MRFF Assists Family of Orthodox Jewish Veteran Resolve Burial Restrictions at VA Cemetery; Family Permitted to Hold Traditional Jewish Gravesite Service
MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein was contacted via email on March 9, 2025 by a family member of a Jewish veteran who served honorably in the U.S. Military and wanted an Orthodox burial. After learning of two significant conflicts between the burial procedures at the VA Cemetery and the traditional Orthodox Jewish burial ritual, this family member reached out to Mikey for assistance.
“I wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude for your help with my grandfather’s burial in the VA cemetery (name and location of cemetery withheld). As he was a Jew and wanted a Jewish funeral, your advice on how to get the VA cemetery to permit a graveside service with a minyan (a 10 man prayer quorum) and allow us to put in earth ourselves to the grave was a great comfort to us in our time of grief.” — Family member of Jewish veteran
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Petey Hogsbreath trying to “Christianize” the American military. Wants it all white and Christian.
Let’s see how they do in the next war these Christians love to start, Iran on the near-term horizon, Greenland, Denmark, Canada, Panama, Yemen, with the exception of Iran and Yemen, all NATO allies! With friends like the United States, who needs enemies? Tried to say we were at war with Venezuela so he could round up more brown people, courts shot him down. Attacked Somalia his second week in office. Who else? The EU? I can tell you who he won’t threaten military action against – Russia, China, and North Korea! You know, his buddies, true friends.
The most lethal military machine in the world being decimated right before your eyes.
Their continual mantra of America being founded on Christian values? Is that why we’re so fucked up as a country?
Missouri’s MAGA Rep Alford, at a town hall, when asked about all those veterans Elon fired says, “there’s other jobs. God has a plan!” In other words, God hates veterans too? Just like Trump and Elon?
Another MRFF victory supporting the Constitution and our secular military!
Oorah!
Synergy, please avoid conflating Christians and Christian Nationalists (Dominionists). I agree that Christian Nationalists are a major issue in our country, and their revisionist history regarding causes many to be led astray. However, conflating good Christians with them is pushing potential allies away.
Got it George, understand your point, the “potentially pushing allies away.” Albeit, the gloves are off. “It’s a republic. If you can keep it!” Franklin.
I have great difficulty discerning what a “good Christian” is. No value to the phrase. At best an ideological goal conceived in self delusion, an abrogation of responsibility.
I would counter that Christian Nationalists have hijacked your religion, tarring you with the same broad brush. It’s not of my making, it’s complicity by way of your membership, a personal choice.
The counter to the Nazi party’s conflation of Christianity with Nazi ideology, the Deutsche Christen, was the Bekennende Kirche, those Christians that didn’t agree with Nazi ideology and the commandeering of christen values in support of their Nazi agenda.
As a non-Christian, I think of Christianity in the same way. The onus is on you to divorce yourself from the Deutsche Christen within your own affiliates. The responsibility lies with Christians in NOT sitting on the side lines, passively watching the dismantling of their own value systems by way of speaking out in their churches, to their clergy, to fellow Christian’s, through active resistance, to the repetition of a “not on my watch” soliloquy.
I see those professing to be good Christian’s, but are they really? White House press secretary, Karolyn Leavitt, proudly wears a cross around her neck, a public profession of her faith. But is it there to convince you or her? Unless it’s there to remind herself she’s a “good Christian,” then it’s there as a conflation of “Christian values,” whatever they are, with her membership in an extreme neo-fascist party, the “Neo Deutsche Christen.” She has a child out of wedlock. Is she a good Christian?
Not according to the Christian Bible: Deuteronomy 23:2: “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord”.
A petty example but in keeping with the convenience of Christian cherry-picking.
I don’t really care what form of magical franchise one professes to belong to. But I do care about the destruction of this country, right before our eyes, AMERICAN values, a train that has long since left some stranded on the platform, many of them so-called “good Christians!”
Mathew 7: 15-20, “ Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”
One can’t be a “good Christian” and sit passively by watching your religion, your country, and your good Christian values be dismantled. It doesn’t pass the smell test.
“You just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.” Emerson.
