[ story now running at
Crooks and Liars : see
Jesus' General,
Bartholomew's Note's On Religion, and
Talk To Action for recently uncovered aspects of this scandal ]
UPDATE : An action you can take: "The shaming project" You can help stop "Stop the ACLU Coalition" with just a few emails!
Jews On First was the group that did the original reporting that laid the key groundwork tht has enabled the wider blogoshpere to develop this emergent scandal
Two families, one Jewish, one anonymous, have fled a Delaware town amidst alleged death threats and threats of violence. One of the two families has remained anonymous...
Part of the reason the two Indian River families fled involve alleged threats, and those may have stemmed, in part, from the efforts of a group called Stop The ACLU Coalition to publicize the names, address, and telephone number(s) of the Dobrich family on the group's website.
Stop The ACLU Coalition has ALSO been doing quite a lot of work in the campaign to accuse the New York Times and the Washington Post of treason.
The flashpoint for the initial dispute that has
led those two families to flee for fear of violent attack was an
alleged pattern of egregious violations of church state separation in the form of the teaching of Christianity in an Indian River school. At least one Jewish family, the Dobrich's, raised an objection, and the outcome has led them to sell their home and relocate to another area.
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....
....A former [school] 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. [ quote from Jews On First article that initially broke the story
Crooks and Liars is now covering the story, and kudos to Richard Bartholomew for noticing the fact that Stop The ACLU Coalition published personal information on the Dobrich family on the group's website ( see Bartholomew's Notes On Religion)
And, a special, double kudos to Jesus' General for instigating the striking written exchange below. In the end though, this story would not have emerged without the initial spade work of the new group
Jews On First">Jews On First Below - exchange bewteen Nedd Kareiva and Jesus' General :
Below: Jesus' General's Letter to Nedd Kareiva, Director of The Stop The ACLU Coalition:Dear Mr. Kareiva,
Please allow me to be the first to thank you and the staff of Stop The ACLU for all you did to make the Indian River Pogrom such a resounding success. It isn't easy to run a Jewish family out of town in these politically correct times. Usually, they just hunker down, hiding behind antiquated interpretations of the Constitution and the good will of those who wrongly believe that non-Christians are entitled to all of the benefits of citizenship.
But this time, the family fled, and I think you deserve partial credit for making that happen. After all, you did publish their name, address, and phone number on your web site (see screen cap below) as part of your "Expose ACLU Plaintiffs" project. It certainly wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that such information gave people the tools they needed to drive the Dobrich family from their home.
Of course, you didn't do it all by yourself. The good god-fearing Christians of the Indian Hill School District deserve most of the credit. They took to the task of ethnic cleansing with a vengeance , not sparing anyone discomfort, not even the Dobrich children... [ excerpt from Jews On First story ] Congratulations again for the success of your pogrom. I'm sure it's only the first of many more to come as we retake our great nation in Jesus' name.
Heterosexually yours,
Gen. JC Christian, patriot
Here is Nedd Kareiva's response to that letter from Jesus' General: Pogrom? I'm not sure I want to call it that. That is not an appropriate term, however, I am pleased that we had an effect in this case. We have others we want to put up on the site to shame them but have not gotten around to it. And I'm not so sure I can take credit for it. However, if an ACLU speaker was booed, that's music to my ears.
I would appreciate it if you would sign your actual name rather than JC Christian.
Regards,
Nedd Kareiva
Director
There's more too ! [ see Jesus' General for that 'more' ].
More soon. This is a breaking story that MUST get more airplay.
You know what to do. Thanks.
UPDATE:
Relevant Writing and Resources:
[ more coming soon ]
The Republic of T has more on this 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
From Bartholomew's Notes On Religion:
writings on - Church and State in The USA and Antisemitism
Church / State separation issues from a Jewish PerspectiveJews On First
ACTION ALERT : Stop The UCLU has assembled a crew of 200 bloggers to support its initiatives. Here is a link to a list of those 200 blogs
HERE'S MY PROPOSAL : Simple Shaming.
EMAIL the members on that list one by one and ask them if they think Nedd Kareiva and Stop the ACLU should be pleased by the outcome in Indian River. Be very neutral: let them speak for themselves. If they respond, then email them to ask if you can publish their response or if they'd like to take a public position on the matter. If they won't you can still justifiable characterize that as a refusal to comment. Do, there would be three groups - "supports", "doesn't support", and "refuses to comment".
Then, just list the blog you've contacted - and the response or not - on this diary. Later on, those can be collated and published in an organized form.
If the blog in question allows comments, ask directly on the blog. I you get one, reply and include a link to one of the blogs pieces I've mentioned that cover this story.
The point is to get each oe of the 200 bloggers aligned under Stop The ACLU to take a position or at least refuse to comment.
This is a simple shaming project but - as we've seen in the case of the recent incident involving the speaker of the Indiana House, Brian Bosma, who was moved by the Internet and also the goodness of his heart to make an apology to Jewish groups in Indiana [ kudos to dhonig of dKos for the legendary cartoon ] - shaming really, really does work. So if you are so moved, shame away !
UPDATE : I've started a list of "Stop The ACLU" supporters I've contacted, towards the bottom of this thread.