This is the Bio of Rabbi Yona Metzger. He is forging ahead with the U.N. in Jerusalem meeting with all faiths for World Peace. To include is the Dalai Lama and I understand that this is also including the Vatican for World Peace. Sounds ominous, the Religious One World Group. Please read on....
Yona Metzger
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Rabbi Yona Metzger
Rabbi Yona Metzger (born 1953) is the current Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, appointed in 2003. His counterpart is Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel.
Background
Rabbi Metzger was born in Haifa. He served in the IDF as a chaplain, fought in several wars in the 7th Armored Tank Brigade, and was discharged with the rank of captain. He is the youngest Chief Rabbi in Israel's history. Rabbi Metzger received his ordination from the Kerem Be-Yavne hesder yeshiva before working as a religious teacher. He served as rabbi of the Tiferet Zvi Synagogue in Tel Aviv and was later appointed regional rabbi of northern Tel Aviv. [1] Metzger is the former head of a publishing house and has written several books, two of which were awarded prizes by the President of Israel.While Metzger is from a National Religious family and educational background, he has been closely identified with haredi Judaism, specifically Misnagdim, since his election to the Chief Rabbinate. Some observors believe that this makes Metzger a prime candidate to represent both communities, with one reporter calling him " undoubtedly the most moderate and most Zionist candidate."[2] His supporters have often compared him to his immediate predecessor, Yisrael Meir Lau, who was seen as having a foot in every camp, which helped him in dealing with different kinds of Jews, particularly secular ones. However, others have suggested that the perception of Metzger not having a "real base" has in fact hurt his credibility. Some Religious Zionists consider Metzger to have "sold out" to the haredim [3], and while the haredim are happy to have someone loyal to their camp in the post, they do not really consider Metzger to be a member of their community [4]. The fact that he was largely undistinguished in either group prior to the election has not helped his prestige. A 2003 Jerusalem Post article included an interview with several students at the Religious Zionist Bar-Ilan University where one man commented, "We don't consider Metzger to be one of our own". [5]
In 2004, he announced an initiative to insert a special prayer for Jonathan Pollard in the daily prayer service. The prayer was written by Metzger and is written in the style of a "Mishberach prayer" intended for people in dire straits. Many Orthodox synagogues announced that they would adopt the new prayer into their liturgy. [6]
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New United Nations
One idea that Metzger has repeatedly proposed has been the establishment of a religious United Nations in Jerusalem. He first advocated this in late 2004 after mediating a highly-publicized dispute between Jerusalem haredim and the Armenian Christian community. [7] He raised the idea again in February 2006, at an ecumenical meeting between several high-profile rabbis and Muslim clerics with the 14th Dalai Lama in Israel, and again in March 2006, while attending the International Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace in Seville, Spain.Under Metzger's plan, the new body would contain representatives of the world's religions as opposed to nations. Metzger has also suggested that the Dalai Lama could lead the assembly. At their 2006 meeting, Metzger was quoted as saying, "Instead of planning for nuclear war and buying tanks and fighter jets, it will invest in peace... Religious leaders will get the opportunity to meet one another and discover that they have more in common than they may have realized..." The Dalai Lama was reportedly very excited at the idea and pledged to help Metzger realize his plan. [8], [9] Other supporters include Frederico Major, the co-president of the Alliance for Civilisations, a Spanish lobby group for international conflict resolution. [10]
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Relationship with Armenians
During his term, Metzger has been involved in serveral notable incidents of rapprochement with the global and Israeli Armenian communities.In December 2004, Metzger was instrumental in easing tensions between Jerusalem's haredim and Armenian Christians following an incident in which a Haredi yeshiva student spat on an Armenian Archbishop. Metzger gained further attention in November, 2005, during a visit to the Memorial of Armenian Genocide and Genocide Museum in Yerevan. He laid a wreath and gave a short speech in which he acknowledged the pain of the Armenian people and emphasized that though Israel does not formally recognize the Armenian Genocide as a genocide, he does "use that term." Metzger went on to say that "no other nation can understand the pain of the Armenians better than Jews." [11] Metzger's comments received a very positive reaction in Armenia, particularly at the implication that more Israelis are changing their positions on using the term "Genocide" to refer to the Armenians. As Israel is a very strong ally of Turkey, many are optimistic that a change in Israeli attitudes could eventually lead to a similar phenomenon in Turkey. [12]
