Access denied

Marion Rung is a Finnish-Jewish singer (and therefore a celebrity here), and today an incident at the Jewish cemetary made headlines at a local tabloid. Marion's husband was denied access to the cemetary since he refused to put on a kippah.

It was the one year anniversary of Marion's mothers' death, and the tombstone was being revealed at the cemetary. Marion's husband Kalle Munck had worn a kippah at the funeral itself a year ago, but refused to put it on this time around. Therefore the Rabbi asked him not to join the others at the cemetary but to wait outside. Mr. Munck was offended and sad that he couldn't attend the ceremony and is going to make an official complaint about the incident to the ombudsman. Munck states he, as a atheist, refuses to wear any religious garments. He sees the wearing of the kippah only as a recommendation and the cemetary being maintained with tax payer's money - so wearing the tiny hat should be optional.

Needless to say, this guy was labeled as a jerk, idiot, childish etc. by the readers of the article in the comments section. I have to agree, he wears a kippah one year earlier and now refuses? How disrespectful for his wife and late mother-in-law, not to mention to make this kind of an issue a matter of law and publicity...

I was once denied access to the Vatican because the sleeves of my t-shirt were too short. For goodness sake, a Christian institution bans the visit of a fellow Christian because of clothes! Should I have pressed charges, too? Or what about Mt. Athos in Greece where no women are allowed to enter? That is discrimination, but you don't see any lawsuits around. What a jerk indeed. The Rabbi was right.

(Picture from wikimedia.org)

Read the article here in Finnish.