Religious Abuse News - It's Not Even Just Christians Who Abuse Minors.

Campers throw coloured chalk into the air during an event at URJ Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. A recent report was released discussing reports of sexual misconduct over the last 50 years around the nation.

Source: Religion News Service

Reform movement publishes extensive report on sexual misconduct in its youth programs

Another investigation into the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by a religious organization, and another sorry tale of facilitation and coverup.

This time it’s not the usual Christian organization such as the Catholic, Anglican or Baptist Churches in which such abuses are now almost accepted as routine, scarcely raising an eyebrow, but this time it is a Jewish organization - The Union for Reform Judaism. The investigation was conducted by the New York law firm Debevoise & Plimpton and is published in full^[PDF] on the organization's website. The report comes with a warning that some portions of the report are sensitive and graphic and is not intended for children.

Religious Hypocrisy News - Child Abuse Widespread in Most UK Religions

Inquiry report finds child sexual abuse in most major UK religions | IICSA Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

As though to prove my point that religions provide excuses for people who need excuses, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has concluded that child sexual abuse was fequent in most major uK religions, and that the normal response to allegations was to defend the organization at the expense of their victims.

In a report released yesterday, they say:

Child sexual abuse has been found in most major UK religions… with some found to have no child protection policies in place at all.

The ‘Child protection in religious organisations and settings’ report examined evidence received from 38 religious organisations with a presence in England and Wales, with the figures provided to the Inquiry about known prevalence of child sexual abuse unlikely to reflect the full picture.

Religious organisations play a central and even dominant role in the lives of millions of children in England and Wales. The report highlights the blatant hypocrisy and moral failing of religions purporting to teach right from wrong and yet failing to prevent or respond to child sexual abuse.

Covidiot News - Campaign to Boycott Jewish Newspapers for Telling the Truth

Stamford Hill campaign to boycott Jewish News for exposing lockdown criminality | Jewish News

America is far from being the only country where religious fundamentalists are being obstructive over measures to control the coronavirus pandemic currently killing millions, and putting the public at risk rather than be deprived of their assumed privilege to do what they want, when, where and how they want, without regard for the health and welfare of others.

Readers may recall my article of a few days ago about the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Charedi community that was routinely breaking the Covid-19 lockdown regulations by holding clandestine mass weddings with 300+ guests, some of whom were known to have tested coronavirus positive, in a local girls' school in Stamford Hill, London. That story had been broken by Jewish News and prompted prominent Jewish barrister, Daniel Greenberg, to condemn the organisers in blunt terms with:

Those who have attended illicit weddings under lockdown represent a self-indulgent sect that should be disowned by the rest of the Jewish world...

But the reality is that this is just a new emergence of something that many of us have known known or suspected for some time, and which now perhaps needs to be articulated clearly and publicly: much of the lifestyle for many Charedi communities is completely incompatible with the fundamental principles of Judaism...

It is time for the rest of the Jewish community to disown those individuals publicly and allow them to go their own mad and dangerous way, and turn to the task of publicly representing a more balanced approach to Jewish practice as being the real continuation of the Jewish heritage in all meaningful ways.

Religious Fundamentalism - A Threat to Health and Safety

Police outside the wedding at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls High School last week

Government gives final warning over illegal Jewish weddings | Jewish News

The ultra-Orthodox Jewish Charedi community in Stamford Hill, London, have been warned to stop holding mass gatherings at weddings at the Yesodey Hatorah school during the present coronavirus emergency lockdown, or face the consequences, following a wedding at which a reported 150 guests were present.

This warning was given by the Faith Minister, Lord Stephen Greenhalgh at an emergency meeting with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, Charedi charity Interlink and the Jewish Leadership Council. The meeting was attended by the Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, the head of the police in the local area and senior Jewish figures.

The family that organised the event have been fined £10,000. Those who helped organise it, including the Yesoday Hatorah Girls School, are currently under police investigation.

According to Jewish News, this was but one of 50+ such ultra-Orthodox Jewish weddings, some with over 300 guests to be held since the lockdown was imposed. According to this report, there have been:

• 50+ strictly-Orthodox weddings across London during lockdown.
• Lookouts set to raise the alarm and money set aside to pay fines.
• Bride at one Stamford Hill wedding was 'Covid positive'.
• Police 'not doing enough' to prevent acts of lawlessness.
• Further simchas[weddings with mass attendance] held since last weeks wedding scandal.

