Olympian Commemorates Holocaust Victims

 INCREDIBLE & HEROIC:

 French swimmer at Olympic shocks world with tattoo in HEBREW commemorating Holocaust victims (his grandma is Auschwitz survivor)

The ultimate silent protest - LIKE and SHARE this....translation of tattoo: "I Am Nothing Without Them"

SHJ Condemns Bigotry toward American Muslims

The Society for Humanistic Judaism joined the Interfaith Alliance in a broad coalition of 42 secular and religious organizations that sent a letter to Reps. Michele Bachmann, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Thomas Rooney, and Lynn Westmoreland protesting the representatives' recent letters regarding prominent American Muslim individuals and organizations.

The organizations told the representatives that their "letters question the loyalty of faithful Americans based on nothing more than their religious affiliations and what is at best tenuous evidence of their associations. As such, your actions have serious implications for religious freedom and the health of our democracy." Among the organizations co-signing the letter along with the SHJ are National Council of Jewish Women, the Secular Coalition for America, NAACP, Rabbis for Human Rights - North America, People for the American Way, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and the ACLU. The letter and list of organizations signing may be found here.

"Our Humanistic Jewish values teach us to stand up for the dignity of all people," said Society for Humanistic Judaism executive director Bonnie Cousens. "An attack on any individual simply because of their religious beliefs or associations threatens the religious freedom guaranteed to all Americans by the First Amendment."

Nazi's Son Converts to Judaism

Bernd Wollschlaeger, MD, FAAFP was born, raised, and educated in Germany, emigrated to Israel, served in the Israel Defense Forces, and now lives in Miami, Florida and is a practicing family physician and author.

His book describes his lives journey, were he started as the son of a Nazi:
http://www.amazon.com/German-Life-Against-possible-Biography/dp/0979183103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344650282&sr=8-1&keywords=a+german+life

You can watch a YouTube video about this book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ6ECvyYHyQ.

Center for Inquiry Mourns Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal, a prolific and provocative author and longtime laureate of the International Academy of Humanism, has died at the age of eighty-six. Over his long career, Vidal produced twenty-five novels, two memoirs, several volumes of essays, plays, screenplays, and television dramas. He also acted and ran for Congress twice. He expressed hostility to religion, especially Christianity, almost from the beginning; some of his most noteworthy works in this regard were published in 1992—the essay “Monotheism and Its Discontents” and the novel Live From Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal, a spoof of the New Testament. 

“Gore Vidal has been an inspirational figure to a great many people, myself included. Of course he will be remembered for being urbane, fiendishly talented, and terrifyingly witty. But, more than this, he was principled, honest, and courageous,” said Stephen Law, secretary of the Academy, which was established by the Council for Secular Humanism in 1980 to honor distinguished humanists.