By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Aug 8, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET
The American gold medalist explains to the New York Post that her choice of “Hava Nagila” for her floor routine was in dedication to the Munich 11 who lost their lives at the 1972 Olympics and for whom a moment of silence was denied by the International Olympic Committee:
“I can only imagine how painful it must be for the families and close personal friends of the victims.”
But by refusing to hit the pause button for a measly 60 seconds, Rogge and other organizers have committed a sin nearly as grave as denying there was ever a Holocaust.
Were it not for young Aly and her wedding dance/bat mitzvah accompaniment, the Munich dead may have never gotten their due.
“I am Jewish, that’s why I wanted that floor music,’’ Raisman said.
“I wanted something the crowd could clap to, especially being here in London.
“It makes it even much more if the audience is going through everything with you. That was really cool and fun to hear the audience clapping.’’
Raisman’s eyes opened as wide as the gold medal she would win when the judges announced her score of 15.600 points after her mistake-free routine.
Her top finish was the first by an American woman in the Olympic floor exercise, and the win gave Raisman her second gold medal. Raisman admitted the 40th anniversary of the Munich Games made her “hora” gold even more special.
“That was the best floor performance I’ve ever done, and to do it for the Olympics is like a dream,’’ Raisman said.
Raisman did not go to the Games with the star power of her teammate Gabrielle Douglas or the résumé of world champion Jordyn Wieber,
But those who know her best said she works as hard as anyone, and, more importantly, her heart is in the right place.
‘’I’m so happy for Aly,” Douglas, the first African-American to win the all-around title, said after the floor competition. “She deserves to be up on that podium.’’
“She is a focused person,” said Rabbi Keith Stern, spiritual leader of Temple Beth Avodah in Newton Centre, Mass., where the Raisman family are members.
“She’s very proud and upfront about being Jewish. Neither she nor her family explicitly sought to send a message. But it shows how very integrated her Jewish heritage is in everything that she does.”
Stern said he remembers picking up young Aly from preschool, and never imagined she’d be some sort of megastar.
He described the US team captain as a big sister-type who is a mother hen to all her younger siblings.
“I can’t wait to have her at the temple to talk about her experience,” he said.
“I know her sister’s bat mitzvah is coming up, so maybe I’ll catch up with her then.”
Stern said that he, too, was stunned by the IOC’s refusal to hold a moment of silence.
“I’m happy to hear any other explanation,” Stern said. “But short of some racist grudge somebody is holding, I can’t figure out why it would be a terrible thing to do.”
Stern said he watched the routine and was blown away. Even so, he said he is more proud of Raisman’s gold mettle than he is of the new jewelry around her neck.
“I have to say, the statement just warmed me to the very depths of my being,” Stern said.
He compared it to the iconic black-power, raised-fist protest made by track stars John Carlos and Tommie Smith on the medal stand at the 1968 Mexico City Games.
“They’re not going to forget that,” the rabbi said. “I certainly won’t.”
By Bradford Queen, Managing Editor, on Wed Aug 8, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
The Politics of Faith
Missouri voters passed a ‘Right to Pray’ amendment to the state’s constitution by an overwhelming margin Tuesday. The amendment affirms the right of Missourians to pray in public. Opponents say they will challenge the amendment in court. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Catholic nuns in the U.S. may disaffiliate from the Vatican. The Catholic Church recently issued a report saying the Leadership Conference of Women Religious — the largest body of U.S. nuns — was not focused enough on abortion and traditional marriage. The Conference holds its annual meeting in St. Louis this week. [The Washington Post]
U.S. Sikhs had been on high alert attacks even before the shooting at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin last week. The Christian Science Monitor discusses the fears many Sikhs have in practicing their religion openly in the U.S. [The Christian Science Monitor]
After becoming a refuge to European Jews in the mid-20th century, Alaska is still home to more than 6,000 Jews who call themselves the “Frozen Chosen.” [The Jewish Daily Forward]
Memo to the mayors – hold your horses! I’m just as outraged as you are by Dan Cathy’s comments about same-sex marriage, and I certainly chose NOT to patronize one of his establishments on Wednesday (which wasn’t a hard choice, because I live in the San Francisco area, and there aren’t any Chick-Fil-A restaurants around here since everyone knows liberals only eat endive and tofu). But threatening to bar him from opening an outlet in your cities is an over-reaction, turning him into a free speech martyr and distracting us from the deeper issue here.
Mr. Cathy’s comments aren’t “just a citizen expressing an opinion” – his company has spent millions promoting the view that our country should be operated along conservative Christian beliefs, and claiming we’re going to hell in a handbasket because we disagree with the divine definition of marriage. First, there’s the hypocrisy of the biblical directives Cathy & his cohorts selectively ignore. I remember learning in Hebrew school about how the Torah included laws like getting stoned to death for mixing crops or disrespecting parents – who says G-d isn’t just as pissed off at us for doing any of those things as for redefining marriage?
But more importantly, wasn’t this a country founded on religious tolerance and freedom? When did we become a solely Christian nation, and why wasn’t I consulted? I thought it was just in December that I felt like an alien because I didn’t have inflated reindeer on my lawn, and people accused me of killing Christmas because I actually would prefer to hear ‘happy holidays’. Now guys like Dan Cathy are telling me I’m a pariah year-round – and it’s getting to me!