“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” Horace Mann.
I take your point but disagree with your differentiation. The Trumpians will tell you they are good Christian’s. I’m not a member. How do you tell the difference? Humorously, I tell by the red hats that say, “I’m with Stupid!”
Perhaps it’s time for another reformation. Do you have another Martin Luther in the fold to post a “95 Thesis” on the church door?
Take back your religion. It’s been stolen.
I love this line “The USA/Constitution was written using Judeo-Christian values”. LOL Nope, not in the least.
Tom O has repeatedly issued the challenge to point out one item in the Constitution and Bill of Rights that mimics word for word the Christian faith. No one has EVER responded.
While Christianity is not my faith I’m not as quick as Synergy to throw the baby out with the bath water. Perhaps it’s because I was raised in the United Church of Christ – one of the first denominations to accept female clergy and a staunch ally for the LGBTQIA+ community. As a whole, they practice what their Lord and Savior commanded, to help those who cannot help themselves, to feed the hungry, and to lead by example. In short, these are good people who practice what Christ taught them.
Nationalist Christians, or as I call them NatC’s, have claimed ownership of the Christian faith, but this isn’t something new. Honestly they’ve thought of themselves as the One Twue Faith for a very long time. They’re wrong of course but that hasn’t stopped their plan to take over the world.
Taught by story tellers Dave and Tim Barton (of Wallbuilder’s fame who continually misquote the founding fathers to shore up their shoddy claims of Christian influence on the Constitution) NatC’s believe their specific flavor of faith has the right to control government while the government has no right to control them (freedom of religion anyone?).
So, how to differentiate?
Oh, just listen for a moment or two. They will self identify.
Point though is some folks need faith and some folks don’t. This isn’t binary, it’s a spectrum which is why our First Amendment was crafted the way it is. Everyone is free to worship or not as they see fit. And that is something the Project 2025 authors just can’t stand. What was it one of their authors said? Oh yeah, every knee will bend.
Oh yeah? Try it. No really, I can’t bend that way right now so nope, not doing it.
Thank you MRFF to assisting in assuring this family was allowed to grieve and bury their loved one with honor and peace.
It’s no small thing you do.
I’m laughing, “I’m not as quick as synergy to throw the baby out with the bath water.”
Why not? God did it – over and over and over again!
One day when I grow up, I wanna be just like G.., um, on second thought, no I don’t!
Synergy, I’m also not a Christian. I can understand you taking issue with those who don’t realize they’re really Christian Nationalists, and those mealymouthed ones who end up providing cover for extremists. I never forget Christians like my father, who lived his Christianity, but never invoked it unless someone directly asked him. He understood the benefits of government/religion separation and never imposed on the beliefs and rights of others.
Grey One, one might make an argument that there is mention in the US Constitution of Christianity, albeit indirectly at best. The one that’s most common is the First Amendment about Congress making no law favoring any establishment of religion or interfering in the free exercise of religion. But there’s another bit that’s a bit more explicit, though less frequently recognized. It’s in Article VI, Clause 3, saying that there will be “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Neither of these are particularly positive proofs for anyone asserting that our country is supposed to founded on christian principles: quite the opposite, in fact. Consider that Jews were already living in North America before any British colonies were established here. Remember, too, that Thomas Jefferson had a copy of Qu’ran in his personal collection that became part of the Library of Congress.
You wrote a paragraph that I’ve come to love: “Nationalist Christians, or as I call them NatC’s, have claimed ownership of the Christian faith, but this isn’t something new. Honestly they’ve thought of themselves as the One Twue Faith for a very long time. They’re wrong of course but that hasn’t stopped their plan to take over the world.” One of the reasons I love it is that reading about ” . . . their plan to take over the world” reminds me of one of my favorite cartoons of the 1990s: “Pinky and the Brain” I can imagine the “NatC’s” telling their political allies, “The same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!”
One more thing before I go, though . . . I really wish that people would eliminate the phrase “Judeo-Christian” from their vocabularies! I’ve been married to a Jewish woman for nearly 42 years now, and my experience with Judaism has been that it is far more concerned with behavior than belief. Christianity, on the other hand, focuses almost exclusively on belief. So, in my experience, t’ain’t no such thing as “Judeo-Christian” anything!
