ISRAEL: Nationalist group urges model Bar Refaeli to marry Jewish, dump Leo DiCaprio

Rumored wedding bells for Bar Refaeli and Leonardo DiCaprio may ring true or false, but these are already being muffled by controversy. 

Supermodel Bar Refaeli is one of Israel's most successful "exports." But with fame comes responsibility -- and now an Israeli organization is beseeching Refaeli not to wed Leonardo DiCaprio -- out of a responsibility to future generations.

"It is not by chance that you were born Jewish," wrote Baruch Marzel in a letter he sent Refaeli through her mother (and that  promptly appeared in the press). "Your grandmother and her grandmother did not dream that one of their descendants would one day remove the family's future generations from the Jewish people. Assimilation has forever been one of the enemies of the Jewish people."

Marzel, a well-known stalwart among Israel's ultra-nationalists, appealed to Refaeli on behalf of an organization named "Lehava." In Hebrew, this means "flame:; it is also the Hebrew acronym for "Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land."

The organization, according to its Facebook page (in Hebrew) provides assistance to Jewish girls in relationships with non-Jews, especially Arabs. There are other organizations in Israel that specialize in extricating Jewish women from marriages and other relationships with Arabs. Last month, Yad L'achim held an event for 100 women "rescued from Arab villages."

DiCaprio is not Arab, of course.  But for those concerned with the cultural implications of assimilation, it's not what Leo is but what he isn't -- Jewish. 

This isn't personal, wrote Marzel, who was careful to open his letter stressing that he "has nothing against Mr. DiCaprio, who I have no doubt is a talented actor." Still, he implores Refaeli: "Come to your senses, look forward and back too -- and not only the present. Don't marry Leonardo DiCaprio, don't harm  the future generations."

Four years ago, Marzel sent a similar letter to Israeli beauty queen Linor Abergil, asking her not to marry non-Jewish Lithuanian NBA player Sarunas Jasikevicius (Sharas, as he was called in Israel) and thus divorce the Jewish people. They did marry -- and later divorced.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

Photo: Model Bar Refaeli arrives at the 2010 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter, held at Sunset Tower on March 7, 2010, in West Hollywood. Credit: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

Comments

[geo88a]

ruth........you've got the whole backwards. To be considered Jew, must be born from Jewish womb..........father, don't matter!
How, then, you figured , that some Jews can't be distinguished from the wasps.

[jojo]

Yes, Israeli Zionist Jews are, generally speaking, the most racist people in the modern world today.

[ruth]

we are NOT racist!!
the thing is,that if a jewish girl marry to a non jewish man-her children won't be jewish!
it's important to us have a jewish ppl!!
what's not clear in that????
if everyone marry non jewisg-ther wont be jewish people.
why should WE WANT to WIPE the jewish ppl from earth???
if one cannot understand this,it's his problem,not ours.

[ABG]

Jeff: I like how you categorize all Israeli Jews as being the most racist in the modern economy (whatever that means) because of what was written in a blog about one ultra-nationalist point of view from roughly 6 months ago.

Wake me when a Jew hater doesn't make a fool of himself.

[Jeff]

Israeli Jews are, generally speaking, the most racist people in a modern economy today.

[JRamon]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but this whole business sounds pretty much like religious purity crap. It's un~American to even talk that crap. Wasn't that nut in Germany trying to do the same thing to the very people who are now advocating it. I'm against any kind, or form of apartheid religious or otherwise in a democratic society. Marzel and his kind, need a history lesson in the concept of purification and how it doesn't work or should work in a democratic diverse society. The love between two people should be their business and not some keeper of the flame...(or racist)

[tracy]

There will be a mosque at ground zero, christmas is going to be outlawed, football is not good enough because the rest of the world plays soccer, we are the only country on the planet not permitted to protect our borders, and DiCaprio can't hookup with a Jewish model because he'll taint the entire race. Bite me!

[Refaeli]

You'd hear screams of anti-semitism, it would be on Larry King Live and there would be boycotts outside of movie theaters where a DiCaprio film is playing.

[Ron Jones]

Just wondering...

It is about saving Jewish women from Non-Jewish men, right?
DiCaprio is 3/4 of German heritage, isn't he?

Smells like racism to me.

[Ld Elon]

Learn in this or the next.

[Ld Elon]

"It is not by chance that you were born Jewish,"

Tis by chance.

"Your grandmother and her grandmother did not dream that one of their descendants would one day remove the family's future generations from the Jewish people. Assimilation has forever been one of the enemies of the Jewish people."

This is stupidness, so what if they didnt dream such things, this to me seems obvious they where not gifted with the sight.

[Paul B]

With every new outrage the apologists for Israel must be finding the going hard. Some of the attempts at justification here are laughable. Israel is no friend of the US, or anybody for that matter, and never was. One only has to separate what they say from what they actually do to see this.

[Boo Boo]

So....we send how many trillions of dollars to Israel only to just now find out how racist they are.
Why do we send them so much money if they don't even think we are good enough to marry?
Is there any other race out there that is this racist without being labeled racist?
WAKE UP PEOPLE ISRAEL HATES US if you're not a jew you're nothing.
Do realize that money is taken from YOR PAY CHECK every friggin month and is sent to Israel by your elected official AKA OUR GOVERNMENT!
Don't you think it's time to step up and ask some questions about why your hard earned money is being sent overseas to a racist group?

[Firebird7478]

Now what would have happened in the jewish community if DiCaprio's parents said the same thing? You'd hear screams of anti-semitism, it would be on Larry King Live and there would be boycotts outside of movie theaters where a DiCaprio film is playing.

[Wendy]

This is blatant racism against DiCaprio. Where's the ADL? Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton? The MSM?

[reaper]

Hey D LEo D. owns his own island you twitt do you own your own island? I tihnk he is doing very well.

[Dave]

Zionists are to Judaism like the skinheads are to Caucasians.
Every group has its radicals,the difference is that when one criticizes the racists in Israel,they are called haters.
How do you think it would go over if Caucasians formed their own homeland and placed their advocates in the Israeli government to demand Israel for their funding as well?.

[Eurico Jr.]

Imagine if a Nazi group urges Gisele Bündchen to marry an "Aryan" in order to preserve her German blood. It's just the same sick racism.

[Justin Gordon]

TO: I AM AMERICA -

You are the epitome of the 30 percent of idiots that live in this country. Your generalizations of Israel, a country that you probably have never been to, are completely wrong and make you sound very ignorant. Why don't you base your arguments on fact rather that your own preconceived stereotypical notions. Who is to say that the people of Israel aren't decent (you spelled that wrong btw), honorable and respectful people? The only people you watch on tv are the leaders. Judging by the anger in your tone, I would assume that you're not a fan of Obama and would not like to be directly connected with him when someone thinks about America.

[Anti Thesis]

What chutzpah! Does victimization give the victims the right to victimize other people? What was the point of the suffering of the Holocaust when the oppressed become the oppressors and they exercise their authority or power in such a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner that it becomes acceptable and discriminatory toward others? What's the difference with the German law that passed on September 15, 1935, for the Protection of German Blood and Honor preventing marriage between any Jew and non-Jew? Man's inhumanity to man in the name of religion is a great darkness upon us all.