A former board member suggested that Mona Dobrich might "disappear" like Madalyn Murray O'Hair...Callers to the local radio station said the family should convert or leave the area. Someone called them and said the Ku Klux Klan was nearby....Classmates accused Alex Dobrich of "killing Christ" and he became fearful about wearing his yarmulke, the complaint recounts. He took it off whenever he saw a police officer... [ excerpts from article by Jews On First
Jews On First highlights a recent case in which, it seems, Christian supremacist persecution of a Jewish family, by many members of a Delaware town including town leaders, caused the family to sell its house and flee.
We must now confront this : in America in the year 2006, a Jewish family has apparently been driven from their home, forced to flee because of death threats and mob harassment. Is this a model for a new American style of pogrom ?
[ excerpt from Jews On First article ] A large Delaware school district promoted Christianity so aggressively that a Jewish family felt it necessary to move to Wilmington, two hours away, because they feared retaliation for filing a lawsuit. The religion (if any) of a second family in the lawsuit is not known, because they're suing as Jane and John Doe; they also fear retaliation. Both families are asking relief from "state-sponsored religion."
The behavior of the Indian River School District board suggests the families' fears are hardly groundless.
The district spreads over a considerable portion of southern Delaware. The families' complaint, filed in federal court in February 2005, alleges that the district had created an "environment of religious exclusion" and unconstitutional state-sponsored religion.
The behavior of the Indian River School District board suggests the families' fears are hardly groundless.
The district spreads over a considerable portion of southern Delaware. The families' complaint, filed in federal court in February 2005, alleges that the district had created an "environment of religious exclusion" and unconstitutional state-sponsored religion.
Among numerous specific examples in the complaint was what happened at plaintiff Samantha Dobrich's graduation in 2004 from the district's high school. She was the only Jewish student in her graduatingclass. The complaint relates that local pastor, Jerry Fike, in his invocation, followed requests for "our heavenly Father's" guidance for the graduates with:
I also pray for one specific student, that You be with her and guide her in the path that You have for her. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name.
Richard Bartholomew, on Bartholomew's Notes On Religion has dug up additional information on the incident not mentioned in the Jews On First article.
I'd like to thank Richard for pulling my attention back to this - I assumed, wrongly, that the Jews On First article would highlight the worst aspects from this ugly affair. I was wrong. That article contains hair raising details only hinted at by the story title which considerably understates the extremity of the hatred levelled at the Dobrich family. Below is an excerpt:
[ from Jews On First article ]...The complaint recounts a raucous crowd that applauded the board's opening prayer and then, when sixth-grader Alexander Dobrich stood up to read a statement, yelled at him "take your yarmulke off!" His statement, read by Samantha, confided "I feel bad when kids in my class call me Jew boy."
...A former board member suggested that Mona Dobrich might "disappear" like Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the atheist whose Supreme Court case resulted in ending organized school prayer. She disappeared in 1995 and her dismembered body was found six years later.
The crowd booed an ACLU speaker and told her to "go back up north."
In the days after the meeting the community poured venom on the Dobriches. Callers to the local radio station said the family they should convert or leave the area. Someone called them and said the Ku Klux Klan was nearby. [ emphasis mine ]
The Republic of T has more on thi story, especially in terms of related recent incidents in schools involving Christian harassment of non-Christians
Unfortunately, this incident is not an anomaly.
Here is a sampling of Talk To Action stories that have covered aspects of antisemitism and the Christian right:
"The Catholic League", mighty champion of ....gay bashing and anti-semitism ?, by Bruce Wilson
Why Pat Robertson believes Ariel Sharon has incurred the wrath of God by Joan Bokaer
Ted Haggard Wants Jews to be Afraid, by Richard Bartholomew
Evangelicals and U.S. foreign policy, by Esther Kaplan
Christian Zionism all juiced up,by Esther Kaplan
Anti-Semitism and the Christmas warriors, by Michelle Goldberg
Did Tim LaHaye Just Call Israelis "Not-To-Be-Trusted Yids?", by Max Blumenthal
Attack dogs, by Esther Kaplan
Falwell's "Gracious Correction" emphatic : No, Jews Can't Get Into Heaven, by Bruce Wilson
The End of Apologies?, by Esther Kaplan
Enough Hate Speech To Stun An Ox, by Bruce Wilson
Replacement Theology: "Those Darned Jews", by Bruce Wilson
Second major Jewish group in two weeks condemns dominionism, by dogemperor