To the Jewish family recently assisted by MRFF: may your grandfather’s memory be a blessing!
Sounds like your father was a good man George, his values reflected in you.
Reminds me of Dan Folgerberg’s tune “Leader of the Band.”
Grey One’s comment about the ubiquitous claim that America was founded on Judeo-Christian values, constantly heard on the right, but when you point out the abhorrence found in the Bible, the standard move is, “we’re under a new covenant!”
I’m hearing, “we don’t really follow that Jewish part.” I get it. God went through anger management between testaments!
So which is it? Where’s the Judeo part of Christianity? So, Judeo-Christian is not a thing. The Jews certainly don’t make the claim. Unless, of course, Israel is looking for American bombs to drop on Gaza and then it’s a thing until you receive them.
Old man Trumptie will give Israel all the free armaments it wants but Ukraine? Naw, Vladdy says no.
Judeo-Christian was originally used to describe Jewish converts to Christianity, and later morphed to a tool used to fight anti-semitism.
I can understand the Jewish side of the term but not the Christian side, particularly in light of disagreement on the messiah part. Just a little thing.
The term was invented in the 19th century so, how, exactly was the country founded on this mystery concept?
Is it fake news or just alternative facts?
All kinds of revisionist history going on under this fascist regime, cloaked with the DEI boogeyman.
So if you’re not diverse, you’re a monoculture? White? Well, once we get the brown people out of here. The black folks? We keep them around because we like sports and good music! And the for profit prison industry. Can’t run a jail without inmates!
If equity is not a thing then inequality is? Now that one makes sense coming from Republicans. And it’s reflective of the country, you know, an oligopoly. Also a kleptocracy. “Can’t wait to get our hands on that social security trust fund! ‘Bout three trillion in that bad boy!”
And if you’re not inclusive, then, see above? In other words, all white? Hey, who’s gonna pick our vegetables?
Make America Great Again? All you’d have to do is go back six months!
Sleepy Joe over fascism? Easy choice!
The “Right” should have known what the sequel was gonna be just listening to the inauguration speech in the first movie, “the best of my ability” part! Too funny.
Well, there are limits. Even the most brilliant people were toddlers once. It’s just that most people grow up. One didn’t, Donnie Trumptie.
And now you’re in the “FindOut” phase, martial law coming to a city near you.
The take-over is almost complete. The side line view is gonna be fun to watch when the MAGA minions, under martial law, find everything in their lives are restricted, especially speech.
April 20th is the day for Naomi the dog killer and Hogsbreath’s report back to Trumptie with recommendations to use the Insurrection Act to impose martial law to quell the “invasion” at the southern border.
I lived under martial law in Iran. You’re not going to like it! Albeit, this one’s going to make the Iranian martial law in the late 70s look like child’s play comparatively.
Straight from Putin’s playbook. Remember when Trumptie said, “you’re not going to have to vote again?” What do you think he meant?
It won’t be about civil unrest beyond the initial riots that take place, it will be about civil dissent, you know, speech. Habeas corpus gone, no petition, no remedy for unlawful detention, your neighbors the vehicle for a self-policing population. Already previewed in the illegal detention of legal resident aliens, green card holders for critical comments on their phones about Trumptie.
You think they won’t do that to you? Hide and watch!
As I’ve posted before, you’ll be OK as long as you keep your mouth shut!
Yeah, good luck with that MAGA! As the song goes, “you ain’t seen nothing yet!”
As America self-isolates, the deteriorating economic conditions will cause tighter restrictions on your “freedoms,” whatever they are. Repression in a dictatorship looks inward, not outward. It fuels the attack on its own people. Without control, they have nothing.
Remember, fealty is the phrase and act. Even if you don’t like it, act like you do! Why do you think Trumptie uses the word “invasion” so much? Why does he call the press the “enemy of the people?” Because these words form the basis of restrictions he’s going to impose, to censor the press, to restrict the internet, to shut down information. Getting rid of reporting from CDC and HHS so you don’t know the impact of things like Covid, measles, other diseases. If they’re not reported, they don’t exist.
