How the Jewish Community can Forgive Delmon Young

The power of teshuva can turn this hurtful incident into a one that teaches compassion and love.

Delmon should keep swinging the bat in a Tigers uniform because Judaism believes in the God of second chances. Judaism instructs us that we must give everyone the opportunity to make amends. In fact, I have a few suggestions that can make Delmon one of the most popular players in the Jewish community today.

When Young was arrested on April 27th, and charged with misdemeanor aggravated harassment and assault, Motown, the baseball world, and the Jewish community cringed in disbelief. Some called this the end of his short career.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who is happens to be Jewish, suspended Young for seven days without pay. With a $6.75 million dollar salary, that added up to $258,000 in lost wages. The Tigers were prohibited from further disciplinary action because of baseball and the players’ association labor agreement.

Young issued an apology to his friends, family, team and the community, and confessed that the whole incident was related to an alcohol problem that he will now address.

In a press conference before Saturday’s game after the end of his suspension, Young said, “I made a lapse in judgment, but I can tell you that I am not an anti-Semitic. I wasn’t raised that way, came from a good family, and we weren’t taught any of that, especially growing up in a diverse area.”

In fact it seems that the hardest part of the ordeal for Young is being branded an anti-Semite.”Me branded being racist or bigoted, that’s not me,” he said. “I have a lot of diverse friends; I live in a diverse area; that’s just not me or my character.”

And while there is part of me and I am sure many other Jewish fans, who, every time that Delmon Young is going to approach the plate for the foreseeable future, will be reminded what happened, that doesn’t have to be the case.

The entire essence of the Jewish High Holidays challenges us to seek out those that we have wronged and ask forgiveness. We ask God for forgiveness for what we did against God, and we ask friends and family to forgive us for how we let them down or hurt them in the previous year.

The Days of Awe compel us to believe that everyone deserves a second chance. Does this forgiveness extend to Delmon Young? You bet.

While the hurt in me thinks that Young and his number should be ejected from baseball, on further contemplation, that would be wrong.

Rather, let’s give Young a chance to learn from his mistakes, become a spokesperson for tolerance and most importantly, let him become an ally of the Jewish community.

The power of teshuva can turn this hurtful incident into a one that teaches compassion and love.

Young knows that one apology can’t convince people that he’s not an anti-Semite and said, “I know it’s going to take a while. I can’t smooth this thing over and convince anyone after one speech, but just go out there every day and be a positive influence.”

Delmon, if you sincerely make amends now you will be forgiven in an instant.

Here are some of my suggestions:

• Immediately make a donation to the Michigan Museum of the Holocaust – where children learn about the importance of tolerance
• Offer to visit Jewish institutions in the off-season – letting the Jewish community get to see who you really are off the field
• Make a visit to Israel – your faith will be inspired and it will give you more strength to fight your addiction
• Take some classes on Judaism

Delmon, I am sure that you can become not only a friend to the Jewish community, but that you can become a shining example of the power of teshuva, the power of the individual to transcend their shortcomings and become great.

We as a Jewish community will forgive you, and make sure that you are remembered as a great friend of the Jewish people.

_________

Rabbi Yonah is an Oxford educated rabbi who loves music, Israel and runs Jewlicious. You can follow him on twitter.com/rabbiyonah 

 

Protecting Hate at UCI

From the Los Angeles The Jewish Journal

May 20, 2009
Protecting Hate at UC Irvine

by Neelie Genya Milstein

http://www.jewishjournal.com/ opinion/article/protecting_hate_at_uc_irvine_20090520/

Imagine walking on a campus past buildings where you have taken numerous classes with many peers, past the Student Center where you have eaten lunch many times, past all the familiar places where you have felt safe and accepted. Now imagine walking by those same places and seeing blood-stained flags of a nation that is part of your identity. Posters with “anti-hate = anti-Israel” and “Stop Israeli Genocide” parade in front of you. Displays surround you with images of cruel IDF soldiers, dead Gazans, Anne Frank — a symbol of Jewish tragedy — wearing a kaffiyeh, and of Israel’s barrier to protect Jews from terrorism, labeled an “apartheid wall.” It is as if everything Israel and Jews ever stood for is racism, bloodshed and war. You are a Jew; a proud Jew, a proud supporter of Israel. Now you are seen as nothing but a racist murderer on your own campus.

When I first walked onto campus and saw the Israeli flag blowing in the wind, ripped and blood-stained, I was filled with anger, sadness, and helplessness. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, “These are lies. This is disgusting!” I didn’t scream, but I trembled with rage at the Muslim Student Union (MSU), and even more, at the UCI administration for standing by as their students are humiliated, chewed up and spit out, and depicted almost as animals.

