Eli Valley takes a satirical look at ultra-Orthodox Judaism, outreach to young, secular Jews, and perceptions and misconceptions of authentic Jewish life.
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Eli Valley is finishing his first novel. His column, “Comics Rescued From a Burning Synagogue in Bialystok and Hidden in a Salt Mine Until After the War,” appears monthly in the Forward. His Web site is www.evcomics.com.
Note.
The quotations in this comic are all based on real quotations. Below, each subject is linked to its original source.
1) Intolerance of other Jewish groups.
In response to the Neeman Commission on conversion, certain Orthodox leaders gave voice to their opinion on other forms of Judaism.
Rabbi Andrew Sacks in the Jerusalem Post reports:
Rabbi Yisrael Eichler, a spokesperson in the Haredi world, wrote that “Reform Rabbis are further from Judaism than Christians and Muslims and that they should be considered as filthy, lying, shekotzim who are criminals, who brought about the holocaust on the Jewish people.”
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said, “Reform Jews should be vomited up…and thrown out of the country.”
Both Sacks and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs quote an advertisement signed by Orthodox leaders including Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv, the leading halachic authority of the haredi community, and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Shas’ spiritual mentor:
As darkness covers the earth, the Reform and Conservative sects that are the destroyers of the religion are trying to dig their nails into the Holy Land and receive recognition as though they were streams of Judaism, God forbid. We hereby pronounce da’at Torah [this Torah opinion] that it is inconceivable to grant them any recognition whatsoever, and it is forbidden to conduct any negotiations with the destroyers that counterfeit Torah…
2) Intolerance of women’s prayers.
Yediot Aharonot (October 24, 2001) reported Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s understanding of women’s prayer. Prof. David Golinkin, President of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem noted at the time that Yosef, “one of the foremost halakhic authorities in the world and spiritual leader of the Shas party,” distinguishes between Michal, daughter of King Saul, who put on tefillin every day despite not being obliged to, and:
these wicked women, the Reform, who do everything in order to bash Judaism … they should be wrapped in a tallit and buried.
His comments last year were more moderately couched but amount to a similar condemnation. This year, in response to the recent events where a woman worshiper was arrested, Haaretz reports that Haredim have been shouting “Nazis” at women worshipers at the Kotel.
3) Lack of respect for secular and temporal power.
Many places reported Chabad rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe saying in Tel Aviv that “Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli officials should be ‘hanged from the gallows.’” His remarks, in January 2008, were widely condemned by Chabad as well as others.
The same rabbi said similar things more recently in the video here.
4) The power of prayer.
Ohr Somayach tells of a legend where devout prayer turns a black chicken into a white chicken!
5) Preventing evil by any means necessary.
Akiva Eldar recently reported in Haaretz about the settlement of Yitzhar and Od Yosef Chai Shechem yeshiva, the settlement’s “crowning glory.” He notes:
This is the same yeshiva whose rabbi said it is permissible to kill gentile babies because of “the future danger that will arise if they are allowed to grow into evil people like their parents.”
6) Intolerance of homosexuality.
In the wake of the fatal shooting attacks against homosexuals in Tel Aviv last year Haredim were blamed for incitement. A Jerusalem Post article commented that these communities felt scapegoated but both the Jerusalem Post and FailedMessiah made a note of some of the comments that had led to them being blamed for incitement.
Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev is quoted as saying, for example, that homosexuality is a “plague that may destroy Jewish Israel,” adding that this “plague” should be dealt with “just as the Health Ministry is dealing with bird flu.” More similar comments were reported throughout 2009.
7) Intolerance of Islam and Arabs.
In a protest against the expansion of a bi-lingual Arabic Hebrew school in 2006, Rabbi David Batzri was quoted by Ynet as saying:
The people of Israel are pure and Arabs are a nation of asses. The question must be asked, why didn’t God give them four legs, because they are asses.
Although he later apologized, and Chabad HQ issued a rare statement of condemnation, Manis Friedman, in the May/June issue of Moment magazine, responded to the question posed to a number of rabbis “How should Jews treat their Arab neighbours?” by saying “Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).”
