Jonathan D. Sarna Quotes
Most chief rabbis are recognized, in some respect, by the government. That's true in England, in France, and certainly in Israel. There's an individual who represents the Jewish religion to the government, someone who stands opposite the cardinal or the archbishop. Indeed, what we have in Judaism here, as we also have in Christianity, is a kind of free market. There's no central authority that says you can only be Jewish this way and not another way.
Jonathan D. Sarna, Historian, Interview with Rebecca Phillips, “Free-Market Judaism,” Beliefnet, 2004
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Alfonso the Learned. He personally wrote a History of Spain up to the time.
The treaty, which was also ratified by the Senate, was actually drafted by Joel Barlow, the U. S. Consul in Tripoli. It was the first official statement of the United States on its religious basis or lack thereof.
The clergy of the colonies were split on the American Revolution, but those clergy who supported the revolution made a huge contribution to the individual American’s intellectual view of the legitimacy of Parliament’s making laws governing the American Colonies. The anti-British clerics called for action while other forces of colonial America urged caution.
Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims. This was his observation after his first excommunications -- by his Jewish Congregation in Amsterdam.
The Islamic Holy Book even recommends against friendships with Christians and Jews. See {584381}.
His protest was focused on Middle East policies which he believed did not value the lives of Muslims as highly as Christians and Jews. The irony of this protest is that United States policy claims to value all life equally as do virtually all industrialized democracies. Omeish however is unusual among world Islamic leaders and politicians in that he values Christian and Jewish life as much as Muslim. Most, typically value Muslims almost exclusively and many advocate the killing of Christians and Jews.
The Prince had given $20 million to American Universities to establish Islamic Studies programs however. The Muslim religion requires believers to proselytize and spread the faith, while Saudi and Islamic law prohibits any other faith from being public or promoted. It is illegal, for example, to even bring a Christian Bible into the Kingdom. During the Gulf War, American soldiers defending Saudi Arabia were not allowed to bring in their religious texts unless they were Muslims.
Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and director of its Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program.
