עבודה זרה and גילוי עריות - AJN embarrasses Lord Sacks

How dumb are they? The Jewish News couldn't resist illustrating its feature on chief rabbi Sacks other than by showing him chatting with a convicted (and currently jailed) rapist, ex-Israeli president Moshe Katzav and the "avi avos hatumah" the pope!

As someone commented over Friday night dinner, if the AJN had been able to locate a picture of the rabbi with a convicted murderer, they could've had the trifecta - "Avoda Zara, Gilui Atayos and Shefichat Damim"

SMH on Shmuley and Rodney's visit to the Pope

The Chutzpah of these goyim!
Describing our Shmuley as "a self-styled rabbi"!

Come in, sinner: Adler and His Holiness press the flesh
MICHAEL EVANS May 4, 2010

When in Rome ... Pope Benedict meets Rodney Adler at the Vatican last week. "I discussed for about 15 seconds how I felt that making Friday night family night transcended religion."

RODNEY ADLER'S redemption appears to be complete.

It's not the first brush with fame the rabbi has arranged for Mr Adler - he also arranged for Mr Adler's family to stay with Jackson at his Neverland ranch.

The disgraced Sydney businessman, jailed over his involvement in the collapse of the insurance giant HIH, received an audience at the Vatican last week with Pope Benedict.

Mr Adler was the guest of his friend Shmuley Boteach, a self-styled rabbi and author of a book about the late singer Michael Jackson, as well as Oprah Winfrey's parenting and relationships expert.
The delegation met the Pope as part of his weekly audience in St Peter's Square, seeking backing for a ''Turn Friday Night into Family Night'' initiative. The American rabbi wants parents of all faiths to spend Friday nights at home to give their family uninterrupted time.

''Rodney emphasised to the Pope the importance of partnering with me on creating an international family dinner night and how much he believed in the idea,'' the rabbi's website says of Mr Adler's meeting with His Holiness. The Pope ''warmly agreed''.

Mr Adler missed about 130 Friday night family dinners with his wife Lyndi and their children while serving 2½ years in prison for obtaining $2 million from HIH by false or misleading statements and being dishonest as a director. HIH collapsed in 2001 with debts of $5.3 billion.

But his recollection of last week's meeting was less certain than his friend's. ''My conversation with the Pope was quite short,'' Mr Adler told the Herald. ''It went something like, 'Your Holiness, it's a great pleasure and privilege to meet you' and then I discussed for about 15 seconds how I felt that making Friday night family night transcended religion. It was a global issue. ''He did not say yes or no, he just acknowledged it with an appreciative smile … and then moved on.''

Mr Adler was one of two ''close friends'' the rabbi invited to meet the Pope. Days before Mr Adler was sentenced in 2005, Rabbi Boteach, who studied in Australia, led a stirring defence of his friend at Sydney's Central Synagogue. Rabbi Boteach has opened other doors for Mr Adler. ''I had great pleasure of going to Neverland while it was under Michael Jackson's control; I spent three days there, and my children still talk about it. It was interesting - but different to the papal visit.''

His Holiness meets His Shmuleyness (and a local note)

Shmuley gives the Holy Father advice on how to improve the Catholic church's standing and reputation. It's a real pity that he wasn't around a few hundred years ago when the Inquisition was in full swing.

And seeing that the whole Christian church "business" was started by a "Jewish rabbi", it makes sense that Rabbi Shmuley has such altruistic  feelings towards it.

My Meeting with Pope Benedict
by Shmuley Botach

I had my meeting with the Pope today at his Wednesday audience. Let me first give you an idea of the setting. There were approximately fifteen thousand people from all over the world gathered in St. Peter’s Square speaking an untold number of languages. The sun shone very brightly. The day was perfect. The Pope arrived in his pope-mobile to great excitement and fanfare. His vehicle was open-top. I assumed they didn’t need the protective bubble that has become so iconic on TV because there was security screening for each person present. As the Pope drove among the crowd they shouted ‘Viva Papa - Long live the Pope.’ There seemed to be genuine affection and excitement among the Catholic pilgrims who had gathered from all over the world.
The pope drove up the incline and arrived in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. The people who were there to meet him sat on both sides of his dais. There were clergymen from all over the world: Cardinals, Bishops, and priests from the Catholic Church. I sat next to three Anglican Bishops from the UK. With me was my friend Gary Krupp, head of the Pave the Way Foundation, who had arranged the visit and several of his officers.
The Pope read greetings in give languages and an American priest welcomed our group publicly from the Pope’s dais. The Pope waived to us.

When the formal ceremony, lasting about two hours ended, the Pope came off his dais and moved along the receiving line to greet us. Gary introduced me to the Pope warmly with my formal titles. I gave the Pope a special gift we had gotten for him. It was a beautiful dual-time Phillip Stein watch. The Pope lit up when he saw it and said, “Look, it has two faces on it,” which, as it happened, was the perfect introduction for me to share the issues I had prepared. I said, “Pope Benedict, it’s an honor to meet you. This watch has the times of Rome and Jerusalem on it, signifying the eternal friendship between our two faiths. I also hope that when you wear it the future of the Jew people will always be on your mind, as Israel struggles with existential threats, like Iran, who threaten to wipe it off the map. You’re voice against these threats is essential, Your holiness.”

