“If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds,” wrote Rabbi Joshua Hammerman for Jewish Week a few days ago, “it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants.” That’s almost as hysterical a claim as Hammerman citing Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft (“the most identifiably Jewish owner in sports”) as “upstanding citizens, moral exemplars in their home communities”. My animus for Tebow is well established around here, but the Hooded Casanova didn’t earn his nickname by pretending he didn’t know how to parlay a Bon Jovi laminate into sexual favors with another man’s spouse. In any event, Jewish Week, knowing all too well their columnist was on the wrong side of this matter, issued the following apology earlier today ;
We apologize for posting an Opinion column on Dec. 14 by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman entitled “My Problem With Tim Tebow,” the Denver Broncos quarterback who is an Evangelical Christian. The column, in fact, violated our own standards calling for civility in posting comments on our website. The policy statement notes that “name calling in any form will not be tolerated, and comments that denigrate any religion or Jewish religious stream will always be rejected.”
Repentance and forgiveness are cornerstones of all major faiths, as is the recognition that we all make mistakes. We trust that the sincerity of our remorse, as expressed by the rabbi as well, will be taken into account by those whom we offended.