Snowcone.
Abba
$306 raised
GOAL: $50,000
4
Donors
4
DonorsSupport this cause and make a difference
2017-04-27
Joey Warren
$180
2017-04-25
Anonymous donor
2017-04-24
Patrick T.
$54
2017-04-24
Anonymous donor
$54
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The Religion Thing Part 2
A few people have come to me saying they can’t agree with my religious position because they have the impression that I am favoring Judaism over Christianity.
Actually, the exact reverse is happening which should become crystal clear in this update.
To clarify what the campaign has already stated and clearly state my position on the subject I will expand on the key fey facts of the matter…
The basis of my opinion that my ex-wife is exhibiting anti-Semitic behavior is based on history itself. In the previous update I touched upon this and in this update I will leave no doubt in the mind of any reasonable, rational person as to what is actually going on with my daughter when it comes to religion.
My daughter regularly attended Jewish education classes since the age of 2 which only stopped when the divorce proceedings began. Since that time, any overt attempt to bring Milana to Hebrew school or to a holiday service or to a Jewish holiday party was sabotaged. As my mother stated in her video, if either of us has any plans to bring Milana to a Shavuot ice cream party, a Lag B’omer festival or a Purim party or a Chunukah party or a Saturday morning service in the synagogue or anything of the kind me or my mom cannot let my ex-wife know what the plans are or suddenly Milana is not available that day. COINCIDENCE? I’ve seen the same thing myself. Experience has taught us that we have to practically “operate in secret” to do this. Why are we forced to operate as though we were Jews in Soviet Russia forced to pray and observe in darkened basements for fear of the KGB discovering the practice of religion?
TO THAT END Milana suddenly became unavailable until 12 PM on any Sunday. Curiously, the religious classes my daughter had been attending for years runs from 10 AM until 12 PM – on Sunday. The most recent example of this is our cousin’s bar mitzvah in Connecticut. Since this is an overnight trip out of state my mother only thought it right to seek permission from my ex-wife — which was promptly denied because it seems Milana has other plans on Saturday May 6th that absolutely cannot be changed or rescheduled or canceled for a once-in-a-lifetime event, if my ex-wife is to be believed. Again – Coincidence?
The marital home only had kosher foods and both me and my wife-at-the-time cooked kosher food. Milana’s mother learned all of the essential kashrut (kosher) laws from me and to the fullest extent possible we kept a kosher home. Milana was raised knowing these kosher laws in knowing what she can and can’t eat. I always understood and accepted my wife’s tastes in food which included many pork products and Milana’s mother always respected the kosher laws and never fed Milana this food….. until the divorce started. Milana’s mother has years of experience with buying and cooking kosher foods. She knows all of the brands and she’s well aware of the kosher section of our supermarket. TYING THIS INTO THE LARGER ISSUE OF FOOD QUALITY — the general public largely considers kosher food – and especially kosher meat – as superior in quality in terms of taste, texture and overall quality. (See https://www.drweil.com/diet-nutrition/nutrition/are-kosher-foods-better-for-you/ AND http://www.naturalnews.com/022446_kosher_meat_foods.html AND http://www.oprah.com/health/dr-oz-answers-questions-about-kosher-food) It would not be difficult in any way for Milana’s mother to continue this practice and, as a result, her daughter would eat healthier foods on so many levels (see http://justiceforjewsanddads.org/index.php/2017/04/23/should-milana-be-forced-to-eat-school-meals/) and maintain dietary standards that my daughter knew all about since she could talk.
So why is my ex-wife intentionally NOT feeding Milana kosher food? Is she being spiteful or cheap — or both?
As stated in the project, my daughter has been essentially disconnected from Judaism and is getting plugged into Christianity instead. And I get no say in the matter.
In fact, I don’t have a lot of say or even any say in anything…. my ex-wife does whatever she wants and if I don’t like it I’m free to file another $5,000 court motion each and every time. This should be a familiar story to any divorced dad.
But back to Judaism…
The heart of the matter is that my daughter is being pulled away from Judaism – the only religion she’s known her whole life — and pushed into another religion.
Ask yourself why my ex-wife chose this route. Why not show respect for my daughter’s feelings and her very identity in allowing her to continue practicing and learning Judaism the same as she always did WHILE learning about her mother’s religion?
When my ex-wife did not permit Milana to make her flight to see me earlier this month two lines were crossed; my rights as a father and Milana’s own feelings on the matter which is what led her to cry for two days. Another sad result of this is that Milana did not participate in Passover at all but did attend an Easter service.
What’s happening here isn’t co-existence or tolerance. This is the subrogation of one religion in favor of another through the actions and decisions of my ex-wife.
For anyone of any faith nothing could be so dangerous.
A couple of people raised a good question about Christian holidays which runs along the lines of “Since you married a gentile what’s wrong with her knowing the religion and holidays of both of her parents?”
It’s a good question. Here’s the answer:
There was no duality of religion for the 15 years we were married. Dad’s Jewish, daughter’s Jewish and mom was non-practicing of any religion and happily supported and agreed with my daughter being raised Jewish.
My daughter never saw a Christmas tree in our home. We didn’t make or paint or hide Easter eggs. My ex-wife had not attended a single church service the entire time we were married and the topic was never raised to bring Milana to church, give her a Christian or Catholic education or background of any kind.
I say without any exaggeration these were all non-issues.
In fact, my ex-wife attended many Jewish family functions over the years from holidays to banquets to parties just for the heck of it.
There was absolutely no trace of Christianity in any form or of any denomination during our marriage. If there had been, my reaction to and opinion of recent events would be very very different.
Given the facts of this situation it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that there is an insincere and hidden agenda here.
It’s been a wild 24 hours since the campaign launched! Massive outreach to friends and family and the media has started and response has been split into three categories, to my surprise….
1) People that are shocked by how my daughter is forced to live and angry at my ex for being yet another divorced mother who takes full advantage of the family court system by profiting from it. as she does everything she can to hurt her daughter – and me. This is by far the largest group.
2) People who initially weren’t happy that I “Jewishized” my campaign — even though there is a Jewish issue here. When I tell those people to look at the second half of the campaign and read about Milana’s unnecessary and totally avoidable low qualify of life, something clicks and they get it. I see my efforts as a “two for the price of one” undertaking. By getting custody of Milana I am able to give her the life she used to have and the life she deserves to live and COULD live now as she becomes fully reconnected to the religion she’s been raised in.
There’s a bonus to dads everywhere who are going through the exact same thing; I am showing them an alternative legal strategy that, when successfully executed, turns the tables in family court and gives fathers the legal advantage for a change. I plan to blog about this in the next 24 hours or so and provide an overview of how this works. This should give a lot of divorcing/divorced dads a new sense of hope and a smile on their face.
3) By far the smallest group are those few people who were actually ticked off that I was crowdfunding for a personal cause. For those few people out there who take offense by a personal fundraising cause like this just consider this a medical fundraiser for cancer removal. In one sense that is exactly what this is.