Anyone who knows Israel’s history knows of its challenges, triumphs and mistakes. I refuse to accept vicious propaganda that demonizes Israel. I refuse to accept desecration of cherished symbols of Jewish identity. I recognize that freedom of speech entails freedom to preach hate, lies and prejudice, but I am repulsed. The MSU depicts the suffering caused by Israel’s recent war with Hamas, but it never acknowledges the reasons for Israel’s actions, the suffering of Israelis, Hamas’ goal to destroy Israel, or the tactics Hamas used, such as human shields, that raised the civilian toll. I, along with Israelis and the Jewish world, grieve for the innocent civilians who died. Why doesn’t the MSU show equal concern for Jewish fears and suffering? Could they share Hamas’ view that whenever an Israeli man, woman, or child is killed, it should be cause for celebration and passing out candy?

I have been told to censor myself so that potential students are not afraid to come to UCI, but I have had enough censorship. With truth comes power, not fear. The MSU’s hate is dangerous. I have been in Jewish private schools since second grade and I have always been taught that hatred is wrong. I know that Israelis are taught not to hate Arabs, and that Jewish national identity demands equal protection for Muslim religious identity. I know that UCI’s Jewish students never even thought of retaliating with a weeklong campaign of “The World Without Mecca” or “Palestinian Nationalism=Islamic Terrorism and Racism.” Then I came to UCI, and found that my fear of hatred was more than justified. At UCI, hate is a yearly event that lasts for a week. It isn’t just any hatred. It is hatred directed at me, my friends, my community and my history.

After my three years at UCI, you would think I would be desensitized, and could just ignore the MSU’s “apartheid wall.” But I stand for more than that. I am standing up for all the Jews in past generations who did their best to uphold our religion and protect our people. I am standing up for all who understand and support the State of Israel as one of the most extraordinary achievements of the Jewish people.

I am not asking the UCI administration to censor the hate speech. I am asking them to denounce this style of rhetoric and displays just as they would denounce campaigns for white supremacy, sexism, or Islamophobia. I am asking them to be as fearful of countenancing hatred as I was taught to be, not just because of its present impact, but because of what it bodes for the future.

Neelie Genya Milstein is a student at UC Irvine.

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UC Intifadah 2009: Blood Libel, Lies & Racism

Latest photos from the 2009 UC Irvine Intifada – A Jihad of lies and propaganda, intimidation, and anti-Jewish racism.

Intifada Continues at UCI

The USA campus with an active Jihad / Intifada against Israel, Jews, Western-style democracy continues. This teaser-trailer was just released. There are some similarities to the style of the Jihad Films on YouTube that promote terror and violence. What was just one week is now over two weeks long. The Jewish community in Irvine, the Federation seem unwilling to do much to stop it. The University, and Chancellor Drake in particular, has enabled it. This groups needs to be banned from campus. That will do a lot to stop the Intifida at UCI. I coined that phrase in 2007, which then turned up on their t-shirts in 2008.

LA Times: Jewish Ashkenazi Genetic Mutations Created Super-Human Race of Rich Nerds

Super Jew Nerd Einstein used his defective genes to help the world.

Jews have higher IQ’s because they were money lenders in Europe with big families, have defective genes that give them an unfair IQ advantage over their European counterparts, and have a propensity for nasty genetic diseases. Our genetic superiority makes us inferior. Yes!

In the article “Is Jewish Legacy Inscribed on Genes”, the author Karen Kaplan made little effort to deliver actual news. Rather, she let herself and the LA Times launch a mainstream, antisemitic canard that Jews’ intellectualism is racially and genetically based. In other words, we Jews can’t help being rich nerds. This so-called group evolutionary biology, loved, adored, and worshiped by the Anti-Semites, holds that Jews are racially different and capable of great evil because of their superior IQ’s over regular White Europeans. The subjects of this story are the latest pseudo-scientists that use their PhD’s in other fields to pursue this Jewish genetic racist theory. They are white, non-Jewish Christian men, with something akin to gene envy. Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy, and Henry Harpending’s research paper Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence is porn for anti-Semites.

Jews first came to Europe in the 8th and 9th centuries, long before they were known for intellectual prowess, Cochran and Harpending say. They worked as traders before taking financial jobs made available by Christians who were forbidden by the Church from charging interest. By 1100, local registries listed most Ashkenazi Jews as lenders.

That set the stage for natural selection to do its work, Cochran and Harpending theorized. Jews didn’t intermarry, keeping their gene pool closed. They were subjected to periodic persecution, which kept the population from outgrowing its professional niche.

According to the theory, the smartest individuals made the most money, and the wealthiest families had the most surviving children. The genes of the most intelligent Jews spread most, slowly raising the average IQ of the entire group.

Over 40 generations — roughly 1,000 years — an increase of just 0.3 points per generation would have added up to a cumulative advantage of 12 points, Cochran and Harpending theorized. Some of their other models projected a benefit of 16 to 20 IQ points.

