As worldwide Jewry is still reeling from Mel Gibson's stinging blockbuster film of graphic violence and gratuitous bloodshed, which portrays the Jews as conspiring, blood-thirsty Christ-killers, Rev. Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcast Network (CBN.com) has launched a stunning assault on the Jewish faith.
"It is hard to believe that anyone would be using a vast media empire to attack Judaism at a time when Jewish communities are feeling intensely vulnerable. But that's precisely what Robertson's organization is doing," says Rabbi Tovia Singer, the New York-based radio show host of Israel National Radio, who was formally thrown off New York's WMCA for being "too Jewish." Singer is also the founder of Outreach Judaism, a counter-missionary organization that fights against Christian missionaries.
A misleading article prominent on Robertson's CBN.com makes the stunning claim that the Jews manipulate their Sabbath services so that synagogue worshipers reject Jesus. The article, "The Passion According to Isaiah", claims that the weekly recitation of verses from the Prophets (haftara) in synagogues worldwide were specifically designed to avoid a passage in Isaiah that Christians interpret as a reference to Jesus.
"This is a serious charge against Judaism for which there is not a single shred of evidence…. The absurdity of this claim lies in the fact that the selections for the weekly reading of verses from the Prophets, including those from Isaiah, predate Christianity by two centuries. What motive did Jews have for preventing worshipers from converting to Christianity, when at the time the custom to read from the Prophets was created, Christianity and Jesus didn't even exist?" asks Singer.
The CBN website asserts that a portion of Isaiah, used as a front piece to Mel Gibson's The Passion, was withheld from the ears of Jewish congregants because of what "Jews might think" of the passage. In essence, the Jews are charged by the 700 Club's founder with conspiring to manipulate the synagogue service in order to prevent uneducated Jews from believing in Jesus. "In fact," states Singer, "only a very tiny portion of the Book of Prophets is even read in the synagogue."
"This preposterous claim not only slanders the Jewish faith, but is an affront to any Jewish organization that has presented Robertson any recognition," states Singer. "Most Jews do not realize that the ultimate goal of fundamentalists like Pat Robertson is a 100 percent Christian America, which is why he supports predatory cults that seek to destroy the Jewish faith. Doesn't he understand that militant Islam is a far greater danger to America than Judaism?"
"This unwelcome development is particularly shocking given that people like Robertson are zealously defending Mel Gibson's film against the charge of promoting anti-Semitism. Robinson's CBN.com is collaborating with some of the most offensive organizations dedicated to attacking the Jewish faith, while deceptively targeting vulnerable Jews for conversion to Christianity," says Rabbi Singer.
Singer is more concerned with the danger misleading and slanderous propaganda poses to the Jewish people. "If either Pat Robertson or Mel Gibson ever wish to be regarded as a friend of the Jews," declares Singer, "they must abandon their obsession with converting them."
"It is hard to believe that anyone would be using a vast media empire to attack Judaism at a time when Jewish communities are feeling intensely vulnerable. But that's precisely what Robertson's organization is doing," says Rabbi Tovia Singer, the New York-based radio show host of Israel National Radio, who was formally thrown off New York's WMCA for being "too Jewish." Singer is also the founder of Outreach Judaism, a counter-missionary organization that fights against Christian missionaries.
A misleading article prominent on Robertson's CBN.com makes the stunning claim that the Jews manipulate their Sabbath services so that synagogue worshipers reject Jesus. The article, "The Passion According to Isaiah", claims that the weekly recitation of verses from the Prophets (haftara) in synagogues worldwide were specifically designed to avoid a passage in Isaiah that Christians interpret as a reference to Jesus.
"This is a serious charge against Judaism for which there is not a single shred of evidence…. The absurdity of this claim lies in the fact that the selections for the weekly reading of verses from the Prophets, including those from Isaiah, predate Christianity by two centuries. What motive did Jews have for preventing worshipers from converting to Christianity, when at the time the custom to read from the Prophets was created, Christianity and Jesus didn't even exist?" asks Singer.
The CBN website asserts that a portion of Isaiah, used as a front piece to Mel Gibson's The Passion, was withheld from the ears of Jewish congregants because of what "Jews might think" of the passage. In essence, the Jews are charged by the 700 Club's founder with conspiring to manipulate the synagogue service in order to prevent uneducated Jews from believing in Jesus. "In fact," states Singer, "only a very tiny portion of the Book of Prophets is even read in the synagogue."
"This preposterous claim not only slanders the Jewish faith, but is an affront to any Jewish organization that has presented Robertson any recognition," states Singer. "Most Jews do not realize that the ultimate goal of fundamentalists like Pat Robertson is a 100 percent Christian America, which is why he supports predatory cults that seek to destroy the Jewish faith. Doesn't he understand that militant Islam is a far greater danger to America than Judaism?"
"This unwelcome development is particularly shocking given that people like Robertson are zealously defending Mel Gibson's film against the charge of promoting anti-Semitism. Robinson's CBN.com is collaborating with some of the most offensive organizations dedicated to attacking the Jewish faith, while deceptively targeting vulnerable Jews for conversion to Christianity," says Rabbi Singer.
Singer is more concerned with the danger misleading and slanderous propaganda poses to the Jewish people. "If either Pat Robertson or Mel Gibson ever wish to be regarded as a friend of the Jews," declares Singer, "they must abandon their obsession with converting them."