Some more context for Friedman’s response to this “Ask the Rabbis” question was also provided by Josh Nathan-Kazis writing for New Voices.
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wow. bitter and acerbic as heck, but satire right on the money. you perfectly pegged the romanticization of ultra-orthodox judaism that concurrnetly goes along with a less than critical analysis on said phenomenon as well as the abandonment of authenticating oneself.
"Bobble" - Heh! And love the Chagall homage! I second invisible hand's remark about "the romaticization of ultra-Orthodox Judaism". The glassy-eyed vacuity, absence of critical discernment, insistence upon seeing frumkeit as at once both familiar and "exotic" - you nailed it.
See you in Gehinnom!
Why are you so afraid of us? Do you fear us so that you must throw such scat upon the page about us? Feeling unauthentic are we?
Oy. We feel for you. Stop by for Shabbos some time. A little Shabbos and a little Torah, the insults are in your mind and headlines only.
http://mpaths.com
Makes me glad that I am a Jewish Atheist!
quite brilliant. love it.
Herr Valley Congratulations on your accurate portrayal of international Jewry. Your services could be most valuable to us, and we would be happy to reimburse you. Please submit your most Aryan appearing photo and your ancestry. Hopefully, there are not too many Juden in it. Since you are not exhibiting Jewish characteristics, I am optimistic that the Fuhrer will sign a certificate of racial purity, which will allow you to utilize your talents more fully
Sinat himan from a cartoonist. Nevertheless, Orthodoxy continues to grow, perhaps the author has Orthophobia, an irrational fear of religious Jews.
Repugnant and somewhat dishonest but, alas, funny.
Sinat himan from a cartoonist
To the contrary - it isn't baseless at all.
Nevertheless, Orthodoxy continues to grow
Only because the Chareidim continue to have more children than they can care for, and more than their communities can support when they reach adulthood, which is one of the myriad reasons those communities are in the process of collapse. And, of course, frummies only look at the intake figures; you never look at the number you're losing, a figure which continues to grow with each year - especially now that exit organizations exist.
I was the "Brian" and "Jeff" and can take a joke but you seem to poke me without good nature. You missed the fact that the Chabads and Aish Hatorahs worked extremely hard to ensure that my secular Israeli wife found Hashem while I, who had almost nothing, found a community and a better way to live my life and raise my children. The people that you skewer have purpose and meaning in life. If your artistic talents can only be used for the promotion of anger and bitterness, I pity you deeply. A talent like yours should not be used to hurt fellow Jews or provide fodder for those who would spit on all of us, regardless of our levels of observance. You have done nothing to promote ahavas yisrael here. Please consider finding some way to rise above your bitterness and get closer to your Creator. Having done so myself, I assure you it is a better life.
I wonder how those who are accusing the author/artist of lacking ahavat yisrael, bearing sinat hinam etc. reconcile their accusations with the fact that all the Hebrew quotes are taken by actual remarks made by Israeli religious leaders. If there are equivalent statements by non-Orthodox Jewish leaders I'm not aware of them.
Truth hurts. Opening eyes to the real world hurts. Shedding sentimental naive propaganda hurts. This is a good one.
"Having done so myself, I assure you it is a better life."
Would it ever occur to you that it might not be a better life for everyone? Could you even begin to conceptualize that?
"A cynic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist." - George Carlin
Eli Valley GETS IT!! It is truly unfortunate that non-Orthodox Jewish commitment and education in America has become so diluted that too many individuals see "authentic" Judaism as something extreme that was left behind even by observant Jews.
I am a modern Orthodox, registered Democrat with an open-mind but this is the most insulting, racist, anti-Semitic piece of trash I have ever seen. For it to appear within the pages of "The Forward" is an outrage. If the Rabbi shown were an African American, a homosexual, or a Muslim, would the editors have agreed to publish it? I didn't think so. This cartoon recalls the very best of Nazi-era German propaganda, replete with exaggerated, stereotypical facial features. The canards that the Rabbi espouses show a definite bias by the illustrator, and are certainly not representative of the Rabbis at the Kotel who work in Jewish outreach, or of the majority of "Ultra" Orthodox Jews. Somewhere Goebbels must be kvelling to see this printed in "The Forward". Your paper/website have reached a new low! Shame on you!!!
