This is hilarious. We just have GOT to make 100 blessings in a day.
100 brachos, even if you need to involve a secular Jew in the mitzva. After all, G-d also created the secular.
A hat tip where it’s deserved.
“If you see oppression of the poor and deprivation of justice and righteousness in the state, wonder not about the matter, for the Highest over the high watches, and there are higher ones over them.” — Ecclesiastes 5:7
Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post brings down a bombshell today that many of us may not have been aware of.
In accordance with the Presidential Records Act, White House email correspondence must be preserved forever. Never deleted, and never tampered with after sent or received in order to ensure accuracy and transparency of records.
But this is not your average administration, and after the wiretapping, secret jails and deportations, and general political opacity we’ve been subjected to under this regime, this should just come as no surprise:
Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted — lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas — due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday.The leading culprit appears to be President Bush’s enormously influential political adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication.
The White House yesterday said it has no idea how many e-mails have been lost.
In an afternoon conference call with reporters, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel spread the blame all around. “White House policy did not give clear enough guidance,” he said…”I guess the bottom line is that our policy at the White House was not clear enough for employees.”
But when I asked Stanzel to read out loud the White House e-mail policy, it seemed clear enough to me: “Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff,” says the handbook that all staffers are given and expected to read and comply with.
Bottom line, Karl Rove violated Federal law.Another oppression of justice in the State.
I just find John McCain hard to stomach sometimes:
Sinking in polls and struggling to reinvigorate his foundering presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered a robust defense of the war in Iraq on Wednesday, declaring that President Bush and the conflict’s supporters are on the right side of history in the struggle against terrorism and extremism.Dismissing public opinion polls as offering nothing but “temporary favor” to the war’s opponents, McCain directly confronted the biggest obstacle to his White House ambitions: his unyielding support of a war that more than two-thirds of the country has turned against.
“I sympathize with the fatigue of the American people,” he told cadets at the Virginia Military Institute. “But I also know the toll a lost war takes on an army and a country. It is the right road. It is necessary and just.”
McCain offered a blistering critique of Democrats in control of Congress. He accused them of being reckless in their foreign policy by attempting to set a deadline for withdrawal in legislation intended to provide money for the war effort. And he said those who control the legislature are “heedless of the terrible consequences” of failing in Iraq.
“Democratic leaders smiled and cheered as the last votes were counted,” he said. “What were they celebrating? Defeat? Surrender?”
Maybe the possibility that one more of their relatives won’t meet his bloody end in a Fallujah alley somewhere? Maybe the joy of hope of seeing their loved ones alive? Just a couple guesses.What did he call this half-trillion-dollar war? Necessary? Just?
In the text of his speech given at VMI, one finds such vignettes we have come to expect from the neocons:
In the early days after 9/11 our country was united in a single purpose, to find the terrorists bent on our destruction and eliminate the threat they posed to us.In the intervening years, we’ve learned the complexity of the struggle against radical Islamic ideology. The extremists, a tiny percentage of the hundreds of millions of peaceful Muslims, are flexible, intelligent, determined and unconstrained by international borders. They wish to return the world to the seventh century, and they will use any means, no matter how inhumane, to eliminate anyone who stands in their way.
McCain also referenced “the struggle for the soul of Islam, of which the war in Iraq constitutes a key element.”We’re fighting for the soul of Islam? American troops are fighting a just war, in a key element in the struggle for the soul of Islam?
Support the troops, and not with PR-driven blatant lies. Bring them home alive from a region on its way to stability. How does McCain live with himself?
If there’s anyone that I could imagine Jean-Marie Le Pen supporters revering, I can’t say Muhammad pops into my mind. But that’s precisely what’s happening, according to the Washington Times. French Muslims are apparently rallying behind Monsieur Xenophobe in increasing numbers:
A small but significant minority of French Muslims intend to vote for Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right National Front leader in this month’s presidential elections — a remarkable achievement for the politician known for his anti-immigrant stance.Some of the country’s 5 million Muslims do not want a new wave of immigrants to arrive. They also support Mr. Le Pen’s anti-American rhetoric and his publicized “friendship” with the people of Iraq. Others are attracted by his traditional stand on moral issues such as abortion, family and the death penalty.
