World
Counter-Attack
Air Force vet tackles proselytizing after sons' harassment.
Ron Kampeas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Washington
B
etrayal. Contagion. Oceans of
blood.
That's Mikey Weinstein,
describing the threat he believes the United
States faces from the Christian evangelists
he says are permeating the military. At least,
that's the printable Weinstein.
And he says to expect more of the same
in-your-face approach as his Military
Religious Freedom Foundation picks up
steam and continues to pursue lawsuits
against the U.S. military.
The U.S. is "out of the business of com-
forting the afflicted, and we've gone into
the business of afflicting the comfortable,'
Weinstein said in Washington last week
befOre a fundraiser for the foundation he
established a year ago. Weinstein, an Air
Force veteran and an assistant counsel in
the Reagan administration, was thrust into
this limelight 18 months ago when both his
sons reported anti-Jewish harassment dur-
ing their stints at the Air Force Academy in
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Weinstein, 51, was shocked; he had never
experienced such intense hostility, includ-
ing obscenities and epithets; nor had his
father, a U.S. Navy veteran. The culprit, he
concluded, was a new pervasive evangelism
in the military.
Evangelical fliers were distributed on
campus, chaplains proselytized from their
lecterns and cadets who did not attend
prayet meetings were snubbed — or worse.
The revelations were like a bolt, Weinstein
said, precisely because as a veteran of the
military's legal corps, he understood that the
armed forces work under a hierarchy. "We
don't let sergeants pitch Amway because we
know of the draconian structure of the mili-
tary hierarchy' he said.
He felt the need to stand up to an "uncon-
stitutional contagion:' he said. "We have seen
this train leave the station before, and we've
ended up with oceans of blood."
Since then, Weinstein has joined Melinda
Morton, a Lutheran chaplain fired by the
Air Force for her critiques of evangelism, in
becoming the go-to address for media seek-
ing commentary on the issue. It has also
brought less welcome attention.
Weinstein says with a half-smile: "I've
been called the field general of the armies
of Satan."
Weinstein, who lives in Albuquerque,
where he is an executive employed by bil-
lionaire businessman Ross Perot, recently
turned on his congresswoman, Rep. Heather
Wilson.
Wilson, a fellow Air Force veteran, had
employed Weinstein's son, Casey, and had
walked him across the stage when he gradu-
ated in 2004. She was also one of only eight .
Republicans who backed a bill aimed at roll-
ing back evangelical coercion in the military.
That wasn't good enough for Weinstein,
who is now fundraising for Wilson's
•
Democratic opponent, New Mexico Attorney
General Patricia Madrid, in what is expected
to be a tight race. He says Wilson has not
been sufficiently outspoken on the issue.
"Heather Wilson took me and my family,
and threw us under a bus to bleed by the
side of the road',' Weinstein recently told the
Albuquerque Tribune. He called her silence
"betrayal!"
That kind of rhetoric unsettles Jewish
groups, who count Wilson as a friend.
The centerpiece of the foundation's activ-
ity has been Weinstein's suit, filed in October
against the U.S. Air Force. The lawsuit
would force the Air Force to ensure that
"no member of the U.S. Air Force, includ-
ing a chaplain, is permitted to evangelize,
proselytize, or in any related way attempt
to involuntarily convert, pressure, exhort or
persuade a fellow member of the U.S. Air
Force to accept their own religious beliefs
while on duty"
The. Air Force, backed by conservative
Christian groups and by powerful congres-
sional Republicans, says such requirements
would infringe on free speech rights. The
Christian Coalition has been in front in the-
campaign, saying that keeping chaplains
from mentioning Jesus in multifaith con-
texts constitutes "religious discrimination
against Christians."
That argument infuriates Weinstein, who
calls it "torturing language." He says the
military should never have become a forum
for this debate. "The bombs and the bullets
all belong to the military," he said. "If you
Mikey Weinstein
lose the military, you lose everything."
It's a stark contrast with how major
Jewish organizations have dealt with the
issue. In a statement last week, four advoca-
cy groups granted a cautious welcome to Air
Force guidelines aimed at stemming pros-
elytizing. The guidelines have "substantially
alleviated concerns that followed reports of
religious proselytization and anti-Semitism:'
said the letter signed by the American
Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation
League, the American Jewish Congress and
the Reform movement's Religious Action
Center.
The Jewish groups suggested a greater
emphasis against "particularistic" prayer in
multifaith settings and urged officers not to
discuss beliefs with enlisted people in the .
military. The one-page guidelines issued by
the Air Force back away from such specific
recommendations, instead generally recom-
mending "sensitivity."
An earlier version, which urged officers
to keep their counsel in front of enlisted
men, was rescinded by the Air Force after
a nationwide campaign by conservative
Christian groups. Weinstein dismisses the
guidelines as "words',' and says the Air
Force's rollback proves his point.
Some Jewish groups said engagement is
better than Weinstein's brand of confronta-
tion. Others said Weinstein provided a use-
ful "bad cop" role in the effort to engage the
military. ❑
Mixing In
Facing shrinking numbers, day school in London admits non-Halachic Jews.
Vanessa Bulkacz
Jewish Telegraphoc Agency
London
T
he decision by a London-area
Orthodox day school to admit
students with only a Jewish father
is provoking outrage in parts of the com-
munity. King Solomon High School's move
brought a vehement reaction, including
Rabbi Alex Chapper, who said the policy
"effectively recognizes the liberal definition
of who is a Jew."
•
.
The school's action also has re-opened a
debate about the future of publicly funded
Jewish schooling in the face of shifting
Jewish demographics in London and sur-
20
June 22 2006
rounding areas.
Rabbi James Kennard, King Solomon's.
headmaster, defended the move. With a
2003 English law prohibiting state-funded
religious schools from holding empty places
for members of their own faith, the school
had to seek solutions to fill the spaces or
admit students with no Jewish ancestry.
Under the law, all schools must have 30 stu-
dents in each classroom.
Government funding covers 100 percent
of secular studies and staffing costs and
90 percent of capital costs for the building
and facilities. Jewish studies are funded by
contributions, usually from students' par-
ents. Every state-aided Jewish school had to
devise similar criteria to fill empty spaces,
Kennard said, so other schools must have
similar rules on their books — but chang-
ing demographics in northeast London
meant King Solomon had to go ahead and
implement them.
Applications last year dropped by about
40 students, to 165. Officials said the school,
which has 150 places to fill each year.
School leaders say a decline in the northeast
London 'Jewish community, combined with
increased competition from new schools in
north London, made King Solomon the first
United Synagogue affiliate 1 to implement its
next-in-line policy.
"Young families are just not staying in
that area',' one teacher said.
The demographic challenge does not exist
in every part of London: According to one
report, the rest of the city's Jewish schools
can't keep up with demand.
Rabbi Chapper, spiritual leader of the
Ilford Federation Synagogue, blamed
school governors as well. "An Orthodox
school shouldn't be giving this message. It's
wrong:' he said. "If a Jewish man marries
a non-Jewish woman, an Orthodox school
shouldn't give out the message that it's OK."
As alternatives, Chapper suggested
removing a grade, reducing admission num-
bers or admitting students with no Jewish
ancestry, adding that accepting Muslim
students would be better than the current
situation.
Kennard contended that going against
the enrollment policy is "not an option"
and if the school did so, it would lose its
funding and have to become private.
❑