So besides causing more division and internal hatred among Jews, what's the point. Can't we just get along? Obviously not. We do not need Adolf Hitler, we have ourselves. This reminds me of why the Temple was destroyed, Sinat Chinom, the hatred of one another.
Good job Eli! Your cartoons are beng promoted on neo-nazi websites all over the web. Hitler would be proud. The Forward and Eli are scumbag Jew-haters!
We ascribe to others the evil in ourselves. How sad you paint with such a broad brush.
Kalonymous, so he was able to go and find 10 nasty quotes out of tens of thousands of orthodox rabbaim? I'm sure I could find 10 unpleasant quotes against the orthodox right here on this web site. Yet I don't paint all non-orthodox Jews as religious hating zealots out to destroy the foundations of Judaism and Torah. Nor do I pick those as the highlights of non-orthodox streams.
What the cartoonist attempts to portray is that this is the norm in orthodox circles. And that's absolutely untrue.
http://mpaths.com
Akiva: "What the cartoonist attempts to portray is that this is the norm in orthodox circles. And that's absolutely untrue."
1. These statements are representative, but that isn't the issue here. If Eli had published a a comprehensive volume containing every stupid, hateful thing ever uttered by a frum rabbi, you'd still find a way to rationalize it.
2. It's often the "Gedoylim" making theses statements, and, even when it isn't, any Chareidi rabbi, even a minor one, has an influence over his followers that is unlike any teacher/student relationship in the liberal denominations (aka, the "Jewish goyim"). Their influence over vulnerable, impressionable young people is even more insidious.
"Why are you so afraid of us? Do you fear us so that you must throw such scat upon the page about us? Feeling unauthentic are we?"
Feeling defensive are we?
Two signs that Eli Valley has arrived as a satirist:
1. Some readers look forward to Eli’s comics, enjoying how he punctures the over-inflated of Jewish politics and culture.
2. Some readers get up in the morning and google “Eli Valley” so they can fill the comment sections with complaints.
Yasher koakh, Eli!
I'd be more impressed with Eli Valley and the Forward if they took they same license with some of the more outrageous statements made by Muslim religious leaders who make explicit calls for the eradication of Jews and others who demonize Jews and incite religious violence.
Then again, what are a few more dead Jews when compared to the narcissistic preening of 'progressive' journalists?
It's sad to see orthodoxy portrayed as a monolithic, intolerant caricature. You can find sound bites from crazies in any group and put them together to caricature and denigrate the group. Most of my fellow orthodox Jews don't subscribe to any of what this cartoonist suggests are "orthodox" ideas. I wonder if he has ever *met* an "ultra-orthodox" person.
Akiva, Sergey, Shawn (the) Fink:
" The people that you skewer have purpose and meaning in life."
Which is the basic definition of a CULT member!
face it: the rav/rebbe-worshipping Stepford Haredim practice a Roman Catholic form of Judaism, in which the words of the Pope/gadol are considered infallible, and above criticism, (In the Torah, no one is above criticism, including GOD - cf. the challenges of Abraham, Moses, David, Job.) The term for Haredism is DEFORMED Judaism.
EMG: I have met plenty of "ultra-Orthodox" Jews: usually in the context of their schnorring for gelt. I tell them to go get a real job and try working for a living!
Remember: as we know from movies about the American West, the bad guys are the ones who wear the black hats.
"Most of my fellow orthodox Jews don't subscribe to any of what this cartoonist suggests are "orthodox" ideas. I wonder if he has ever *met* an "ultra-orthodox" person."
I haven't encountered a Hareidi yet who didn't think all frei Jews were going to gehinnom - and they didn't mean it as a temporary state of purgation, either.
Hateful and silly. Of course racism and religious intolerance among Jews need to be combated but not this way. This piece is unfair and full of stigmatizing generalisations (hmmn, kind of like racism and religious intolerance). Nothing gets better this way, only worse.