No one should forget just who this man is. This is the same man who called concentration camps and Holocaust gas chambers a “detail” in World War II, and called the occupation of France by Nazi Germany “not particularly inhumane”. While he is banalizing and heavily revamping his image including visits to largely Algerian multiethnic suburbs, I almost want to cry over the prospect of an ethnic community giving over the keys to its survival to a vocal xenophobe. (However, we did also see the far-right Vlaams Belang carry a huge wave of support among Jewish voters in Belgium, some of whom remain vocal and ardent supporters of the group. )If Le Pen thought the World Cup soccer team had “too many colored players”, I hardly see how — his moral stands aside — he can be trusted to provide equal services and opportunities to “colored” families and neighborhoods.
This was passed on to me in the names of Rabbi Yudel Shain and Rabbi Yisroel Hisiger:
CREST TOOTHPASTEThe Proctor and Gamble Company has made known that Crest, “Pro Health Toothpaste,” is made with animal derived ingredients including pork fat.
The following Crest toothpastes are made WITHOUT animal derived ingredients and there is no information about presence or absence of alcohol in flavor.
1) Cavity Protection Toothpaste
a. Regular Flavor b. Cool Mint Jell
2) Anti Cavity Toothpaste
a. Regular Flavor b. Kid CrestThe rest of Crest toothpastes contain animal derived ingredients including pork fat.
Please pass this on to anyone who would care if their toothpaste is treif.
I would be remiss if I did not publicize this to the observant communities.CAVEAT: I want to make it perfectly clear HERE that according to R’ Yisro’el Belsky, kach shamati ha’yom, non-kosher ingredients in one’s toothpaste do not necessarily render to the toothpaste forbidden (this would not be the case were we talking about mouthwash). This is not a cry for every tube of Crest to make its way into a garbage bag ASAP, rather, just an alert so that consumers can make educated choices free of any forbidden materials.
UPDATE:
Apparently this is an older Email. This email originally went out a while ago, and, according to FrumHouse (b’shem the Chicago Rabbinical Council) the key ingredient here is the glycerin.
The Halal Products Blog asked Crest officially in August of 2006 about this, and here was Crest’s response and this is direct from the pig’s horse’s mouth:
Thanks for contacting Crest.Crest is made from raw materials that can come from either animal or vegetable sources. This may be either beef or pork, depending on available supplies. There is no way to determine which source is in any particular package of product. However, the animal source, if used, is chemically altered during manufacture and no longer resembles the original material by the time it is added to our product.
The following Crest versions / flavors contain NO animal derivatives:
Crest Anti-Cavity Regular Paste
Crest Cavity Protection Cool Mint Gel
Crest Cavity Protection Regular Paste
Crest Cavity Protection Icy Mint Striped (this was discontinued in March 2005)
Kid’s CrestNone of our Health Care products are certified kosher or carry the “U” or other kosher labeling. If you have a question about the acceptability for use, we suggest sharing consulting your rabbi who is in a better position to answer.
Thanks again for writing.
Ruth
Crest Team
Again, see above, and the Chicago Rabbinical Council also says that one’s personal decision whether or not to use Crest is dependent on “one’s philosophy”, however, the fact remains.There may be pork in the toothpaste.
And David said to Gad; “I am exceedingly distressed; let us fall now into the hand of the L-rd; for His mercies are great; but into the hand of man let me not fall.” — 2 Shmuel 24:14
Rarely do I ever criticize or rant about anything in the charedi velt. I am unabashedly pro-charedi and pro-Torah almost to a fault. I consider my conversion to Judaism — Orthodox, no, ultra-Orthodox Judaism — to be the best decision I ever made, and my grandmother told me on her deathbed that she agreed. I never regret leaving my family and everything seven years ago to come to the shtetl in which I now live, I know that Torah — as redacted by Chaza”l and practicalized in the Shulchan Aruch — is the manifestation of the word of the Living G-d, the Creator Himself, in ink on parchment/laser toner on paper.
Which is why this kashrus thing keeps getting to me.
