Maurice Davis
Encyclopedia
Maurice Davis was a rabbi
, and human rights
activist. He was a past director of the American Family Foundation, now known as the International Cultic Studies Association
. Davis was the rabbi of the Jewish Community Center of White Plains, New York
. Davis was a regular contributor to The Jewish Post and Opinion, where he had a column. Davis served on the President's Commission on Equal Opportunity, in the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration
.
Davis has been quoted as saying:
. Davis and his wife had two children, JayR (Bahir), who has two children and is the rabbi of Rocky Mountain Hai, a trans-denominational Havurah based in Colorado
; and Michael, who has four children and is the rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El, Wichita
, Kansas
.
from Selma
to Montgomery, Alabama
and was appointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
by President Johnson.
, Davis began to educate himself more about the nature and methodology of cult
s. He soon became involved in assisting the parents of "cult children". Davis directed and appeared in the film, You Can Go Home Again, produced by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Davis observed commonalities among the young people he counseled that had joined cults. He found that most of these individuals were dropouts from mainline churches and synagogues - and that they were on a quest for idealism, community and a sense of belonging.
Davis founded and headed the national anti-Moon organization called Citizens Engaged in Reuniting Families, which in 1976 comprised 500 families. Davis stated that he received letters from distraught parents all over the United States, telling "the same story".It’s frightening what these Moonies can do to the family unit..I get letters from parents all over the country telling me the same story..The kids are swept along by his outfit and then taken away for a few days to a ‘workshop.’ By the time the parents see their kids again – if they can manage to see them – the kids are starry-eyed and ready to take on anyone who disagrees with them. It’s a form of hypnotism. There is something very unhealthy going on. He elaborated his points, asserting that the recruitment tactics used by the Unification Church are "a form of hypnotism". In November 1976, Rabbi Davis spoke at Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, New York, on the topic of "The Moon People And Our Children". He has also compared the Unification Church to the Nazi Youth movement
, and to the Peoples Temple... they saved their deepest animus for Rabbi Maurice Davis of White Plains, N.Y., a prime mover in the anti-cult movement. He was repeatedly interrupted with shouts of "lies! That's a lie!" as he spoke of death threats he had received and likened the Unification Church to the Nazi Youth Movement and the Peoples Temple. The rabbi inflamed the crowd even further with his concluding comments: "I am here to protest against child molesters. For as surely as there are those who lure children with lollipop
s in order to rape their bodies, so, too, do these lure children with candy-coated lies in order to rape their minds."
a synagogue
building which in the mid-1950s became the home for the first Peoples Temple
group in Indianapolis, Indiana
. When informed of the massacre at Jonestown
, Guyana, Davis remarked: "I keep thinking what happens when the power of love is twisted into the love of power". In 1981, Davis was quoted in Ronald Enroth
, Ph.D.'s book Youth, Brainwashing and the Extremist Cults as comparing the Church of Scientology
to "the Nazi youth movement
".
Davis later testified at a Congressional panel organized by Senator Bob Dole
that he had received death threats due to these statements. In 1982, Davis received the Leo J. Ryan Award
, named for the only Congressman to die in the line of duty, Representative Leo J. Ryan
. In 1990, Davis criticized the Jews for Jesus
movement as being "devious" and "deceptive". He further stated that "people who accept Jesus as the Messiah by definition Christians; they are not Jewish." In his column in a recent issue of The Jewish Post and Opinion, a national newspaper, Rabbi Maurice Davis wrote that people who refer to themselves as Jews for Jesus, Hebrew Christians or Messianic Jews "have pretended not only that they are Jewish, which they are not, but that they speak for either Jews or Judaism, which they do not." "They have distorted our holidays, demeaned our faith, misstated our history, and belittled a legacy which we have spent centuries preserving and enlarging." Rabbi Davis, a former spiritual leader at Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, went on to note that people who accept Jesus as the Messiah by definition Christians; they are not Jewish.
, at the time president of the American Family Foundation, said of Davis: "A great and gentle radiance has left our scene with the death of Rabbi Maurice Davis. He was one of the people who first brought me into the circle of those devoted to helping cult victims. His compassion and vision were inspiring. He saw clearly the dangers which awaited those who lost their free will to totalism."
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activist. He was a past director of the American Family Foundation, now known as the International Cultic Studies Association
International Cultic Studies Association
The International Cultic Studies Association , formerly the American Family Foundation, describes itself as an "interdisciplinary network of academicians, professionals, former group members, and families who study and educate the public about social-psychological influence and control,...
. Davis was the rabbi of the Jewish Community Center of White Plains, New York
White Plains, New York
White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
. Davis was a regular contributor to The Jewish Post and Opinion, where he had a column. Davis served on the President's Commission on Equal Opportunity, in the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
.
Davis has been quoted as saying:
Family life
Rabbi Davis married Marion Cronbach, daughter of Rose Hentil and prominent reform rabbi and well-known pacifist (and Davis' teacher) Abraham CronbachAbraham Cronbach
Abraham Cronbach was an American Rabbi, teacher and known pacifist. He served as a rabbi for congregations in Indiana and Ohio. Cronbach was one of the founders of the Peace Heroes Memorial Society.-Personal life:...
. Davis and his wife had two children, JayR (Bahir), who has two children and is the rabbi of Rocky Mountain Hai, a trans-denominational Havurah based in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
; and Michael, who has four children and is the rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El, Wichita
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
.
