I recall walking through the lobby of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel around 1978, when TVs were blasting the Israeli broadcast premiere of Handel’s “Messiah.” Sung in Hebrew and played by the Israel Philharmonic, this “Messiah” supposedly deleted every mention of Jesus. With or without Jesus, music-loving Jews tend to enjoy “Messiah,” which makes Michael Marissen’s…
Getty Images Most of the Jewish and general world is fuming over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s takeover of Crimea. But some ultra-Orthodox Jews are positively delighted by it. This week, Grand Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch, the vice president of Israel’s Rabbinical Court and a descendant of the revered rabbi known as the Vilna Gaon (aka “Genius…
A former Tennessee magistrate who ruled last summer that a baby could not be called “Messiah” because that name was reserved for Jesus Christ was censured on Monday for bias. Lu Ann Ballew was found guilty of violating judicial canons regarding impartiality and bias by a six-member panel of the Tennessee Judicial Board of Conduct….
A Tennessee judge on Wednesday restored a baby boy’s given first name of “Messiah,” ruling unconstitutional a lower ranking judge’s order changing it to “Martin” on the basis that “Messiah” is a title earned only by Jesus Christ. The parents of Messiah DeShawn Martin had gone before Tennessee Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew in…
You may have read about Lu Ann Ballew, the Tennessee judge who recently changed a 7-month-old baby’s name, Messiah, to Martin. Her ruling was based not on compassion for the poor infant, but on the opinion that “the word Messiah is a title and it is a title that has only been earned by one…
While Hanukkah preparations and aftermath can overshadow every other human activity in December, ‘tis also the season for classical concerts, especially although by no means exclusively, in the New York area. These can include much Yiddishkayt, despite the seeming omnipresence of Handel’s “Messiah.” Mahler-lovers will not want to miss the much-loved British conductor Sir Colin…
This article was originally published in the October 19, 2001 issue of the Forward. The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference By David Berger Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 195 pages, $29.50 For the past two millennia, Jews have powerfully resisted — often with their very lives — the Christian notion that…
100% of profits support our journalism