WATCH 📽 // Wedding? What Wedding? Police given Simcha runaround. Video evidence emerges of police being allegedly misled about an illegal simcha on the premises. pic.twitter.com/GHyBOmemXL

— Jewish News (@JewishNewsUK) January 28, 2021

THE ALLEGATIONS

A source intimately involved in the Orthodox wedding scene, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “These illegal weddings have been going on for 10 months. We’re not talking about one or two. We are talking multiple weddings every day. All have 150-200 guests. At one wedding the bride was Covid-positive.”

THE VENUES

There are five venues that are used regularly, several sources confirmed – “anything that has a hall”. One is the taxpayer-funded Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School in Stamford Hill. “It’s the one that was caught,” said one person.

The school’s long-time principal, Rabbi Avroham Pinter, died from Covid-19 last spring. The new principal is his son, Chaim, who became a director of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in July last year.

Another is Belz Hall at 98 Clapton Common. There, two floors below ground, is a new, purpose-built banqueting space for simchas of up to 350 people.


“There are up to four weddings a week there, Monday to Thursday,” another source said, in a claim later corroborated by three other people.

“There are many entrances to the building, with smaller halls upstairs for Jewish studies, security guards on all the doors. They confiscate your phones as you go in so photos don’t get out. There’s literally a table with a mountain of mobiles.”

Another person familiar with the shifting set-up said: “At one point they were taking over warehouses in the countryside, warehouses in Canvey Island, trying to do it behind closed doors… I think that’s what will happen now.”

Two separate sources said there had been several large weddings at the Lismirrane Industrial Park in Elstree over the spring and summer.

Another venue cited as frequently hosting large weddings during lockdown is Ohel Yaakov Beth Hamedrash (Pshevorsk) Synagogue at 26 Lampard Grove, a synagogue associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.

Yet another venue cited as hosting lockdown simchas is Beis Ruchel D’Satmar School in Stamford Hill, an 840-pupil girls’ school that was raided by police in October for breaching number restrictions in place at the time

A Charedi source based in Stamford Hill said: “There are 20-30 venues [for weddings] in Stamford Hill, almost all tied to a community centre with [a] wedding hall, school, synagogue, mikveh, such as [the] Bobov [centre] on Egerton Road.”

THE SUPPORT INDUSTRY

As might be expected in such an insular community, there are a limited number of caterers, florists, photographers, videographers, musicians, organisers and security teams who are trusted to supply and support these large Orthodox weddings.

For instance, the same florist was quoted by five different sources as supplying flowers to big Orthodox weddings during lockdown in London and, in recent months, Bournemouth. One informed source said: “She has 85 percent of the market, at least.” The florist denied all knowledge and involvement.

Several also named a videographer as having filmed many of the weddings during lockdown, while Jewish News understands that there are three Israeli photographers who regularly fly in from Israel to take the snaps – and have done since March. One covered nine big Orthodox weddings in under four weeks.

Another photographer is reported to have contracted Covid-19 at one of the London weddings, subsequently forcing an entire El Al flight into quarantine on its return to Israel.

An Israeli involved in the set-up of weddings later said: “The mother of the chatan [groom] called me to tell me that she also had corona. She came to the wedding on Monday and she also had corona. She feels she got it at the wedding. You understand what happened in Stamford Hill now? Unbelievable. Unbelievable.”

Yet the increased risk is not leading to decreased incidence but only increased cost, with several sources telling Jewish News that some organisers of big Orthodox weddings are now asking for a £10,000 payment upfront specifically for the purpose of paying the fines if the wedding is raided by police.

THE PLAYERS

The Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (UOHC) is an umbrella body representing more than 100 strictly-Orthodox synagogues around the country. It gets up to £500,000 per year from Kedassia Supervision Ltd, which approves kosher food for suppliers and caterers. Kedassia pointedly did not deny that it provides kosher supervision for the food at these weddings – a religious requirement if food is being prepared on the premises.

