Save Mamilla, the Campaign Continues

The Jewish Journal, here in Los Angeles ran this opinion editorial by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the President of the Union of Reform Judaism on the Simon Wiesenthal Centers construction of the Museum of Tolerance on a Muslim cemetery that dates back many centuries. He says:

Instead of agreeing to build elsewhere, however, its leaders chose to fight in Israel’s Supreme Court for the right to continue construction. Last October, they won their case, largely on technical grounds. The court noted that planning had been completed, a permit issued and construction had commenced. It also pointed to evidence, which was far from conclusive, that some Muslim authorities no longer saw the site as sacred.

Yet while winning the legal argument, Wiesenthal has lost the moral one. What is legally permissible may be ethically questionable and religiously offensive. Indeed, there is something perverse and ironic about building a monument to tolerance that will be a permanent source of tension in the region and that undermines the mutual respect and trust that tolerance requires. Furthermore, constructing the museum in Mamilla sets a dangerous precedent that will undermine Jewish efforts to preserve abandoned Jewish cemeteries and sacred sites in Eastern Europe and the Muslim world.

you can read the rest of the op-ed here.






















To read more on the history and actions you can take, just visit my previous posts.