Turkey's Jews, on the other hand, themselves a vulnerable minority population, reacted with some discomfort at Metzger putting them in an awkward situation. The spokesman for Turkey's Chief Rabbi commented, "Let the historians do their job and then we will see." [13]
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Controversy
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2003 Election
Metzger has been seen as a controversial figure since his original election as Chief Rabbi. Many saw his election as having more to do with Israeli politics than religion. Metzger, who is not considered a halachic authority, is largely acquiescant to the rulings of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, a powerful figure in the Ashkenazi haredi community. There is evidence suggesting that his election was orchestrated by Eliashiv, supported by Shas' Ovadia Yosef to both install a weak Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi as well as embarass the NRP, whose candidate, Yaakov Ariel, had been expected to win the appointment. [14]Metzger's election came as something of a surprise to both Religious Zionists and Haredim in Israel. Rabbi Yehuda Gilad, a left-wing Religious Zionist, charged that Metzger's close ties to the Mitnagdim leadership threatened to strongly alienate the country's Religious Zionists. "At the end of the day, the only population that related seriously to [the Chief Rabbinate] was the religious Zionist population, since the ultra-Orthodox population doesn't recognize the Chief Rabbinate and the secular population thinks the rabbinate is an issue for the religious...And if the religious Zionist population loses its faith in [the Chief Rabbinate], then we have a very sad situation." [15]
Metzger faced opposition for other reasons, as well. Detractors noted that, by comparison to most of his predecessors, Metzger had very little experience as a rabbinic authority. Metzger had never served as a religious judge (dayan), though his role as Chief Rabbi would require him to sit as President of the Rabbinical Supreme Court for five years, before switching with his Sephardic counterpart to be head of the Chief Rabbinate Council. [16] Outgoing Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron wrote a formal letter to the Chief Rabbinic Council complaining about Metzger's appointment. In his letter, Bakshi-Doron described a 1998 rabbinical investigation into Metzger's personal conduct and credentials, following the publicizing of multiple accusations of sexual harassment, forged signatures on wedding contracts, fraud and threatening other rabbis.[17] The commission of rabbis found Metzger's explanations of his actions "insufficient" and ruled him "unfit to serve as a rabbi." The commission, which included Rabbi Shlomo Amar, later agreed to drop the ruling on condition that Metzger withdraw his candidacy for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, which he did. Bakshi-Doron was incensed to learn that, five years later, Metzger had now entered into the race for Chief Rabbi of the state. He called his appointment "a desecration of God's name." [18]
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WorldPride
In April 2005, Metzger united with Shlomo Amar, along with prominent Muslim and Christian religious leaders in condemning announcements that organizers of WorldPride, a Gay Pride festival, intended to hold their 2005 ten-day meeting in Jerusalem. At a press conference, Metzger pleaded with WorldPride's leaders: "Please do not damage the holiness of Jerusalem...Preserve its character, preserve its peace . . . cancel your plans." [19]Metzger and his cohorts were criticized by many in both the GLBT and liberal Jewish movements for what they deemed religious interolance. The festival, which was planned for August, was postponed until 2006 so as to not coincide with the Disengagement from Gaza.
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Criminal allegations
Metzger has been repeatedly accused of breaking the law. In 2003, the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv published a report in which four young men accused Metzger of groping them. He has been accused of sexually harassing women as well. There have been multiple allegations that Metzger forged signatures of witnesses on ketubot, to permit him to officiate at as many weddings as possible in a single evening. He has also been charged with demanding exhorbitant fees to perform weddings.In February 2005, the Israeli police began a formal criminal investigation of Metzger regarding allegations of fraud and bribery related to benefits Metzger received from a Jerusalem hotel. [20] Metzger was questioned twice and denied any wrongdoing, but suspended himself from the Rabbinical High Court in June 2005 while waiting to see if the Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz would decide to indict him. [21] Despite the National Fraud Squad's announcement that it had sufficient evidence for an indictment, there does not seem to have been any follow-up since the summer.
Metzger and his supporters have dismissed all of the accusations against him as part of an ongoing smear campaign against him by his enemies and the secular press. The lack of any substantive reaction from either the Israeli public or government suggests that most people either do not believe the charges made against Metzger, or feel that they have been exaggerated and do not merit him losing his job. [22]
Patty Hayes