The UOHC also has a close relationship to Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School. At least four board members are also governors of Yesodey. The UOHC vets prospective pupils, and its own Rabbinate is officially listed as the authority by which the school is guided. The relationship stretches beyond that, however. The UOHC says it “provides a range of facilities for the Orthodox Jewish community. These facilities include Simchas Nissuin.”

On marketing material, Simchas Nissuin is described as “a subsidised wedding scheme offered in conjunction with the UOHC”. Two venues are offered for a “total package”. One of them, Yesodey Hatorah, for £7,495. The school earns £750 for each wedding it hosts.

The lengths these ultra-Orthodox Jews have gone to in order to circumvent the coronavirus emergency laws has prompted Jewish barrister Daniel Greenberg, to make this astonishingly frank attack on the Charedi Community, in the Jewish Chronical:

Those who have attended illicit weddings under lockdown represent a self-indulgent sect that should be disowned by the rest of the Jewish world.

I have seen some surprisingly intelligent commentators support the idea that the Charedi world requires special consideration in relation to compliance with Covid-19 regulations in the UK, Israel and elsewhere, because those regulations are so challenging to their core lifestyle practices.

This is ridiculous: and offensive to everybody else whose lives also revolve around meeting people in lots of different contexts and gaining social, professional, spiritual and other support from them, and who have suffered in dignified silence for the benefit of the health of the public.

There is no reason why Charedim should have more need, or be any more entitled, to gather together than any other community. The idea that their day revolves around learning and praying adds nothing: both of those activities can be carried out alone, assisted to some extent by remote communication.

What Covid-19 has actually taught us about many members of Charedi communities is something that many of us have suspected for some time: that they have no connection whatsoever with Judaism in any meaningful sense.

As Chief Rabbi Mirvis powerfully put it in commenting on a large Charedi wedding in Stamford Hill broken up by the police for flouting Covid-19 regulations, this a staggering denial of the fundamental Jewish emphasis on health and safety. That is so much the case that it is difficult or impossible to recognise these people as practising any kind of Judaism that I recognise.

But the reality is that this is just a new emergence of something that many of us have known known or suspected for some time, and which now perhaps needs to be articulated clearly and publicly: much of the lifestyle for many Charedi communities is completely incompatible with the fundamental principles of Judaism.

He then went on to condemn a general culture of lawlessness within the Charedi community and the code of silence which facilitates it, with:

In the UK, benefit fraud appears to be endemic in parts of chareidi communities, with housing benefit in particular being manipulated through bogus shell companies and the like in order to support an otherwise unattainable lifestyle. This is incompatible with the fundamental Jewish principles of truth, yashrus (being straight) and avoiding falsehood of any kind.

And it is also inconsistent with seeking the right to coexist as a community within a decent rule of law society: as the judge said in the case of Kliers v Schmerler in 2018: "to be confronted by a plan of this nature [a purported tenancy agreement in order to obtain housing benefit] which, on the evidence, is common practice amongst esteemed and respected religious and community leaders, is one which must cause very great concern to any court seeking to administer the law and the process of justice and legal remedy in this country if not elsewhere".

Even where benefit is obtained without fraud, the Talmud emphasises the importance of people being trained to earn their own living: bringing people up to be dependent on charity is again contrary to fundamental Jewish principles.

Perhaps most important of all, an ancient talmudic concept of not handing fellow Jews over to the non-Jewish authorities, based on times and places without rule of law and with arbitrary and largely antisemitic criminal and civil authorities, has been increasingly turned into a kind of theological support for refusal to wash dirty linen in public, despite the fact that there are no effective private laundries.

It came sadly as no surprise to many of us when in 2013 the rabbinic leader of a major Charedi organisation in London was "outed" on television in secret film footage telling an alleged victim of abuse that it was forbidden to report the alleged offender to the police.

There is no foundation for this in Jewish law whatsoever, and it is based on nothing but the wish to preserve the reputation of the community at the expense of the pain and suffering of the individual. It is not surprising that there is abuse of various kinds, including child abuse and other domestic abuse, within Charedi communities, which consist of human beings: but it is not just surprising but appalling that any community should institutionally refuse to address abuse through the only effective mechanism, the criminal courts.

