave the door open to working with Muslims who condemn terrorism, and if I remember correctly he did have a relationship with an Italian Imam who did just that.

Years ago, when a den of radical Muslim terrorist sympathizers was uncovered at a mosque in New Jersey just over the GW Bridge, Rabbi Weiss led a demonstration there where he said, “I am not here to condemn this mosque,” trying to differentiate between the religion and its institutions, on the one hand, and the purveyors of hate, on the other. The NYTimes reported that he said “We are here to condemn this mosque,” and they didn’t correct their error for more than a year after its occurrence.

I disagreed with his decision not to condemn that mosque, and if he said that the attempted attack on synagogues in Riverdale is not linked to Muslim anti-Semitism, then I disagree with him there, too. Nevertheless, I remain convinced that Rabbi Weiss is the American Orthodox Rabbi who perhaps is the most outspoken in his support of Israel.

Rabbi Weiss also leads a yeshivah that purports to train Orthodox Rabbis, but has veered more to the left, religiously, than the Orthodox Jewish world is comfortable with. I think this is part of his effort to build bridges, and while I disagree with this approach as well I do understand that it is well-intentioned and that what he is trying to accomplish through this effort is a sense of Jewish unity that should be praised, not condemned.

[Piranha]

See my comment no. 54.

[rmlew]

I'm disappointed with Rabbi Weiss. Were I living in the area, I would probably be a member of his congregation.
Weiss is good on Israel, but lives in a liberal worldview here in NYC. And as much as they pose a threat to us as such, it is difficult for Jews to denounce another religion. We remember attacks on Judaism and claims that Jews have dual loyalties. Grievance politics blinds my community to a deadly peril.

[rmlew]

Actually, no. Weiss has been very good on Israel. He just can't deal with domestic issues and refuses to understand Islam. I can only think of a few outspoken politicized Rabbis including Aryeh Spero (look him up), Rabbi Steven Pruzansky or Teaneck, The Lookstein family at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun/Ramaz are good but not outspoken. The controversial conservatives at Yeshiva Universty, Rabbis Shachter and Mayer Schiller have been silenced. Still, before you despair, read The Jewish Press

[Ann Archy]

I would bet that if a CHRISTIAN was going to blow up a Temple, Catholics and other Christians would be blamed for sure!! A REAL Catholic or other Christian wouldn’t even THINK about blowing up a Temple though.

[dervish]

I disagree about Rabbi Weiss’ committment to Israel. It is second to his liberalism. For instance, what was his debate with the beleaguered Rabbi Kahane who needed the support of the community not debate?

I too have followed Rabbi Weiss for years. I have also followed his Yeshiva Chovevei. They were at the forefront of the Agriprocessor mess wich ended in jailing Rubashkin and bringing Somali workers to the plant. They are supporting the so called Hechsher Tzedek.

What I realize now about Rabbi Weisss, which is true of the vast majority of liberal Jews, is that it is only the Christian enemy he fears. He is busy preventing the last Holocaust which is a done deed.

I now understand how American Jews let the Holocaust happen without doing much to prevent it. The same inaction and ‘going along’ is happening now. Islam is the new Naziism. A Rabbi should not defend it or make fine distinctions. We don’t need bridges; we need howls of protest, and a different president who Rabbi Weiss and his Chovevei crew supported to the hilt.