RABBI DOV FISCHER: The Anti-Jewish Clowns at UNESCO

As you may have heard, the anti-Jewish clowns at UNESCO – the “science” and “culture” arm of the United Nations – declared last week that the Tomb of Rachel is a Mosque, as is the Cave of the Patriarchs. They really are maniacal – not just anti-Jewish. Rachel, uh, was not a Muslim. First of all, her children were Joseph and Benjamin – both Jewish tribes. Many people have heard of them. After all, Joseph plays a very important role in a Broadway musical. And the tribe of Benjamin was progenitor of the first King of Israel, King Saul, as well as progenitor of Mordechai HaYehudi – Mordechai the Moslem.

Make that Mordechai the Jew.

Also, as it happens, Islam begins with the Prophet Mohammad, who entered the scene in the 7th Century C.E. Thus, there was no Islam in Rachel’s time. Maybe that is the reason that Jews bless their daughters with the hope that they grow to be like Rachel and Leah (another Moslem, presumably).

Likewise, the Cave of the Patriarchs includes the repose of Sarah, Yitzchak, Rivkah, Yaakov, and Leah – all of whom did not rest on Friday mornings. And Abraham sent Ishmael away from the home so that he could focus on Yitzchak, the bearer of his legacy.

The whole insanity brings home again the problematic Islamic practice of setting up mosques at other religions’ holiest sites – such as erecting that Dome of the Rock on our Temple Mount, then declaring the site of the Beit HaMikdash to be a mosque. Like Kever Rachel – Rachel’s Tomb – and like the burial place of Judaism’s patriarchs and matriarchs. All this provides insight, too, into the plan to build a Mosque at . . . .or near . . . Ground Zero. Today it is billed as a “Culture Center” – y’know, like a typical JCC where octogenarian Moslems can play Mah-Jong and bridge, while their kids learn to draw pictures of flowers. In time, it becomes a Moslem Holy Site.

Whenever the world goes crazy with Jew-hatred, it seems there is but one website to visit for the first panacea – those folks in Israel who gave us the Flotilla Choir version of “We are the World.” So here is their 2-minute “take” on the UNESCO declaration that Rachel’s Tomb is a protected mosque: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOUi4qFuP3M

(There is a pun in Hebrew, by the way, that may distract. “Ima” is “mother,” of course, so “Imam” is “their mother.” The UNESCO guy refers to Rachel as “Imam” – “their mother.” He gets hysterical over the pun – designating Rachel as an Imam. The pun is not important, although cute.)