I admire many people who count themselves as Charedim. Some of them are deeply inspiring people. There are aspects of some Charedi lifestyles and communities that I find inspiring, although I would not want to share all of them.

And there are other aspects of Charedi life that I do not relish but to which I believe they have a protected legal right in the UK (something that has frequently arisen in my advice to Charedi communities over the years about the place of yeshivahs within the educational regulatory system, for example).

He then called upon the rest of the Jewish world to stand up and condemn a society that tolerates these abuses perpetrated by the Charedi Community (benfit fraud, child and domestic abuse and risking public health and safety):

But when the three things most publicly known about the Charedi world become benefit fraud, covering up abuse and breaking public health law, it is time for the rest of the Jewish world - including those Charedim to whom these things are abhorrent - to stand up and say clearly and loudly that any community that tolerates these three things has no connection with Jewish law or values and has become simply a self-indulgent and dangerous sect.

The biggest problem in all this is that Charedim look so very Jewish. Their obsession with the externals means that to themselves, to the outside world, and even to many other Jews, they appear to be the quintessence of Jewish life. In fact, many of them are the antithesis of fundamental Jewish principles in so many ways.

It is time for the rest of the Jewish community to disown those individuals publicly and allow them to go their own mad and dangerous way, and turn to the task of publicly representing a more balanced approach to Jewish practice as being the real continuation of the Jewish heritage in all meaningful ways.

What we have here is yet another example of religious fundamentalists living out their arrogant belief that they have a special entitlement to pick and choose which laws to obey and to disregard any that inconvenience them or interfere with their assumed right to practice their religion anyway they wish, regardless of any threat they pose to society at large and to the health and welfare of those with whom they come into contact.

In this regard, the Cheredi Jewish community of London are little different to the entitled American evangelical Christian nut-jobs and other religious fundamentalist throughout the world, who insist on holding their Sunday super-spreader events with no regard for the health and safety of their family or their local community. The coronavirus pandemic has brought the selfishness and basically antisocial nature of religious fundamentalists into sharp focus.

Religious groups have been a major obstacle in controlling the spread of this deadly plague, when we should have been able to rely on their support in the name of humanity.

If any good can come out of his terrible tragedy, we should never forget this lesson.

---

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Covidiot News - Loopy Homophobic Rabbi's Paranoid Vaccine Claims

Rabbi Daniel Asor, "Covid-19 vaccine can make you gay"

Popular rabbi warns followers COVID vaccine 'could make you gay' - www.israelhayom.com

A Jewish Rabbi, Daniel Asor, popular in Israel amongst the Orthodox Haredi community, is talking impressionable followers out of having the Covid-19 vaccine, claiming it is part of a plot to turn them gay. He is also promulgating the ludicrously nutty QAnon conspiracy theory that the vaccine is part of a plot to implant microchips in people. A plot that includes the ultra-right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, apparently!

According to this report in Israel Hayom:

In addition to purporting a false link between vaccines and homosexuality, Assur [sic] also advocates various conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, claiming, among other things, that both the virus and the vaccines are the work of a "global malicious government," comprising the Freemasons, the Illuminati, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and others, who are "trying to establish a new world order."

It's Not Just Christian Fundamentalists Who Lie to Children

Bnois Jerusalem Girls School, Amherst Park, London

Government issues notice to Jewish school which taught creationism - National Secular Society

It's not just fundamentalist Christian schools that lie to children whenever they can get away with it; Orthodox Jewish schools do it too. Despite the law forbidding faith schools from teaching creationism as science and/or history, a Jewish faith school in north London, England does just that and has now been issued with a statutory notice by the UK government.

According to the National Secular Society, the Bnois Jerusalem Girls School, Amhurst Park, in North London was found 'inadequate' in all areas in an Ofsted inspection in December 2019 and has failed to meet standards in multiple recent inspections. Ofsted is the Government agency responsible for setting and maintaining standards in education. It's scope includes all schools that receive government funding.

The case of this school flagrantly ignoring the national curriculum it is paid to teach to was brought to the attention of the education minister, Elizabeth Berridge, last June. The school was issued with the notice after inspections resumed. The notice requires the school to sumbit an improveent plan. They are then monitored more closely to ensure compliance.