A person who calls out Reb Yankel in shul for not checking into the origin of his bottled water is often praised for his scrupulous observance of the laws of yayin nesech or other contaminant which could work its way into the water. Were the same person to stand up and call someone out for insulting someone, or spreading lies about someone — both of which could, in certain circumstances, exclude someone from the entire Next World, they have “ba’al teshuva-itis”, or are “frumyaks” or some other semi-insulting term for someone who, oh, takes these commandments to heart.
Things like mistreatment of workers, “shady” business deals (”fraud” b’la’az), manipulation of government resources — these things not only raise anti-Semitism from non-Jews, but also make it impossible to turn Jews on (or back on) to Judaism. How can I tell you to let G-d into your life by following the laws that no one else takes seriously? Those are supposed to be the religious people! How can the yeshiva say “listen to the words of Rabbi X” when Rabbi X’s gabbai is printing up newsletters with all sorts of BS in the name of Rabbi X? Or Rabbi X’s words aren’t even written down? Or no one listens to Rabbi X?
And this hurts, because I love the Torah. In this particular situation, no one’s even discussing the Torah behind the issue.
So this is my contribution to the radicalization of religion.
I would love to see a Shulchan Aruch taken from block to block and all of these places with labor violations and unsafe environments and abuse being labeled for what they are, and I want to see the actual Torah Law win out. I want to see Choshen Mishpat given equal airtime as halachos of Shabbos, and words like shvartzer and shiksa treated as badly as Hebrew National hot dogs. I envision a world where learning about one’s development as a Jew is given more time than one spends taking a dump, where Talmud is learned as if it is more than a collection of quotes from Roshei Yeshiva, and where one’s connection to G-d is not measured by the number of microns in their water filter or number of lumens in their lettuce-checking lightbox. I want to see, once and for all, the bridge between “what’s written” and “what’s done”, and making them into two different categories is what allows for 99.9% of the problems inside and with the religious communities.
As it is taught, the Jewish people must improve ourselves and unite before any time of redemption is supposed to happen. (And for what happens to those who aren’t down, see makkas choshech.) The King won’t sit on a broken chair, and if I have to bring new-school harbatzah or whatever is necessary to be the f**king krazy glue for whatever part of the nation I merit to bring together then so be it.
F**k the bullsh*t, the Nation which received the Torah should expect no less than Divinity in their lives. We can’t let Judaism get treated like a Lexus in the Bronx:
Stolen by some dudes from a ghetto and chopped up. Ha’meivinim yavinu v’yaskilu.
Yet another digital piece of evidence to be used against someone in the Next World.
May Hashem have mercy on the souls of the departed.
All of them.
Some will need it more than others.
I, like others, initially thought that link was of an underground facebook site which, literally, spread from friend to friend across millions of people over the course of 12 or 14 hours. Unfortunately, this was probably rooted in a sort of subconscious ethnic profiling reflex that we, as Americans have. One of the first things people wanted to know was answered by the word “Asian”, and answered in its entirety by “Asian, male, 20″. And, when someone fit the description (Asian, male, same area!) AND had guns, apparently for whoever leaked the original link with the caption, it was too much to resist.
And now Mr. Chiang is dealing with death threats.
The Internet owes him an apology.
Jewish law clearly has a lot to say, of course, about ritual slaughter, and the proper preparation of kosher meat and poultry. There’s also plenty in the Torah and Talmud that focuses on employer-employee relationships, and the ethics of how to treat workers.Except for a few historical cases where rabbinical authorities tried to link the two issues, generally, they’ve been considered sperate spheres.
But a newly formed commission created by the Conservative movement is calling attention to conditions faced by workers at kosher-meat plants. The Commission of Inquiry is weighing whether or not to call for a “Tsedek Hekhsher,” combining the Hebrew word for justice with the traditional term for kosher certification.
The initiative would create a process to certify that kosher meat and chicken were prepared in an environment where workers are paid fairly and on time, treated with dignity and receive adequate safety training.
