Rep. Nadler to Speak at Secular Summit

The Secular Coalition is excited to announce Congressman Jerrold Nadler, as the breakfast keynote speaker at the SCA's Secular Summit & Lobby Day on April 25th! Rep. Nadler (D-NY) is the former chair, and current ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Constitution who, in December 2010 held hearings on taxpayer dollars going directly to pervasively sectarian organizations through the White House Office Faith Based Funding.

The Secular Coalition is expecting to soon announce another member of Congress and a representative from the White House to address participants as well, for the Secular Summit & Lobby Day. There is less than a month left until the big event, so be sure to register now if you haven't already. A student rate of $25 is now available.

SCA Executive Director, Edwina Rogers, met with several House offices this past week to speak about tax issues, including Reps. John Lewis (D-GA) and Dave Reichart (R-WA). She also met with the staffer tasked with faith-based issues in the office of Rep. Mike McIntyre, co-chair of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. The meetings were scheduled in advance of the Ways and Means report on tax reform for charitable and nonprofits, due April 15th to the full committee.

This week the Supreme Court heard two cases on marriage equality. The Secular Coalition for America was out in full force educating people on the issue and sharing information about the SCA and our goals.

Finally, we are proud to announce a new service now available to all of our members: the Morning Read. If you'd like to receive this daily roundup of secular and related news stories click update subscription preferences (link also available at the bottom of this email) and check the box "Morning Links." It's that easy! You can view past issues of the Morning Read and other news updates at Secular News Daily.

Track the past week's most troubling federal and state legislation.

Are you a secular insider? Get the complete picture of what's going on in the secular movement. View this week's Movement Update Agenda or listen to the weekly call here. Or, view all of our newsletters and movement updates.

Register for SCA's Secular Summit & Lobby Day April 24-26 in DC! Can't make it? Support the event with your donation now.

New Online CFI Seminar

Science and Ethics: Crossroads and Conundrums

(SEC 238-0413)April 1 – April 30, 2013

Instructor: David Koepsell, JD, PhD

In this course we will look at two facets of the fields broadly defined as "science" and "ethics." First, what relation does science have to ethics, if any? Is there a way to reconcile them, as some philosophers have tried, by attempting a scientific approach to ethical theory, or are they, like religion and science, "non-overlapping magesteria?" Second, we will also look at how ethics and science have intersected and interacted in modern "applied" ethics, specifically bioethics, but also in other fields broadly described by the term "research ethics." In preparation for the course, students are recommended to purchase and read Science and Ethics by Paul Kurtz and David Koepsell (Prometheus, 2007).

For more info and to register: http://action.centerforinquiry.net/site/Calendar?id=103481&view=Detail.

Was Lincoln Jewish?

On the twelfth of February, 1809, 200 years ago, a young, poor illiterate woman from Virginia, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, gave birth to a son, in a log cabin built along the banks of the south fork of Nolin Creek, near what is now Hodgenville , Kentucky .

 

That baby, whom she named Abraham, grew to become one of our greatest, and most tragic, national leaders. Lincoln was a man of great spiritual conviction. Yet, and I find this fact fascinatingly instructive, Abraham Lincoln was the only American president not to have declared himself a member of any particular religious faith.

 

That fact has given rise to a great deal of interesting speculation. In fact, there are those who believe that Honest Abe was Jewish.. After all, his name was Abraham. His great-grandfather was named Mordechai.

 

Lincoln was the only President not to have a formal religious affiliation. He was neither raised in a church nor did he ever belong to a church.

 

And there's more... the town of Lincoln, in eastern England, whence his ancestors came, has an interesting Jewish history. A Jewish community was established there in 1159. During Crusader riots, the Sheriff of Lincoln saved the Jews by giving them official protection. St. Hugh, the great Bishop of Lincoln, taught love of Jews to his parishioners. His death was marked by an official period of mourning among Lincoln 's Jews. Rabbi Joseph of Lincoln was a scholar mentioned in the Talmud; Aaron of Lincoln was a financier whose operations extended all over the country.

 

In 1255, Lincoln 's Jews were accused of ritual murder. Ninety-one Lincoln Jews were sent to London for trial and 18 were executed. Notwithstanding, the Lincoln Jewish community flourished until 1290, when they were forcibly expelled by edict. Most Jewish historians assume that all the Jews of Lincoln left in 1290.

 

But could it be possible that some remained, practicing their Judaism in secret....passing the family secret from generation to generation? The more we learn of the secret life of Spanish Jewry following the Expulsion of 1492, the more we must at least consider the possibility of the same thing occurring elsewhere.

