For more than a millennium Jewish philosophers and theologians have pondered the mysteries of a Third Temple, the one said to be part of the long-awaited messianic era. Will it come at the start of that era, or after it begins? Will it be something concrete, or something figurative? Are Jews allowed to build it prior to a messianic era to usher in that period? Or must we patiently wait, as we have done for so long?

For some modern Zionists, the state of Israel – known as the Third Jewish Commonwealth – is known as the Third Temple.

But now it seems that construction of a large replica of King Solomon’s temple is under way – in Sao Paulo, Brazil – and not by Jews. (For the record, the one where the cafeteria was kosher was destroyed in the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 586 C.E.—not to be confused with the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E.).

Not surprisingly, the $200 million, four-year project is being financed and supervised by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a Brazilian Pentecostal church. That’s not surprising because this group belongs to the category of Christian Zionists (which contrary to popular belief is far from every evangelical who walks planet earth).

This will be a 10,000-seat replica and about 413 feet high, according to the British newspaper The Guardian (as reported by our friends at the JTA Wire Service, http://www.jta.org ). The ganzeh project will include Jerusalem stone imported at the cost of $8 million. The project will follow the guidelines in the Bible, which will make it larger than the city’s biggest Catholic church – meaning it will take up an entire block and correspond to an 18-floor building. For good measure, it will be a green building.

Check out the picture and article at: http://www.uckg.org.au/index.php/en/what-is-on/latest-news/368-the-uckg-temple-project.html .

At least one Jewish organization seems behind the effort. Persio Bider, president of the World Zionist Organization’s youth department, is quoted as saying that the project will give Brazilian non-Jews a chance “to know more about Israel and the Jews, eliminating prejudice and anti-Semitism, still present in our society.” As he said of Bishop Edir Macedo, “That’s the reason why I found Bishop Macedo’s initiative very interesting; he seems to love Israel and the Jewish people very much.”

Also not surprising is that the UCKG is a quickly growing operation. Founded in 1977, it already has 5,000 churches in Brazil alone. The main sanctuary in Rio de Janeiro holds a mere 12,000 at one time –more than the Orioles had at many games this year. By now there are branches throughout the United States and 174 lands.

Nonetheless, I don’t think any new versions of the Passover hagaddah – at least the Jewish ones – will be ending any time soon with the phrase “Next year in Sao Paulo.” Well, at least it’s nice to know that if the Messiah does show up soon that there is a welcoming place for him to daven while on vacation.

The proposed Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City took yet another controversial turn this week. In protest of the Anti-Defamation League’s opposition, CNN host Fareed Zakaria returned his 2005 ADL Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize and an accompanying honorarium. The up to 15-story structure will house a mosque, a 500-seat auditorium, a pool and be modeled on the Y.M.C.A. and Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, according to the “New York Times.” (Ironically, the building is called the Cordoba House, which echoes the medieval era in which Islamic-controlled Spain reached the world’s greatest level of religious coexistence to that date.)

Mr. Zakaria, whose move “stunned” ADL national director Abraham Foxman, was well within his rights to protest.

It is for certain extremely difficult to defend a Jewish group that opposes a house of worship or community center nearly anywhere, let alone amidst the nation’s most diverse major city. Likewise, it is impossible to understand the fierce emotional rejection some families of 9/11 victims have to the project. Indeed, questions have been raised about the Cordoba House’s funders – as the American Jewish Committee has noted while supporting the project. Those inquiries must be fully answered.

Yet, both Mr. Zakaria and the ADL could have been much more constructive in approaching this complicated and sensitive matter. For example, Mr. Zakaria could have challenged the ADL to work with him to push for an interfaith prayer space at the building, or to create a similar one nearby. Likewise, he could have asked the ADL to help him raise funds for a 9/11 monument in front of Cordoba House. He could even have asked for the Jewish group to co-sponsor an early event at the center – a conference on how to peacefully combat religious fundamentalism.

Ultimately, we must realize that Islam is engaged in an historic struggle for its soul, one that moderate American Moslems who favor coexistence can lead. Sticking a thumb in their eye cannot help their cause.

Can the appearance in today’s world of a swastika ever be anything other than a viciously anti-Semitic act? Surprisingly the Anti-Defamation League – the nation’s premier chronicler of anti-Semitism and hate in general – is now saying that the appearance of the infamous Nazi Socialist Party symbol is not always targeting Jews. Indeed, last week the ADL took the controversial step of shifting how it records such incidents in its well-known annual audit of anti-Semitic incidents. It did so by dropping appearances from the report of what it deems “random swastikas.”

“We know that the swastika has, for some, lost its meaning as the primary symbol of Nazism and instead become a more generalized symbol of hate. So we are being more careful to include graffiti incidents that specifically target Jews or Jewish institutions as we continue the process of re-evaluating and redefining how we measure anti-Jewish incidents,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said.

That has troubled and outraged some, particularly Holocaust survivors and their families, a group that understandably sees visceral anti-Jew hatred when the symbol shows up.

While the ADL is right to make a distinction, it seems to be doing so too easily. The agency should include in its annual audit instances in which the swastika and perhaps KKK markings – so often the two appear jointly – arise.

Ironically, the swastika is not so new an image. There is archaeological evidence of it from as far back as the Neolithic period and it is common in some Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Back then, it was simply a design, a geographical figure and often appeared in reverse of the modern version. (For a short history of the swastika, read this: http://history1900s.about.com/cs/swastika/a/swastikahistory.htm ).

Nonetheless, in the modern world it is replete with profound and disturbing meaning. Its illustrators may indeed not understand the searing pain they are causing by its representation. That, however, neither makes its appearance irrelevant nor something left for others to note.