David Suissa

January 4, 2012

Opinion: Judaism's walking billboards

By David Suissa

Tweet

Share

It never occurred to me that I’d have to visit the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail to get a deeper understanding of the Charedi crisis in Israel. I call it a crisis because, in my mind, anything that makes the Jewish religion look really bad is a crisis. If you look like a religious Jew, and you spit on an Orthodox girl because her dress code doesn’t meet your standard of modesty, and the incident is caught on Israeli television and goes viral on YouTube, then you are slandering Judaism and it’s a crisis.

So, here’s my message to religious Jews who publicly and brazenly humiliate women and spit in the face of the Jewish state that feeds them: Don’t slander my religion.

What I witnessed at the county jail on the last night of Chanukah, however, was the opposite of slander. I was there with my 12-year-old son and a small group of local Jews and rabbis — some with long beards and black hats — to light the Chanukah candles with law-enforcement officials, and to bring some holiday comfort to Jewish inmates.

I had been invited by Chaplain Howard Winkler, director of the Orthodox Jewish Chaplaincy Board, who used the occasion to hand out awards. Around long tables serving up kosher doughnuts, drinks and dreidels, people with police badges milled around, listening to a Jew in a yarmulke talk about the inspirational light of Chanukah and the Jewish value of gratitude.

What could have been going through their minds?

Here’s a group of religious Jews coming to their jailhouse to honor these public servants for the difficult work they do — and to thank them for the respect and sensitivity they show to the Jewish community and to Jewish inmates. How could they not respond positively to this “religious” ceremony?

As Winkler handed an award to Sheriff Lee Baca, I reflected on those images we’ve been seeing in the media of enraged Charedim in Israel, and I thought: What a contrast! In Beit Shemesh, a group of religious Jews says “screw you” to the world, while, in a Los Angeles jail, a group of religious Jews says “thank you.”

Can you guess which one better honors the Jewish religion?

Imagine if a group of Charedim had held a public ceremony on the last night of Chanukah, and thanked the Jewish state for the financial support and religious freedom that allows them to gorge themselves on their brand of isolationist, all-you-can-eat Judaism. Could that happen?

But instead of showing gratitude, they have been insulting and abusing other Jews who don’t think like them — and desecrating the image of their own God in the process.

I know, I know, these extremists are only a minority, and they don’t represent the vast majority of the Charedi population. But here’s the problem with that argument: It doesn’t work in the real world, where image is everything. If this vast majority of Charedim keep quiet and don’t take action against their own “bad apples” — while working to create a more positive image for their community — they, too, are responsible for the damage done in their name.

Any Jew who walks around with a yarmulke is a walking billboard for God. And if you’re a Charedi who wears not just a yarmulke but over-the-top regalia of Eastern European ghettos, you might as well be a Jumbotron electronic billboard on Sunset Boulevard. As far as the world goes, you’re a Jew on steroids.

You’re not just representing God, you’re wearing God.

The ultra-Orthodox organization Agudath Israel of America responded to recent events by releasing a powerful declaration, saying, “We condemn these acts unconditionally.” But no declaration can undo a horrible media image. If the Charedi leadership in Israel is serious about repairing the damage done in its name to Judaism, instead of playing power politics and victimhood, it ought to do some soul searching about how it might change its ways.

As Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein wrote in the blog Cross-Currents, the proper Jewish way is “one that brings honor to Hashem and honor to the one who follows it.” A lifestyle that brings nothing but contempt upon Torah, he adds, “cannot legitimately be Torah.”

This is the inevitable result of extreme isolation: You lose sight of how your actions play out in the real world. Fear of being spiritually “contaminated” by the outside world can all too easily lead to contamination of your worldview. Like an antibody that turns on itself, you become oblivious to the presence, let alone the value, of God’s other children. And when you reach the point of becoming a source of contempt for what you love most — God and Torah — you know you’ve reached bottom.

But how will the Charedim ever know the impact of their actions in the real world if they shun it so obsessively? Will they invite advertising executives to their yeshivas to give them a course on the dynamics of public image?

Maybe they ought to just look at the most integrated black hats in history — Chabad — and study how these global emissaries have managed to turn their Charedi uniforms into symbols of love, rather than division and isolation. It’s not a coincidence that they live and breathe in the real world.

In this real world, you visit jail wardens to say thank you. And if there are Jews who bother you, you don’t spit on them, you invite them over for Shabbat.

David Suissa is president of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal and can be reached at davids@jewishjournal.com.

A version of this article appeared in print.

---

Post your comment below!

Click here to return to the homepage.

COMMENTS

We welcome your feedback. Comments may not exceed 700 characters.

Privacy Policy

Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.

Terms of Service

JewishJournal.com has rules for its commenting community.Get all the details.

Thank you for this beautiful reminder of what Jewish values really are.

Comment by Anne Tse on 1/04/12 at 5:59 pm

I agree, David, but the perps don’t listen to anyone, not rabbis, not police, not peer pressure. The only thing that works is to get them from behind with a blanket and break some bones. Police make them martyrs, rabbis are afraid of them. A show of strength by combat veterans might help. The same goes for secular extremists. Israel has a problem that it has never developed a majority culture. The US needed to go through a civil war to get one. Only when there is a religious majority in Israel will the rabbis feel confident to lead as they should. People like you need to make aliyah to change the public climate. Even the crazies will not dare flout a clear social consensus.

Comment by Yehoshua Friedman on 1/05/12 at 1:35 am

Good article and you had me until you brought the whole Chabad thing into the picture. Extremism is extremism and while Chabad doesn’t spit on little children, it commits financial shenanigans—proselytizing Jews until they get control of the pocketbook.

Comment by Zack on 1/05/12 at 5:57 am

Very nice piece…but I can’t help thinking of how those who, as you say, are wearing “symbols of love” wouldn’t consider sitting down to eat at my Shabbat table, as I neither serve meat on Shabbat (or any time) nor keep Chalav Yisrael.  When minhagim separate Jews to such an extent, those insisting on that separation are *not* integrated.
I really like your article otherwise.

Comment by Miriam on 1/05/12 at 2:26 pm

Thank you for that thoughtful analysis of what being Jewish really means.

The Chabadniks, though are not immune from extremism.
It is a large worldwide organization, whose work often results in the alienation of newly enthusiastic members from their real families.  They would deny it or course.
But beware the newly zealous who need to reject the world they came from. 

You don’t have to be Haredi to find comfort in marginalizing other Jews as not being Jewish enough.

Comment by The Logician on 1/06/12 at 3:21 pm

No fight like a family fight between siblings over the love of a Father!

Comment by Honey Bee on 1/06/12 at 4:10 pm

Zack you are out of bounds.  Chabad is subject to scrutiny by IRS , they fully comply with US & CA law. My former college roommate, non-Jewish is a IRS revenue agent who handled audits of 3 different chabad organizations

Miriam you are wrong. When a Jewish neighbor passed away (she was not a member of chabad) the Chabad Rabbi conducted   the graveside services.  After, at the house ,the neighbor’s (both Christian & Jewish) brought in food. I brought cakes and bagels at the bagel factory which went to the kosher table. The Rabbi fully participated. Thus, if you buy kosher food certified by an appropriate kosher authority and keep it sealed until mealtime you will have no problems

Comment by CHRISTIAN SERVICE WORKER on 1/06/12 at 11:02 pm

Right on target!  Unfortunately, the people who need to read this column are too wrapped up in themselves to read or understand it.

Comment by Allen on 1/07/12 at 2:35 pm

Post a Comment

Name:
Email:

Type the word you see below:

Comment:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?