The cartoons are quite funny, though the quotes seem less so. Being raised what is commonly called conservadox, sadly witnessing over a generation depletion in knowledge and observance from one direction and increasing intransigence from the other. Sure, most of the Jews I meet living in a largely secular community are good and decent folks, many of whom have walked away from their heritage for what to them seems "for cause." Chabads in my community and elsewhere thrive because these secular Jews hold the mixture of observance and tolerance in high value. Unfortunately the caraciature of the absolutist black hatter who speaks in a demeaning lashon hara fashion of anyone who may challenge his beliefs is very real and in this day of easy universal communication very easily accessed.
La nuit tout la chat sont gris !
Sadly I have to agree with Rabbi Dr. Berard Rosenberg and Mr Shawn Fink.... why does the "Foward" agree to publish this venomous hate of one Jewish sect against another. Is its purpose to show to the "nations" the hate-fest that exist between our people! Perhaps these haters feel that the non Jew can teach us how to love one another? What is the purpose? I am disappointed and sadden that the "Foward" has sunk this low. Let us then find a solution and come together and find a way to teach ourselves and our children that as the Jewish Nation living on this planet , it can be possible to truly have Ahavat Yisrael.
I think the portrayal of secular Jews' doubt as to their own authenticity is painfully accurate. Would that secular Jews would recognize that all modern streams of Judaism are innovative rather than continuous with ancient tradition. Chabad is not tolerant but smug because they think you will eventually come around to the only right way of thinking, which is their own. This cartoon is not anti-Semitic but is opposed to fundamentalism, to which secular Jews are as susceptible as religious Jews. Google Haym Soloveitchik on Rupture and Reconstruction, or, if you want to make the effort, read Dovid Katz's Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish, or Samuel C. Heilman's Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry.
GEE---
Imagine that----the Forward having a story in which Orthodox Jews are defamed.
Who could have guess that?
Really...WHEN do you start making fun of lesbians, gays, "clerical error" Rabbis, and other Deformed Jews?
In classic Forward style, you have tried to DEFAME Orthodox Jews, and LIED for Gaza muslims.....all in one issue.
It is beyond belief that a newspaper with any integrity would scour recent history to find the most outlandish and distasteful statements and to pass them off as representative of religious Jewry (Look at point #3 in your very own article). As if that was not enough, this rag does not even have the honesty to print the quotes without restylizing them as even more offensive and derisive. This sort of venom and spite is a shame and a blight on the entire Jewish people. I don't know Eli Valley; he might just be one bitter jerk, but the editors of the Forward have embarrassed themselves for including this toxic drivel.
I am constantly astonished at the number of knee-jerk conservatives, both political and theological, who feel it necessary to pepper these threads with remarks such as, "A new low, even for this rag", and "Self-hating Jews" and "You'll burn in gehinnom!" Why do you people even come here in the first place? You have your own websites; there are plenty of Orthodox blogs of various flavors, and God knows there are more than enough conservative blogs and online journals. You can go there and bad-liberals to your hearts' content.
You all complain about the vitriol expressed in these cartoons and editorials, yet you come here, time and again, knowing what you're to find. You may want to ask yourselves why.
SUPERB comic Eli. All the better that inspired such inane vitriol. Jews are the original iconoclasts, and that includes exposing hypocrises of "our own people" That you inspired such ire from this cartoon, to that i say Mazel Tov. You pushed a button, that button was TRUTH, and that's what good satirists doo. Such reactionary haters on your comic, belong on Fox News with their brother-in-intolerance Glenn Beck. That they chide you for "feeling inauthentic" HA!!!!! again, to me, Jews were the original iconoclasts and that means zetzing all sacred cows especially our own.... Also the art was real nice. there is no hate in this cartoon.
Evil will never triumph as long as we have Jewish cartoonists.
This one is even funnier.
Stuart the Jewish Turtle http://www.forward.com/articles/14860/
The Forward has previously published the unconfirmed allegations of anti-Semite Vincent Cannistraro concerning Israeli art students.
Now it brings the gentile world's attention to the various Jewish oddballs - not particuarly different nor worse than the oddballs of every country, and certainly not representtive of the tyical Jew or Israeli.
This article does not make me think worse of orthodox Jews. But it does make me think the Forward run by putzim.
