MRFF Action Compels National Cemetery to Keep Jewish Veteran’s Grave Safe from Desecration by Wreaths Across America; Widow has Permission to Place Menorah
It’s that time of year again — time for the grifters known as Wreaths Across America (WAA) to indiscriminately carpet bomb thousands of national and other cemeteries where veterans are buried with their Christmas wreaths, Christianizing the graves of countless Jewish, Muslim, and other non-Christian veterans, as well as veterans of non-faith traditions.
This year’s annual desecration of non-Christian veterans graves by WAA — made even more egregious by being endorsed, heavily promoted, and participated in by the United States Military — will take place a week from Saturday on December 14.
While WAA insists that it only places its Christmas wreaths on the graves of Christian veterans, the literally hundreds of photos sent to MRFF of WAA’s Christmas wreaths defiling innumerable graves that are clearly marked with the Star of David, Muslim crescent and star, other non-Christian religious symbols, and non-faith tradition symbols prove WAA’s claim to be a bald-faced lie.
MRFF’s first salvo in this year’s battle to keep non-Christian veteran’s graves from being Christianized by WAA was to intervene with the Pikes Peak National Cemetery on behalf of a Jewish veteran’s widow to keep her husband’s gravesite off-limits to WAA and its Christmas wreath blitzkrieg and to get the cemetery to allow her to place a Menorah at the gravesite.
Recent Posts
- October 2, 2025 | 4 comments
- September 30, 2025 | 5 comments
32 Comments
Comments are closed.
I am a Christian. I find it highly offensive and arrogant that Christian groups are desecrating graves of our military members who have instantly recognizable symbols of other religions or no religion. The chutzpah is insensitive and egregious.
Thank you for all you do for our military members. They need you now more than ever. If you are not already come over to BlueSky also. Great place to get the word out for what you do.
Debra
There is nothing intrinsically Christian about a wreath that decoratively represents the Yuletide season rather than clearly distinguishable liturgical trappings of Christianity (e.g., crucifix, etc.). Traced to its origins such wreaths are in fact Celtic and pagan, representing life, unity, and geometric infinity (a circle without beginning and end). That said, there may still be valid arguments concerning the legitimacy of the charitable status of the promoter. This faux furor is beneath you Mikey.
There are a couple of people in my office that are participating in the upcoming wreath laying and they both said they have never heard of restrictions of placing wreaths… so I hope Wreaths Across America remembers to pass the word to their volunteers
*sigh*
Why should a Celtic and/or PAGAN symbol be allowed? ANY symbol put on a grave without respect to the wishes and religion of the deceased is OK then? Faux furor? I think not. I suppose that since a swastika was originally used in many other cultures before the Nazis and meant “good luck” among other things, that should be fine as well.
Tom, I see you have Godwin’s Law on speed dial. In reality there are two versions of the so-called swastika, the sacred religious symbol that arose in eastern religion (which turns left) and the Hakenkreuz used by the NDSAP (which turns right). So they are not the same even though you fail to distinguish the two. Try to be objective and learn something today.
Bilbo invoking Godwin’s law as a conversation ender when it was intended as a conversation starter.
You don’t get to claim the moral high ground with intent to end the conversation.
Point being that some families don’t want a wreath placed on their loved one’s grave, period, particularly when placed by a scam organization, the founders of the non profit coincidentally owning the company providing the wreaths, a $26 million plus for-profit non-profit, with sole monopolized control over who provides the wreaths.
Nice little scam they’re running.
Bilbo, the problem is that Wreaths Across America (WAA) is an openly Christian organization. Were there a partner organization or organizations providing decorations that were recognizably not associated with Christianity, I wouldn’t be as uncomfortable about WAA and their partners placing decorations on headstones.
That said, my wife — and she’s a USAF retiree in her own right — is Jewish. I identify as a solitary, syncretic Unitarian Universalist neo-pagan atheist with Wiccan tendencies. (If you want to know what that means to me, please ask, but don’t presume you can parse it out yourself: I use a number of those words precisely, but don’t use the standard meanings.) I would be quite offended if WAA put a wreath on her headstone, as she would never would want such. Likewise, she’d be equally offended if I died first and someone so desecrated — excuse me, “decorated” — my marker.
If that happened either way, we’d have to summon and send our deceased Corgi’s spirit after them to nip the offenders’ heels for the rest of their unnatural lives! And given all the treats we’d have stored for her, she’d do it, too!
A room full or crying.
A room full of people who care about the Constitution.
A room full of people defending the rights of those who can’t speak for themselves.
A room full of people (with some exceptions) who understand what it means to be an American citizen.
And then there’s our troll, a human who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
I’ve been capitalizing all my name but after looking at my original notes, oops, that wasn’t my original intent. So I’m going back to basics, you know, old school.
