c. 2005 Religion News Service

Conservative Rabbi Urges Conversions for Non-Jewish Spouses

(RNS) The head of the Conservative Jewish movement says Jews should focus more energy on reaching out to intermarried couples while urging the non-Jewish member to convert.

Rabbi Jerome Epstein delivered a 35-minute address Tuesday (Dec. 6) to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which was gathered in Boston for its weeklong biennial meeting.

“Although attitudes of welcome and warmth are important and creating Jewish cultural and social connections should be applauded as vital first steps, these acts are hardly sufficient to guarantee Jewish survival. To achieve that end we must focus our outreach. Our goal must be to raise Jewish families,” Epstein said.

Epstein cited an intermarriage rate that has decreased slightly in recent years, particularly in Conservative congregations, but nonetheless has “permanently changed the texture of Jewish American life.”

He explained that in the face of these changes, synagogues must do more than simply welcome interfaith couples _ they must actively reach out to the non-Jewish members of those families and urge them to convert.

To achieve this goal, Epstein laid out his vision, which includes shifting the movement’s focus from “keruv,” the Hebrew word for “to bring close,” to “edud,” which could be translated as “passionate encouragement” or “compassionate urging.”

The “edud initiative” will include educational programs for both parents and children, as well as encouraging summer camp, Jewish day school and Israel experiences for youth. Synagogues are urged to establish keruv/edud committees at their congregations to oversee these efforts.

In late November, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the head of the Reform Jewish movement, addressed his denomination’s biennial with a similar message.

“We want families to function as Jewish families, and while intermarried families can surely do this, we recognize the advantages of an intermarried family becoming a fully Jewish family, with two adult Jewish partners,” Yoffie said in his speech.

The Conservative movement claims more than 1.5 million members and 760 congregations.

_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Billy Graham’s Eldest Daughter Could See Charges Against Her Dismissed

(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham’s eldest daughter may be able to get misdemeanor battery charges filed against her dismissed, a Florida paper has reported.

Virginia “Gigi” Graham Foreman, 59, has to complete a domestic violence evaluation and stick to any treatment a doctor recommends, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. The steps were outlined in a deferred prosecution agreement she signed with the State Attorney’s Office.

Foreman was charged in early July after an incident in which police said she choked her husband, Chad Foreman, during an argument alongside a New Smyrna Beach, Fla., roadway.

The agreement calls for her to get counseling and not possess any weapon. She is on 12 months probation and the state would be permitted to resume prosecution if she violates any part of the agreement. Foreman also must pay about $100 for investigation and prosecution fees, the newspaper reported.

At the time of the incident, Foreman’s family members stated their support for her. Her parents, Billy and Ruth Graham, “expressed their ongoing unconditional love” and her brother, evangelist Franklin Graham, said she had “our family’s full love, support and prayers.”

Foreman has written several Christian books, including the award-winning devotional volume “Weather of the Heart.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Muslim Leaders Praise Acquittal of High-Profile Professor

(RNS) Calling it a blow against the guilt-by-association mentality that has dogged the Islamic community since Sept. 11, Muslim leaders are celebrating the acquittal of a Florida professor accused of assisting a violent Palestinian group.

Jewish groups, however, expressed disappointment.

Sami Al-Arian, a high-profile professor fired from his tenured position at the University of Southern Florida in 2003, was cleared Tuesday of eight criminal counts, including terrorist support, while the jury was deadlocked on the remaining nine counts.

“The jurors were able to put their biases aside and look at the case based on evidence, rather than emotion _ something that has been hard to do in the post-9/11 climate,” said Ahmed Bedier, director of the Council on American Islamic Relations’ Central Florida office.

David Cole, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, also praised the jury for “showing fealty” to the First Amendment right to free speech.

“The prosecution pursued a sweeping guilt-by-association theory, seeking to try Al-Arian for the crimes of the Palestine Islamic Jihad, without offering any evidence that he sought to further any of its illegal acts,” said Cole, a critic of the Patriot Act, the law that allowed for submission of secretly gathered evidence in the trial.

Muslim leaders, however, distanced themselves from Al-Arian’s fiery rhetoric from the 1990s, when he described Jews as “pigs and monkeys” and said “Death to Israel.” Al-Arian has said that he does not support the killing of any civilian.

“He made comments that I would disagree with, but those comments were not illegal,” said Ahmed Rehab, director of communications for the Council on American Islamic Relations’ Chicago office.

Art Teitelbaum, the Miami-based Southern area director of the Anti-Defamation League, said his group was “disappointed” by the verdict.

“We are not in a position to second-guess the jury, but whether Professor Arian is guilty or not, there’s no question that he has applauded terrorism as a legitimate device, and that makes him morally corrupt,” said Marc Stern, assistant executive director of the American Jewish Congress in New York.

_ Andrea Useem

Professor Known for Comments Against Christians Reportedly Beaten

(RNS) Sheriff’s deputies are investigating the reported beating of a University of Kansas professor who wrote that teaching intelligent design as mythology would be a “nice slap” in the “big fat face” of Christian fundamentalists.

Religious studies professor Paul Mirecki, who gained notoriety for his Internet tirades against Christian fundamentalists and Catholics, told the Lawrence Journal-World that he was beaten early Monday (Dec. 5) on the side of a rural road.

Mirecki told the newspaper that two unidentified men had been tailgating him in a large truck, and said the attackers made references to the controversy that has propelled him into the headlines in recent weeks.

“I didn’t know them, but I’m sure they knew me,” he said. Mirecki described himself as “mostly shaken up” with bruises and sore spots.

Last week, the university withdrew plans to offer a course this spring that Mirecki had titled “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and Other Religious Mythologies.” The decision came after e-mails Mirecki sent to an Internet discussion site for student atheists were publicized.

“This whole incident is starting to cast doubt that I can actually share my thoughts effectively without someone waiting for me at my car,” KU student Andrew Stangl, president of KU’s Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, told the Lawrence newspaper.

But Matt Terrill, president of the KU chapter of the Christian group Navigators, told the Wichita Eagle that he trusts most people will recognize that the attackers don’t represent all Christians.

“I think I can safely speak for the organization of condemning the actions of two people,” Terrill said. “That’s not what we’re about. I do think some will use these actions to marginalize Christianity and Christians, and use it as ammunition against Christians.”

However, one Kansas conservative activist, John Altevogt, said he was skeptical about the legitimacy of the beating report.

Mirecki “has very little credibility left,” Altevogt told the Journal-World. “The one thing that could save his bacon is to become a martyr of sorts, or to elicit sympathy from being the victim rather than the persecutor.”

_ Bobby Ross Jr.

Quote of the Day: Catholic League President Bill Donohue

(RNS) “They’d better address this, because they’re no better than the retailers who have lost the will to say `Merry Christmas.”’

_ Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League, reacting to the 2005 White House Christmas card that includes “best wishes for the holiday season” but no mention of Christmas. He was quoted by The Washington Post.

MO/PH END RNS