Comments (0)Orthodox Reject China Boycott
May 5, 2008Beijing
JTA Wire Service
Three Orthodox groups rejected calls on Jewish tourists to boycott the Beijing Olympics. The Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel of America and the National Council of Young Israel each issued statements in the days following a call this week by 185 Jewish leaders—most of them clergy—to boycott the Olympics.
That call was initiated by two prominent Orthodox rabbis in New York, Haskel Lookstein and Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, who noted that China was preparing a kosher kitchen for tourists and drew parallels to Germany’s use of the 1936 Olympics to whitewash Nazism.
“The Olympics is intended to be a unifying international event where nations from throughout the world come together for a common purpose,” Young Israel said in a statement. “While we certainly share concerns about the host country’s position on human rights, we believe that boycotting an event which is intended to promote peace and harmony is extremely counterproductive. We also believe that drawing a comparison between the 1936 Olympics in Germany and the 2008 Olympics in China is inappropriate.”
The Orthodox Union noted that “Jewish law cautions that we must act with exceptional care lest we cause more harm than good. The leadership of the Orthodox Union believes such exceptional care is demanded in these circumstances with regard to relations with the Chinese government.”
Israel has strong trade relations with China and, with the United States, scored modest successes in recent months in bringing China around to isolating Iran until it sends its suspected nuclear weapons program.
“We at Agudath Israel of America understand the motivation behind the effort,” said a statement from the fervently Orthodox umbrella group. “We too are deeply concerned about reports of human rights violations in China. We believe, however, that it is presumptuous, and perhaps even counterproductive, for a group of private citizens to urge a boycott of the Beijing Olympics—and to direct their appeal specifically at members of the Jewish community.”
The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee have also rejected the boycott idea. Other Jewish groups, including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Reform movement, have called on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony, an action that they say will have symbolic value but will not harm athletes.
Hundreds to Arrive on ‘Aliyah Day’
Some 400 new immigrants from 23 countries will arrive in Israel on “Aliyah Day.” In addition to the new immigrants, approximately 100 parents of “lone soldiers”—young adults who came to Israel without their parents and are serving in the Israeli military—will arrive with the Keshet project to spend Independence Day with their sons and daughters.
The immigrants will arrive Monday from countries including the United States, Brazil, Argentina, England, France, Honduras, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, South Africa and Turkey. They will settle in more than 50 communities throughout Israel. A ceremony marking Aliyah Day will feature officials from the sponsoring agencies, the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and the Jewish Agency.
“The State of Israel is the national homeland of Jews around the world,” said Jacob Edery, the immigration absorption minister, “and we in the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption are ready and prepared with special absorption tracks to ensure their quick and good absorption and integration.”
First Ugandan Abayudaya Rabbi to be Ordained
Gershom Sizomu will become the first officially ordained rabbi of Uganda’s Abayudaya Jews. Sizomu, like his father and grandfather before him, has served as the isolated African community’s spiritual leader. After five years of study at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of the American Jewish Universtiy in Los Angeles, he will become a Conservative rabbi May 19 when ordination ceremonies are held at Sinai Temple in that city. Some 1,000 Abayudaya Jews live in five Ugandan villages.
The community, which has been isolated from the Jewish world since its founding in 1919, based its traditions on a literal reading of the Old Testament until visits by western rabbis in the mid-1990s. Most Abayudaya Jews converted in 2004, and hundreds of the children now attend the Hadassah School, where they learn Hebrew and Jewish studies along with a general curriculum.
At the end of May, Sizomu will return with his wife and three children to Uganda to reassume leadership of the Abayudaya. Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, the dean of the Ziegler School, will travel to Uganda along with Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, the associate dean, and Rabbi Richard Camras of Shomrei Torah to install Sizomu as the community’s official rabbi. Sizomu also will receive a master’s degree in rabbinic studies from American Jewish University on May 18.
Livingstone Loses London Mayorship
Ken Livingstone, a frequent critic of Israel, was beaten in London’s mayoral election. The Conservative Party’s Boris Johnson received 53.2 percent of the vote Saturday to 46.8 for Livington, the Labor incumbent. Johnson was sworn in the same day. Livingstone has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and refused to apologize after comparing a Jewish journalist from London to a Nazi concentration camp guard.
The first person to serve as the mayor of London, a post created in 2000, Livingstone served two terms. Johnson has worked to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has been a supporter of Israel. He opposed a call last year by Britain’s University College Union to boycott Israeli colleges sand universities. During a trip to Israel in November 2004, Johnson visited Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market shortly after a suicide bombing and toured the West Bank security fence, according to the Jerusalem Post.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.