While the impact of this type of fundamentalism is a relatively limited subset of the Jewish world, it does exist. For those who might want to read a superbly written on this reality, might I direct readers to Joshua Hammer's "Chosen by God" in which he weaves with the skill of the professional journalist that he is several stories, central among them the susceptibility of his aimless younger brother to a decision to join a sect of Haredim in Monsey. The rather hateful quotations noted in Eli's cartoon are very much part of the teaching that is fed to Tony Hammer as he evolves into Tuvyah Hammer. The book's epilogue has Joshua's thoughts on what the impact of this will be for his brother's future, which he sees as a form of personal underachievement, and for Judaism which he sees as marginalization of extremists, which has been what becomes of extremists for most of Jewish history.
Most of the comments seem to be missing what I felt was the main message of the comic: the wide gap which separates the worldview of the average non-orthodox american jew and the worldview of your average ultra-orthodox jew. Yet, for some reason the non-orthodox jewish establishment continues to fund ultra-orthodox outreach programs. A Chabad Rabbi may have a nice smile and welcome you into their home but what allows the Harvard Business School student, for example, who holds dear 21st century liberal values, to disregard those values and lookup to someone who holds opinions which fundamentally contradict everything that the Harvard Business School student believes in?" I think the allure of the supposed "authenticity" that these ultra-orthodox outreach workers promote is part of it.
Again and again the Forward, instead of bringing all Jewish groups together, draws yet another wedge between us. Instead of dwelling on what we have in common they find the material supporting their 'party line'. What about putting an effort to unite us, make us feel as one whole, as one nation? Not everyone has to agree on all points. We are entitled to different opinions, to different views, just as all other people do. Why dwell on the differences? There must be a purpose, a reason behind this very focused campaign that has been going on for at least a year.
Lessee. Shawn Fink says that this cartoon is "the most insulting, racist, anti-Semitic piece of trash I have ever seen." Which tells me you don't get out much.
******** What race is it racist about? “Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).”
"The people of Israel are pure and Arabs are a nation of asses. The question must be asked, why didn’t God give them four legs, because they are asses."
Are Arabs actually a race? Explain that remark, please.
******** If each quote is a real actual statement from a real actual Jewish-type rabbi, what makes it anti-Semitic, exactly? Explain that remark, please.
******* "If the Rabbi shown were an African American, a homosexual, or a Muslim, would the editors have agreed to publish it?"
I dunno, but why would an American black homeosexual say that homosexuality is a “plague that may destroy Jewish Israel” and that this plague should be dealt with “just as the Health Ministry is dealing with bird flu.”?
That just don't make no sense, son. Wouldn't have been much of a cartoon, neither, y'know.
*********** Something on your mind that you wanna share with us, Shawn?
It's just my opinion, but the one's who are "defaming" the Jewish People are the ones who are being quoted verbatim .... along with the ones who cannot find it in their Yiddishe neshame to express their disgust ... or even mildly disagree with such filth as "“Reform Rabbis ... should be considered as filthy, lying, shekotzim who are criminals, who brought about the holocaust on the Jewish people.”
Don't sound much to me like "ähavat Yisrael", much less "kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba-zeh". Sounds to me like the most disgusting comment I have ever heard from any Jew in all my life.
Blaming that on some cartoonist is just nuts.
Repeated for grammatical integrity and clearer exposition ... because I can and because I care:
The ones who are "defaming" the Jewish People are the ones who are being quoted verbatim -- along with the ones who cannot find it in their Yiddishe neshame to express their disgust (or even a mild disagreement) with such filth as "Reform Rabbis ... should be considered as filthy, lying, shekotzim who are criminals, who brought about the holocaust on the Jewish people.”
Don't sound much like "ähavat Yisrael" to me, much less "kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba-zeh". Sounds to me like the most disgusting thing I have ever heard from any Jew in all my life.
If you are gonna defend such filth ... defend it! But blaming everything on some cartoonist or on The Forward is just nuts.
C'mon - let's hear your defense of those quotes, folks. Every damned one of those quotes.
