New York – The rabbi who videotaped veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas telling Jews to “get the hell out of Palestine” says he has received numerous death threats and thousands of pieces of hate mail in the days since Thomas’ abrupt retirement.
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Rabbi David Nesenoff said he is facing an “overload” of threatening e-mails calling for a renewed Holocaust and targeting his family — a barrage of hate he said he planned to report to the police on Wednesday.
“This ticker tape keeps coming in,” Nesenoff told FoxNews.com. “We got one specific one saying, ‘We’re going to kill the Jews; watch your back.'”
Nesenoff said he was shocked not only by Thomas’ original remarks — which he called anti-Semitic — but by the wave of insults and threats he has received since his videotape brought about her public shaming and the end of her 50-year career at the White House.
“This is something that I thought was a couple of people here or there, [but] it’s mainstream and it’s frightening,” the Long Island rabbi said. “[Thomas] is just a little cherry on top of this huge, huge sundae of hate in America.”
Nesenoff approached Thomas with a camera on May 27 following a celebration of Jewish heritage at the White House. Asked for a comment on Israel, Thomas called Jews occupiers and said they should “go home” to Germany, Poland and the U.S.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called her remarks “offensive and reprehensible” on Monday, and her employer, Hearst Corporation, sent out a notice announcing that the longtime dean of the Washington press corps was retiring “effective immediately.”
Thomas apologized for her remarks last week after the video surfaced online and was posted to several prominent blogs.
“I deeply regret my comments,” she said in a statement, claiming they “do not reflect my heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance.”
But even as Thomas backed off from her remarks, e-mailers have continued to assail Nesenoff, who has begun posting dozens of malicious letters and YouTube comments on his website, RabbiLive.com.
“We received a lot of positive reaction, beautiful letters … from all over the United States,” he said, but they have been outweighed by the attacks that have flooded in.
its time for all of us to wake up especially the liberal jews who delude themselves into thinking that after 1945 there is no more antisemitism
its alive and well here in the us and the bad economy is going to foster it more
as a child of survivors i can tell you that the level of antisemitism is echoing pre ww2 levels
This is regrettable, but highly predictable when you consider ther is an aliance of Jew-haters who find common cause, chiefly the extremist skin head KKK types, aligned with the Islamist extremists. I hope and expect that the threats will be taken seriously, prosecutions will take place and body guards provided.
what I’m wondering is: why did the world help us after WWII? Did they love is then?
I’m shocked!!!
For every person who sat down and wrote a letter, put a stamp and mail it out. There must be 50 who thought about it.
Who would waste their time threatening her. It seems to me that someone is trying to insinuate that bad people are after her! Let her retire already – she is no longer of any importance
This “rabbi” looks like howie mandel.
to # 2. We have more to worry from rank & file leftists (like; Obama, Helen Thomas…& Sweden..) than from the extremists (like skinheads, KKK)
to # 3. They helped us: a) because they felt a little guilty. b) because even when they hate us, they felt they need to help. There are basically good people that are racists (especially when it comes to Jews.
Yes it is time to wake up and check on the affiliation of tea party members and other right wing anti-Israel antisemites
I’m sure the FBI will round up the terrorists who are sending him the emails. In so doing the Rabbi has foiled other terrorist plots. Kol Hakavod to him!
this rabbi should get resined also ,ask the old ones who comes from where thomas send back , how ww2 start up dont filter out on public this antisemitism it just bring more not less
The truth is, while terrible hate messages may be emailed to him or in comments sections on YouTube this only seems to be so alarming because we are in an age where people rant anonymously (like I am right now) via the web without consequence. In WW2, the hate had to manifest itself right to the surface and into real action. People nowadays write hateful and mostly stupid comments on news blogs, video blogs and email that they would NEVER say or have written in a letter 20 years ago. The alarm we must have in seeing the volume of hateful and antisemitic comments on the web must be tempered by realizing that due to the anonymous and instantaneous nature of the web, a greater # of nutters are commenting than you would find in a broader analysis of american opinion if more scientifically measured. Realize that what is written on blogs reflects a disproportianate amount of opinion from a very minority of the population.
I think there needs to be some clarifications made here. The VAST majority of those who side with our sworn enemies including Hamas, Hezbollah, and most of the Arab world are NOT right wing nut jobs. They are the mainstream liberals in this country and all over the world. Go to any left wing news site (for example The Huffington Post) or even one of the State Run Media (CNN, MSNBC, ABC, The NYT) and the comments you will see that are venomously anti Israel and anti Semitic are overwhelmingly left wing liberals. It is very important to understand this so that we can know that liberals are the mortal enemies of the Jews, the US and civilization. Think about this the next time you cast your ballot.
CHelmiTe Says:
“ Who would waste their time threatening her. It seems to me that someone is trying to insinuate that bad people are after her! Let her retire already – she is no longer of any importance ”
moe says:
do you read the top?
“This is something that I thought was a couple of people here or there, [but] it’s mainstream and it’s frightening,” the Long Island rabbi said. “[Thomas] is just a little cherry on top of this huge, huge sundae of hate in America.”
How true!
Rashi on parshat zachor at end of ki tetze: Im shakarta bamidot hevey zahir megerui haoyev. Sforno: Amalek appeared only due to dishonesty in business among clal yisrael
I’ll bet most, if not all, of these threats are coming from our “peaceful” and loving Muslim American brothers. Michael Savage for president!!!!!!
Who gave him a Smicha….? oh I know who, Rabbi Jessica Smith, from Mobile, Alabama. He got tested on the 10 commandments and how to knit his own kippa, and boom you get a smicha, and now he is a Rabbi.
These weren’t hate messages, but messages of love, but because he read them right to left, they appeared filled with unjust sense of hate.
There is no reason for concern. We Yidden are very very safe here. no one hates us. There isn’t another holocaust coming. Nothing to be worried about.
Calm down, false alarm.
What’s his website? And what is the FBI doing (if anything!) to trace these threateners?
This Should only cause us to stick together. no shock or surprise here…. The Jews have been hated since the dawn of time.
Any one know anyting about the Rabbi? Wher he Learnt? Etc.
I think that everyone is making a big “tsimmis” out of nothing. Even if 25,000 e-mails were sent, and 50 more (for each one) thought about sending one, that still only amounts to 1,250,000. There are over 300,000,000 in the USA. I don’t think that more than 5% of the population is anti-semitic, or about 15,000,000 people. 95% of the public is not anti-semitic. Also, many of those e-mails could have been sent from overseas. The American people are basically good people. Anti-semitic incidents in the USA, are nothing compared to what occurs in France, Britain, and other countries. The vast majority of the hate e-mail senders are cowards!
You are right, he mamash takeh eppes looks like the zaach, Howie Mandel. L’maaseh, do you druk it like that? Let’s meet for lunch at a fast food place so we can become greasier and zoop it in. What’s the Hallachah if someone looks like you? Can you ask him to do a m’laacha nisht g’shabbos g’rett if it is b’derech drush? What if alot of money is involved?
Helen Thomas’ remarks were horribly anti-semitic. The scarier part is how many people agree with her… Instead of wringing our hands and declaring a Holocaust is on the way, lets address the misconceptions out there. On a personal level, making a kiddush Hashem in our daily lives, maybe we can make a difference. Daily interactions like thank you or a please, holding the door open, no double parking , not letting our children litter… Make an effort to show these are the kind of people we are, considerate, kind and helpful to our neighbors… A grassroots movement that starts with every person making a positive statement about yiddishkeit thru their actions….