I guess its that time a year again when we start getting all faggy about wreaths.
Oscar, what does “getting all faggy” mean?
And what’s your issue with people NOT wanting people who don’t know you or your loved ones placing wreaths on graves of your deceased?
Before Jesus pronounced the “Golden Rule”, Rabbi Hillel said, “Do not do to others that which you find hateful.” So if you’re a Christian and I were to place a Magen David on your grave, do you think your loved ones should be OK with that? How about if you gave specific instructions about how your grave should be treated?
I think there’s a reasonable compromise between Hillel and Jesus: find out what others find hateful, and DON’T DO THAT!
Leviticus 19:18: “…you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Getting “faggy” basically means you are manufacturing outrage that doesnt need to be manufactured. Wreaths across America tells their volunteers specifically not to put wreaths on graves with the star if David on them. They arent just throwing wreaths on anything they see. But MRFF continues to manufacture bullshit over nothing. Meanwhile you are donating to these assholes to outrage you! … and thats stupid
You’re right, Oscar: there’s no need to manufacture outrage — just feel it build up inside as you realize that WAA has a well documented history of randomly wreathing headstones of people who weren’t Christians in life. If WAA weren’t doing these things, the person who asked for MRFF’s intervention in the case wouldn’t have needed assistance in the first place.
But since these kinds of things DO happen, there will be a need for legal advocacy by organizations like MRFF for the foreseeable future.
If you really think MRFF shouldn’t exist, perhaps you could help eliminate the need by policing those who would overstep the bounds of religious freedom, respect and good taste.
WAA has a well documented history of a $26 + million dollar/year scam by its founders, disguised as a non profit!
What a coincidence, Mikey Weinstein also has a well documented scam
“It is a legitimate nonprofit function on its face, but the organization has a financial dimension that is a little unusual. Mikey Weinstein’s salary as CEO in 2012 was $273,355, constituting 47 percent of all of nonprofit’s grants and contributions. In 2011, his compensation was $252,681, up from $218,201 in 2010. In other years, Weinstein’s salary has also been equal to 40 percent or more of MRFF’s total revenues, including 54 percent in 2009. The 990s report that Weinstein’s compensation is based on an 80-hour work week. It seems to us, if the reporting is on target, that there is a purpose to MRFF and a purpose to Weinstein’s personal labors. But the organization could stand an improved structure for finances and governance—a better analysis and justification of Weinstein’s salary based on a more reasonable allocation of hours (many of us work tons more than 35 or 40 hours a week, but don’t calculate our salaries based on that); a different board structure with more board members and Weinstein certainly not voting on his own salary if not leaving the board altogether; and perhaps bringing in some solid nonprofit experts who can advise about restructuring the organization to look and operate like a more credible nonprofit.”—Rick Cohen
Yeah Oscar and what about the healthcare scam where 68,000 Americans died every year because they couldn’t afford healthcare and/or had their medical claims denied while the CEOs became extremely wealthy while many of us never get a share of the profits in terms of better salaries, bonuses and stock options.
You have CEOs sitting on each other board of directors voting on giving each other bonuses, raises and stock options. You never see workers sitting on the board of directors either.
How does that give MRFF a pass?
just call it a for profit organization and get taxed like one instead of defrauding the government
CEO pay up 1,200% since 1978 compared to 15.3% increase for workers over the same period.
With over 70% of CEO compensation tied to stocks, it, literally, pays for CEOs to have companies buy back their own stocks to keep stock prices high and increase CEO compensation.
Including dividend payments, S&P 500 companies spent $3.5 trillion in the most recent three years to 2019 — an amount that was equal to their net income for the period.
Before 1982, stock buybacks were illegal, considered as market manipulation (which it is).
And guess who made it legal? None other than that bastion of neo-liberal thinking, the Republican darling, Ronald Reagan himself!
To be fair, Bill Clinton got rid of Glass-Steagall, that legal separation between commercial and investment banking. In other words, it allowed banking to risk depositor money, your money! It made depositors, unwittingly, gamblers! The 2008 crash ring a bell?
Plenty of blame to go around in what has culminated in what we have today, exorbitant wealth and income inequality and a society divided between the haves and the have-nots, 10% of Americans owning 93% of stock market wealth.
Oscar Meyer talks about Mikey Weinstein’s salary, one of many Oscar triggers and obsessions, but says nothing about the $680 million Jared and Ivanka made for their little nepotistic gig in the White House, laughably, as “Senior Advisors,” better categorized as “Senior Grifters;” crickets about Jared receiving $2,000 million dollars from the Saudis. I’m guessing the bigger the grift, the less noticeable it is in MAGAritaville?
