Other photographs indicate that while this "rabbi" himself also had a Tallit, his collaborator the Methodist minister did not. Shame that.
And nice to see that Marc sports a nice “Charedi-style” yarmulka. No kippa serugah for him.
Some of the comments on the Forward blog:
Anonimoose1 • I hope I'm wrong, but I give this union less than two years.
Guest • "A Reform rabbi, Ponet received ordinationin 1973 from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. The Clinton-Mezvinsky nuptials took place about two hours before the end of Shabbat."
What terrific respect for yiddishkeit!
DickMarks • Mazal Tov to the Conservative Marc Mezvinsky, married two hours before the end of Shabbat. Maybe it took marriage to convert him to Reform Judaism.
Feel free to let this "Rabbi" of Jewish desecration know what you think. james.ponet@yale.edu.
Rob • is this a Rabbi? Ha Ha Ha! What a joke! a clown has more respect for the sabbot! god is the one who made the laws in his image not man! no one can change it!
Rob • What will they call there kids? 50% jewish when they are NOT! will she light shabbos candles now? or will he light the chanukah manorah? if they have a boy ,will this so called Rabbi be a the babys Bris?
Eli • This is a sad day for the Jewish community, despite this Reform "rabbi"'s officiation at the Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding. From a Jewish perspective of course there can be no such thing as a wedding with a gentile woman. She is considered his concubine, and he is still a single man. The sad thing, however, that they will have non-Jewish children even by Reform standards, since she didn't convert. So we have just lost an innumerable number of future Jews. The consolation of Hilary Clinton singing "Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem" while shoving her high-heel down Bibi Netanyahu's throat is all too ridiculous to contemplate. Shame on Mr Ponet for being giving legitimacy to this. Reminds me of a joke about a reform rabbi saying kaddish for a dog when offered a large donation to the temple.
Aaron • Can just imagine the conversation at the Mezvinsky household! "Mom, I'm marrying a shiksa"...."Oy vey, what are you doing to me!"..."Mom, she's the daughter of the Secretary of State, and the former Prez"...."Oh, so she's a nice Jewish girl!!!!! Mazel Tov my yiddishe son!"
dmmd • It is a sad day when Jews lose a person whose family survived about 4000 years. The American Holocaust marches on, and on with the help of Reform "Rabbis".
INSENSED • Doesn't this reform rabbi know that a ketuba is a marriage contract and you can't make a contract on Shabbat?
Why did the chatan wear a tallis at the ceremony? Sheva Brochos at an intermarriage. This whole ceremony seems like a joke.
I agree that this is awful, but is it really our business? The guy isn't an orthodox yid - should he act like one? I think the best thing to do is ignore whatever watered down form of Judaism that he believes in and be true our customs.
ReplyDeleteThank G-d for Marcs spectacle. I will nexer
ReplyDeletethink of marrying out again. Only a schmendrical marries a goy wearing traditional sacred Jewish garb.
Reform Judaism is not Judaism, plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteYou're 100% right Shoshana. Reform rabbis are a mockery and make an even greater mockery of our religion.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a close friend - an ex-member of the Melbourne Alma Rd temple, over 60% of the members are either not halachically Jewish. And even more have either a non-Jewish(ie, reform-"converted") partner or parent.
Why is anyone surprised?
ReplyDeleteThat lady rabbiette in Sydney -something Ninio - proudly told an interviewer of the Australian newspaper some years ago, that her non-Jewish mother never converted - not even in according to her reform "religion". Thus we have a 100% gentile acting as a reform rabbi. What a sick and bitter joke!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe late Lubavitcher rebbe obm, spent most of the 60s and 70s campaigning for Giyur Kehalacha. He saw exactly what was happening and how much worse things were going to get - especially in Israel. And that was well before the flood of hundreds of thousands of USSR goyim arriving there.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure why the campaign suddenly stopped
The world needs to find another great leader to get us out of this great mess.
"The sad thing, however, that they will have non-Jewish children even by Reform standards, since she didn't convert." --comment on the Forward blog
ReplyDeleteThis is not true. Reform believe in patrilineal descent. If the father is Jewish, they consider the child Jewish. Of course calling a non-Jew a Jew no more makes him a Jew than calling a pig a cow makes it kosher. But they think what they think.
what a farse wearing a tallit when marrying a non jew. makes a mockery of the whole process. we will destroy ourselves from within before others will do.
ReplyDeleteTo add to Chaya's post above:
ReplyDeleteThat reform female rabbi officiated at a CREMATION of a Jew a few years back.