 

When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, whole Jewish communities sat shivah. Rabbis all over the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the manwho created Reform Judaism in this country, began his eulogy with the words... "Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence."

 

Lincoln was often questioned about his religious beliefs. Time and again, he told of a special passage from Scripture that summed up his theology. It was the twentieth the Book of Exodus he recommended that every American study, learn and follow.  In English it is usually referred to as the Ten Commandments.

 

Rabbi Jeff Kahn

Temple Har Shalom

 

PS: Abraham Lincoln was Jewish. An extensive research paper from a Professor in Rutgers who studied this topic extensively and found, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Abe Lincoln was Jewish.... She has absolute proof from checking out his ancestry and going back to his hometown where she did years of work on this topic. Her research was complete and absolute. Her name is Professor Elizabeth Hirschman, Rutgers University .

"The Future of the Jews"

The Westchester Jewish Council is inviting the public to join it on Thursday, February 28th for "The Future of the Jews," featuring Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat.  This special program will take place at Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains beginning at 8:00 p.m.

 

Ambassador Eizenstat is a former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and has served under Presidents Carter and Clinton.  During his time in the Clinton Administration, he had a prominent role in international Holocaust restitution initiatives.  His new book by the same title surveys the major geopolitical, economic, and security challenges facing the world in general, and the Jewish world and the United States in particular.

 

This event is co-sponsored by the Five Synagogues of White Plains Israel Action Committee and Congregation Kol Ami.  This important program is dedicated to the memory of Charles I. Petschek, a dedicated Jewish leader for many decades, who passed away recently. 

 

The event is free, but RSVPs are required.  Click here to RSVP.

Judge Nixes Suit on Westhampton Eruv

From a February 11 article in the New York Post:

Here comes the latest court battle over religious liberty. Out in Westhampton Beach, Orthodox Jews are now taking a five-year legal battle to trial.

At issue are their plans to build an eruv, an artificial perimeter — formed by placing a string on existing wires — that allows observant Jews to perform some otherwise prohibited tasks on the Sabbath.
Even if you know they’re there, they’re almost impossible to spot. There are dozens of eruvim around the country, including a large swath of Manhattan.

But anti-eruv outfits, such as Jewish People for the Betterment of Westhampton Beach, claim that an eruv would violate the separation of church and state. Last week, a federal judge dismissed one such lawsuit, but two suits by the pro-eruv community will be argued by mid-April.

This isn’t the first time an eruv has been challenged on establishment grounds. Mostly, these challenges have failed, in good part because they mistakenly assume the purpose of the First Amendment is to guarantee freedom from religion.

As Eric Rassbach of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty notes, “The First Amendment doesn’t require us to tolerate speech — it requires us to protect it. The same is true of free exercise.”

In more candid moments, some eruv opponents admit that what they really fear is that an eruv would attract Orthodox Jews to their community. This, of course, is the same argument once used to keep African-Americans and other minorities out of all-white towns: There goes the neighborhood.

And it’s no less odious today than it was back then.


Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger

An eruv marker on a utility pole

Secular Humanistic Judaism: Rabbi Sivan Maas Video

Faith Complex: Secular Humanistic Judaism

An Interview with Rabbi Sivan Maas

Rabbi Sivan Maas is the first female secular humanistic rabbi in Israel. In this interview, she explains her role in the community as well as the future of secular humanistic Judaism to Jacques Berlinerblau of Georgetown University.

http://youtu.be/OAobhoaOH8Q

Tell Congress: No Public Funding of Churches

Tomorrow Congress is quietly attempting to sneak through a bill that would allow federal grant money to go directly to the brick and mortar rebuilding of churches and other houses of worship.

Despite its unconstitutionality, lawmakers tomorrow will consider HR 592—a bill to amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, to allow houses of worship to directly receive taxpayer dollars.

There’s a reason houses of worship are prohibited. This bill would reverse years of Supreme Court precedent and directly conflict with the First Amendment to the Constitution. Additionally, permitting public grants for churches and other houses of worship would unfairly privilege religious institutions above secular institutions, many of which are not eligible for the grants. 

This bill comes two weeks after churches were granted special exemptions from a law requiring coverage of contraceptive services.  Churches are attempting to have their cake and eat it too. They want to choose when they must comply with a law and when laws must comply with them. 

Passage of the bill would create unfair advantages for religious institutions—and in effect, a government endorsement of religion-- because these institutions are exempt from paying taxes, offering financial transparency and filing the same paperwork as secular organizations, but would still benefit from public tax dollars.

Tell Congress, not so fast! Will you send a letter to your Representative urging him or her to vote no on this bill right now?

Act NOW before it's too late!
Urge your lawmakers to vote "no" on HR 592