He said ‘Yes,’ nodding his head in agreement, and I continued. “In addition, Your holiness, the dual clock face is a symbol of my request that you please join us in establishing a global family dinner night which we call, ‘Turn Friday Night into Family Night.’ It involves what we call the triple two. Two hours of uninterrupted time that parents give their kids, inviting two guests, just as I am your guest today, and discussing two important subjects.”

While I said this Pope Benedict again nodded.

I concluded, ‘Your holiness, it’s so important that our two religions work together on this.’ He said warmly, ‘We will work together. We will work together.’ He held my hand while we spoke. The watch we gave the Pope as a gift has special resonance because the owner, Will Stein, is an orthodox German convert to Judaism.

I had invited my close friends David Victor, Chairman of the Board of AIPAC, and Rodney Adler, to the meeting with the Pope. Rodney emphasized to the Pope the importance of partnering with me on creating an international family dinner night and how much he believed in the idea. The Pope again warmly agreed. David then respectfully but firmly pressed the Pope on the need to address the Iran crisis, ‘a regime which denies the holocaust and threatens to destroy Israel and is building nuclear weapons.’ The Pope said, “I have spoken about it and will continue to.”

As soon as the meeting was over, I was granted another meeting with Cardinal Walter Casper, President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity.’ Gary introduced me to the Cardinal and made a strong pitch for the importance of the worldwide Church partnering with us to create our international family dinner initiative. The Cardinal, a very pleasant priest from Germany who has been close friends with Pope Benedict for forty years, strongly endorsed the idea and related his memories of family dinners with his own parents.

I made the case to the Cardinal that the pedophile priest scandal has many influential American commentators skewering the Church for being an all-boys club, seemingly anti-family. It was essential, I argued, that the Church recapture its reputation as one of the world’s foremost champions of the family. He agreed emphatically and said he agreed that the Church should partner with us.

My friend David Victor then again brought up the threat that Iran poses to Israel. The Cardinal said that Iran’s nuclear program is a threat to the world. He asked David to write to him and Cardinal Bertone, the Cardinal Secretary of State, with suggestions of what could be done.

It was an exciting day. Five of my nine children were with me, as well as both my parents.

And here's the beginning of a CNN report on Shmuley's vatican adventures:

A rabbi walks into St. Peter's Square, meets the pope, and tells the Holy Father that one way to defuse the sex abuse scandal plaguing the church is for the Vatican to begin promoting a secular version of Shabbat dinner, the traditional Jewish Friday meal.


It's no joke.   MORE

Shmuley is sure giving his kids a well-rounded upbringing. Playing with Michael Jackson's children and visiting "Uncle Pope".

Oh, and anyone know how Rodney Adler got included in the mix? (Did you notice how Shmuley doesn't even try to explain to his readers who Rodney is? A bit strange, no?)

******

Meanwhile locally our rabbis will have to make their journey to the Vatican one step at a time. Who knows? Maybe one day Rabbi Meir Shlomo too, will have the privilege and honor to give advice to the Bishop of Rome and even wish the Pontiff "a good Yontiff".

Look who's advising the Pope!

Shmuel Boteach sermonising to the Catholic Church: “Adopt Hilchos Yichud” !
Not such a bad idea, actually…

And here's another. Advising the Pope to push for Friday night family dinners. Yep, gefilteh fish and chicken soup should go far in solving the Church's problems.

SHMULEY AND ANOTHER FRIEND

Even a pope needs friends
By SHMULEY BOTEACH  - Jerusalem Post

...There is much in Jewish law and tradition that could bring healing to the Church, beginning with the Jewish laws of sexual seclusion. In Judaism a man and woman who are not married are not allowed to be in a locked room together. When I was rabbi to Michael Jackson, I took this law and applied it to his special circumstances. I told him the only way he could rehabilitate his reputation after the pedophile accusations was to simply forswear ever being alone with a child. I even grabbed Michael’s shoulders and made him promise me he would never seclude himself with a child not his own.
 
And for the two years for which we were close, he stuck to the script. When he and I launched our initiative to help children, the focus was on working with parents to make their kids a top priority, rather than with the kids themselves.
It wasn’t until he stupidly disregarded this simple advice and decided to share a bed – however platonically – with a young child and then brag about it on TV that he was arrested, and so began the inexorable decline that ended in his death a few years later.

THE CHURCH should embrace the same straightforward rule. No priest should be allowed to be alone with a child. Period. If a priest needs to speak to a child alone, the door must never be locked and there must always be the possibility that they can be intruded upon. If they walk in a park, it cannot be one that is empty. This way we’ll know that any priest who breaks the guidelines will be punished, whether or not he abuses a child. It would significantly curb the potential for child molestation, and might even discourage pedophiles from entering the priesthood...

For the full article, (where Boteach also makes the amazing claim that "Benedict has been a great friend to the Jewish community") click here.