My Critique of Religious Jews

 At first I was really offended by that since that is absolutely not my intent. Bashing any fellow Jew regardless of whether I agree with their Hashkafa or not - is abhorrent to me. But I am used to it by now.

Not that I need to defend myself. But every now and again, I think it’s worthwhile to explain what it is I do here.

Although I do not exclusively write critical posts that involve wrongdoing on the part of religious Jews, that is a large part of what I do here. Those that say by talking about it, I am unnecessarily smearing the Torah world - just don’t get it. When I criticize a religious Jew for wrongdoing, I accomplish 2 very important things. One is to point out why that behavior was wrong. And the other is to publicly declare that the behavior in question is a violation of Jewish law and therefore a Chilul Hashem.

Nevertheless, there are some in the Charedi world that somehow feel I have betrayed religious Jews by only focusing on them.  And ask why I do not do the same for MO (Modern Orthodox) Jews?

Well, that is simply not true. I will condemn any behavior by a religious Jews when I find out about it. Which is usually the way everyone else does - through the media (whether secular or Jewish). That there are substantially more condemnations of Charedi behavior is for two reasons. One is that there is more media focus on Charedim. And second, the more religious looking one is, the greater the Chilul HaShem. If an MO Jew is accused of wrongdoing in the media, their appearance does not necessarily identify them as a religious Jew. Sometimes even the article itself will not even mention whether the perpetrator is religious or even Jewish.

The more religious one appears to be, the more important it is to condemn them publicly in order to counter the impression that religious Jews somehow condone such behavior. As the Gemarah teaches us, Shtika K’Hoda’ah.  Silence by the religious community about wrongdoing by one of our own signals acquiescence.   

Too many of our own religious organizations tend to ignore these events, or simply make generalized statements of condemnation about such behavior, that do not directly speak to the actual event or perpetrator. Sometimes condemnations are watered down with apologetics. All of which  will contribute to negative stereotypes about us. For example - a  story about a religious Jew committing a fraud without public condemnations might generate comments about Jews being greedy or devious.

I cannot stress enough the need to call out bad behavior by religious Jews. The more religious looking they are, the louder those condemnations should be. The last thing we need is apologetics.  We should never make excuses for bad behavior. The important thing is to make clear to the world - Jew and gentile alike - that Judaism completely condemns such behavior. And that no matter what they look like, the values of those among us that do things like that do not represent the values of the Torah.

I am occasionally asked why I don’t talk about Reform of Conservative Jews that have dome similar things. That is because there is nothing about their daily lives that is different than any other individual whether secular Jew or gentile. The evil they did was done by Jews that openly reject Torah law.  When they commit a fraud, it cannot be said that they have violated Torah law anymore that it can be said about their every day lives. The Chilul HaShem is just not there.

I mention all this now  because of an article in Mishpacha Magazine that asks the following question:

IF YOU DON’T PUBLICLY CONDEMN, DOES THAT MEAN YOU’RE COMPLICIT? 

The answer given by two of the three respondents pretty much corroborates what I do here. One is Rabbi Henoch Plotnik who lives in Chicago. I know him quite well and  I am a genuine fan. The other is Rabbi Efrem Goldberg. I don't know him but I am a genuine fan of his too. Their views may not be an exact match, But they are  pretty darn close.

The third is Rabbi Yosef Ginsberg. I do not know him at all - or know anything about him. His view seems unnecessarily complex and unclear about what constitutes the kind of behavior that requires a public condemnation. I also do not agree with his underlying ‘No true Scottsman’ premise about religious Jews that commit crimes. In any case all of their views are well worth reading and can be found here.

A word about some of the commentators. Even though I do not necessarily agree with them, and in some cases they may be guilty of bashing Charedim - I allow a lot of latitude to anyone who chooses to ‘vent’ about the issues I address. That they may go overboard is the nature of the anger they have when they see fellow religious Jews doing bad things over and over again. They might go too far, or over generalize, but I allow them to vent as long as there is no profanity - provided there are no personal attacks against me or anyone that comments on my blog. It should be understood that their views are not necessarily my views.