Brad Hirschfield: November 2008 Archives

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivki were murdered, along with three other hostages, at the Chabad community center which they ran in Mumbai. And as much as I am hurting over their deaths, I am more devastated by the scope of the terror (over 160 dead and more than 350 wounded) than the fact that among them was a rabbi.

Even the fact that some appear to have been targeted because they were Jews does not make me so profoundly angry and sad. What is going on in Mumbai is bigger than that. And while I appreciate that fellow-blogger, Rod Dreher, focuses our attention on those victims who were probably killed because of their religion, that is not the point upon which to focus today. Nor is any broadside about Islamic Terrorism. Why? I'll tell you.

Even if such analyses are correct, and in my opinion they are less correct than those who publish them believe them to be, and more correct than those who need to hear them will admit. But that's the point. What good is accomplished with harangues that can not be meaningfully heard by those who may need to hear them most? And if they can not be hear they are nothing more than angry posturing - hardly what is needed at this moment.

As I wrote yesterday:

Now is not the time to justify, politic, or rationalize anything. But too many people seem not to know that. English newspapers repeatedly remind readers that the Rabbi is Israeli, as if that fact somehow mitigates the horror of his fate or lends some justification to the terrorists' actions. Jihad Watch managed to post a headline which "explains" the events as a "natural outgrowth" of the deep hatred that is "intrinsic" to Islam. And multiple Muslim advocacy groups have sent out press releases calling on us to pay less attention to the dead and wounded and focus instead on the "root causes" of global terror in the name of Islam. It's a real race to the bottom.

Now is the time for all of us watching these events from afar to do three things: pray for the safety of all people still involved in the Mumbai attacks, the full and speedy recovery of the injured and that all those burying their dead, find consolation in the face of their loss.

With most of the Hostages freed this morning at the Taj Hotel and over 100 dead following the terror attacks begun yesterday in Mumbai, Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg, his wife Rivki, and six others remain hostages in their community center. Upon opening my e-mail this morning, I was inundated by messages asking me if I was going to address this in Windows and Doors. So I will, even though my response may upset some of those who requested it.

I admit to an initial surge of special interest and concern in this Jewish/Rabbi angle on the story, but actually think that we need to worry more about how this episode will end for all of those affected regardless of their religious or national identity. That may sound obvious, but much of the coverage of this story uses these terrible events to further specific ideological goals in ways that prove otherwise.

English newspapers repeatedly remind readers that the Rabbi is Israeli, as if that fact somehow mitigates the horror of his fate or lends some justification to the terrorists' actions. Jihad Watch managed to post a headline which "explains" the events as a "natural outgrowth" of the deep hatred that is "intrinsic" to Islam. And multiple Muslim advocacy groups have sent out press releases calling on us to pay less attention to the dead and wounded and focus instead on the "root causes" of global terror in the name of Islam. It's a real race to the bottom.

Now is not the time to justify, politic, or rationalize anything. Now is the time for all of us watching these events from afar to do three things: pray for the safety of all people still involved in the Mumbai attacks, the full and speedy recovery of the injured and that all those burying their dead, find consolation in the face of their loss.

At the end of day, Rabbi Holtzberg, his attackers, and all the other hostages are somebody's child. And while there is no moral equivalence between the perpetrators and their victims, remembering that fact may help us all to behave a little better in the face of this tragedy. Who knows, it may even be a part of the solution to keeping them from occurring again.

Pope Benedict XVI is at it again - making fine distinctions which create gross problems. He declared to the world that "inter-religious dialogue is not possible in the strict sense of the word...that a true dialogue is not possible without putting one's faith in parenthesis."

As in previous declarations about Islam and secularism, to name just two examples, the Pope uses language that may be helpful in a philosophy seminar, but actually causes real harm to human relations around the world. And that is the generous interpretation of his remarks.

Perhaps Benedict has created a "strict definition" which precludes such conversation because his understanding of dialogue requires a level of spiritual connection/agreement between the conversants, which may not be possible for people who follow different faiths. That might be what he means when telling us that one must "put one's faith in parenthesis" in order to speak with those of other faiths. But that is an odd kind of faith which can only be present among those who share the faith.

The alternative understanding of the Pope's most recent comments is that he actually finds all other belief systems defective and their members best served by only a single outcome i.e. conversion to the Catholic faith.

Today is a good day for Justice in America. Five leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development were convicted on 108 criminal counts of supporting terrorism, money laundering and tax fraud. They funneled millions of dollars to the outlawed organization, Hamas. Today is also a good day for Justice in America because federal judge, Frederick Block, of the United States District Court in Brooklyn ruled against the government's use of ethnicity as the sole justification for detaining Egyptian Americans, Tarik Farag and Amro Elmasry.

Taken together, these rulings point to a country which will make those who ignore the law, pay the full price for so doing, while protecting the rights of those who have done nothing to arouse suspicion on the part of others beyond looking or sounding different from most other Americans. That's good justice.

The claim that the Holy Land 5 were unfairly persecuted, as many of their supporters claim is truly disturbing. It demonstrates that they actually put their political views above the law. Whether people agree with the government having labeled Hamas a terrorist organization or not, these men and their foundation knew full well that it was illegal to channel funds to Hamas. The fact that they covered it up proves that.

If they wanted the law changed, they should argue for the change, not become a law unto themselves. And the argument that they were only supporting the humanitarian work of Hamas is absurd. And pretending that this was "only" or "simply" humanitarian relief wrong.

That does not mean that any of the five convicted personally support the suicide bombing, arms smuggling, or endless rocket fire on civilian target that are the hallmark of Hamas.

Does God care what size we are? According to Christine B. Whelan in this morning's USA Today, The answer is certainly not! But how can she be so certain? If there really is a God (I believe that there is) and if He/She/It geuninely cares about us (something which I also want to believe), then there is nothing outlandish about that God caring what size we are.

Having struggled with weight pretty much my entire life (have you seen my picture?), I appreciate how painful and guilt inducing this issue can be. But experiencing a measure of pain and guilt over not doing all that we can to care for the gift of the bodies we have been given is not so bad. Please note that I wrote pain or guilt, not shame.

The God in whom I believe does not love us any less or see us as any less beautiful because we may not be as healthy as we can be. And we should give ourselves the same due. We, as God, can love the lumpy bumpy bodies that we have, even if it pains us that they are not as healthy as we would like. But we should also accept a degree of responsibility for the condition of our physical bodies just as we do for our spiritual selves.

The Hebrew Bible commands it readers to "choose life" and to "guard our lives".