8/3/2019 Ami Magazine - Shafran op-ed about NY Post article

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22 A M i M A g A z i n e / / f e b r u a r y 1 , 2 0 1 2 / / 8 s h v at , 5 7 7 2

One hopes thatAmi readers are not part o the pop-ulation that peruses tabloids like the New YorkPost. I they were, though, they would have seena recent opinion piece that called Jews a smallminority o the populationgranted special privi-

leges who wield power disproportionate to their numbers andwhose behavior violates the law and inringes on the rights oothers. Wielding considerable politicalclout, and exing their political muscle,they represent a dangerous trend thathas been allowed to ester and grow ordecades. Jews also receive special treat-ment by those in power and deny the civilrights o [crime] victims. When criticized,the writer explains, Jews simply dismisstheir critics as anti-Semites.

Moreover, the piece reports, Jews rep-resent a demographic tidal wave andthreaten to become dominant in the

United States. Warning that it is time tohead o the coming misortune, the writerconcludes that our silence is acquies-cence.

Oh, my mistake! It wasnt Jews to whom the writer, anactivist named Ben Hirsch, was reerring, but rather strictlyOrthodox Jews. Forgive me.

One wonders, though, how Mr. Hirsch manages to convincehimsel that theres some qualitative dierence between a genericbigot who oers the public a hodgepodge o sinister insinuations,hal-truths, and outright lies about Jews as a whole, and a haterlike himsel who does precisely the same about an identifablesubset o Jews. Does the dilemma even occur to him?

What provided Mr. Hirsch his latest opportunity to besmirchcharedim and prejudice the public against them were the allega-tions several weeks ago o disgusting acts in Beit Shemesh. Inclassic bigots style, he parlayed the bad behavior o a ew into atarring o an entire group. He knows his business.

As does another recent op-ed writer, this one in the New YorkTimes. Rabbi Dov Linzers business, however, is not bigotry but thepromotion o a new vision o Judaism, one that many fnd redolento the Conservative movements early days. The dean o YeshivatChovevei Torah in Riverdale in the Bronx, an institution cham-

Rabbi Avi Shafran

pioning modern and open Orthodox values, Rabbi Linzer wasonce reported in the New York Jewish Week to have asserted that theSages o the Talmud were unconcerned with a persons religiousbelies; that, in the articles words, it was Maimonides who intro-duced the concept that Jews must adhere to basic dogmas, andeven he was not consistent in his demands or such adherence.

Such theological novellae, however, were not the subject othe rabbis recent oering. He, too, likeMr. Hirsch, was inspired by the reportsrom Beit Shemesh. (In addition to thesin o their behavior itsel, the alleged BeitShemesh spitters and cursers bear the iniq-uity-burden o having provided the Mr.Hirschs and Rabbi Linzers o the worldwith eective ammunition or promotingtheir agendas.) But the opportunity RabbiLinzer saw was to sully not so much agroup o Jews (although he does his shareo that too) but rather a concept, that o

tznius, or Jewish modesty.He begins his piece, which ran under the

lovely title Lechery, Immodesty and theTalmud, with the ollowing paragraph:

Is it possible for a religious demand for modesty to be about any-thing other than men controlling womens bodies? From recent eventsin Israel, it would certainly seem that it is not.

He goes on to assert that the responsibility or controllingmens licentious thoughts lies squarely on the men. Thenotion that women may have a tznius responsibility regardingtheir manner o dress, he writes, reects only a blame-the-victimmentality. In act, he inorms us, it represents a complete per-version o the Talmud. Who knew?

The emergence o suchinteresting writing by Jews in the sec-ular media is, o course, disturbing. (Other adjectives occur aswell.) It puts one in mind o what Rashi reminded us recentlywhen we reviewed parshas Shemos, that Moshe Rabbeinu hadpuzzled over why the Jewish People had languished so long inEgyptuntil he discovered the phenomenon o Jews acting con-temptibly against other Jews. Then he understood.

I any o us are puzzling over why our current exile is so pro-tracted, well, a glance at some op-ed pages can provide the tragicanswer.

Offensive Op-eds pOllute the press

Op Saso oChardmad Torah