Anti-Semitism in Medinat HaGan

In the past three weeks, attacks have been made on three synagogues in Bergen County. This past weekend, the issue mushroomed into something different.  It is relevant to our Conservative community, to the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ (JFNNJ, a UJC community) and to the broader Jewish community in the northern half of our state.

On Friday January 6, the Jewish Standard published an editorial about community meetings over the three attacks.  The editorial concerned the involvement (or lack thereof) of the Orthodox community in response to these attacks, which have been aimed at three different streams of Judaism, whether by intent or just happenstance (Reconstructionist, Conservative and Orthodox).

The Standard has now been severely criticized by the Orthodox community.  A letter writing campaign against the Standard has been organized.  Apologies have been demanded.  One has already appeared on the Standard's website at:

http://www.jstandard.com/content/opinion/C8

While we do not have all the facts, here is what is known.

(1) After it was attacked, the synagogue in Hackensack (Temple Beth El) got advance publicity out about its community interfaith gathering.  According to the Rabbinic Council of Bergen County (RCBC), they did not know about the gathering - and therefore, no representative of RCBC or their community attended the event.

(2) The rabbinic community in the JFNNJ area is divided. Rabbi Randall Mark (Shomrei Torah - Wayne) is President of the North Jersey Board of Rabbis, NJBOR - which is an organization of "pluralistic" clergy leaders in this area.  The NJBOR and RCBC are mutually exclusive.

(3) Congregation Beth El was the place where Eric Weis' aunt, Alice Kunstler (z"l) celebrated her 100th birthday, at the same time that Beth El celebrated its 100th anniversary. That was four years ago.  It is a nice place. It is Conservative. It is part of our mishpucha. It needs our support.

(4) Rabbis from our pluralistic stream know about the attack on the Orthodox shul (K'hal Adath Jeshurun - Paramus) and have agreed to participate in a meeting on Thursday.  They have no hesitancy in objecting to - and acting on - what is obviously another anti-Semitic incident.

If you are a member of a Conservative congregation here in NJ, we ask you to do three things:

(A) Research the matter directly. Draw your own conclusions.

(B) If you agree that the Standard editorial is on target, spread the word about what has happened.

(C) Write to JFNNJ and the Standard in support of pluralism and unity.  Address information is presented below.

At a time when three synagogues in New Jersey have been recently attacked, all of us should find great discomfort in seeing Jews argue among themselves. Two of the three attacks were made on non-Orthodox synagogues.

The Jewish Standard is under fire for its stance against dis-unity. The truth may be painful, but it in the end, it will set us free.  The Standard and its editorial board deserve our support.

Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey

50 Eisenhower Drive
Paramus, New Jersey 07652
201-820-3900
Jason Shames x.210
Direct: 201-820-3910
Chief Executive Officer
Executive Vice President
JasonS@jfnnj.org

The Jewish Standard
New Jersey / Rockland Jewish Media Group
1086 Teaneck Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
Phone (201) 837-8818
Fax (201) 833-4959

jstandardletters@gmail.com

Glatt Kosher and "La Vache Qui Rit"

Recently, an advertisement for glatt kosher meat products appeared in The Jewish Standard, a newspaper which serves the Jewish communities in parts of Bergen, Passaic and Union Counties here in the northern tip of New Jersey.  It's a prime market, if you want to reach a large Jewish readership.

The Standard caters to a diverse Jewish audience. Some of its readers observe the laws of kashrut, many don't and still others adhere to the laws of glatt kashrut that are enumerated in the books of the Sanhedrin.  NOT!  Without going into the gantze megillah, the word glatt has been extended from its original narrow meaning to include dairy products, food preparation and delivery - generally implying a higher standard of religious observance.

Our religion also demands compassion, chesed and gemilut hasadim (acts of loving kindness).  And that's why the ad caught my attention. I had a beef with a cartoon which features an upside down cow with a smile on its face. The cow's position is reminiscent of the way in which these animals are slaughtered - hanging from their legs, so as to allow blood to drain quickly.  This is supposed to be the most humane way to slaughter cows. Perhaps. Agriprocessors may now be old news, but the idea of Hecksher Tzedek, a moral kind of kashrut, should not be.

An image of a laughing cow, "La Vache Qui Rit", may be appropriate for the dairy industry.  Milking cows probably does not cause pain. But in the context of fleischig dining, I cannot stomach the idea of a cow smiling as it loses its life so that humans may eat.

If that's how glatt kosher is portrayed these days, this omnivore may be driven closer to adopting the practice of herbivores.  I can get my protein in other ways. 

Let's hope that this roast delivers a message to the advertiser and their customers. A cartoon can make a powerful statement.  If they wanted a ribbing, they got it. I won't be buying their products. Perhaps someone will make a change in their advertising, so that it becomes consonant with the Hecksher Tzedek.

B'tayavon!

The Folly of the Righteous Hochems

An article recently appeared in Tablet Magazine, a nationally published Jewish e-zine.  It was about tzedukah in Passaic New Jersey, of all places. It seems that beggars know a good place when they see one. The pickings are good in Passaic.

The author, Simon Feuerman, described the phenomenon of regular and frequent beggars who show up to receive tzedukah at his Passaic synagogue.  One of them, a seventh-generation Yerushalmi with the "visage of a holy man", said that he would be horrified to take money from someone who was not observant.  When asked about his children's future, he answered, "Ze lo bishvilanu la'avod" - "It is not for us to work".

My grandfather, Amram Yishai ben Reb Asher (z"l) spent most of his adult life in Passaic. So did his machatenum. So did his children. They were part of the wave of Jewish immigrants from Hungary who invaded the banks of the Passaic River in the late nineteenth century.

For over a century, they worked and built families and lives. They established a thriving community with many shuls. They supported their Rebbes, a few wonderful souls who ministered to the community and lived on only God knows what. Reb Asher Kollner and his descendants continued to tend to their flock, even into the 1970s.

These people, the original Jews of Passaic, would laugh and cry at today's world of beis midrash, the Yerushalmi and all those who depend on charity - the beggars.  The Jews who fled to these shores from the shtetls of Europe were both observant and hard working. They built the Jewish world we know today here in the American Diaspora.  They worked, they prayed and they gave tzedukah.  Their shuls were Orthodox. I can still remember sitting in the gallery upstairs as a very small child, with my grandmother. 

Today's Passaic Jewish world, one characterized as "frum" with Talmud Torah beis midrash and a hochem on every corner, is also now apparently filled with beggars who believe that religion and study exclude work and that tzedukah should come only from the observant.  This is a Jewish world turned upside down.  The sages worked.  So should these modern Jews.  And to refuse tzedukah because the giver is not observant (enough) - to obstruct the mitzvot of tzedukah - is this not antithetical Jewish thought? What has all this learning gained?  

If this is Orthodoxy, and if work is "not for us", then in 100 years will Passaic have a Jewish community at all?  Or will the flame die because the Orthodox have lost sight of our true tradition? Someone, please, remind these Orthodox that the world stands on three pillars. Those who rely only on one pillar are bound to topple. 

We are supposed to emulate God's attributes. Last time I checked, He labored for six days to create the world.  And, I can well remember, so too did my grandfather in his world.