There are no words that can adequately sum up this situation.
:) The world is beginning to reject the bigotry religion en masse.
ReplyDeleteIt's not long before the rigid intolerance of religion will be confined to the very small, hopeless few.
It is YOU who drive the Melbourne Jewish population to be 75% secular and only 25% religious. This intolerant, snarky attitude will starve you of any hope in the future. It is even more insidious than that - it is this belief that not adhering to your asburdly strict set of laws are somehow less than you are. This exclusivism is repulsive. Furthermore, it is mired in faulty logic and rejected by those with the most basic of critical thinking skills to see it.
Look to your shul congregations on every day except the high holidays - bereft of youth, awash in the dull glow of the nearly departed.
And it is all your fault. It is pieces like this that make most would-be congregants turn from your way of life as if it were one of the 10 plagues of the Exocus.
Who wants to be so bitter? Who wants to gaze upon the beautiful union of two people and write about why their love is a desecration?
Nobody who is good and happy with their lives would do that. Only those who have gaping voids in their souls would put pen to such tripe. Only those who have an inextinguishable bitterness, a bright emerald envy for all that is transpiring around them, would do this.
You are sad people, and I pity you.
Interesting snippet from the report in the National Post:
ReplyDeleteMarc’s parents, former Democrat politicians Marjorie Margolies-Mr. Mezvinsky and Ed Mr. Mezvinsky were absent in the official pictures. Neither were they mentioned in the brief Clinton statement after the wedding.
Ed Mr. Mezvinsky recently completed a nearly five-year sentence for fraud, but is a long-time friend of the Clintons.
(And what's with those "Mr"'s?)
http://www.nationalpost.com/overwhelming+emotion+Chelsea+Clinton+weds+York/3347138/story.html
And a letter to the editor:
Who’s your rabbi?
For your readers’ clarification, the rabbi (Rabbi James Ponet) who performed the Clinton Mezvinsky wedding was not an authentic Jewish Rabbi. The reason is that authentic Rabbis cannot and do not perform weddings when both or either party are not Jewish.
Nor do Rabbis perform weddings on the Sabbath (Saturday)
In the absence of such credentials, the skullcap, prayershawl and canopy are only props without any religious signifance. Alas, counterfeit goods are so common these days. I hope the Clintons didn’t pay full price.
Chaim Leib Medjuck http://tinyurl.com/29glzfp
Top Ten Signs you are at the Clinton/ Mezvinsky Wedding!
ReplyDelete10. The glass broken at the end of ceremony has a Presidential seal
9. Defcon1 alert called in when the couple gets lifted up on chairs
8. It's separate seating: Republicans and Democrats
7. Secret Service codename for the Mezvinskys: "The Machatanim"
6. Pretty sure you just saw Jimmy Carter dancing the Horah
5. Blessing over the Challah is made by the Secretary of Agriculture
4. Hope to G-d that Bill isn't wearing the same yarmulke he wore at the Rabin funeral
3. Nothing cooler than CIA agents using the words: Shmorg, Chuppah, Yichud room
2. Dancing with the Stars: Bill & Hilary dance the Mezinka!
1. When wishing Mazal tov, someone confuses Mezvinsky with Lewinsky
To clarify my previous comment:'Reform Judaism' is not Judaism at all but, an amalgam of pagan and secular atheistic teachings which uses a Jewish vocabulary. I understand that the Reform Jews do not require a belief in G-d.
ReplyDeleteTallit for you, A wide selection of traditional prayer shawls. ... Modern tallit style prayer shawls in many colorful designs.
ReplyDeletetallit
"New Yorker", the "Mr."s are obviously typos. A search for different versions of the same AFP story yielded this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100801/lf_afp/lifestyleuspoliticspeopleclintonmarriage
ReplyDelete"Marc's parents, former Democrat politicians Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and Ed Mezvinsky were absent in the official pictures...Ed Mezvinsky recently completed..."
"New Yorker" quoted a letter-writer who claimed that "authentic Rabbis cannot and do not perform weddings when both or either party are not Jewish." There is, of course, no reason why a rabbi should not perform a wedding if both parties are not Jewish.
ReplyDeleteI know we have seen the tragedy of intermarriage so many times... but I hope at least some of us can still feel a sense of pain and anguish at seeing a jew marry out.
ReplyDeleteTheses are really nice pictures in tallit we know that tallit not only use for prayers but it is used ocassionaly these days as now it is available in different styles and designs.
ReplyDelete