c. 2003 Religion News Service
Survey: Jews Moving Politically to the Right
(RNS) In increasing numbers, Jews are beginning to associate themselves with the Republican Party and politically conservative views, according to a new survey.
The survey, which was conducted in November and December and released to the Jewish newspaper the Forward in mid-January, found that the younger generation of Jews is more willing than their older counterparts to consider migrating to the right.
A striking finding from the survey is that almost half of the Jews who voted for Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election said that they were uncertain whether they would do the same today.
Because the survey, which had a margin of error of 3 percent, was taken when Gore was still considered the Democratic front-runner for 2004, it was significant that only 37 percent said they would choose Gore over President Bush in 2004, compared with 71 percent who voted for Gore in 2000.
The candidacy of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., which was announced after the survey had been completed, would affect the ratio, however, with 57 percent saying they would vote for Lieberman in 2004, 14 percent for Bush and 29 uncertain.
Other findings highlighted a generation gap.
When asked, “Are you a Democrat or a Republican?” 11 percent of respondents over 65 said they were Republicans, while 26 percent of Jews under 35 said the same.
On a question about whether respondents considered themselves to be liberal or conservative, the age issue was less marked, but a gender gap emerged, with 20 percent of women saying they’re conservative as opposed to 30 percent of men.
The survey was conducted by questionnaire, with 1,386 Jews from across the United States participating. It was funded by the Jewish education department of the Jewish Agency for Israel in cooperation with the Florence G. Heller/JCCA Research Center.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
U.S. Delegation Presses Russian on Religious Freedom
MOSCOW (RNS) A top-level religious freedom delegation from Washington on Friday wrapped up a weeklong fact-finding trip to Russia by expressing concern for the plight of religious minorities in the overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian nation.
“I must say the situation is a fragile one,” said Felice D. Gaer, a human rights expert with the American Jewish Committee who heads the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. “We’re confident that our concerns have been heard and the future will be different.”
The commission, which advises the U.S. president, secretary of state and Congress on foreign religious freedom matters, spent the week in the Russian capital meeting with government officials, religious leaders and human rights activists.
“There are some issues here, but I think there are some ways to solve the problems in a peaceful way,” said Roman Catholic Bishop William Murphy, a commissioner who heads the diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island.
The three commissioners, who declined to speak about specific problems or make any conclusions, said they expect to release a report by May, after conferring in Washington with the other six members of the commission.
The last year has been one of the most difficult for religious freedom in Russia since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. At least 10 Protestant missionaries, four Catholic priests and a Catholic bishop were expelled from Russia without explanation. In December, a leaked draft government report identified Catholics as the No. 1 religious threat to Russia’s national security, outranking Protestants, Muslims and Satanists.
Just in the span of the commissioners’ visit, Russian Orthodox activists vandalized on Jan. 18, a Moscow art exhibit entitled, “Watch Out, Religion” and on Jan. 20, in the southern city of Astrakhan, two Jehovah’s Witness women were murdered in their apartment, the walls of which were painted with Orthodox crosses.
Gaer said the commission is examining complaints from religious minorities worried that ever tighter relations between the dominant Russian Orthodox Church and the government might result in discrimination.
Although the commission only has an advisory role, at least one Moscow religious freedom advocate said the its ultimate report would resonate widely in Russia.
“They don’t react to us,” said lawyer Anatoly Pchelintsev, referring to complaints of religious discrimination lodged with the Russian government. “But when they make noise in the West, people here do something.”
_ Frank Brown
Vatican Will Move Institute for Jewish Studies From Jerusalem to Rome
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican will close its institute for Jewish studies in Jerusalem and transfer the program to a similar center at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, it was announced Friday (Jan. 24).
A statement in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano made no reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but cited “increasing financial problems of several years standing” and said the move will give the Jewish studies program greater stability and visibility and permit it to offer an academic degree.
Israeli academics have criticized plans for the move, calling it potentially harmful to Catholic-Jewish relations.
The statement, signed by Cardinals Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, and Walter Kasper, president of the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, called Judeo-Christian studies an “important commitment” growing out of the Second Vatican Council.