It’s tragic but also funny in a macabre sort of way watching them eat their own faces. Don’t need leopards, they’re eating themselves. Don’t believe me? Ask those Trump-supporting veterans that just got fired! Boys and girls done ate them some green apples and now they have a tummy ache! Awwww. Poor vets!
April 20th, Hitler’s birthday. Coincidence?
Martial law coming your way baby! Dished up, on script, by Kristi the Dog Killer and Petey Hogsbreath, those great bastions of freedom and civil liberties. Why would a president go to the DOD to ask whether the Insurrection Act ought to be used? What do you think the answer’s gonna be? You think Peter’s going to say, “no Mr. President, the military shouldn’t be used for civil unrest?” If you do, you’re delusional.
When they show you who they are, believe them!
New music coming your way, “the Insurrection Song!”
Tyranny is Good your new slogan!
Thoughts and prayers!
These black/white MAGA NatC’s are popping the sparkling wine a little early methinks.
Yes, yes, the Project 2025 punch list proceeds ahead of schedule. The bloated talking heads all glad-hand each other when appearing on all the best propaganda shows. They appear to be confident in their rhetoric.
But then the frame switches to the town halls where the rumor that angry attendees are only Democratic Party paid shills has been put to rest. These are proud MAGA voters who just discovered the party of face eating leopards just ate THEIR face!!!! This development was inevitable but wasn’t predicted to happen for a couple more months, far too late for them to do anything productive. And here/now? Everyone knows everything and they are not happy.
Look at the FOTUS reps when they are talking to the shows about meeting with their constituents. The bravado is the same but the fear in their eyes is new.
Nothing a politician will protect more fiercely than their reelection chances and hold on the seat of power. And they know the train they attached their wagon to doesn’t care if they personally are harmed in the process. That’s going leave a mark or two.
Also in the things are bad not totally sucky the resistance is alive and well.
I’m reminded that in the political thriller TV movies and shows I love to watch what is happening here/now with all the battling of lawsuits is represented by a montage of images. Truly the legal stuff is like watching paint dry but it is necessary if less than exciting than watching stuff blow up.
Guess since it’s my life the FOTUS admin seems determined to destroy I’ll stick with the boring (and extremely effective) stuff.
Sparkling wine. If you drink enough of it, you’ll forget about the remorse!
When you decimate the federal work force and eliminate federal agencies, as unelected Elon has done, you’re, literally, removing money from the economy, increasing unemployment without thought of a balance to price stability. In other words, creating an economic unbalance.
Add tariff taxes and the economy slows even further, piling on more financial burdens for folks already struggling to make ends meet. The Fed can reduce rates, as Trump wants them to, but it’s not going to help those unemployed or underemployed.
Add to it a massive tax cut for the wealthy – coming later this year – and you’ve got a recipe for disaster, a recessed economy. So, on the one hand, they took money out of the economy by decimating agencies and firing workers, but are going to put it back into a specifically targeted area, by orders of magnitude, in the form of tax cuts for the wealthy!
So, the wealthy are going to run right out and spend that money like working families would? No, they’re not! In other words, that Government spending doesn’t help the economy.
But it WILL help them reduce or eliminate “social programs!” Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, etc. Again, taking money out of the economy.
You’re hearing them say “massive fraud” but, no indictments, no one going to jail? They won’t tell you the “fraud” they’ve discovered, they just tell you it exists and you have to trust them that it does. Really?
The “who’s gonna pay for it” whining you always hear from Congress is a complete bunch of bullshit, unadulterated lies, the incessant complaining about “balanced budgets,” very few in Congress knowing anything about economics, monetary and fiscal policy. Most are completely clueless, comparing Government money to household budgets! Or credit cards you give your kids.
What they never mention is that the Government is the sole issuer of the currency and can never go broke! Period! How many families do you know that prints its own dollars?
A balanced budget actually stifles growth!
You ever hear anyone say “who’s gonna pay for it” when it comes time to go to war?
