The Sanhedrin vs. the Beijing Olympics
Human rights activists critical of the upcoming Beijing Olympics have gained a surprising new ally: the “re-established Sanhedrin.”
Yes, that’s right, the re-established Sanhedrin — a body launched in 2004 by a group of Israeli Orthodox rabbis in a somewhat audacious attempt to reconstitute the ancient supreme rabbinic court of the same name — has reportedly ruled that “participating in these Olympics will be deemed a danger to the well-being of humanity,” pointing to the Chinese communist regime’s human rights abuses.
Even more surprising is that, according to YNet, these Orthodox rabbis were spurred in part by claims from Israeli athletes who are practitioners of Falun Gong and complained of the persecution of Chinese members of the Buddhist-influenced exercise movement. The Sanhedrin also approached the Chinese embassy in Israel to hear the regime’s side. Ultimately, however, the Sanhedrin appears to have weighed in firmly on the side of the Falun Gong practitioners.
YNet reports:
The rabbis wrote in their verdict that “the court has reached its conclusion based on the accumulated multiple circumstantial evidence that there is indeed a severe phenomenon of murdering innocent Falun Gong men, also motivated by financial calculations of commercially exploiting their organs.”
The court called upon the Chinese government to adopt and enforce the Noahide Laws prohibiting murder and theft, and added that “the Jewish nation has experienced the Holocaust under the heavy hand of the Germans during the Nazi regime, which massacred millions of Jews, and therefore must be especially sensitive to the outcry of the persecuted.”
On taking part in the Chinese-hosted Olympics, the Sanhedrim said: “The Chinese government is about to host the Olympics – an event which brings people of different nations closer together…disregarding the bloodshed of the innocent may seem as an encouragement similar to Hitler’s during his rule in Berlin.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