“I believe that we, as Jews, when it comes to the food we are obligated to eat, should make sure it is produced in a way that meets the necessary standards of Jewish law and Jewish values,” stated Morris Allen, a Minnesota rabbi who’s chairing the commission established by the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
While no G-d-fearing individual could possibly debate the inherent good in people receiving a living wage and safe working conditions, it just disturbs me that this judgment on Torah Law had to come from a group of people who don’t (necessarily) believe that G-d wrote the Torah.And where are those of us who do believe that G-d wrote the Torah?
I remember hearing from one mashgiach who worked for the Orthodox Union. He was speaking about how he removed his certification from one particular restaurant.
The food? Glatt kosher. No question. The staff? Dressed modestly. The wine? Kosher l’mehadrin 100%. So what made the rabbi remove his certification?
There is a relatively little known halacha, a prohibition against having music and alcoholic beverages served in the same “room”. This particular restaurant had a live musician standing literally next to the bar. This rabbi would not allow his name to be on such a violation of the Code of Jewish Law, and he removed his certification. The restaurant quickly found another supervision agency under which it remains to this day, and it has since redone its interior.
This particular rabbi is renowned for being a tzaddik and his word goes without question in the Orthodox community. His actions with this particular restaurant were applauded. So where is the applause for similar actions, holding kosher establishments to observance of the Code of Jewish Law, or the outcry for more of the same?
Why isn’t this even being talked about?
An article on Eco-Kashrus (kosher certification requiring environmental concerns be implemented) was relegated to almost irrelevance in Kashrus magazine. Laws of bal tashchis, of “not destroying” the environment (”fruit trees” are referenced in the verse) are discussed in the Code of Jewish Law, right there in the second volume, not too far after laws of forbidden meat and dairy mixtures. Is there not even room for a debate of the validity of these holy laws when it comes to kosher certification?
And the workers. I have an extremely hard time understanding how blatant Choshen Mishpat (fourth volume of the Code of Jewish Law) violations are allowed to go on in light of numerous exhortations of the Sages in the Talmud (Bava Metzia) to treat workers well, pay wages on time, etc. Even calling someone an insulting word is forbidden by Choshen Mishpat 228.
While no one is asking for full Dept. of Labor and EEOC audits with every check of a pizza oven, the fact that these are not even considered valid enough concerns to be placed on the table of discussion is disturbing.
If these aren’t valid concerns, and if kashrus really does only go on the food itself, then let’s stop calling for modestly dressed staff and try to put a hechsher on the Hooters in Tel Aviv (Hashem ya’akor kacha mei’artzo). Let’s stop applauding righteous rabbinical authorities for enforcing laws of alcohol consumption. Let’s stop inquiring into the belief systems of winemakers (as is done with some Chaba”d wineries).
Otherwise, if those are valid concerns, let’s examine the rest of the volume that those laws come from. If the Code of Jewish Law determines what goes into the food, it should determine what goes into the paycheck of the one who makes the food.
If it doesn’t have to, if the Shulchan Aruch does not apply in its entirety to eating establishments and I’m barking up the wrong tree, also please let me know. In writing.
And let it be codified forever.
Otherwise, the silence of those of us who believe in the Torah, in light of all these labor violations, could create a chillul Hashem, G-d forbid.
In the kosher cafeteria at New York University, a Jewish student holds up a piece of pepper steak from his lunch, displaying it to his friends.“What does this look like?” he asks.
The friends stop chatting for a moment to train their eyes on his fork. They are dressed for a warm spring day, some in sweatpants, others in jeans, a few wearing yarmulkes and one young woman in a hijab, a traditional Muslim head covering.
They laugh. “Israel,” someone shouts, and it is true, the piece of steak looks just like the Jewish state. “I’m going to eat Israel!” says Jonathan Einalhori, holding the steak aloft. “No, wait,” someone else says. “Have one of the Muslims eat Israel.”
They laugh again, and Einalhori eats his lunch.
In many environments, this would have caused a food fight, or better yet, a food intifada. Not here.
