JTF.ORG Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Yisrael on July 11, 2007, 04:56:10 PM
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(http://images.townnews.com/thedailyworld.com/content/articles/2007/07/11/local_news/01news.jpg)(http://images.townnews.com/thedailyworld.com/content/articles/2007/07/11/news_galleries/news/01news-3.jpg)
There are only a handful of Jews in the Stafford Creek Correctional Center. They say a general lack of understanding about their faith is stressful. So is what feels like constant Christian proselytizing by fellow inmates and the occasional corrections officer.
But they say that even the neo-Nazis who roam the prison aren’t as obnoxious as the day-to-day indignities they face for wearing yarmulkes, or having to explain why pork pepperoni is not kosher.
Corrections Department Chaplain Gary Friedman in Olympia acknowledged that being estranged from the faith community is hard on Jewish inmates. “They build prisons (in rural areas)” where there aren’t many Jews, Friedman said. He estimated that 95 percent of the Washington State Jewish community — indeed, most of the “minority faiths,” like Islam and Buddhism — is on the I-5 corridor.
Which is why the Aleph Institute, a non-profit organization based in Miami, sent rabbinical students Mendel Sossonko, 23, and Berel Zaklikofsky, 24, across the Western states to visit prisons, including Stafford Creek. The mission is to connect Jewish inmates with their communities.
“We’re here to spend good Jewish quality time,” Zaklikofsky said Tuesday.
As Sossonko would tell the 10 or so inmates who dropped into the class at various times, “When one Jew meets another Jew, it is a happy thing. It’s a good day.”
That morning the rabbinical students had been at the Women’s Correctional Center at Purdy near Gig Harbor, where they had two inmate visitors, both of whom were unaware of the existence of the other Jewish inmate.
“We are here to hook it up,” Sossonko said, the English slang tinted with the young Hasid’s accent.
http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2007/07/11/local_news/01news.txt
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I wonder why those jews were in prison to begin with.
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Thank G-d for men like Sossonko and Zaklikofsky.
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Those Jews are probably in prison for white colar crimes. There are many Jews currently imprisoned for those types of crimes.
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This is in Washington State. I didnt know there were Jews in the prison system here.
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Maybe they moved to Washington State from other states
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The aryan nations has Jews Klan members can'nt join Todd Bingham one of the aryan nations is jewish
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2447403.stm
Chuck said many AB members were not inherently racist but banded together for protection.
He said incarcerated members of the Ku Klux Klan were forbidden from joining the AB because the latter welcomed Jews.