Institutionalized racism in the religious Jewish world

It exists. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Firstly, the idea of the "chosen people". In my eyes it means we have more responsibility - 613 commandments instead of 7. Yes, i know it's not really 613 and it's not really 7. Choseness implies superiority and is interpreted that way by many religious Jews. I don't believe it has to be though.

You can also find many racist statements in Jewish literature and tradition. You can pretty much find statements about anything you want, if you look hard enough. Maybe they were a product of their time. Who knows? But the statements exist.

There was also a certain degree of ethnic cleansing going on when Joshua entered the land. The 7 nations that lived there were to be destroyed. Under Jewish belief it was the Promised Land granted to us by G-d and the Jews were waging a battle for the future of humanity; would it be a pagan society that idolizes child-sacrifice or an ethically monotheistic society?

In the religious world many children are educated negatively towards the non-Jews and minorities as well. I've heard of one fellow Rabbi's Kid who married an Ethiopian girl in Israel. When he brought her back to his father's community, there was all sorts of whisperings and mutterings. I gather this is not a unique phenomenon.

People, this has got to stop. I may well be preaching to the converted here and I haven't provided any reasons why this racism is wrong - I hold it to be self-evident, but am happy to elaborate for any bigots out there.

It's prima facie wrong, and it's specifically wrong for Jews. We've been subjected to every sort of prejudice, racism, intolerance and bigotry in our history, let's stamp it out right now.

TRK