Billy Graham, who championed Israel in public, (not because he loved Israel or the Jews) and derided Jews in private, dead at 99....Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman first mentioned Graham’s antisemitic remarks in a 1994 book, which Graham strongly denied. But when audio tapes from the Nixon White House were released in 2002, Graham could be heard referring to Jews as pornographers and agreeing with Nixon that the US media was dominated by liberal Jews and could send the United States “down the drain.”
WASHINGTON (JTA)
— Billy Graham, the giant of American evangelism who was exalted by
Jews for his championing of Israel at its hour of need and then
condemned when a nasty anti-Semitic streak was revealed, has died.
Graham, 99, died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, media reported. He was a counselor to Democratic and Republican presidents and, with his massive arena appearances, was a precursor of the Protestant televangelism that helped reshape the American religious and political landscapes. His son, Franklin, is one of President Donald Trump’s highest-profile religious supporters.
The elder Graham was an early and avid backer of Israel. A tour of the country in 1960 raised the country’s profile among American evangelicals, establishing the seeds of strong pro-Israel support that persist in that community until now. In 1967, he urged Israeli leaders not to yield to diplomatic pressures that could endanger the country’s security; such entreaties, commonplace now on the American right, were unusual at the time. He made a film, “His Land,” about Israel that continues to be screened among pro-Israel evangelicals.
Graham also was a champion for the Jews persecuted in the former Soviet Union and counseled his evangelical brethren not to proselytize Jews.
“Just as Judaism frowns on proselytizing that is coercive, or that seeks to commit men against their will, so do I,” Graham told an American Jewish Committee delegation that met with him in 1973.
He received awards from the organized Jewish community and was so beloved in its precincts that in 1994, when H. R. Haldeman, a former top aide to President Richard Nixon, revealed Graham’s lacerating anti-Semitism expressed in private talks with Nixon, the Jewish community dismissed Haldeman’s account out of hand.
Tapes from the Nixon Library released in 2002 validated Haldeman’s account, however.
“A lot of Jews are great friends of mine,” Graham told Nixon in 1972. “They swarm around me and are friendly to me. Because they know that I am friendly to Israel and so forth. But they don’t know how I really feel about what they’re doing to this country, and I have no power and no way to handle them.”
Graham also said that the Jewish “stranglehold” on the media “has got to be broken or this country’s going down the drain.”
In 2002, Graham apologized for the remarks, and Jewish community leaders accepted his apology — but the relationship would never again be the same.
“We knew that Nixon was an anti-Semite,” Abraham Foxman, then the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, told JTA at the time, whereas Graham is “a guy we all felt comfortable with … And he was so infected with this virulent anti-Semitism.”
Rabbi A. James Rudin, the AJC’s senior interreligious adviser, wrote in a statement Wednesday that Graham regretted his remarks about Jews and Judaism.
“He publicly apologized for them and asked for forgiveness during his 2002 ‘Crusade’ in New York City,” Rudin wrote. “I had a private conversation with him at that time, where he expressed deep personal remorse and asked me to convey his sincere apologies to the entire Jewish community.”
https://www.jta.org/2018/02/21/news-opinion/politics/billy-graham-who-championed-israel-in-public-and-derided-jews-in-private-dies-at-99?utm_source=JTA%20Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-3028-21723
Graham, 99, died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, media reported. He was a counselor to Democratic and Republican presidents and, with his massive arena appearances, was a precursor of the Protestant televangelism that helped reshape the American religious and political landscapes. His son, Franklin, is one of President Donald Trump’s highest-profile religious supporters.
The elder Graham was an early and avid backer of Israel. A tour of the country in 1960 raised the country’s profile among American evangelicals, establishing the seeds of strong pro-Israel support that persist in that community until now. In 1967, he urged Israeli leaders not to yield to diplomatic pressures that could endanger the country’s security; such entreaties, commonplace now on the American right, were unusual at the time. He made a film, “His Land,” about Israel that continues to be screened among pro-Israel evangelicals.
Graham also was a champion for the Jews persecuted in the former Soviet Union and counseled his evangelical brethren not to proselytize Jews.
“Just as Judaism frowns on proselytizing that is coercive, or that seeks to commit men against their will, so do I,” Graham told an American Jewish Committee delegation that met with him in 1973.
He received awards from the organized Jewish community and was so beloved in its precincts that in 1994, when H. R. Haldeman, a former top aide to President Richard Nixon, revealed Graham’s lacerating anti-Semitism expressed in private talks with Nixon, the Jewish community dismissed Haldeman’s account out of hand.
Tapes from the Nixon Library released in 2002 validated Haldeman’s account, however.
“A lot of Jews are great friends of mine,” Graham told Nixon in 1972. “They swarm around me and are friendly to me. Because they know that I am friendly to Israel and so forth. But they don’t know how I really feel about what they’re doing to this country, and I have no power and no way to handle them.”
Graham also said that the Jewish “stranglehold” on the media “has got to be broken or this country’s going down the drain.”
In 2002, Graham apologized for the remarks, and Jewish community leaders accepted his apology — but the relationship would never again be the same.
“We knew that Nixon was an anti-Semite,” Abraham Foxman, then the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, told JTA at the time, whereas Graham is “a guy we all felt comfortable with … And he was so infected with this virulent anti-Semitism.”
Rabbi A. James Rudin, the AJC’s senior interreligious adviser, wrote in a statement Wednesday that Graham regretted his remarks about Jews and Judaism.
“He publicly apologized for them and asked for forgiveness during his 2002 ‘Crusade’ in New York City,” Rudin wrote. “I had a private conversation with him at that time, where he expressed deep personal remorse and asked me to convey his sincere apologies to the entire Jewish community.”
Billy Graham died |
In all honesty (but I'm always honest, of course), I didn't know Billy Graham was still alive. It turns out he was 99, and died today at his home in North Carolina.
He was known as the "Pastor to Presidents", and was there for every
American President from Harry Truman through Barack Obama. One of the
first televangelists, he was a Southern Baptist estimated to have
preached to more humans than anyone in the history of Christianity.
Through his "crusades" (400 of them in 185 countries), he's said to have
persuaded over 3 million people to "accept JC as their
personal lord and savior."
What a waste of a life—preaching fiction and delusion to the masses. My sympathies go to his family and friends, but at least one of his sons is continuing the charade.
https://www.jta.org/2018/02/21/news-opinion/politics/billy-graham-who-championed-israel-in-public-and-derided-jews-in-private-dies-at-99?utm_source=JTA%20Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-3028-21723
UOJ, remember how some bloggers got outraged that Fifi Zahler of Baltimore and other folks could not have died at the hands of the corrupt Orthodox leadership? The police just could not be manipulated by mafia rabbis! Ok, now it seems that Baltimore police is one of the most corrupt in the country: POLICE CORRUPTION TRIAL OVER, BUT INVESTIGATORS KEEP DIGGING RABBINIC BALTIMORE LEADERS!
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