The Defense of the Offense

Singer, David

THE DEFENSE OF THE OFFENSE DAVID SINGER I do not fool myself. It is a no-win proposition for an Orthodox Jew to respond candidly in the pages of moment to Leonard Fein's critique of Orthodox...

...one, in which Rabbi Emanuel Rackman presents a letter written by an Orthodox educator to the angry sister of a ba'al t'shuvah, he labels as "obscene...
...Well, one obvious judgment about the course of Jewish history itself is that it fully bears out the verse in Deuteronomy: "You who cling to the Lord your God are all alive today...
...The Orthodox regard Jewish survival as an absolute value...
...Why is Leonard Fein so angry...
...If it requires strict communal boundary maintenance—so be it...
...It would be nice to think that there is some easy way to narrow this gulf, but it is just not so...
...the other, in which Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis replies to the letter of a distraught Orthodox woman whose daughter is dating a non-religious Jewish boy, he sees as exuding "chutzpah...
...Leonard Fein maintains that in assessing events and trends in Jewish life, we cannot "await history's verdict...
...Well now...
...embrace rather than reject...
...The Orthodox regard Jewish survival as an absolute value, and they are prepared to take any steps necessary to insure just that...
...Jews like the young woman's brother might be "stingy of mind and stingy of spirit," but they "survive and bring forth generations which also survive...
...Here push comes to shove...
...withdraw...
...The same holds true for invocations of the Jewish tradition...
...He created us...
...It is with sociology that we have to concern ourselves in focusing on Fein's criticisms of the letter written by the Orthodox educator to the sister of the ba'al t'shuvah...
...Imagine...
...If it requires social and cultural isolation—so be it...
...Who wants to be in the position of having to defend grobbkeit...
...What is an Orthodox Jew to say about this...
...A commandment implies a commander, and the Orthodox believe, no, know, Him to be the Lord, God of Israel...
...The Orthodox very much doubt it...
...How does Rebbetzin Jungreis's "chutzpah" manifest itself...
...Indeed, they are becoming increasingly convinced that an ideology and lifestyle which stresses and exemplifies reaching out, enticing, embracing—i.e., which is open and accommodating at its core—must inevitably lead to a weakening of Jewish commitment...
...The brother's behavior is "unwise," "unkind," "not good for the Jews...
...and all things being equal, it is wrong to withdraw, threaten, reject...
...If it requires social and cultural isolation—so be it...
...At the same time, it is impossible not to register amazement at the fact that Fein appears to be genuinely surprised by what Esther Jungreis has to say...
...Indeed, it is possible that the gulf will actually widen as the Orthodox assume an increasingly sectarian stance...
...She maintains that Orthodox parents should let their children date only young people of similar religious orientation, and that it is a tragedy when an Orthodox Jew marries a Jew who is a nonbeliever...
...And if it means producing some obnoxious boors—well, so be it...
...all other Jews disappear...
...Exactly where we began—with the tremendous gulf in outlook separating non-Orthodox and Orthodox Jews...
...If it requires strict communal boundary maintenance—so be it...
...In anger, he urges the Rebbetzin to lock herself in the "ghetto she has fashioned," where, as he puts it in a cruel phrase, she can "conduct her selection...
...Finkle her displeasure at the transformation that had come about in her brother's personality since he, the product of an assimilated Jewish home, had assumed an intensive Orthodox lifestyle...
...Fein chides the Rebbetzin for violating the "central commandment" to love all Jews...
...First theology, then sociology, and now a combination of the two...
...But are all things equal in the struggle for Jewish survival today...
...Everything about the columns smacks of "intolerance," and Fein feels compelled to "register a vehement expression of offense...
...Orthodox Jews then find it difficult to take seriously advice about Jewish survival (what is and what is not good for the Jews) dispensed by non-Orthodox Jews...
...And yet, precisely because what is at issue between the non-Orthodox and Orthodox, between Fein and Singer, has to do with matters of basic Jewish outlook, it is vitally important that there be an Orthodox response to Fein's polemic...
...Orthodox Jews, then, are becoming more consciously sectarian in outlook...
...We are dealing, after all, with fundamentals of Jewish life...
...It is really quite simple...
...David Singer is Associate Editor of the American Jewish Year Book...
...What, the Orthodox wonder, can someone like Leonard Fein have in mind in lecturing to them about "Jewish values" and "Jewish concerns," about Jonah and Hillel...
...Such marriages are likely to lead to severing of links between Orthodox generations...
...Where does all this leave us...
...This young woman had expressed to a certain Mr...
...He issues the marching orders...
...He has come upon two newspaper columns written by Orthodox Jews that reflect a distinct "meanness of spirit...
...they are developing a siege mentality...
...So much for theology...
...we ourselves are "required to judge...
...Invoking Hillel and Jonah (of whom the brother is presumably "ignorant"), "Jewish values" and "Jewish concerns" (to which the brother is presumably "indifferent"), Fein argues that for the Jewish people to be preserved and enriched it is necessary to "reach out rather than...
...Let us be utterly clear about two things: the brother, judging from what his sister has to say about him, is an obnoxious boor...
...How, he asks, can the brother's "cultic excess" be associated with a positive contribution to Jewish survival, when the former, in fact, "distorts and perverts everything the Jewish people has tried to be about...
...To Fein, this is "sectism" pure and simple, a complete negation of Jewish peoplehood...
...This sociological fact is for the Orthodox also a tenet of belief...
...What is important is that Jews survive...
...they are assuming a stance in opposition to the dominant trends in American and Jewish life...
...First, that Fein's anger is fully justified given his non-Orthodox approach to things Jewish...
...His most recent article for moment appeared in September 1978...
...It is a no-win proposition for an Orthodox Jew to respond candidly in the pages of moment to Leonard Fein's critique of Orthodox "intolerance" ("The Offense of the Defense," November 1978...
...This is certainly true in terms of the relationship of the Jewish community as a whole vis a vis general American society...
...Whatever happens, one thing is certain—the Orthodox will remain convinced of the correctness of their views...
...To Leonard Fein, Finkle's assertions are obscene "drivel...
...And if, along the way, it means producing some obnoxious boors—well, so be it...
...But it is precisely because she and other Orthodox Jews take that commandment seriously as a commandment, that they want their children to marry within the Orthodox fold...
...Who wants to be seen as having reservations about reaching out, enticing, embracing...
...It is insulting to be told that you or your children are not deemed fit as potential marital partners...
...that is what is "good for the Jews...
...entice rather than threaten...
...Given this belief, then, Orthodox parents can hardly regard the marriage of their children to non-Orthodox Jews as anything but a tragedy...
...It is the pious and observant Jews who survive as Jews...
...In response to the sister's complaint that her brother had become a misanthrope, nasty and intolerant, Finkle conceded the facts of the matter, but went on to assert that the stakes in the struggle for Jewish survival were such that even "rudeness and crudeness, roughness and toughness" might be excused...
...What, pray tell, did he imagine was the Orthodox position with regard to dating and marriage...
...it may also be true in terms of the relationship of the Orthodox vis a vis the general Jewish community...
...And foremost among those orders is the obligation to rear generation after generation of committed Orthodox Jews...
...Such is the gulf in outlook between most of moment's readers—Jewishly alert and Jew-ishly committed types—and Orthodox Jews, that a forthright statement of what the Orthodox actually believe and think can only make for more ill-will...

Vol. 4 • March 1979 • No. 4


 
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