Covidiots - Israel "Has Lost It"

Israeli Covid-19 Daily Cases

Source: Johns Hopkins University

Israel public health chief quits amid rise in coronavirus cases | World news | The Guardian

Being the 'Chosen Ones' has proved to be no more protection against the Covid-19 virus in Israel, than it's proving to be in Bible Belt USA. As with America's most religious states, Covid-19 cases are rising exponentially again in Israel.

The top Israeli health official, Siegal Sadetzki, has resigned in protest at the government's handling of the affair following a 'broad and swift' opening of the economy. All the gains from the original strict lockdown appear to have been lost.

Covidiots - Covid-19 is Killing Fewer Non-Believers

Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by religious group, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

Despite all the promises that God will protect the righteous from Covid-19, and the forlorn hope that somehow it was going to kill off people with whom the self-righteous fundamentalists disagree, the facts are turning out to be something very different. Covid-19 is killing more religious people than non-believers, according to figures provided by the UK Office of National statistics.

The reasons for this are many and complex and probably more related ethnicity than to religion (and incidentally a reflection of how religion tends to be inherited with ethnicity rather than something arrived at after objective analysis of the evidence) but one thing is certain: there is no evidence that a deity is using the virus to punish non-believers or to reward believers in any one religion. Jews, Muslims and Christians are no safer for their piety whereas non-believers for a number of reasons are being statistically less affected by the virus.

Covidiot News - Israeli Health Minister Gets Covid-19

Yaakov Litzman, Israeli Health Minister
"I am sure that the messiah will come by Passover and save us..."

Israeli health minister's cure for COVID-19? The Messiah - Israel News - Haaretz.com

It's sometime tempting to believe in the wackadoodle notion of Karma!

The ultra-orthodox Israeli Health Minister, Yaakov Litzman, who reportedly claimed God would protect Israel from Covid-19, and who flouted his own Health Department's advice on social distancing, announced earlier this month that he and his unfortunate wife Chava, had both tested positive for the virus. Thankfully, according to this report in The Times of Israel, they have both since made full recoveries.

Covid-19 Scam - Not Just the Christians

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky

Charity Run by Ultra-Orthodox Leader Promises Coronavirus Cure to Large Donors | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos.

It's not just the American fundamentalist Christians who have spotted a good money-making opportunity in the Covid-19 pandemic. An ultra-orthodox Jewish group in Israel has dipped its bread in the gravy bowl too. In return for a monthly payment of NIS 100 for 30 months, donors will receive a silver amulet which, it is claimed, will give protection to the household from all illnesses.

It is not clear at this time whether the protection only comes into effect after all 30 payments have been made or whether it strats with the first payment and is withdrawn if the donor defaults.

Run by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a leading Haredi Rabbi, a charity called Kupat Ha’ir (City Fund), set up with the noble aim of bringing relief to families suffering from illness, and based in the Covid-19 hotspot of B’nei Brak, has promised:

DNA Is Showing Ashkenazi Origins

Khazar Khaganate, 650–850

Ashkenazic Jews' mysterious origins unravelled by scientists thanks to ancient DNA

An item of news out today falls into three main categories I normally write about in this blog - anthropology, religion and politics.

It is news that Eran Elhaik, a lecturer in population, medical and evolutionary genomics at the University of Sheffield, UK, has written an article in the The Conversation on the origins of the Ashkenazi Jews. The Conversation describes itself as combining journalistic flair with academic rigour.

Firstly, I have to admit to some trepidation in tackling this subject, not so much because the political question of the State of Israel, it's legitimacy and its policies towards the Palestinian Arabs have been the subject of a summer-long controversy in the UK about where criticism of the Israeli government becomes antisemitic, but because of the vicious campaign of abuse I was subjected to some 25 years ago when I raised the subject of the origins of the Ashkenazim in an old CompuServe debate forum. I was accused of being a racist, a Fascist apologist, a Holocaust denier and worse, and even received veiled threats of violence.

