c. 1996 Religion News Service
American Jewish Committee finds little anti-Semitism in Russia
(RNS)-Anti-Semitism in Russia is relatively low compared to hostility toward other groups, according to a survey released Tuesday (April 16) by the American Jewish Committee.
The study, entitled”Current Russian Attitudes Toward Jews and the Holocaust,”measured respondents’ attitudes toward Jews and knowledge and remembrance of the Holocaust.
Of the 1,581 people questioned during January and February, 67 percent said it”wouldn’t matter”if they had Jews as neighbors, while 17 percent said they would”prefer not”to have them as neighbors.
When asked if they would vote for an anti-Semitic political candidate, 76 percent said they would not while 5 percent said they would. Nineteen percent said they didn’t know.
Overall, other groups received a much more negative reaction than did the Jewish population, according to the survey. For example, 54 percent of the respondents indicated they would prefer not to have Chechens as neighbors. Russian military forces have been battling Chechen rebels in the breakaway republic for more than a year.
Many Russians remain ignorant about basic facts regarding the Holocaust. Only 50 percent identified Auschwitz, Dachau and Treblinka as former concentration camps, and only 21 percent knew that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Nevertheless, 78 percent said they believed that”we should keep remembrance of the extermination of the Jews strong even after the passage of time.” The margin of error on the survey is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Call to Action Nebraska plans to appeal excommunication edict
(RNS)-Members of Call to Action Nebraska, a group that supports women’s ordination to the Catholic priesthood and married Catholic priests, plans to appeal a move by the bishop of the Catholic diocese in Lincoln, Neb., to excommunicate them.
In March, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz forbade members of his southern Nebraska diocese from participating in 12 groups, including Call to Action, that he deemed”totally incompatible”with Roman Catholicism.
He set a deadline of April 15 for Catholics in his diocese to leave the organizations or be barred from Holy Communion. Those remaining as members a month later are to be excommunicated, he said.
An official of Call to Action Nebraska said Tuesday (April 16) that his group would appeal the bishop’s edict.”We’d like to work to some accommodation,”said John Krejci, co-chair of Call to Action Nebraska, according to Reuters.”We’re not at this time going to fold up and go away.” Krejci said his group has at least 40 members who live in the diocese.
Jim McShane, a member of Call to Action Nebraska’s steering committee, told Religion News Service that the group has sent a letter to the bishop seeking a meeting to discuss changing his decision.”We have asked him to withdraw, amend or suspend the penalties attached to the legislation,”McShane said.”As I understand the canons (church law), the canons say if we want recourse we have to start with the local bishop.” McShane said the bishop has received the letter and is considering the request to meet with him.
Other groups that were included in Bruskewitz’s edict include Planned Parenthood, Catholics for a Free Choice, the Hemlock Society, the Freemasons and four affiliate Masonic groups.
A National Conference of Catholic Bishops spokesman described the diocese’s action as”entirely a local decision.”
Muslim militants charged with attempted murder for cartoon protest
(RNS)-Five Muslim militants who are accused of barging into the offices of a newspaper in Kuwait that had run a cartoon they viewed as offensive have been charged with attempted murder.”General Prosecution has charged five citizens, who had entered the building of the Arab Times newspaper and threatened journalists, with attempted murder and possession of a weapon and ammunitions without a license,”said the official Kuwait News Agency, Reuters reported.
The agency said prosecutors were investigating the incident.
The five people are accused of entering the newspaper office and pointing a pistol at the news editor to protest a”Hagar the Horrible”cartoon.
The U.S. comic strip, which features an ill-mannered Viking and his eccentric family, suggested that God was apologizing to a man for not answering his prayers. The Muslim militants regarded jokes and cartoons quoting God as disrespectful to Islam.
Former social-work dean leaves Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
(RNS)-The former dean of the Carver School of Church Social Work at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., has resigned from the seminary’s faculty.
Diana R. Garland was removed from her post as dean by President R. Albert Mohler Jr. in March 1995 after disagreeing with him about the hiring of a prospective faculty member who supported women’s ordination. Garland had criticized Mohler, who opposes women serving as senior ministers, for evaluating faculty using”absolutely restrictive”criteria.
