Bosma apologizes to Jewish leaders for comments

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Bosma Apologizes to Jewish Leaders for Comments

By Jim Shella, WISH-TV Television Broadcasting (Indianapolis, Indiana), February 20, 2006

House Speaker Brian Bosma issued an apology to Jewish leaders Monday.

Speaker Bosma (R) met with about 50 Jewish leaders last week and after the meeting a rabbi sent an email to his congregation. In it, Rabbi Jon Adland said, "Everything we believed about this country had just been trampled. For the first time in my life as a citizen of this country, I was scared."

The rabbi's e-mail is now the subject of several blogs including one that carries a cartoon showing Bosma blocking minorities from a gate labeled "freedom." It all stems from a discussion regarding prayer in the Indiana House where it was pointed out that two percent of the population is Jewish and 80 percent is Christian.

"I asked the group what percentage of the population in Indiana for demographic purposes was of Jewish tradition and faith and it was them who provided me with the two percent," said Bosma.

Rabbi Adland saw that as disregard for minority rights and said as much in an email sent to his congregation, which is now posted on several blogs.

On Monday afternoon Bosma held a second meeting with the rabbi and other Jewish leaders "and I gave a heartfelt apology if the implication of my words were offensive to him," said Bosma.

David Orentlicher (D), the only Jewish member of the General Assembly echoed the rabbi's concern about what he calls the "tyranny of the majority. That we are a democracy where the majority prevails but we're also a constitutional democracy where the majority prevails but important rights have to be protected for even small minorities," he said.

Speaker Bosma says he wanted the group to know that he values his ties to the Jewish community "and that they are very valued citizens and that anything that had said to cause them to think anything differently that I sincerely apologized for that and he accepted that."

"One of the most important things we can do as a state is assure that any minority is welcome in Indiana and that if we're gonna grow as a state we have to have that message," said Orentlicher.

Rabbi Adland referred questions to the Jewish Community Relations Council. Bosma considers the matter closed. "I did indicate to Rabbi Adland that I'd drop him a note and he said he would be happy to include that in his weekly missive on this coming Friday," said Bosma.

The Polis Center researches religious demographics across the country in Indiana. They found around 71 percent of people who claim a faith say they are Protestant Christian. Around 27 percent are Catholic. The Jewish, Muslim and those classified as eastern religions each make up under one percent of the state.

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