The question I had raised was that raised by Arthur Koestler in his book The Thirteenth Tribe. Koestler had argued that the Ashkenazim were actually Turkic people from Central Asia who had settled near the Black Sea in the Early Middle Ages and had founded a state known as Khazaria, converted to Judaism, adopted Yiddish, a language with very many Low German and Slavonic words (but with few if any Hebrew words) with a Slavonic grammar. When Khazaria was overthrown and absorbed into Russia, the Ashkenazim had migrated into Eastern and Central Europe, especially Poland, Ukraine and Germany. Koestler, of German Jewish origins himself, was subjected to abuse and vilification at the time.

The reason this is a political issue with perceived overtones of antisemitism is because it questions the legitimacy of the claim by European Jews to a 'God-given' historical homeland in Palestine, from which they traditionally believe they were expelled by the Romans in or around 66 CE following the Jewish Revolt. Quite why is is perceived as racist is beyond me. One Rabbi with whom I had previously been on very friendly online terms, could not explain how suggesting that the Ashkenazim could be Turkic, not Hebrew was racist unless one assumes the Turks are inferior people - which is itself racist, and nonsensical.

The strength of feelings and emotions that colour and cloud the debate can be see in the comments to Eran Elhaik's article.

Given that background, it is interesting that this open access article in The Conversation gives considerable support to Koestler's proposition, based on genetic analysis.

...recent DNA analysis of Ashkenazic Jews – a Jewish ethnic group – revealed that their maternal line is European¹. It has also been found that their DNA only has 3% ancient ancestry² which links them with the Eastern Mediterranean (also known as the Middle East) – namely Israel, Lebanon, parts of Syria, and western Jordan. This is the part of the world Jewish people are said to have originally come from – according to the Old Testament. But 3% is a minuscule amount, and similar to what modern Europeans as a whole share with Neanderthals. So given that the genetic ancestry link is so low, Ashkenazic Jews most recent ancestors must be from elsewhere.

To understand why this is the case, we need to go back in time, to look at where these other ancestors came from. It starts in Persia (modern-day Iran) during the sixth century. This is where most of the world’s Jews were living at this time³.

The tolerance of the Persians encouraged the Jews to adopt Persian names, words, traditions, and religious practices, and climb up the social ladder gaining a monopoly on trade⁴. They also converted other people⁵ who were living along the Black Sea, to their Jewish faith. This helped to expand their global network⁶.

Among these converts were the Alans (Iranian nomadic pastoral people), Greeks, and Slavs who resided along the southern shores of the Black Sea. Upon conversion, they translated the Old Testament into Greek, built synagogues, and continued expanding the Jewish trade network.

DNA of Yiddish speakers could have originated from four ancient villages in northwest Turkey.

These Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, and the DNA of Ashkenazic Jews can be traced to “Ancient Ashkenaz”⁴ – an intersection of trade routes in eastern Turkey.

We now know that at the time these Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, they also acquired unique Asian mutations⁷ on their Y chromosome. This is where another important group of people in our story come into play – and they are called the Gok-Turks.

During the sixth century⁸, these nomadic people were ruled by a Siberian Turkic tribe called the Ashina. They were forced by the Chinese Tang Empire – who were in power in China at the time – to migrate westwards toward the Black Sea.

Thanks to their organisational and military skills, the Ashina united many tribes in this area – and a new empire called the “Khazar Khaganate” was born. Offering freedom of worship and taxing trade, these people quickly rose to power.

The Asian group of these DNA mutations⁹, found in Ashkenazic Jews, likely originated from the Ashina elite and other Khazar clans, who converted from Shamanism to Judaism. This means that the Ashina and core Khazar clans were absorbed by the Ashkenazic Jews.

It was also around this time that the Jewish elite adopted many Slavic customs. And based on my previous research, I would suggest that Yiddish was developed as a secret language to assist in trade⁴.

What happened next was that the Jewish empire began to collapse. By the tenth century, the Jews on the Black Sea migrated to Ukraine and Italy. Yiddish became the lingua franca of these Ashkenazic Jews and absorbed German words while maintaining the Slavic grammar¹⁰. And as global trade moved to the hands of the Italians, Dutch and English, the Jews were pushed aside.

What this all shows is that by using modern genetic technology – that enables scientists to track the past of modern-day people – a new appreciation for Jewish ancestry can be discovered.