The prelates said that they have decided to “strengthen” the Jewish studies program of the Pontifical Ratisbonne Institute in Jerusalem “by transferring it into the newly reorganized Cardinal Bea Center for Jewish Studies of the Pontifical Gregorian University,” which has carried out research in the field since 1979.
They noted that the center already cooperates with Jewish universities and institutes, including Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Philip and Muriel Barman Center for Jewish Studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
Under the reorganization, the Bea center became part of the Gregorian’s recently established Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture, which also offers programs for the study of Islam and Eastern religions.
_ Peggy Polk
National Cathedral Dean to Resign After More Than a Decade
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Very Rev. Nathan D. Baxter, dean of Washington National Cathedral, has announced he will resign his position after more than a decade.
He will remain in his post at the prominent Episcopal church until June 30. The cathedral announcement did not state Baxter’s future plans but said he intended to explore new opportunities.
“This is an ideal time for me to conclude my deanship,” said Baxter, in a statement issued Wednesday (Jan. 22). “I have been able to complete much of what I set out to do 11 years ago. We’ve seen considerable growth in the breadth and depth of our programmatic ministry and have achieved national awareness of our mission and ministry.”
After his arrival in 1991, Baxter conducted the cathedral’s largest capital campaign and oversaw major national services held in the cathedral. During his time there, the cathedral has been the site of the funerals of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Arkansas Sen. J. William Fulbright, visits by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Service of Prayer and Remembrance following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
“Nathan Baxter ranks among the great deans of the National Cathedral and he will be remembered as one of the best preachers ever to grace the cathedral’s Canterbury Pulpit,” said John Shenefield, chair of the cathedral’s governing board, in a statement. “We salute his extraordinary gifts and will miss him greatly.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Pope Urges Mass Media Not to Bow to Pressure to Distort the News
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II urged the mass media today not to bow to pressure from the rich and powerful to distort the news but to “foster justice and solidarity at all levels of society” by accurately reporting events.
Journalists, he said, “are called to be agents of truth, justice, freedom and love.”
In his message for the 37th annual World Day of Social Communications, which the Vatican will observe on June 1, the pope underlined the increasingly important role of mass media in the post Cold War world.
“The power of the media to shape human relationships and influence political and social life, both for good and for ill, has enormously increased,” John Paul said.
Stressing the “inescapable responsibility” that this power carries, the pontiff said the media “must not serve to set one group against another _ for example, in the name of class conflict, exaggerated nationalism, racial supremacy, ethnic cleansing and the life” or religion.
Instead, he said, “by accurately reporting events, correctly explaining issues and fairly representing diverse points of view, the media have a strict duty to foster justice and solidarity at all levels of society.”
“In fact,” the pontiff said, “the media often do render courageous service to the truth; but sometimes they function as agents of propaganda and disinformation in the service of narrow interests, nation, ethnic, racial and religious prejudices, material greed and false ideologies of various kinds.
“It is imperative that the pressures brought to bear on the media to err in such ways be resisted first of all by the men and women of the media themselves, but also by the church and other concerned groups,” he said.
The pope noted that the theme of this year’s observance is “The Communications Media at the Service of Authentic Peace in the Light of Pacem in Terris.” He said the encyclical on peace on earth that Pope John XXIII published 40 years ago at the height of the Cold War remains timely today for “the world and the media.”
“The division of peoples into opposed blocs is mostly a painful memory, but peace, justice and social stability are still lacking in many parts of the world,” he said. “Terrorism, conflict in the Middle East and other regions, threats and counter-threats, injustice, exploitation and assaults upon the dignity and sanctity of human life both before and after birth are dismaying relations of our times.”
“If the media are to serve freedom, they themselves must be free and correctly use that freedom,” John Paul said. He called “some public regulation of the media in the interests of the common good” appropriate but said “government control is not.”
_ Peggy Polk
Quote of the Day: Retired United Methodist Bishop Daniel Arichea
(RNS) “I don’t want you to feel guilty, but I think it’s good if you do. God have mercy on you, in terms of judgment, because you do have much.”
_ Retired United Methodist Bishop Daniel Arichea of the Philippines speaking to a church training seminar on overcoming poverty. Arichea, speaking to Americans, said the United States would be held accountable for its vast wealth and how it helps the rest of the world. He was quoted by United Methodist News Service.
DEA END RNS
