op-ed<\/a> for “attacking the religious freedom of millions of American women and the religious freedom of American nuns” over contraception.<\/p>\nDonohue responded with a note to Waskow that launched an email exchange that ended with a warning, forwarded to BuzzFeed by a source close to the rabbi, that “Jews had better not make enemies of their Catholic friends since they have so few of them.” Donohue also includes a postscript saying, “I do not have a long nose.”<\/p>\n
Donahue also raised a recent child abuse scandal in Orthodox Jewish communities.<\/p>\n
“You need to do something about this epidemic right now,” he told Waskow, who is not Orthodox, suggesting that Jews follow the Catholic Church’s reforms in dealing with clerical abuse.<\/p>\n
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Donohue defended his words.<\/p>\n
“Waskow is a man full of hate,” he said, calling Waskow’s op-ed “the kind of thing I’d expect from Bill Maher, not from a rabbi.”<\/p>\n
“Who the hell is he?” Donohue said. “I don’t tell Jews what to do when they have people who are miscreants in their community.”<\/p>\n
Donohue’s “long nose” comment was in reference to something Waskow said in the previous email: “Would you also suggest I keep my long Jewish nose out of some Catholic priests\u2019 rape of Catholic children and some Catholic bishops\u2019 protection of those priests from the law, because I\u2019m not a Catholic? Perhaps you would.” (Donohue had told him “you have stuck your nose in where you don\u2019t belong.”)<\/p>\n
Koch, the former mayor of New York, said that he never said the quote Donohue attributes to him.<\/p>\n
“My comments have always been about fostering good feelings between Jews and Catholics toward mutual understanding of our shared interests,” Koch said in a statement. “However, I certainly do not believe that Jews, or Catholics, should be threatened for making critical remarks, nor should my name be used when doing so. While I do have a high regard for Bill, his references to me and my remarks were inappropriate and different in substance and tone than what I said on an earlier occasion. My remarks did not and do not refer to the Rabbi’s comments.”<\/p>\n
Donohue told BuzzFeed that Koch “has said that many times. I just heard from Ed last week.” He provided BuzzFeed with the first two emails in the exchange with Waskow.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Waskow said \u201cBill Keller of the New York Times reported on Monday morning, \u2018The official church has moved far enough to the right that Donohue now speaks for its mainstream.\u2019 Now we will find out whether that includes threatening Jews for disagreeing with the Church hierarchy.”<\/p>\n
Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center, a prominent figure in the Jewish Reform movement, voiced support for Waskow in a statement, calling Donohue’s email “disheartening.”<\/p>\n
“Certainly, the importance of both the health care rights of women and the social justice passion of the Catholic nuns who serve on the front lines of our neediest citizens\u2019 struggles for economic justice deserve a more respectful response,” Saperstein said.<\/p>\n
\n
The email exchange:<\/big><\/p>\nFrom: Catholic Lea g ue <\/strong>
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:15:48 -0400<\/strong>
To: <\/strong>
Subject: Rabbi Waskow <\/strong> <\/p>\nYour latest snide attack on the Catholic Church (\u201cWhose Religious Freedom Is Under Attack\u201d) exhibits appalling ignorance. The issue is not contraception\u2014it is the right of a religious institution not to be forced to pay for services it deems immoral. In other words, the First Amendment is in play. Indeed, the Obama administration is redefining what qualifies as a Catholic organization as any entity that hires and serves mostly people of its own religion. Would you prefer that we discriminate against non-Catholics in our social service agencies, hospitals and schools? <\/strong><\/p>\nMoreover, since when is it the business of any religious leader to condemn the strictures of another religion? You are not only clueless about the situation concerning nuns, you have stuck your nose in where you don\u2019t belong. <\/strong><\/p>\nBill Donohue<\/strong>
President<\/strong>
Catholic League<\/strong><\/p>\n************************************<\/strong><\/p>\nFrom: Rabbi Arthur Waskow <\/strong>
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:30:59 -0400<\/strong>
To: Catholic League <\/strong>
Subject: Re: The Catholic League, Bishops, the Nuns, & Women<\/strong><\/p>\nMr. Donohue,<\/strong><\/p>\n(In your letter (which I have included below), you say you are concerned about where my nose is.<\/strong><\/p>\nHere is where my nose is, and where it belongs:<\/strong><\/p>\nTens of thousands of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu women work for or study at various Catholic-sponsored universities and hospitals that involve and hire them — and that receive my\/ our tax money. (They are quite different from fully religious Catholic institutions, like churches, dioceses, or the NCCB, that do NOT receive tax money.)<\/strong><\/p>\nMany many of those women who are hired by or are students of these tax-supported non-religious institutions need contraception, but can\u2019t afford it without insurance.<\/strong><\/p>\nThey are being pressured by — not your Church, since most of the nuns utterly disagree and they too are part of your Church, thanks be to God — but by your NCCB, to forego contraception because they can\u2019t afford it without insurance.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd they are being pressured even though the President has agreed that the cost of that insurance will NOT come from the pockets of the Catholic hierarchy or these Catholic-sponsored institutions.<\/strong><\/p>\nThose women are my business. All of them, including the Catholic women who in shaping their own religious consciences (did you know that women are capable of doing that?) have concluded that contraception is ethical and moral.<\/strong><\/p>\nWould you also suggest I keep my long Jewish nose out of some Catholic priests\u2019 rape of Catholic children and some Catholic bishops\u2019 protection of those priests from the law, because I\u2019m not a Catholic? Perhaps you would.<\/strong><\/p>\nIn any case, the last I heard, God is ONE, and I try to live by that principle. That means I am obligated to act when any person or institution (of any religion) is perpetrating injustice on anyone (of any religion).<\/strong><\/p>\nBlessings to you of sharing, shalom, and salaam; of healing and wholeness —<\/strong><\/p>\nRabbi Arthur Waskow, Ph. D.<\/strong><\/p>\n*************************************<\/strong><\/p>\nRabbi Waskow,<\/strong><\/p>\nAll of those non-Catholics who work at Catholic centers are free to lea
\nve whenever they find our strictures disagreeable. What they are not free to do is to demand that Catholic institutions make reforms that suit them. The very demand is despotic.<\/strong><\/p>\nYou unwittingly make my point about the Obama administration: they are telling Catholic entities that they are not really Catholic if they hire and serve people of other faiths. In other words, if we discriminate, we\u2019re okay. Amazing logic.<\/strong><\/p>\nContraception is free from Planned Parenthood for anyone who can\u2019t afford it, so your position implodes.<\/strong><\/p>\nSince you are interested in the subject of rape, I hope you are following the unbelievable explosion of child rape in the Orthodox Jewish community and the intimidation\u2014by family members\u2014of victims. The pressure put on the D.A. to deep six these rapes is sickening. You need to do something about this epidemic right now. Suggestion: follow the reforms of the Catholic Church and you won\u2019t have these problems.<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Koch, my friend, once said that Jews had better not make enemies of their Catholic friends since they have so few of them. Think about that the next time you feel compelled to attack my religion.<\/strong><\/p>\nBill Donohue<\/strong><\/p>\nP.S. I do not have a long nose<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the name of fighting hatred of Catholics, William Donohue has spent the past two…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.idavox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Donahue\"](\"http:\/\/s3-ec.buzzfed.com\/static\/enhanced\/web05\/2012\/6\/20\/13\/enhanced-buzz-20370-1340214129-3.jpg\")
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