Maurice Davis (December 15, 1921 – December 14, 1993) was a

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

and activist. He served on the

President's Commission on Equal Opportunity The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

, in the

Lyndon B. Johnson Administration Lyndon B. Johnson's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 36th president of the United States began on November 22, 1963 following the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, assassination of John F. Kennedy, President Kennedy and ...

and was a 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 and a regular contributor to '' The Jewish Post and Opinion''.

Personal and family life

Rabbi Davis married Marion Cronbach, daughter of Rose Hentil and prominent reform rabbi and well-known

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

(and Davis's teacher) Abraham Cronbach. Davis and his wife had two children, both went on to become rabbis.

Civil rights work

In 1952, Davis founded the Kentucky Committee on Desegregation. In 1965, he walked with Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama, on the third of the Selma to Montgomery marches, and was appointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by President Johnson.

Anti-cult activity and opposition to the Unification Church

In 1970, when two of his congregants' children joined the

Unification Church of the United States The Unification Church of the United States is a religious movement in the United States of America. It began in the 1950s and 1960s when missionaries from Japan and South Korea were sent to the United States by the international Unification Churc ...

, Davis educated himself about the nature and methods of groups he considered to be

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

s. He assisted 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 reported that he observed commonalities among the young people he counseled who had joined the Unification Church. He found that most of them were dropouts from mainline churches or synagogues – and that they were on a quest for idealism, community and a sense of belonging. In 1972, Davis founded the group Citizens Engaged in Reuniting Families (CERF), a national anti-Unification Church organization, which by 1976 was comprised 500 families. In November 1976, Rabbi Davis spoke at Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, New York, on "The Moon People And Our Children". He compared the Unification Church to the Hitler Youth and the Peoples Temple.Cults Hearing Noisy, Tense
By Marjorie Hyer, '' Washington Post'', Tuesday, February 6, 1979; Page A14
.. 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 lollipops in order to rape their bodies, so, too, do these lure children with candy-coated lies in order to rape their minds."

Activism for Judaism

In 1990, Davis criticized people who refer to themselves as Jews for Jesus,

Hebrew Christians Jewish Christians ( he, יהודים נוצרים, yehudim notzrim) were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Judea during the late Second Temple period (first century AD). The Nazarene Jews integrated the belief of Jesus ...

or Messianic Jews as being "devious" and "deceptive". He further stated that people who accept Jesus as the Messiah are, by definition, Christians and not Jewish.'' The Indianapolis Star'', January 27, 1990, page A-8, By Carol Elrod, Star Religion Writer
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.

Quotes

*Brotherhood postponed. The time has come, and it has been a long time in coming. The time has come to worship with our lives as with our lips, in the streets as in the sanctuaries. And we who dare to call God, God, must begin to learn the challenge which that word contains. *We know, and we must never forget, that every path leads somewhere. The path of segregation leads to lynching. The path of anti-Semitism leads to Auschwitz. The path of cults leads to Jonestown. We ignore this fact at our peril. *The last time I ever witnessed a movement that had these qualifications: (1) a totally monolithic movement with a single point of view and a single authoritarian head; (2) replete with fanatical followers who are prepared and programmed to do anything their master says; (3) supplied by absolutely unlimited funds; (4) with a hatred of everyone on the outside; (5) with suspicion of parents, against their parents—the last movement that had those qualifications was the Nazi youth movement, and I'll tell you, I'm scared. *They essianic Jewshave distorted our holidays, demeaned our faith, misstated our history, and belittled a legacy which we have spent centuries preserving and enlarging. *I keep thinking what happens when the power of love is twisted into the love of power.Masters and Slaves: The Tragedy of JonestownFanita English, M.S.W.
September 1, 1996 Vol.1, no.2, ''Idea'', *I am here to protest against child molesters. For as surely as there are those who lure children with lollipops in order to rape their bodies, so, too, do these lure children with candy-coated lies in order to rape their minds. *Herbert L. Rosedale, 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.

References

External links

Rocky Mountain Hai - Rabbi JayR (Bahir) Davis (official website)Congregation Emanu-El, Wichita, KSIndianapolis Hebrew CongregationRabbi Davis' sermon after marching with Rev Dr. Martin Luther King
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Maurice 1921 births 1993 deaths American Reform rabbis American human rights activists Unification Church and Judaism Critics of the Unification Church People from Palm Coast, Florida Deprogrammers Selma to Montgomery marches Jewish anti-racism activists Jewish human rights activists Rabbis from New York (state) People from Providence, Rhode Island 20th-century American rabbis