Two weeks earlier, these students had barely met, before a spring break trip to New Orleans, to volunteer after the devastating Hurricane Katrina, brought the 15 Jewish and 15 Muslim students together to work on building new homes and new friendships.Gutting houses and helping to build new ones in the Chalmette neighborhood of New Orleans, far from the frenzied, academic environment of NYU, the students were taken out of their usual roles and free to explore each others’ cultures and traditions. Though they expected to find many places of divergence in their beliefs, experiences and lifestyles, they were surprised to find as well how much they have in common.
“It wasn’t like we came to some brilliant conclusion that will bring world peace,” said Kate Gribetz, a freshman from Manhattan. “But we found we had so many commonalities, it’s not worth it to dwell on one difference.”
In New Orleans, when their work on the houses was complete, the students attended a Jumu’ah service, Islam’s Friday afternoon prayers, and a Shabbat service on Friday night. Each group learned about the others’ prayers and traditions, while at the same time, they say, deepening their own faith.
“Seeing the passion Muslims had toward their religion inspired me to have more toward mine,” says Gribetz, who was raised Modern Orthodox.
Granted, according to many religious authorities, for the Jewish kids to take part in the Jumu’ah service could have been problematic, but the sentiments of peace and unity are clear.
The students who traveled to New Orleans, and many in the community, attribute the warm feelings between Muslims and Jews to the sincere friendship that has developed between two men who, not long ago, were students themselves: Rabbi Yehuda Sarna and Brother Khalid Latif, the rabbi and imam at NYU.Rabbi Sarna, 28, and Brother Latif, 24, began as coworkers but soon became friends. When the controversy over the anti-Muslim Danish cartoons arose in 2005, Rabbi Sarna supported sit-ins and protests by Muslim student groups. When former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to speak at NYU last fall, Brother Latif helped lead a post-speech discussion on relations between Israel and Lebanon. When the war broke out last summer, both men called each other, not only to plan how to deal with the fallout on campus, but simply to check in.
“We are able to model the kind of relationship which people should have,” says Rabbi Sarna. “We’re not just politically correct, but friends with mutual respect about each others’ religion.”
Rabbi Sarna concedes that because both men are traditional on their respective religious spectrums, the students in New Orleans felt comfortable taking part in unfamiliar worship services, flirting with each others’ stereotypes and becoming genuinely close.
“It wasn’t a hippie, ‘Kumbaya’ feeling that people should lay down their guns,” says Rabbi Sarna. “By the end of the trip the Jewish students [saw the Muslims] as cousins, people worshipping the same God in a different way.”
Young, traditional clergy building bridges and decreasing prejudice and increasing unity. Ken yirbu. May the unity only increase.
With a hat tip to my boy Talut, a beautiful story on Muslim-Jewish unity from Northwest Arkansas. From the Morning News:
Jewish congregation “thrilled” to work with Muslim contractor on new buildingFAYETTEVILLE — Who knew religious divisions could be solved in an Olive Garden?
Fadil Bayyari and Jeremy Hess laid the groundwork a few weeks ago for Bayyari, a Muslim, to build a new home for Temple Shalom, Fayetteville’s Jewish congregation. By the time the endless salad and breadsticks arrived, Bayyari reached an understanding with Hess, head of the temple’s building committee. The coming together of faiths often pitted against one another wasn’t lost on either.
“Even though this is a Jewish worship place, it is great we can represent the community,” Hess said.
Bayyari, a Springdale general contractor, will donate his services to Temple Shalom as they proceed with plans for a $1 million building at the intersection of Sang Avenue and Cleveland Street. Bret Park, the architect designing the new Temple Shalom, said it is too early to calculate how valuable Bayyari’s donation will be.
“We don’t know how much the materials are going to be,” Park said. “We haven’t gotten there yet.”
The symbolism of the men working together is more significant than bricks and mortar, temple president Bill Feldman said. Bayyari and Feldman agreed demonstrating the positive side of Muslim-Jewish relations is important locally and internationally. “We are able to get beyond the differences in the United States,” Bayyari said. “Why can’t they?”
Building a synagogue — for free, pro bono — is a huge donation for any Muslim to make to his local Jewish community. What motivated him to be so generous?
Bayyari said he approached Hess through a friend in the local Rotary Club about lending his services. He said he thought it would be an important way to show his support. Bayyari previously built a mosque for Fayetteville’s Muslim community.“We are all children of God when you look at it,” Bayyari said.
