The Offense of the Defense
Fein, Leonard
THE OFFENSE OF THE DEFENSE LE0NARD FEIN Enough. Or does firmness of belief invariably go hand-in-hand with meanness of spirit? Last month, the distinguished Orthodox rabbi, Emanuel Rack-man, now...
...And then, "If those who miraculously escaped and planted their roots, if those who do not wish to become assimilated reach out, and want to fight for the continuation of Jewish life, they may do so in methods that you and I may not like, they may be rude, they may be crude, they may be tough, they may be rough, they may be stingy of mind and stingy of spirit, but they survive and bring forth generations which also survive...
...that is, as obscene...
...If Rebbetzin Jungreis wants to erect walls around those who believe as she does, let her not expect that the masses of Jews whom she thereby cavalierly excludes will welcome her to their midst...
...If she prefers sectism to peoplehood, let her retire to the restricted neighborhood she has devised...
...The mother announces that she is "sick with grief," although at no point in her lamentation does she have anything negative to say about the boy's character...
...What does Mr...
...There are ways of entering a life of study—and there are institutions both in this country and in Israel that promote those ways—that do not involve a cultic excess that distorts and perverts everything the Jewish people has tried to be about: To be a ba'al t'shuvah does not necessarily imply, and for thousands of young people does not in fact imply, the kind of grobbkeit, of "rudeness and crudeness, roughness and toughness," that Mr...
...Finkle have to say to the troubled young woman...
...And as if that were not enough, "The only judge as to who is right and who is wrong will be history, and those who do not survive do not read history...
...The background to the letter is simple: There has been a dramatic increase, recently, in the number of ba'alei t'shuvah, typically young people who have been raised with relatively little Jewish awareness but who have, for one reason or another, chosen to pursue intensive study of Torah...
...The kind of intolerance which the rebbetzin and Rabbi Rackman's young ba'al t'shuvah display will not preserve our people...
...In many cases, they display the zeal, even the fanaticism, of the newly converted...
...Out of that same kind of excess is born a readiness to reject not only the world at large, but also "deviant" Jews...
...We must take every precaution to safeguard our children...
...Finkle endorses—and that Rabbi Rackman evidently approves as well...
...The mother is upset because her yeshiva-educated daughter is dating a Jewish boy who "does not even believe in G-d...
...Finkle, whom Rabbi Rackman describes as a distinguished Jewish leader "who ideologically can be regarded as belonging to the modern Orthodox...
...It is that letter which Rabbi Rackman quotes with evident approval...
...Finkle wrote to the young woman, at some length...
...He stipulates to the accuracy of the sister's description...
...We are required to judge, however imper-fectiy, for ourselves, and the one intolerant judgment that is permitted us is of intolerance itself...
...Shall we really conclude that those who are ignorant of Hillel and indifferent to Jonah are to be our new heroes, our role models...
...But if that is her view, the rest of us—including, I should think, the many Orthodox Jews for whom love of the Jewish people is a central commandment—are entitled to register a vehement expression of offense...
...What drivel...
...I may not love your brother, but I respect him...
...And Mr...
...Can that be...
...The way to preserve and extend and embellish and enrich the Jewish people is to infuse it with grace and with dignity and with beauty, to reach out rather than to withdraw, to entice rather than threaten, to embrace rather than reject...
...it is too crude and too cruel to be inflicted on the rest of us...
...It is unwise, it is unkind, it is not good for the Jews...
...If it is a tragedy for young Orthodox Jews to associate with the non-Orthodox, if my children aren't good enough for the rebbet-zin's, let her live behind the walls she so energetically insists upon...
...Here we have a case of a Jewish teacher, for that is what the rebbetzin is, who appeals for support from the Jewish community at large, who is invited to the pulpits and forums of non-traditional Jews, who has the chutzpah to propose that "Jewishly committed [read Orthodox, of course] parents have an obligation to investigate the background and character of the young people their children date," and who then goes on to assert that even in cases where there has been "the closest scrutiny tragedies can occur...
...Is so dramatic a distortion of Jewish concerns and of Jewish values a contribution to Jewish survival...
...Finkle says at one point, "I myself do not believe I would have the courage to do what he did...
...First, that the survival of the Jews is a miracle...
...Believe me, I appreciate the tremendous sacrifices that you had to make for your daughter's education, but that is precisely why you should have taken greater care to protect your investment...
...The sister of one such ba'al t'shuvah recently complained about her brother's new life to a certain Mr...
...Indeed, the rebbetzin does not even make a distinction between non-believing and non-Orthodox...
...Emphasis added...
...So dating a non-believing Jew is a tragedy...
...Shall we really conclude that those who are ignorant of Hillel and indifferent to Jonah are to be our new heroes, our role models...
...Why, at just the time when new religious possibilities are everywhere emergent, must such divi-siveness be introduced into the community...
...Last month, the distinguished Orthodox rabbi, Emanuel Rack-man, now President of Bar Ilan University, used his regular space in New York's Jewish Week to publish a most disturbing letter...
...A yeshiva girl has no business seeing a boy socially if she knows she can never consider him for marriage...
...And how does the rebbetzin respond in her weekly column in The Jewish Press...
...in her view, the parents of the unfortunate child should have insisted that their daughter date only young men of similar religious orientation...
...She was especially upset by her brother's intolerance, by his turning against non-Jews, by his lack of love for his fellow man...
...Life does not permit us the luxury of awaiting history's verdict, the judgment of some future generation...
...The rebbetzin is entitled to her view...
...Finkle does not seek to soften the facts, to argue that the brother has not become a misanthrope, a selfish recluse, a mean and nasty person...
...As Rabbi Rackman puts it, "they abandon the modern way of life and devote themselves exclusively to Torah study...
...If, as would appear to be the case, the rebbetzin has anointed herself judge of the Jews, let her conduct her selection within the ghetto she has fashioned...
...Second, that the Jews are disappearing, first because we were murdered, and more recently, because we have chosen assimilation...
...Thus, a troubled mother writes to Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, as different an Orthodox "type" from Rabbi Rackman as different can be...
...And it is that letter that strikes me as utterly without redeeming social value...
...And then he goes on to applaud the brother, to insist that the brother is making a positive contribution to Jewish survival...
...What a lamentable abdication of personal responsibility it is to suggest that because only history can make accurate judgments, we ourselves are not to judge...
...Is so dramatic a distortion of Jewish concerns and of Jewish values a contribution to Jewish survival...
Vol. 4 • December 1978 • No. 2