It’s not about Government spending and taxes, it’s about full employment and price stability. BTW, your taxes have nothing to do with government spending. When you send your tax dollars in it gets burned! Figuratively speaking. It doesn’t pay for anything, it simply closes a ledger. The purpose of taxes is not to fund the government, it’s to create demand for the currency. Wrap your head around that one, will take a minute.
They’re leading you down a primrose path to lowered quality of life and standard of living! A proletariat class! A hole you’ll never get out of. Neither will your kids or their kids.
Say no to oligarchs. Tax the rich! Wealth inequality IS an existential threat. Today more than ever!
Marginal tax rates for highest earners at 90% post WWII. Most prosperous time in our history!
“It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so!” Mark Twain.
It’s about lack of understanding, regardless of topic, like the burial issue here regarding a Jewish veteran.
Are the cemetery administrators callous? Was it intended to cause harm? Don’t know. I would hope not. I’m guessing, being very generous, that it was ignorance born out of the lack of “inclusivity,” and in the lack of recognition of the diversity in our military, owing to personal biases.
Given the times we live in, it could be malicious in nature in light of the MRFF’s interventions with the VA numerous times for their “Christian” proselytizing attempts.
The efforts to “Christianize” the care veterans receive with public displays of “Christianity uber allies,” clearly a violation of their own regulations, much less the Constitution.
I’ve said before, you go to the VA for health care, not the sermon on the mount! Individualized accommodation for a patient’s religious beliefs have always been available through chaplains and other religious clergy and support networks. Contrary to their claims, Christians are NOT being persecuted. In their heads, maybe.
Like putting wreaths on the graves of ALL veterans at Christmas, without even a “by your leave,” is palpable ignorance at best, and malicious at worst.
The MRFF, contrary to what detractors post, is ensuring the religious freedom of all veterans, just as it says in the constitution. No State mandated religion, which protects all faiths, particularly in a career that’s hard enough without a fealty test for one particular religious franchise.
No question that the MRFF fights the good fight! A fight that benefits all.
Support the MRFF!
So, Trumptie says he’s gonna impose a 25% tariff on anyone that imports Venezuelan oil.
So America. Caught you didn’t we? You can send your check right to the White House!
I wonder if you have to pay a tariff on one of them Trumptie ties out of China? Or one of his “gold clad” meme coins he’s selling from the oval, or Trump guitars for $12K? yep, made in China!
Or, one of them Chinese made Teslas?
Got hats anyone?
I kind of like it. When foreign dignitaries visit the oval, they have to pass right by the Presidential merch table. Makes it really convenient! Put up a picture of Kid Rock or Ted Nugent playing one of those Trump guitars! Instant sales. Throw in the lyrics to the new Trump Star Mangled Banner. There you have it.
Can’t you picture MBS from Saudi in traditional dress with a Trump guitar around his neck? Too cool!
The boy’s a staple genus for sure!
The SLOTUS, Second Lady of the United States, what a name, slotus, sounds like a disease. Sitting in a doctor’s office, “what have you got? Oh, I’ve got slotus. Don’t worry, it’s not contagious.” Too funny.
But, she’s going on a trip to Greenland to, well, you know, watch a dog sled race. Who knew Indians were into dog sled racing? As it turns out, kind of a national pastime in Mumbai right behind cricket. No snow there but I understand they just flatten out the Deonar dump, makes it slick like snow, sometimes faster than snow.
What she’s really going there for is to tell the people of Greenland that their universal healthcare is gonna be so much better once we take over and they get rid of it. You know, United Healthcare coming in, is it United Healthcare? I think it’s United Health Care that’s coming in to take it over. Kind of like what we’re going to do for Canada. And the Canadians can’t wait! They been putting up with free healthcare for years now!
Everyone knows universal healthcare doesn’t work! Socialism! Just like Medicare here at home. That’s why we’re going to privatize it. You know, make it for-profit, so much better.
Damned universal healthcare. Imagine, they go to a doctor and there’s no co-pays! Well there’s your problem! No wonder you can’t get good treatment. Everyone knows you get what you pay for. And if you don’t have to pay for it, then, you know, you’re not going to get good care! And it’s even better when you’ve got higher administrative costs, a few middle men in the loop, and executive salaries to pay along the way. That’s when you get good healthcare care!