It has meant a greater understanding of the journeys these people took to arrive in Europe. It has also allowed for increased knowledge as to the significant role the Ashina and the Khazar clans – from which some of the real Jewish patriarchs actually came from – played.

Eran Elhaik;
Ashkenazic Jews’ mysterious origins unravelled by scientists thanks to ancient DNA
The Conversation September 5, 2018

Copyright: © 2018 The Author
Published Open Access
Reprinted under the terms of a Creative Commons licence.

Genetic evidence is providing the definitive answer to these questions of origins, not cultural tradition and myths. Many of the facts such as the linguistic mixture of Slavonic and Low German and absence of Hebrew in Yiddish, and the distribution of the Ashkenazim (and the Sephardim) across Europe are meshing with the emerging genetic evidence of a Turkic and Persian component.

That this subject is even controversial when there is objective evidence on which to decide differences of opinion highlights the problems that arise when religion and politics enter the fray and objectivity is waved aside when it conflicts with dogma and vested interests. The argument then becomes not what is right but what is convenient and fits with a desired narrative.

References:

1. Costa, M.D., Pereira, J.B., Pala, M., Fernandes, V., Olivieri, A., Achilli, A., Perego, U.A., Rychkov, S., Naumova, O., Hatina, J., et al. (2013).
   A substantial prehistoric european ancestry amongst ashkenazi maternal lineages.
   Nature Communications 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3543
2. Das, R., Wexler, P., Pirooznia, M., & Elhaik, E. (2017).
   The origins of Ashkenaz, Ashkenazic Jews, and Yiddish.
   Frontiers in Genetics, 8 (JUN). https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2017.00087
3. Shlomo Sand, The Origin of the Jewish People, Verso, 2010 ISBN 978-1844676231
4. Elhaik, Eran; Uncovering ancient Ashkenaz – the birthplace of Yiddish speakers, The Conversation.
5. Das, R., Wexler, P., Pirooznia, M., & Elhaik, E. (2016).
   Localizing Ashkenazic Jews to primeval villages in the ancient Iranian lands of Ashkenaz.
   Genome Biology and Evolution, 8(4), 1132–1149. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evw046.
6. Rabinowitz, Louis Isaac; Jewish Merchant Adventures: A Study of the Radanites (1948).
7. Balanovsky, O., Gurianov, V., Zaporozhchenko, V., Balaganskaya, O., Urasin, V., Zhabagin, M., Grugni, V., Canada, R., Al-Zahery, N., Raveane, A., et al. (2017).
   Phylogeography of human Y-chromosome haplogroup Q3-L275 from an academic/citizen science collaboration.
   BMC Evolutionary Biology 17, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-016-0870-2
8. Golden, Peter B.; Turks and Khazars. Ashgate/Variorum, 2010
9. Rootsi, S., Behar, D.M., Järve, M., Lin, A.A., Myres, N.M., Passarelli, B., Poznik, G.D., Tzur, S., Sahakyan, H., Pathak, A.K., et al. (2013).
   Phylogenetic applications of whole y-chromosome sequences and the near eastern origin of ashkenazi levites.
   Nature Communications 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3928
10. Wexler, Paul; The Ashkenazic Jews: A Slavo-Turkic People in Search of a Jewish Identity, Slavica Publishers, 1993 ISBN: 978-0893572419

Swing A Chicken For Your Sins

Six Israeli activists wounded in protest against Yom Kippur chicken-swinging ritual | Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Ever since the Abrahamic religions invented the idea of sin, they've had to be even more inventive to provide cures for it.

For a Muslim, it's strict adherence to the rules, daily prayers, pilgrimage to Mecca and giving to charity. For a Catholic, it's confession, rituals and magic words as prescribed by the priest. For a Protestant, it's accepting Jesus and giving money to the church.

And for some ultra-conservative Jews, it's swinging a live chicken round your head the day before Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). The chicken is then killed and the meat given to charity.

Old Catholic Nuns Turn To Jews For Care

Aging Catholic Nuns Get Care at Jewish Nursing Home - ABC News

As the Catholic Church winds down in the USA, what to do with so many aging nuns is becoming a major problem. But have no fear, centuries of bigotry, persecution and racism can be cast aside when the need arises.