Or is all you know how to do is blame the truth-tellers? Like the prophet Samuel? Or Hosea? Who's side are you on, anyway? What would the Baal Shem Tov do?
If only they WERE just ordinary oddballs that every People, Nation (and family) produce, Pro-Zionist.
But Rabbi Ovadia Yosef - “one of the foremost halakhic authorities in the world and spiritual leader of the Shas party”, Chabad rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yitzhar and Od Yosef Chai Shechem yeshiva, Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev, Rabbi David Batzri, Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv - the leading halachic authority of the haredi community, and Rabbi Yisrael Eichler (among others) are not "ordinary oddballs" - they are LEADERS. They are SPOKEMEN. They are POSKIM. They RUN things.
>
It wasn't supposed to. It was supposed to make you laugh and make you think.
>
That sort of comment is what disgusts the rest of the world. Pat Robertson may be needing another Jew on his staff. Give him a call.
http://mpaths.com
Eliezer,
When my children went to the local JCC with a not-particularly-religious Jewish neighbor, they were ridiculed for wearing kippahs and tzitzit. When I spoke to the director, she wanted to know why "our type" would come there. You know, Jews, coming to a JCC - how odd. Oh wait, it was orthodox Jews being ridiculed by reform, conservative, or unaffiliated Jews.
Now I could take those quotes and assume that these are the things those children must be learning from their rabbis, or the attitudes their hearing from their parents as they discuss what the communal leadership is saying. I can assume that all reform, conservative, and unaffiliated Jews believe that all orthodox Jews should be ridiculed, pushed, spat upon. That a commitment to a traditional approach to Torah and mitzvot is considered only worthy of a beating.
Or I could consider (and teach my children) that those were some unpleasant individuals, that occasionally some places develop a bit of a gang "our turf" mentality that pushes anyone out who doesn't meet their style, and they weren't particularly targeting Judaism, G-d and Torah but would have done the same if my children had arrived with a different accent, haircut, or even from a different school.
You can always find a stupid comment, and the news is particularly good at picking them out, and sometimes taking them out of context, and of course blowing them up and highlighting them even if it's an unusual statement by that person, or a single such statement out of thousands of others. And yes, there's the occasional person or leader who's provocative, either to get attention or just because he or she is an idiot.
It's not the norm and you probably know it. But it fits your mindset to assume otherwise and highlight those unusual occasions that fit your agenda.
Kol HaKavod L'cha, Sinat Chinam Maley
So, Akiva, when frum teenagers throw rocks at passersby on Shabbat - you're saying their parents, teachers and rebbaim are completely unaware of it? Or, they're aware and they disapprove, but are powerless to put a stop to it?
The dispute is being investigated by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and his U.S. Senate Finance Committee, PricewaterhouseCoopers and UCSF’s Academic Senate, which is engaged in a closed-door review of whether Kessler’s rights as a UCSF faculty member were violated.
Kessler, a former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, was fired by UCSF as dean in late 2007 by then-chancellor Michael Bishop for “performance-related” reasons that haven’t been disclosed by the university; still a UCSF professor, he is seeking vindication on several fronts, including a whistleblower lawsuit he filed against the University of California.
Kessler declined to be interviewed for this story, citing the pending Academic Senate review. He has claimed in the past that he was fired for raising questions about major discrepancies in UCSF Medical School’s financial records. He claimed multiple versions of the same fiscal year’s financial statements were presented to him, and discrepancies totaling as much as $200 million over a 10-year projected time frame were ignored or obfuscated by UC officials.
B"H
Wonderful! Now we don't have to look outside the Jewish people for rabid anti-Semitism. We can just open the Forward! Look how self-reliant we have become. You must be so proud.
True or otherwise is besides the point. The style of this cartoon is despicable. It should not be published in the Forward.
This cartoon was very painful for me. We jews do not have to agree, but we must be united, respectful and loving toward each other. Clearly, the statements uttered by some in the orthodox movement and highlighted by the cartoonist were hurtful to him. I hope that he uses his talents as a communicator to foster healing in our community.
Well, Akiva, if you can't tell the difference between poskim, roshei yeshivot, and "foremost halakhic authorities" and the guy who runs the swimming pool at the local JCC, then I can't help you.