Civil rights work
In 1952, Davis founded the Kentucky Committee on Desegregation. In 1965 he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
from Selma
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
to Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
and was appointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is an independent federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence,...
by President Johnson.
Opposition to the Unification Church
In 1970, when two of his congregants' children became involved with the Unification ChurchUnification Church
The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
, Davis began to educate himself more about the nature and methodology of cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
s. He soon became involved in assisting the parents of "cult children". Davis directed and appeared in the film, You Can Go Home Again, produced by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Davis observed commonalities among the young people he counseled that had joined cults. He found that most of these individuals were dropouts from mainline churches and synagogues - and that they were on a quest for idealism, community and a sense of belonging.
Davis founded and headed the national anti-Moon organization called Citizens Engaged in Reuniting Families, which in 1976 comprised 500 families. Davis stated that he received letters from distraught parents all over the United States, telling "the same story".It’s frightening what these Moonies can do to the family unit..I get letters from parents all over the country telling me the same story..The kids are swept along by his outfit and then taken away for a few days to a ‘workshop.’ By the time the parents see their kids again – if they can manage to see them – the kids are starry-eyed and ready to take on anyone who disagrees with them. It’s a form of hypnotism. There is something very unhealthy going on. He elaborated his points, asserting that the recruitment tactics used by the Unification Church are "a form of hypnotism". In November 1976, Rabbi Davis spoke at Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, New York, on the topic of "The Moon People And Our Children". He has also compared the Unification Church to the Nazi Youth movement
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
, and to the Peoples Temple... they saved their deepest animus for Rabbi Maurice Davis of White Plains, N.Y., a prime mover in the anti-cult movement. He was repeatedly interrupted with shouts of "lies! That's a lie!" as he spoke of death threats he had received and likened the Unification Church to the Nazi Youth Movement and the Peoples Temple. The rabbi inflamed the crowd even further with his concluding comments: "I am here to protest against child molesters. For as surely as there are those who lure children with lollipop
Lollipop
A lollipop, pop, lolly, sucker, or sticky-pop is a type of confectionery consisting mainly of hardened, flavored sucrose with corn syrup mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. They are available in many flavors and shapes.- Types :Lollipops are available in a number of colors and...
s in order to rape their bodies, so, too, do these lure children with candy-coated lies in order to rape their minds."
Other work opposing controversial groups
At one point in time Davis had sold Jim JonesJim Jones
James Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in...
a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
building which in the mid-1950s became the home for the first Peoples Temple
Peoples Temple
Peoples Temple was a religious organization founded in 1955 by Jim Jones that, by the mid-1970s, included over a dozen locations in California including its headquarters in San Francisco...
group in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
. When informed of the massacre at Jonestown
Jonestown
Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby...
, Guyana, Davis remarked: "I keep thinking what happens when the power of love is twisted into the love of power". In 1981, Davis was quoted in Ronald Enroth
Ronald Enroth
Ronald M. Enroth is Professor of Sociology at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California, and a prominent evangelical Christian author of books concerning what he defines as "cults" and "new religious movements"....
, Ph.D.'s book Youth, Brainwashing and the Extremist Cults as comparing the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
to "the Nazi youth movement
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
".
Davis later testified at a Congressional panel organized by Senator Bob Dole
Bob Dole
Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...
that he had received death threats due to these statements. In 1982, Davis received the Leo J. Ryan Award
Leo J. Ryan Award
The Leo J. Ryan Award was established by the Leo J. Ryan Education Foundation in honor of Congressman Leo J. Ryan; the only United States Congressman to be killed in the line of duty. He was assassinated in Guyana, while investigating Jonestown and The Peoples Temple. Ryan was posthumously awarded...
, named for the only Congressman to die in the line of duty, Representative Leo J. Ryan
Leo Ryan
Leo Joseph Ryan, Jr. was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until he was murdered in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple shortly before the Jonestown Massacre in 1978.After the Watts Riots...
. In 1990, Davis criticized the Jews for Jesus
Jews for Jesus
Jews for Jesus is a conservative, Christian evangelical organization that focuses on the conversion of Jews to Christianity. Its members consider themselves to be Jews – either as defined by Jewish law, or as according to the view of Jews for Jesus. Jews for Jesus defines “Jewish” in terms of...
movement as being "devious" and "deceptive". He further stated that "people who accept Jesus as the Messiah by definition Christians; they are not Jewish." In his column in a recent issue of The Jewish Post and Opinion, a national newspaper, Rabbi Maurice Davis wrote that people who refer to themselves as Jews for Jesus, Hebrew Christians or Messianic Jews "have pretended not only that they are Jewish, which they are not, but that they speak for either Jews or Judaism, which they do not." "They have distorted our holidays, demeaned our faith, misstated our history, and belittled a legacy which we have spent centuries preserving and enlarging." Rabbi Davis, a former spiritual leader at Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, went on to note that people who accept Jesus as the Messiah by definition Christians; they are not Jewish.
Later life
Herbert L. RosedaleHerbert L. Rosedale
Herbert L. Rosedale was one of America's foremost anti-cult activists. Director of the AFF , he worked closely with others to assert their belief of "cults" as manipulative, self-serving organizations which harm their hapless recruits...
, at the time president of the American Family Foundation, said of Davis: "A great and gentle radiance has left our scene with the death of Rabbi Maurice Davis. He was one of the people who first brought me into the circle of those devoted to helping cult victims. His compassion and vision were inspiring. He saw clearly the dangers which awaited those who lost their free will to totalism."
Works
- You Can Go Home Again, film director, produced by Union of American Hebrew Congregations