By Bradford Queen, Managing Editor, on Wed Aug 1, 2012 at 12:30 PM ET
The Politics of Faith
“Chick-fil-A appreciation day”: Today, gay marriage opponents line-up to support the Christian restaurant chain’s CEO’s stance on the issue. [CNN]
The Obama administration’s policy requiring employers to provide birth control in health insurance coverage takes effect today, a policy decried by many religious organizations. [The Washington Post]
A group of black pastors are starting a campaign to make African-Americans rethink their support of President Obama for his positive stance on gay marriage. [CNN]
Snoop Dogg has changed his name and has found religion in the Rastafari movement. [Newsday]
A GOP group will spend more than $6 million to target Jewish voters in the fall election. [The Washington Post]
By Bradford Queen, Managing Editor, on Wed Jul 25, 2012 at 12:30 PM ET
Monsignor William Lynn, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to 3-6 years in prison for covering up sex claims against Roman Catholic priests. [NYT]
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the West is “asleep” to the narrative of Islamist extremism. He discussed his Christian faith with The Daily Telegraph. [Telegraph]
Mike Huckabee announced ‘Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day’ in the wake of the company’s founder’s public denouncement of gay marriage. [The Washington Post]
An appeals court ruled against a Wisconsin school system that held its graduations in a church. The Court said the district unlawfully endorsed a religion. [The Christian Post]
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Jul 19, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
For those in the RP Nation following the narrow defeat of an Israel divestment effort within the Presbyterian Church (USA), here is the front line perspective of one of the principal leaders of the effort to clock divestment, Ethan Felson, the vice president and general counsel for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs:
The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s 220th General Assembly had just cast its first vote on an anti-Israel divestment resolution when the spin began. Major news outlets and activists on each side could hardly wait for the debate to finish the next day before declaring winners and losers.
This was my fourth GA and one thing I’ve learned is that reality lies somewhere between the headlines. Here are some reality checks on the GA.
* The defeat of divestment was narrow — and it wasn’t.
The widely reported 333-331 vote earlier this month was on a motion to substitute a positive investment minority report for the main divestment resolution. This means the very first time the plenary had a chance, it shot down divestment. It was close, but in subsequent votes the positive approach passed by a much wider margin — and additional pro-divestment motions continued to fail by increasingly wider margins. The Positive Investment substitute — passed 369-290 — calls for financial support for projects that include collaboration among Christians, Jews and Muslims and that will help develop viable Palestinian infrastructure, job creation and economic development.
* The PCUSA is different from other churches – and it isn’t.
Think of the most intense anti-Israel delegitimizers you’ve ever seen, heard or read. They run the show at the PCUSA.
Before the GA, the PCUSA’s coordinator of social witness policy defended divestment, attacked positive investment and said an Israel-apartheid comparison is unavoidable. An advisory committee called as its resource person before the GA’s Middle East committee a Jewish representative from an anti-Zionist group that actively favors boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). Even the church’s executive council backed divestment.
But there were also several major Presbyteries, seminary presidents, former national moderators and other key leaders who opposed divestment. One group, Presbyterians for Middle East Peace, successfully advocated for a balanced approach that was clearly more in keeping with the mind-set of Presbyterians.
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Jul 6, 2012 at 9:15 AM ET
In a vote that has been closely scrutinized and anticipated here at The Recovering Politician — and discussed in detail in this column I published at The Huffington Post last week — the Presbyterian Church (USA) rejected a misguided proposal to divest from companies that do business with Israel. The razor thin margin 333-331 proves the adage that every vote does indeed matter.
A deeply divided Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Thursday became the latest American church to shy away from divesting in companies that supply equipment to Israel to enforce its control in the occupied territories, after a passionate debate that stretched late into the evening and a vote that was nearly a tie.
The decision not to divest, the culmination of an eight-year process, was watched intensely by Christians, Jews and Palestinians in the United States and in the Middle East. It is likely to bring a sigh of relief to Jewish groups in Israel and the United States that lobbied Presbyterians against divestment, and to dismay the international movement known as B.D.S. — Boycott, Divest and Sanctions — which advocates using economic leverage to pressure Israel to return occupied land to the Palestinians.
By a vote of 333 to 331, with two abstentions, the church’s General Assembly voted at its biennial meeting in Pittsburgh to toss out the divestment measure and replace it with a resolution to encourage “positive investment” in the occupied territories. The results were so close that, when posted electronically in front of the convention, they evoked a collective gasp. After two and a half hours of passionate debate, the replacement resolution to invest in the territories passed more easily, 369 to 290, with eight abstentions.
Presbyterians in favor of divestment said that their church could not in good conscience hold stock in companies that they said perpetuate an unjust occupation and undermine the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But opponents said that divestment would unfairly vilify Israel, and accomplish little but further polarization.
This is great news for justice, peace, and the historic alliance among Jews and Presbyterians. The close vote, however, confirms that much work needs to be done in educating American liberals about the extraordinary liberal democracy that is Israel.