He noted that, if you trace Islam and Judaism to their roots, both begin with Abraham. He said meeting with Hess he saw how the two faiths shared common themes, and so did the people.
“We grew up in the same house, except his father was Jewish and my father was a Muslim,” Bayyari said.
One love to Mr. Bayyari. Granted, the deal was struck with a “rabbi” in a non-kosher Olive Garden, thus making me wonder about said “Jewish congregation”, but the fact remains, peace and unity have won in one more corner of the world. Ken yirbu.
MNNOnline.org, the Missionary News Network, is not too happy about proposed Israeli legislation:
Israel’s theocratic party known as the Shas faction has declared war on missionaries. The group’s Ultra-Orthodox leader, MK Yakov Margi, introduced a bill on March 13 urging a strengthening of Israel’s laws against proselytism.
Ignoring the fact that it’s usually Rabbi Ovadia Yosef who is Shas’ “ultra-Orthodox leader”, this article has an overreaching, repeated tone: they’re fringe, they’re extremist, they’re “theocratic” (I in no way consider that a bad thing), they’re, in a prefix, “ultra-”.The article continues:
The new proposal would completely forbid preaching and proselytism altogether. Under the proposal, violators would face a years’ imprisonment for preaching conversion. According to VCM, under current Israeli law, anyone offering money or material products in exchange for conversion faces five years in prison or a monetary fine.The person on the accepting end of the offer also faces punishment. Anyone acting in favor of, or conducting a conversion ceremony on, a minor faces six month in jail. The law, however, does not address attempts to convert adults over the age of 18, making it completely legitimate.
Oh the horror, the humanity! Let us add a “-stan” to Israel’s name, it is so steeped in these repressive legal systems from bygone eras! It’s Saudi Arabia 2! Grab the holy water!Please. Get a damn grip.
Examining the article further:
Penner says the law reveals an ugly undercurrent facing Christians and Messianic Jews in Israel.
Oh really? (Or for my younger and/or MySpace-intensive crew: “O RLY?”) That’s terrible, Mr. Penner. What happened, exactly?
Every week for the past three years, he explains, the Messianic Jewish congregation in Arad, Israel has faced opposition from ultra orthodox Jews. Recent reports indicate the congregation regularly faces jeers and insults. They are spat upon and their homes are frequent targets for tomatoes and eggs. Noisy demonstrations are common, with the approval of the police.The opposition turned violent on February 25, when a member of the church was beaten in the parking lot of his Chess and Bible Shop. The same shop was firebombed in 2005 by opponents to his evangelistic work.
(No, chances are, violence was probably NOT permitted in this case, but that’s irrelevant.)Who got jeers? Who got eggs and tomatoes? Not the gentile Christians, but the Messianic Jews. Why is this?
Israel is a pluralistic society with freedom of religion. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all freely practiced (in theory) throughout Israel’s borders. However, Messianic Judaism is based upon the principle of coercion and coaxing — “you can believe in JC and still be Jewish” is their mantra — something which Israel was set up to be a refuge from.
Jews the world over have had to fight forced conversion in every era from the Inquisition down to Chosen People Ministries, and have only one parcel of real estate to run to where being Jewish is not something they have to defend…and then even there, in the one place where a star of David flies high on the flag in the sky, the one “Jewish state”, there they have to defend Judaism?
Jews from places where Judaism was repressed are coming to Israel with fledgling Jewish identities, many knowing only “I don’t believe in JC” as “what Jews believe”, and then they are confronted with multimillion dollar campaigns and ministers well versed in social psychology and brainwashing/propaganda techniques — they are often no match for the superior arguing power and lose the Jewish faith entirely.
If not faith in G-d altogether.
Strengthen the “body of Christ” with the hundreds of millions of non-Jews who already call it home. Add churches, ministries, charities, and even missions. But please.
Let Jews be Jews somewhere in the world.