Certified, grade “A”, genuine Bull Sh*t. Oh sorry, that isn’t very eloquent.

Jews came to Europe almost one thousand years earlier. They were traders, artisans, and did all kinds of jobs. There were smart Jews, strong Jews, dumb Jews, persecuted Jews, converted Jews, hapless and lucky Jews. But you cannot build a unified theory of racism against Jews looking at the facts, so they make up facts, and history. The authors of the study already believed that Jews were racially inferior/superior. Then they built a theory with flimsy and non-existent evidence to back it up. They use some legitimate research to make themselves look good to the untrained eye.

You can read it here.

I looked over their bibliography and as I had suspected, they use Kevin McDonald, a disgraced, Anti-Semitic, Long Beach State professor, as a source. His book A People That Shall Dwell Alone is a antisemitic best-seller of sorts, that laid the groundwork for his racist ideology. The Department of Anthropology, at the University of Utah, where they are based, is the leading positive review of McDonald’s Book. McDonald asserts that a suite of traits that he attributes to Jews, including higher-than-average verbal intelligence and ethnocentricism, have eugenically evolved to enhance the ability of Jews to out-compete non-Jews for resources while undermining the power and self-confidence of the white majorities in Europe and America. Source.

Jews aren’t smarter or dumber. Our cultures value literacy, learning and intellectually curiosity. Sadly, the author, and the LA Times don’t.

Feel free to use your Jewish or Jew-friendly Genes to write a few love letters to the editors, publishers, the owners, and the University of Utah.

And now a word from our friend and teacher, Rav Shmuel – his video “Protocols” has been viewed over 100,000 times and counting:

Task Force will continue to monitor A/S at UCI

The task force that I helped to create has decided to continue after last year’s report, citing the continuation of anti-Semitic activity at the UCI campus.  Despite heavy national and local criticism, the administration refuses to clamp down on the MSU.

Here is the press release from the Task Force.

Huntington Beach, CA – September 19, 2008 – The Orange County Independent Task Force on anti-Semitism will continue to monitor fresh allegations of ongoing anti-Semitic activity at The University of California, Irvine (UCI).  The Task Force consists of Jewish and non-Jewish members of the community, and includes current and former faculty members, religious and lay community leaders.

On February 12, 2008, the Independent Task Force completed its year long investigation at UCI.  Over 80 hours of interviews, as well as, documents, written complaints and numerous visits to the campus were used in the compilation of the subsequent Report and Recommendations.
The complete 34 page report can be found at:
http://octaskforce.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/orange-county-task-force-report-on-anti-semitism-at-uci.pdf
Over the past several months, the Task Force has continued to receive disturbing reports including the following:

•    Anti-Semitic programs sponsored by MSU have continued, with guest speakers ratcheting up anti-Semitic hate speech.

•    On March 30, 2008, twenty current and former Jewish and non-Jewish UCI students issued a press release expressing (in part) deep concern “…about the anti-Semitism at UCI that has been frequently couched as false and hateful attacks on Israel. We do not believe that UCI Chancellor Michael Drake has exercised his responsibility as an educator and university leader in response to the anti-Semitism…”

Norman Finkelstein Awareness Month

May is coming, and it’s not bringing flowers — its bringing the delusional yet dangerous Storming Norman Finkelstein to a college campus near you. As part of the national Muslim Student Speakers circuit for a while, he always crawls out from his rock in time for May.

Now you may remember that we chimed in during the debate on whether he should get ordained by DePaul and given a real full time job. I offered to teach Norman Hebrew, since he freely admitted that he does not speak Hebrew, nor Arabic. I mentioned that mastery of one or more Semitic languages that are an integral part of the regional conflict would help his chances of getting tenure. He never contacted me for the free lessons and was denied tenure.

We have published too many posts on this nutty professor. Yet, his staying power and his hypocrisy just shout out “blog me!”

Here are some of his upcoming performances:

Brown University— April 15
Boston College — April 16
Grinnell College — April 21 (Passover edition)
University of Southern Maine — April 29
University of Montreal and University of Ottawa — May 3
University of Toronto — May 4
University of Arizona — May 5
University of California, Irvine — May 7
The Evergreen State College, WA — May 8
New College of Florida — May 13

I counted nearly 30 colleges and universities on his published schedule in the US, UK, and Canada from January – May 2008. In other words, since being let go from DePaul he has catapulted to a rarefied status amongst Muslim Students. He is the token Jew, who along side Neturei Karta, say whatever they pay them to say. His performances condemning Israel are being heard by tens of thousands of impressionable young Americans who do not have the requisite knowledge to realize they are being duped. Finkelsteins lectures are often assigned for extra credit or even mandatory by multiple departments, meaning his “lectures” are always well attended.