The aging nuns are being put into Jewish retirement homes to be looked after by the very people that they once taught others to despise and persecute. Fortunately, it seems that Jews are prepared to forgive their enemies and do into others what they would have others do unto them.

Prove There Isn't A God!

Osiris, Anubis and Horus

Despite the fact that Atheists are continually explaining that Atheism is not a belief that there are no gods but a belief that there is no evidence for any and therefore no reason to believe in any, theists continue to try to shift the burden of proof from themselves and demand we prove their particular god doesn't exist.

This is of course the tactics of the playground and the coward and depends on the infantile idea that if you can't prove a notion wrong it must be right. Curiously, in the deluded mind of the theist which seems to be capable of abandoning intellectual honesty and personal integrity in it's desperate pursuit of certainty, this only applies to their favourite god and not to fairies, pink unicorns, Harry Potter, or invisible loft hippos.

So Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and anyone else who believes in one god but not all of them, if you want to show your intellectual honesty and personal integrity, this challenge should be right up your street. Just like us Atheists there are some gods you don't believe in. Presumably, since you think Atheists should be able to prove your god isn't real, you will be able to prove the gods you don't believe in aren't real. In all honesty, if you require Atheists to prove a negative, you should be capable of doing so yourself. To believe otherwise is hypocrisy, and I don't know of any religion which believes hypocrisy is a virtue.

Wodan heals Balder's wounded horse; Emil Doepler ca. 1905

You have very many gods to choose from. Answers.com says there are almost 3000 goods which people have believed in either now or in known history. There are probably lots more we don't know about.

Since the beginning of recorded history, which is defined by the invention of writing by the Sumerians around 6000 years ago, historians have cataloged over 3700 supernatural beings, of which 2870 can be considered deities. Those numbers are probably a very conservative estimate because we have no accurate information before 4000 B.C. This means any deities worshipped by man before this period are unaccounted for.

How many gods and goddesses are there? Answers.com

Don't panic! You don't have to prove all of them don't exist. Just pick any one and prove to readers that it isn't real.

If you haven't read any history and can't think of any other gods, this link leads to all the gods you could wish for, but don't limit yourself to these. You could even make up one of your own!

We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

Just a word of warning though. Your opinions, faith, deeply-held beliefs, feelings in your 'heart', words in a book or the opinions of 'experts' don't count as evidence, nor does the fact that your parents believed in your favourite god. After all, you won't accept my opinions, my feelings, my books or the opinions of experts who agree with me, so play the game according to your rules. Produce the same evidence which proves your selected god doesn't exist that you would accept from me as proof that your god doesn't exist.

You don't believe in that god, just as I don't believe in yours, so provide the evidence you demand I should provide.

Anything else would be hypocritical.

I almost forgot: Don't try any of the fallacies listed here, or any others for that matter. They won't work on me and will only serve to expose your dishonesty.

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Are The Bible's Publishers Breaking The Law?

In England we have the Serious Crimes Act 2007 Part 2 of which came into force in 2008. Section 59 removed the Common Law offence of incitement and replaced it with the criminal offence of Encouraging or Assisting Crime defined as:

Section 44. Intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence.

Section 45. Encouraging or assisting an offence believing it will be committed.

Section 46. Encouraging or assisting offences believing one or more will be committed.

It would be astonishing if other civilized countries didn't have similar laws.

So what has this to do with the Bible?

For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

Leviticus 20:9

Incitement to commit murder.

And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Leviticus 20:10

Ditto.

And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

Leviticus 20:11

Ditto.

And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.

Leviticus 20:12

Ditto.

Oops! Another Bible Blunder

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

Jeremiah 7: 21-23

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And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire: And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar: But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

Leviticus 1:1-9

So which of these is the truth? Is the account in Leviticus 1 of God talking to Moses concerning burnt offerings, correct, or is Jeremiah right to say that God did NOT give any such command?

Or are we expected to just believe two mutually contradictory things simultaneously in order to believe that the Bible is the word of a god, and not a poorly edited and inconsistent collection of various writings of different people following different agenda at different times?

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