Young Lectures Wiesenthal

After honing his schtick in standup venues here in Atlanta, former Ambassador and Mayor FROM Atlanta, Andrew Young is taking his "Forgive Before Forever" tour international. He recently completed a one-day engagement at the Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem where he lectured Center leaders on God's role in delivering justice in this world, chastising them for "relentless prosecution of Nazi war criminals" noting that they were either "all dead or very near the end of their lives" with the implication that this somehow absolves them of their heinous crimes. He spoke fervently on behalf of those whose time here on this earth is short saying "they will face the judgment of their maker very shortly and the time for justice in this world has passed."

His attempts to characterize this as some noble form of mercy was not well received with one attendee remarking "the Jewish people empathize with the plight of African slaves in America and persecution African Americans have endured but we suspect that they have neither forgiven nor absolved those who held their ancestors in slavery nor those who persecuted them and to suggest that we should forgive perpetrators of the Holocaust is baffling." Another audience member noted the former Ambassador's ignorance of Jewish history observing "he seems to think 'Set My People Free' was written by Dr. King and is about the Civil Rights movement in America." This elicited observations from her partner, "perhaps Young can learn something from us regarding enduring slavery and persecution. We dedicate ourselves first to God and then to knowledge and education. Perhaps he should go home and apply these principles to set HIS people free. Instead he seems to fighting to keep his own people ignorant."