Your assertion that these quotes are taken out of context, unusual, or "a single such statement out of thousands of others" is JUST PLAIN WRONG. I have heard HUNDREDS of similar remarks from dozens of rabbis and teachers. I won't mention names but some folks at Aish Ha-Torah comes to mind, as does the Chasidic Rebbe of an Athens-like city on the East Coast, as does the "world famous" rabbi who was teaching me "Joshua" when Dr. Baruch Goldstein acted out the views expressed in the cartoon, as does the folks who erected the monument over Dr. Goldstein's grave. As does Dr. Baruch Goldstein himself, come to that,
*********
"It's not the norm and you probably know it. But it fits your mindset to assume otherwise and highlight those unusual occasions that fit your agenda."
Now I have a mindset and an agenda????
I shall assume that you have been quoted out of context. You have NO IDEA what my "mindset" or my "agenda" is. It happens that my agenda is searching for and acknowledging the truth (as I happen to be a reporter).
I have no idea what a "mindset" is, though. Probably something to do with Jello ... or Ko-Jel.
To be clear, I am not saying that most Orthos think like this, but I DO suspect (without evidence) that most Haredi do.
It seems to me that the arrow of sinat chinam should be directed to the purveyors of such vile hatred and not to the humorist who points to the king and says "You are the man!".
What agenda and mindset did the prophet Nathan have, I wonder?
You mention the prophet Nathan and all of a sudden the defenders of these "sinat chinam" noodniks get very very quiet.
See? Our holy prophets are still relevant!
Well, it looks like the verdict me'leMala is in:
(see the paragraph that starts 'The very week')
THE EARTH TREMBLES
Rabbi Avi Shafran
To any early 20th century Polish Jew, Japan could as well have been Neptune. The distance between the shtetl and the Far East was measurable not merely in physical miles but in cultural and religious distance no less. Yet when, on September 1, 1923, a powerful earthquake hit Japan’s Kanto plain, laying waste to Tokyo, Yokohama and surrounding cities, killing well over 100,000 people, news of the disaster reached even the Polish town of Radin. That was the home of the “Chofetz Chaim,” Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, the sainted Jewish scholar renowned around the world even then for his scholarship, honesty and modest life.
Informed of the mass deaths in Japan, the 85-year-old rabbinic leader was visibly shaken, immediately undertook to fast and insisted that the news should spur all Jews to repentance.
Yes, Jews to repentance. Jewish religious sources maintain that catastrophes, even when they do not directly affect Jews, are nevertheless messages for them, wake-up calls to change for the better. Insurers call such occurrences “Acts of G-d.” For Jews, the phrase is apt, and every such lamentable event demands a personal response.
It is, to be sure, a very particularist idea, placing Jews at the center of humankind. But, while Judaism considers all of humanity to possess seeds of holiness, Judaism does in fact cast Jews as a people chosen – to embrace special laws, to be aware of and serve G-d constantly and, amid much else, to perceive Divine messages in humankind’s trials.
Like the Haitian earthquake now feared to have brought about the deaths of twice the number of human beings who perished in the 1923 Japanese quake.
Our government and, prominently, Israel’s, have responded with an outpouring of aid, as have countless individual citizens, including Jewish ones. From a truly Jewish perspective, though, there is more that we must do in the wake of a disaster as terrible as the recent one in Haiti. We must introspect, and make changes in our behavior.
The 2004 tsunami in Asia occurred during the same period of the Jewish year’s Torah-reading cycle as the recent Haitian disaster, a period known as “Shovavim Tat,” an acrostic of the initials of the weeks’ Torah portions. It is a time considered particularly ripe for repentance. After that cataclysm, a revered contemporary Jewish sage in Israel, Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman, pointed out that the revered Gaon of Vilna identified a particularly powerful merit at this time of year in “guarding one’s speech” – avoiding the expression of ill will, slander and the like. That, Rabbi Steinman added, is a merit especially urgent “in these days, when the evil inclination puts all its energies into entrapping people in this sin… [when] it is almost impossible to find someone who hasn’t fallen into the ‘mud’.”