Nothing said about Jared’s convicted felon father Charles being pardoned by Trump, a nice little family-ties move, and now being appointed as the Ambassador to France, another nice little grift move. You know, from one felon to another, Charles along with Ivanka and Jared bestowed with yet another tax payer funded grift in France in perpetuity as new deals are made as a result of family ties.
Don’t know what this unnatural obsession is with Mikey’s compensation. Jealousy? Small mindedness? Off your meds?
At the end of the day, Mikey Weinstein’s compensation doesn’t amount to a hill of beans by comparison to, say, Wreaths Across America founders, Merrill and Karen Worcester, pulling in over $30 million/year selling those wreaths to the non-profit they founded? They buy wreaths from themselves using donor money, a nice little $30 million operation! Conflict of interest anyone?
The services provided by the MRFF to military careerists far outweigh the peanuts in overhead cost of operations for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, not to mention the intangibles of the cost of true Patriotism in the land of MAGAritaville!
The MAGA trolling and hypocrisy is palpable, beyond the pale!
How does your remarks Oscar, give the HMO CEOs a free pass?
HMO companies like other American corporations have been paying little or no taxes for decades Oscar. Furthermore, you had Rick Scott ripping off the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs when he was the head of a HMO and got no prison time for it and you should have know that by now.
Health care shouldn’t be for profit.
Oscar, which Rick Cohen wrote your article? What organization did they work for?
I ask because I found three well known Rick Cohens online, only one wrote the article cited in the comment – which you posted without attribution. With that many humans with the same name what you did Oscar is plagiarism adjacent – you gave us a name but not the important stuff such as the organization/website where it was published or the date as to when it was published.
I’m in the midst of a migraine so I may not be as pithy as normal – in fact I’ll come out and say it – Oscar tried to deceive us. They were deliberately vague in order to cast aspersions onto the MRFF and Mikey.
I see you Oscar you pathetic excuse for a human and now so does the rest of our reading public.
For the record, the article was published on NPQ (NonProfitQuarterly) by Rick Cohen on July 3 2014. The title was “Mikey Likes It! CEO Faces Questions about Big Compensation in Small Nonprofit”. Per the NPQ site Rick Cohen died several years ago. They rerun some of his most read articles that promote his causes, specifically charities who supposedly raise money in the name of vets but who keep the funds for themselves.
That isn’t the MRFF – their clients and advocacy speak for themselves. Oscar has crossed the line (so many lines crossed) by implying Mikey and the MRFF aren’t who they say they are.
PS – security is expensive. Back in the day detractors beheaded their family pet and left it on their front porch. Do I need to repeat that? Whatever the cost, Mikey and his family bear the brunt IRL what we commentators experience online.
They killed their dog. No mercy, no pity.
Killed what dog? what are you talking about. Anybody from MRFF wanna fess up about when those photos were taken? i already know the answer
Tell me you don’t actually read the posts before making ignorant comments. Oscar you just outed yourself.
As I understand all WAA posts the photos are submitted by the relatives of the defiled gravesites.
What, did Oscar think? That the MRFF has so much free time they haunt gravesites to catch malfeasance? What a small thinker. Oh wait, do they think? Still looking for evidence.
Wow, tell me YOU read before posting too. My statement was that these are old photos from years passed…. you miss the point again… and again… and again.. and again
No Oscar. It is you who missed the point miss the point again… and again… and again.. and again.
Again, take the matter up with MRFF.
Oscar, the photos supplied by clients may have been from incidences long ago. What isn’t long ago are the narratives of grieving families. They appear every year. Every year Oscar. Every year.
Again and again and again.
In your last comment you seem frustrated. I suggest mindfulness as part of your mental health regime.
Gunther, sometimes I get the idea that Oscar misses the point on purpose, proving the adage that you can’t convince a person when their livelihood depends on deliberate ignorance.
Its deceptive not to put a date on the photos and make it seem like it is a current event when it is not. There are bo documented cases of this for two years now. MRFF just had a personal grudge with WAA. Its pathetic. Not as pathetic as that sycophantic letter he wrote to Joe Biden, the worst president in history. Oh Joe, you are sooo smart and competent and i love you so much and you are just the best leader 😂
SOMEONE has their feelings in a bunch. Wow!
Oscar likes to pretend to adult but in reality they are merely a spoiled toddler who needs a nap.
Honey, try again when your big feelings aren’t in the way. Get your snack and a blanket and we’ll see you when you’re more together.
Again Oscar, take up the photo matter with MRFF if you feel so strongly about it.
Trump, Reagan, and the two Bushes were the worst presidents in history, Oscar.
It seems that WAA has a personal, relgiious, and financial grudge about soldiers belonging to different faiths which cuts into their bottom line, Oscar.