Friday, January 30, 2009

Does the Pope Hate the Jews?

Is it me, or does Pope Benedict have it in for Jews? I’ll let you decide. Here are the facts as I choose to understand them:

1. When he was a kid the Pope belonged to Hitler Youth. According to my research he even won a merit badge for selling more yellow stars to Jews then any other Nazi kid. True he threatened to have them shot if they didn’t buy his stars, but, hey, the kid’s got moxie.

2. The Pope defends the sainthood of Pope Pius XII who Jews believe could have done more to stop the Nazi genocide against Jews. To his credit Pope Pius did consider withholding communion from Adolph Hitler until he found out Hitler was pro-life. He settled instead for writing his opposition to the mass murder of six million Jews in his diary which the Vatican refuses to release to the public—a girl deserves her privacy.

3. The Pope brought back the old Latin mass in which Catholics pray for the conversion of Jews. Jews by the way never pray for the conversion of Catholics. The last thing we need is more overweight men wearing satin beanies. I'm told by Vatican sources that in the underside of their skull caps is printed "Barry Horowitz' Bar Mitzvah."

4. The Pope has welcomed a noted Holocaust denier back into the fold of Catholic Bishops. This anti-Semitic Bishop, Richard Williamson, believes that the Nazis never ran gas chambers and at the most murdered 300,000 Jews and not the 6,000,000,000 as most nonNazi Catholics believe. Further he believes these Jews died in a bratwurst-eating contest held by Hitler in honor of the Jewish holy day of Purim. Gas killed them but it was internal and gastronomic, and not piped in to gas chambers. And, speaking of chambers, Bishop Williamson denial of same has nothing to do with the fact that he hates Jews (after all we killed his God, who wouldn’t hate us?), and everything to do with his being British.

When Brits speak of chambers they are referring to the chambers of Parliament. When he says the Nazis had no gas chambers he is referring to the fact that the Nazis did not have a British style of government where gaseous politicians fill chambers with idle yelling and odd gutter sounds.

As regards the Bishop’s insistence that the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis is 1/2000th of the number recognized by all scholars who are neither Nazis nor Iranians, the fact is Bishop Williamson suffers from a rare numerological disorder that causes him to see everything as 1/2000th the size of what it really is. This is something he was born with and he probably has no idea he suffers from this disorder.

A recent diagnostic test performed on the Bishop proves this. Vatican scientists had Bishop Williamson count 2000 wafers used in the Catholic Mass. He counted all two thousand but when asked how many there were he reported the total as just one. He counted them several times and each time insisted that there was only one wafer. You can actually check this out for yourself: There are 600,000 members of the Bishop Williamson’s Society of Saint Pius X (no relation to Malcolm). Write Bishop Williamson a letter, and ask him how many members he has, and he will insist it is 300. He can’t help himself; there is something wrong with his brain.

So, is Pope Benedict anti-Jew? No, I don’t think so. He is just pro-Catholic. Asking the Pope to care about Jews and the feelings of Jews and the future of anti-Semitism is like asking the CEO of Coke to care about the success of Pepsi. Its all about market share and competition. Of course people get hurt, but you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and if by “few” you mean six million and if by “eggs” you mean Jews, well it’s still an omelet and that’s what matters.

11 comments:

dtedac said...

Rabbi Rami,

All of the points you brought up are disturbingly true. As a Catholic who makes up my own mind, I oppose the moves of B16 to ruin our relationship with the Jewish people.

David Costa

Grégoire said...

Dear Rabbi Rami:

So, is Pope Benedict anti-Jew? No, I don’t think so. He is just pro-Catholic.

Being pro-Catholic is inherently anti-Jew. It's a universalist tradition founded upon exclusivity, which by definition condemns anyone outside as either ignorant (after all, if the poor heathens knew the 'truth' they'd willingly come over to our side) or knowingly choosing the wrong.

Sad to say, but my people have historically demonized Catholics. I was taught that the Catholic Church was the literal Church of Satan in disguise. Our (Mormon) temple ceremony used to feature a Christian priest making a deal with Satan to lead people astray &c. Despite the fact that I never really believed in God or Satan, it took me years to only begin to get over my ingrained anti-Catholic bigotry. In my college days I actually met some Catholics, which helped. They turned out to be regular people who worried about all the same things I did. Who knew?

It's too bad we don't all just forget all this stuff, but I'll admit I do find it interesting to quietly study. Every day in this society is a new and fascinating journey into the study of human gullibility.

Asking the Pope to care about Jews and the feelings of Jews and the future of anti-Semitism is like asking the CEO of Coke to care about the success of Pepsi.

HA! Definitely agree with you there, and you said it much better than I ever have. Religion is simply a business. Of course, that applies to my religion, and yours too...

Maggid said...

Did you get to see the movie "Slumdog Millionaire?"