Just like here at home. The only little caveat is you have to be working full time and your employer has to offer it as a benefit.
But hey, Greenland’s unemployment rate of 8.74% is coming down. And it’s gonna come down even more once we take over! I mean, that’s only 5,000 people without healthcare, no big deal But it’s only temporary until we can start mining lithium, graphite, oil and gas, gold, cobalt. They’ll have full employment and great healthcare! Whats not to love?
I think they’re standing up cricket bats along the dog sled route just to make Usha feel more at home, you know, back to the Anglo Colonial roots.
There you have it, the real reason for the trip is to give Greenlanders a better choice in healthcare.
Don’t believe what the lying media is telling you. This ain’t American hegemony. It’s a goodwill exercise, just like Canada and the Panama Canal.
We’re trying to get all that fish out of their diets. Get them on to some healthy breakfast choices like Cheerios, Fruitloops, Cocopuffs. Get a few dairies opened up with some cold weather cows, viola, you’ve got Greenlanders dying to become Americans!
Trumptie can get the Chinese to make them some gold Trump parkas, maybe some gold snow boots, throw in a few Tesla robots to shovel snow. They’ll love it! To hell with the Danes. Well, except for the danish. We’ll keep those. Everyone likes danish in the morning. Import some coffee. Oops, we put tariffs on coffee. No worries, Hawaiian coffee.
Rename the Northwest passage to the American passage. Better yet, the Trump Triangle.
Anyway, it’s going to be great! They’ll love it!
Good luck to the SLOTUS. Bring us back one of those cricket bats! And maybe a dog collar – not like the MAGA collar JD wears. We’ll know the difference.
Do the dogs have nose rings? Maybe JD can donate his. A prize for the winning team!
What do you get when you support the Military Religious Freedom Foundation?
To answer that, you have to first have an inkling of what it’s like to be in the military. Many that post and follow the MRFF are veterans, some pro MRFF and others not so much.
Joining the military means giving up certain rights that you would otherwise have as a civilian. To narrow it down to a phrase, you follow orders. Those orders could have you come in early and work late, you could be given orders to move to an austere location in some obscure part of the world, without family, you could be deployed on temporary assignment, you could be ordered into combat, to name a few. You’re governed by a completely separate judicial system.
What you can’t be ordered to do is pray to a specific God or to join a particular religion, or to show fealty to a superior proselytizing a particular religion.
The old saying we’ve all heard, “there are no atheists in foxholes?” I would counter that everyone is an atheist in a foxhole! The enemy doesn’t care what religion you are! No one relies on an intervening God when the bullets start flying! No one throws up there hands and says, “well God. Are you gonna let me live through this one?” One might offer themselves a micro second inner prayer – as they’re taking action, knowing their self reliance and those to the left and right of them are going to be the determinant, regardless of religious denomination.
The MRFF protects individual freedoms to worship as you choose, without coercion, without the influence of a Commander that holds the keys to a career in his or her hands (usually men).
Military life is difficult, at best. Not only on members but on family as well, immediate and extended. “We hire a soldier but we employ a family,” is the real truth around military service.
To borrow from former Gen Casey, “The strength of our nation lies in the strength of our military, which lies in the strength of our soldier, which lies in the strength of his family!”
Commanders swear an oath to the Constitution, as Gen Milley said, not to a King, or a dictator.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation protects the individual religious freedoms of all military members from those that may have forgotten their oaths or have designs on a less inclusive military structure that supports their narrow vision.
These folks should be removed. Unfit to lead America’s sons and daughters. They are entrusted with the well being of our sons and daughters. When they part from that path, they destroy the trust the nation gives them in carrying out the mission, irrespective of one particular religion, endangering the lives of those we have entrusted to them and compromising the effectiveness of military capability.
A capable military requires trust. Trust that you have my back regardless of religious preference.
Those in foxholes know no religion. They know there is an enemy that’s trying to kill them!
Support the Military Religious Freedom Foundation!