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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Voices Against Assimilation

This is great to see:
Hundreds of people demonstrated in Bat Yam's Yoseftal Street on Monday evening. The demonstration, entitled "We Want a Jewish Bat Yam", was initiated by the city's residents and the Lehava organization. They were backed by activists from all over Israel who came out to protest what was termed "the Arab takeover of mixed cities."
Posters that accompanied the protest called to "keep Bat Yam Jewish," proclaimed "Jewish girls are for the Jewish people" and stated "Jews - let's win!". According to the posters, Arabs have been buying and renting apartments from Jews in Bat Yam, and taking Jewish girlfriends.

In recent years, thousands of Jewish girls have married Arab men who take them to their villages where they are then usually abused, activists claimed.

One demonstrator said that when Jews organized and acted, they recently succeeded in stopping a similar trend in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Ze'ev.
Read the rest and see the video...

With regards to this, I would like to emphasize something which I mentioned in my previous post:
In fact, a Jewish women that has sexual relations with a gentile is considered a zonah, and has disqualified herself from being able to marry a Cohen (Maimonides, Laws of Forbidden Relations, Ch. 18).

In addition, please read Rabbi Eliezer Melamed's article "A Courageous Rabbinate":
Question: Can we, the Jewish people, who lived in the Diaspora for generations and suffered from harsh discrimination, possibly agree with a position that discriminates the Arabs? How can rabbis have written not to rent apartments to Arabs? Is that how we would have wanted to be treated while living in the Diaspora? Aren't we commanded in the Torah: "When a proselyte comes to live in your land, do not hurt his feelings. The foreigner who becomes a proselyte must be exactly like one who is native born among you. You shall love him as [you love] yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am G-d your Lord" (Leviticus 19:33-34)?

Answer: There is no similarity between the situation of the Jews in the Diaspora and that of the Arabs living in Israel. First of all, for most of the time spent in the Diaspora, Jews insisted on living in the framework of independent, Jewish communities which were isolated from the non-Jews amongst whom they lived. Secondly, the Jews living in the Diaspora never threatened the nation amongst whom they lived. They never made territorial or political claims or supported the enemies of the country they lived in. On the contrary, they greatly appreciated their host country, prayed for its welfare and scrupulously obeyed its laws, according to the halacha of 'dina d'malchuta dina' (the law of the land is the binding law). Thirdly, the Jews never demanded that their host countries grant them funds for living, education, and health. If the Jews weren't doubly taxed, they praised and applauded their government for its great kindness, for indeed, many times the Jews had to pay twice as much in taxes. Fourthly, in every land in which they lived, the Jews made a tremendous contribution to the prosperity of their host country. They invested their energies and talents in the development of the economy, agriculture, science, and culture. They did all this because of an ethical approach to life which encourages one to work for the betterment of the world.
Read the rest!

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