Kristalnacht
For those of you who slept through history classes, Krisalnacht, the night of broken glass, was the Nazi initiated burning and looting of 1,000 Jewish synagogs, the destruction of 7,000 Jewish businesses, the killing of nearly 100 Jews outright, the imprisonment in concentration camps of some 30,000 Jews - during which imprisonment some 2,000 were killed, including those who were beaten to death. The German authorities did nothing to stop the violence. The Nazis then stole Jewish property to fund their party. That was November 9th and 10th, 1938.
And then to add insult to injury, the government penalized the Jews for the event, and taxed them (call it a fine if you prefer) by taking an additional 20% of Jewish property. The Kristalnacht violence was precipitated by the pretext of revenge for a 17 year old Polish Jew shooting a Nazi official in Paris over forced deportations from Germany.
A reporter for Mother Jones broke this story, covered it thoroughly (read it here), and continues to post updates:
Update (11/8/13): After this story published, the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute removed references to George W. Bush's scheduled appearance from its website. But Freddy Ford, a spokesman for the former president, told Mother Jones on Friday afternoon that Bush's plans "haven't changed," and he will appear at the event.Just as the religious right 'nuts' are cranking up their faux War on Christmas (aka War on Christians) in order to assert some form of domination and pre-eminence over the holidays of other religions, and to intrude their holiday unrelentingly on those who are secular, be it atheist, or agnostic, we also have this abomination: the conversion of Jews in order to advance extremist, far-right Christian faux prophecy, while teaching Jews killed Jesus (inaccurate) and that they will burn in hell if they do not convert.
Messianic Judaism is a weird, largely American fundamentalist creation that seeks to convert Jews in order to bring about the end of the world. It is part of the apocalyptic end days extremism associated with contriving Armageddon followed by some form of the Rapture and the 2nd coming, and the emergence of a literal anti-Christ. The obsession with this 'final great war' is directly linked to the militant politics of the right - they want to start that war.
Salvation in most forms of Messianic Judaism is achieved only through acceptance of Jesus as one's savior.[20] It is believed that all sin has been atoned for by Jesus' death and resurrection. Any Jewish laws or customs that are followed are cultural and do not contribute to salvation.[10] Belief in the messiahship and divinity of Jesus, which Messianic Judaism generally shares, is viewed by many Christian denominations[21] and Jewish religious movements[22] as a defining distinction between Christianity and Judaism.[28] Mainstream Christian groups usually accept Messianic Judaism as a form of Christianity.[21]Some adherents of Messianic Judaism are ethnically Jewish,[2][21] and many of them argue that the movement is a sect of Judaism.[29] Jewish organizations, and the Supreme Court of Israel in cases related to the Law of Return, have rejected this claim, and instead consider Messianic Judaism to be a form of Christianity.[22][30] From 2003 to 2007, the movement grew from 150 Messianic houses of worship in the United States to as many as 438, with over 100 in Israel and more worldwide; congregations are often affiliated with larger Messianic organizations or alliances.[31][32] In 2008, the movement was reported to have between 6,000 and 15,000 members in Israel[33] and 250,000 in the United States.[34]Raise your hand and wave it wildly if you know who they think the antichrist is (Hagee among others, thinks the Roman Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon):
As Reuters noted in their article on the commemoration of Kristallnacht that there is a close relationship between Islamophobia, which we see driving the religious right, and Anti-Semitism.
While governments carry out their tasks of remembrance in a dutiful and sometimes heartfelt way, Jewish groups warn against complacency among the general population, citing resurgent anti-Semitism in Europe and newer concerns about Islamophobia.There are people, like this minister of a MEGA-church, in the video below, who are obsessed with dominating American politics to advance their religious agenda. It is a bad agenda, and they should be nowhere near anything related to the control of the government, because they believe that it is for the good of everyone that they impose THEIR beliefs, and ONLY THEIR beliefs, on everyone, compelling them and coercing them if necessary. These people are not merely hateful, but they are dangerous to U.S. governmental policy.
In a report published on Friday by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, over half of 5,847 Jews surveyed in eight EU countries said they had heard or seen someone claim that the Holocaust was a myth or had been exaggerated.
New York Rabbi Marc Schneier, himself the descendant of Viennese Jews, has spent years working to build bridges with the Muslim community and he urged solidarity with other minorities during a visit to Vienna this week.
"Had there been these alliances 75 years ago, it would have been a very, very different story," he told Reuters ahead of a Kristallnacht remembrance event at the Austrian parliament. "It's about fighting for the other."
As with the extreme, the radical religious right, and their homophobic positions, where they CLAIM to love gays while fundamentally denigrating them as abominations, the right apparently sincerely believes they are offering everyone else a gift of gold. To those on the receiving end of that gift, it is a smelly steaming stinking turd badly daubed with the cheapest gold paint, a deep and profound insult.
This is not ONLY a correlation between this one preacher and 'Duh-b'ya', this is the same old same old from our own Michele Bachmann who is obsessed with the end times, Sarah Palin, who advocates this stuff. We see it as well from Ted Cruz and his father, a birther and who is one of these same kind of preachers. We see it from southern Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee the past Governor of Arkansas, and we see it from politicians like Rick Perry, current Governor of Texas. Let's not leave out former Senator Rick Santorum, or former speaker of the House, the Nut Gingrich, who has dabbled with these groups.
I have a deep, deep objection to sloppy scholarship and factual inaccuracy, whether science, economics, history, the arts, or religion. This is false information, sloppy scholarship - false scholarship - driving a hateful political agenda, regardless of the depth of sincerity on the part of these true believers.
It is worth noting here, as context, that the narrator Edward Asner is of Russian Jewish ancestry, and was raised an orthodox Jew.
Remember the note left by the mass-shooter at LAX airport? The "New World Order" was his explanation for shooting people.