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Westboro Baptist Church in Israel??

8 years ago
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by ck
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Well, it’s more like a former member of Westboro Baptist Church is visiting… I “met” Megan in 2009 when she basically told me that as an unrepentant Jew, I was going to go to Hell. She threw some Bible quotes at me but I told her not to waste her time with the New Testament because it meant nothing to me. She then threw some Old Testament verses at me and I told her that her interpretation was off because she was reading a translation of the original Hebrew. “You’d know that if you understood Hebrew” I said. So she decided to learn the language and our conversation now included newly learned Hebrew words.

As our online relationship progressed, we managed to meet in person. The first time we met was when she brought her family to picket the Jewlicious Festival in Long Beach. “Hi Megan, nice to finally meet you!” I told her as her and her family held up signs like “Death Penalty for Fags,” “Jews Killed Jesus,” and “Your Rabbi is a Whore.” Megan had a flag of Israel tied to her ankle, dragging on the floor and sprinkled with red “blood”paint. It was an auspicious first meeting.

Her family had terrorized and offended people across the United States, using their first Amendment free speech rights to tell grieving families that their children who had died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, or who had been murdered in their classrooms, died because there was no death penalty for “fags.” Her conversations with me had the tone of someone absolutely convinced of the rightness of her beliefs. I felt the same way about my beliefs but of course that wasn’t hard because I did not have an entire nation hating on me all the time.

Then, one of my arguments clicked. You can find out more by watching Megan’s wildly popular Ted Talk:

Or… you can come see us discuss our unlikely friendship and how that came about, in Tel Aviv on April 4th and Jerusalem on April 5th!

It turns out that Megan always planned to come to Israel. Originally it was in order to convert 144,000 righteous Jews and prepare for the rapture. Now, she’s been here eating good hummus and enjoying the sites. Come hear us talk – you will be amazed and inspired! Big thanks to the Alevy Family Foundation for helping us make this happen.

ck
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ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

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