Today’s Jerusalem Post contains a beautiful piece from Agudath Israel’s Avi Shafran. In it, he details some of the ways, from educational materials to magazines, haredi Orthodox Jews are smeared and basically lied on:
A major American publisher of educational texts recently showed impressive responsibility and resolve by pledging to destroy its inventory of a book because of its false characterization of Orthodox Jews’ beliefs.The problematic passage - in a volume of Scholastic Library’s Enchantment of the World (second series, published under Scholastic’s “Children’s Press” imprint) - asserts that, in Israel, “some ultra-Orthodox Jews want to limit the definition of who actually qualifies [for automatic citizenship as a Jew, under the country’s Law of Return]. They believe that Reform and Conservative Jews are not really Jews at all because they are not strict in their observance of all the religious laws.”
When the passage was called to the attention of Agudath Israel of America by a school librarian in Brooklyn, we immediately contacted Scholastic to point out the falsity of the contention that Orthodox Jews reject any Jew’s Jewishness because of a less strict level, or even complete lack, of observance.
In light of this I understand a lot of Jews’ saying “you probably don’t consider me Jewish” to me and other Orthodox Jews. Who would propagate this lie that Jewishness is dependent on observance level?
Where did the defamatory error originate? According to a Scholastic official, the publisher had relied on “a high-ranking member of American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprises” for the original formulation. AICE is, in its own words, “a leading content provider for students and organizations interested in Jewish history, culture and politics.”AICE probably does much good work and likely provides a good deal of accurate information. But that only makes the issue all the more troubling.
And Mr. Shafran continues, beginning with a Jewish publication:
Equally troubling is the fact that, entirely under-the-radar, many Jews are being taught other fiendish fables about Orthodox Jews.A NUMBER of such reports have come to my attention, but I recall one with a particular wince.
It was several years ago, when a letter to the editor appeared in the magazine Reform Judaism. The letter had been written by a Jewish teenager in response to an article in an earlier issue of the periodical contending that Orthodox Jews have contempt for Jews who are not like themselves.
Yep, a “they hate us” argument. This is been used by so many groups and sub-groups, I fail to see how it still works.
…After identifying myself and apologizing profusely for calling her out of the blue, I spoke my piece: “God forbid! Orthodox Jews don’t hate you! Our argument is with Reform Judaism - not Reform Jews. We have serious disagreements with the philosophy of the movement with which your family is affiliated. As you get older and learn more, you can evaluate those concerns for yourself. But you and your family are our precious Jewish brothers and sisters!”A pause, and then she responded.
“You sound like a nice person,” she said, “but I can’t accept what you’re saying.”
I was stunned. “Why not?”
“Because I’ve been taught otherwise, for years.”
“But it isn’t true!”
“Maybe,” responded Michelle, “but we’ve spent many classes in my Temple school discussing Orthodox attitudes, and I can’t just suddenly take your word against all that I’ve been taught.”
No self-respecting Orthodox Rabbi I have ever seen has ever en masse hated Reform Jews. Ever.The Orthodox Jew has the privilege of having a book of law — the Shulchan Aruch, the Divinely-guided Code of Jewish Law — which dictates the standards of how we are to behave. Advocating divisions between Jews, intra-Semitic hatred, doubting Jewish lineage without any proof further than which “type of Jew” the person self-identifies as — these things are unquestionably assur and violate the Scriptural commandment of loving fellow Jews (and if they were non-Jews there would be whole other issues). The Orthodox Jew saying such things can — and should — be called up for violating Scriptural Law.
But the Reform movement doesn’t officially recognize Jewish Law as binding. Of course, the movement recognizes nebulous, uncodified concepts like “image of G-d” and “fixing up the world” but they have no binding code. I don’t know how one would begin the process of mass eradication of prejudice in a religious school without saying something to the effect of “G-d doesn’t like X behavior, and He said so at such-and-such.” And, if the “Temple school” truly subscribes to the ideal of “personal autonomy” Reform Judaism subscribes to, then I’d wager that her teacher was freestyling.
In which case I’d wager he was only projecting his own feelings, or else repeating that which he heard 20 years prior or from someone Orthodox and uneducated. Regardless, he was not giving the take of the Jewish Tradition on the subject.
And when an Orthodox leader tries to set the story straight, he is not believed.
The truth is love and unity.
