Nathan Perlmutter, director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, has indicated his support for the controversial Brigham Young University study center of the Mormon Church under construction on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.
The ADL official noted that in medieval times, custom would not permit Jews to build synagogues taller than churches. “What really counts,” Perlmutter said, “is that made-by-Christians medievalisms… not be adopted by Jews, not in this already excessively punished century, and surely not in the city that should be a light unto all cities, Yerusalayem.”
Perlmutter’s comments are contained in his monthly column in the ADL Bulletin, the agency’s national publication. He also pointed out that “No matter compliance with Jerusalem’s demanding building requirements; no matter the approbation for the project of Mayor Teddy Kollek …; no matter the absence of evidence that Israeli Jews have converted to Mormonism, a small minority of zealots would bar the Mormons from building on Mount Scopus.”
Meanwhile, a rally was held today by a group of supporters of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Israeli Knesset member, outside the Mormons visitors bureau in Manhattan. The protestors carried placards and chanted slogans urging that the Mormons stay out of Israel and cease construction of the $15 million Center.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