No prophet or wise man, only eyes and ears, are necessary to recognize that the Jewish world today is rife with “evil speech” – speaking and writing ill of others (whether the words are true, false or – so often the case – some toxic mixture of the two), and with the hatred that breeds such sins. Jewish media are filled with accusations and “scoops”; they compete gleefully to find the vilest examples of crimes to report, to do the most attention-grabbing job of reporting them, and to be the first to do so.
The very week of the recent catastrophe in Haiti, a national Jewish newspaper published a comic strip featuring grotesque depictions of religious Jews and aimed at disparaging Jewish outreach to other Jews. And another Jewish newspaper ran an editorial placing the alleged ugly sins of an individual at the feet of Jewish rabbinic leaders, simply because the presumed sinner, before he was exposed, had arranged for several respected rabbis to deliver lectures and had encouraged people to make donations to their institutions. Having thus “established” guilt by that association, the editorialist demanded that every Orthodox organization and rabbinic leader publicly condemn the alleged sinner or be smeared themselves with sin. Then he mocked rabbinic authorities as a group for, instead of issuing condemnations of sinners, rendering decisions on social and halachic matters, as if that were not precisely what rabbis are for.
Those are examples of anti- Orthodox invective. But ill will and its expression, tragically, know no communal bounds – in fact, the offensive comic strip seized upon intemperate statements made by Orthodox Jews about others.
Jews can take positions. Indeed we are charged with standing up for Jewish principles. But personalizing disagreements or slandering individuals is – or should be – beyond the pale.
Had we only eyes like the Chofetz Chaim’s, we would discern that hatred and the misuse of the holy power of speech are not small evils. We would understand that they shake the very earth under our feet.
© 2010 AM ECHAD RESOURCES
[Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.]
All Am Echad Resources essays are offered without charge for personal use and sharing, and for publication with permission, provided the above copyright notice is appended.
It's fun to watch the childish "progressives" whine and sneer and then loudly proclaim their honesty and sense of fair play.
I have seen and heard many legitimate and well written criticisms of Haredi society. This cartoon as many of Eli's are childish and pedantic.
These remind me of the cartoons of ted rall in which anyone who is not a rabid left-winger is portrayed as a drooling, sweating, fearful kook.
I dont get mad when I see these, I laugh at the childish antics of the loon who wrote it and realize it is a sign of desperation as he tries to shout and berate his way out of a logical discussion.
Drooling, sweating, fearful, kooky? Ted Rall did a cartoon about Glenn Beck?
The main point satirized in this cartoon is not that prominent haredi are despicable, but that large numbers of moderates defend small numbers of extremists, out of misplaced sentimentality. Sure, the "vast majority" of Muslims are law-abiding folk who just want quiet lives with their families and communities. But they don't denounce the murderous extremists, because there's a sentimental belief in the "authenticity" of fundamentalism. Just as we Jews wish to hear mainstream Muslims denounce extreme Muslims, so should we denounce our own extremists. A great cartoon in the tradition of Mad.
Brilliant - heard it caused the earth quake in Haiti
Eli, keep up the good work. You deserve a raise from the Forward. You got all these riled up Chareidim to visit your site and you got Avi Shafran, the main propagandist for Agudath Israel of America, to blame you for the Haiti earthquake!
Just don’t get too swollen a head. He was really trying to deflect attention from the corruption connecting Leib Tropper to most of the Agudath Israel's leadership. Once that scandal really hits you will become a footnote. But in the meantime enjoy your notoriety.
Thanks again for a cartoon that says it like it is.
Can we just be a little bit honest here? How many of the "quotes" you borrowed here actually come from people or organizations involved in serious kiruv? You're playing a dirty, disingenuous trick of manipulating quotes from the hardest of the hard liners and putting their words in the mouths of thoughtful, well-meaning people. And your audience doesn't know better than to fall for it. Chilul Hashem is your only purpose, and your publisher is only too eager. You'll have to account to all the decent people swept up in your libel, who you probably have as little face-to-face encounters with as possible behind the pathetic security of your monitor. I'm not sure how you'll be able to undo all the damage you are causing with your impetuous and rage-filled doodling.