Almost a week after the incident sparked an international outcry, the official Jewish community of Madrid, Spain responded to a report
that their haredi chief rabbi had called homosexuals “deviants” who are in
need of “reeducating” by denying their rabbi made the remarks.
Spanish Jewish Community Responds To Uproar Over Haredi Chief Rabbi’s Anti-Gay Remarks By Insisting He Never Made Them
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Almost a week after the incident sparked an international outcry, the official Jewish community of Madrid, Spain responded to a report that their haredi chief rabbi had called homosexuals “deviants” who are in need of “reeducating” by denying their rabbi made the remarks.
Rabbi Moshe Bendahan made the remarks when being interviewed by Antonio Aradillas for Religion Digital, a major Spanish news website for religious issues. The interview was published late last week, sparking an international outcry against Bendahan.
The interview was “distorted,” a spokeswoman for the Madrid Jewish community, Ziva Freidkes, told JTA today, insisting that Bendahan never made those remarks about homsexuals. The interview was “inaccurate and took things out of context,” Freidkes insisted.
Bendahan also reportedly said that “homosexuality is a deviation from nature. It’s an anti-natural tendency and a sin,” adding that same sex marriage was a “monstrosity.”
Madrid’s Jewish community published a statement yesterday in Religion Digital.
“For a very long time now, we have been supporting the gay community’s fight against discrimination,” the statement reportedly said.
Religion Digital denied Bendahan had been misquoted. It also pointed out that the journalist who interviewed Bendahan, Antonio Aradillas, has “undeniable prestige and decades of experience in covering religious affairs.”
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