Trustees have since voted to close the Carver School in May 1997. The school is recruiting an interim dean and other faculty to satisfy accreditation standards, due to pending departures of other faculty.”Given faculty and administrative losses and the institutional constraints we are currently experiencing, the Carver School cannot continue to offer quality graduate social work education an additional year, regardless of my efforts,”Garland said in an April 15 letter to fellow faculty, according to Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Garland said she has no firm plans but is exploring several options.
Mohler, in a brief statement, acknowledged receiving notice of Garland’s resignation.”I sincerely wish for Dr. Garland success and fulfillment in future endeavors in ministry,”he said.
Mike Maus leaves National Council of Churches for American Bible Society
(RNS)-Mike Maus, the associate general secretary for communication and interpretation at the National Council of Churches, has resigned to take over the top communications post at the American Bible Society.
Maus, 54, takes over the job as director of public relations at the 180-year-old ABS on May 1.
A member of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Maus has worked 25 years in secular and religious journalism. He was a senior correspondent, chief political correspondent and news anchor at the NBC Radio Network and was an anchor of radio news programs and the religion report at CBS News Radio. He was also the host and producer of Minnesota Public Radio’s program,”Worldview.”He joined the NCC in October 1994.
Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, leader of Reform Judaism, dies at 83
(RNS)-Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, a leader of Reform Judaism and social activist, died Monday (April 15) after suffering from a brain tumor. He was 83.
Lelyveld dedicated much of his early life to improving relationships between blacks and Jews, The New York Times noted. During the civil rights movement, he helped register voters in Mississippi.
In 1946, while serving as the executive director of the Committee on Unity for Palestine of the Zionist Organization of America, he met with President Harry S. Truman to encourage U.S. recognition of Israel.
From 1958 to 1986, Lelyveld served as rabbi of Fairmount Temple, Cleveland. He also served as president of the American Jewish Congress and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He was the national director of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundations from 1948 to 1956.
He was the author of”Atheism is Dead”(1968) and”The Steadfast Stream: An Introduction to Jewish Social Values”(1995).
Kuwait apostasy case hearing postponed
(RNS)-A hearing to determine what Kuwaiti court has jurisdiction in a sensitive apostasy case involving a Kuwaiti convert from Islam to Christianity has been postponed.
A U.S. State Department official said the hearing, scheduled for Wednesday (April 17), has been rescheduled for April 24.”The United States is continuing to monitor the situation,”the official said.
The case centers on the conversion two years ago of Hussein Qamber Ali, 44 from Islam to Christianity.
Hussein, who has taken the Christian name Robert, made his conversion to Christianity public in December during a court battle with his estranged wife over whether he should be allowed to visit their two children.
After the interviews were printed, three lawyers filed a private suit against Hussein, charging him with apostasy-abandoning Islam, the majority religion in Kuwait.
At a March 6 hearing in a Shi’a branch of the Sharia (Islamic law) Family Court, Hussein argued that his case should be heard in a civil court because it involves his constitutional right to freedom of religion.
The rescheduled hearing is to determine the proper court for hearing the charges against Hussein.
Salah Alsaif, the press attache at the Kuwaiti embassy in Washington, said the embassy is confident”everything will get straightened out in the legal system.”
Quote of the day: Dolores Curran, winner of the 1996 U.S. Catholic Award.
(RNS)-Writer-lecturer Dolores Curran, an expert on families and parenting who was named winner of the 1996 U.S. Catholic Award given by the Claretian-published U.S. Catholic magazine, speaking on women and the Roman Catholic Church:”The church calls for equality in the family and justice in the workplace while it often continues to exhibit gender apartheid and an appalling lack of due process in the church workplace. We (women) deserve to know God, Jesus, and Scripture from a female as well as a male standpoint. For once, I would like to hear a homily on the hemorrhaging woman, the nagging woman, and the woman at the well from a woman’s viewpoint.”
MJP END RNS