One of the parts i loved was about the disturbance between peoples of faith - Hindu - Muslim - the character explained how he happened to know what Rama held in his hand -
Some people ran through his neighborhood killing those who believed differently - and, his mother was in the crowd slaughtered - If it had not been for Allah and Rama - his mother would have been able to raise her children.

Time for us to practice One, eh?
Time to live Love . . think we can?

Thank you for the brilliant article.

Eruesso said...

I Googled "Jew Egg" (in quotes) out of sheer curiosity and got 1,950 results. I just wanted to share a bit of useless information. I hope I didn't scramble anyone's day by egg-ucating you with useless information.

Sorry for the egg jokes, I'm not a very good comedi-hen.

Rabbi Rami said...

Thanks for the comments. Let me respond briefly. First of all the egg jokes cracked me up. No yoke! And I agree with The Note that it was a brilliant article. And thank you also for the heads on Slumdog which I haven't yet seen but will.

I was troubled by dtedac's concern about Jewish-Catholic relations. The key there is not with the Pope or the Chief Rabbis of Israel. The only hope is that more Jews and Catholics will marry and become Unitarians.

As for Gregoire's comment that my religion is a business--how dare you sir! Jews don't do retail, and wholesale is not a business it is an art. But yeah Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism--all the isms are businesses. The only way to stop the madness is to stop buying what they are selling. And, if I wasn't making a living from mine, I would do just that.

Grégoire said...

As for Gregoire's comment that my religion is a business--how dare you sir! Jews don't do retail, and wholesale is not a business it is an art. But yeah Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism--all the isms are businesses. The only way to stop the madness is to stop buying what they are selling. And, if I wasn't making a living from mine, I would do just that.

Dear Comrade Rami,

Dunno how your brand of the business works, but I doubt it fleeces the flock as efficiently as mine.

http://www.lds-mormon.com/time.shtml

If it's any consolation, I've worked at a large bank for over a decade. Many find that humorous. We all sell out, life is a series of compromises, &c. After the revolution I'll nominate you to head up the people's commission on God, or something. The people need their opium...

Take Care,

G

eashtov said...

Shalom All,

Gregoire wrote: "Religion is simply a business. Of course, that applies to my religion, and yours too..."

Rabbi Rami wrote: "But yeah Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism--all the isms are businesses."

They may be and the case most certainly can be made (especially in the 20th century) that the world is better for having them than being without their
influence.

Shabbat Shalom,
Biv'racha,
Jordan

Sheldon Swartz said...

The Jews say they are correct. the Catholics say they are correct. The same goes for the Muslims, Hinds, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. There can be no peace in the world where people think only they are correct themselves.

Sheldon Swartz said...

The Jews say they are correct. the Catholics say they are correct. The same goes for the Muslims, Hinds, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. There can be no peace in the world where people think only they are correct themselves.

I stopped hating and began loving the day I gave up religion and relied on myself to love others.

It's easier not having to bash people anymore. I grew up in a Jewish home and became a Christian. Both sects have their faults and both poke fingers at one another.

Define "shicksa" and you will discover what Jews think of non-Jewish women. Christians hate Jews as well, but for other reasons.

End religion, promote love and progress.

Justin Michael Schwartzbeck said...

You speak as if it is the religions themselves that cause the violence and not the people practicing them. TheNote cited the aggressiveness in Slumdog Millionaire between the Hindus and the Muslims. Tell me this: do you really, honestly think that if these people had no religion, they would not come up with some other reason to kill each other? Has it occurred to you that a number of heavily oppressive governments in the past century made a point to root out all religion from the very beginning? Did this inevitably result in peace, love and non-violence? No, it did not. If there is no religion, you can kill people over a political ideology and say it is for the greater good. If no political ideology, you can fight over race. There are so many reasons to hate. Why stop at religion?

Do each of the religions promote violence toward neighbor? Some more than others, but for the most part, no. It is the individuals who perpetrate this. One last thing, has it occurred to you that the anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, and anti-every-other-religion bigotry that you espouse, and that you likely pass onto your children and likely emit to everyone around you, may very well one day become the source of further violence and hatred toward these groups in your "advanced secular society?" Just something to chew on.

Disagreement doesn't inevitably lead to violence. And furthermore, ending religion will not inevitably end all disagreement. You should be aware of this. The solution is not to end religion, it is to end intolerance.

howard said...

To say the pope hating jews is really stretching it.

"2. The Pope defends the sainthood of Pope Pius XII who Jews believe could have done more to stop the Nazi genocide against Jews. To his credit Pope Pius did consider withholding communion from Adolph Hitler until he found out Hitler was pro-life. He settled instead for writing his opposition to the mass murder of six million Jews in his diary which the Vatican refuses to release to the public—a girl deserves her privacy."

Pope pius xii did more for the jews than any single person before or after.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/history/world/3050-pope-pius-xii-hero-in-the-unmaking