IJII

In recent years, the "right wing" Orthodox world has found a number of names that describe them: "Hareidi"; "Black Hat"; "Yeshivish".  The rest of the Orthodox community (and the large majority) have various terms applied to them, all of which seem to cause discomfort. "Modern Orthodox", "Centrist Orthodox", and "Open Orthodox" are all used, but often with an apology. These terms somehow convey a wishy-washy philosophy, a lack of conviction, an overarching liberalism.

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Rabbi Jack Simcha Cohen wrote an article (which appears in Conversations 3, and in the Responsa section of our website). Michael Makovi, an American student now studying in a yeshiva in Israel, has written his reactions to Rabbi Cohen's article. Michael is a member of the University Network of our Institute.  I am posting his letter in this blog, together with a response from Rabbi Cohen.

Regarding Rabbi J. Simcha Cohen's "Reporting and Prosecuting Jewish
Criminals: Halakhic Concerns", in Conversations Issue 3 (Winter
2009/5769), http://www.jewishideas.org/rabbi-j-simcha-cohen/reporting-and-prosecuting-jewish-crimin:

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A friend sent me a copy of an article which appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal, dealing with the turmoil in the kashruth industry sparked by the illegal practices of Agriprocessors. The article quotes another article that appeared in the Forward newspaper. A claim is made that there are now two camps that offer competing views on how to deal with the issue of kashruth standards and ethical standards. The first is composed of "bearded, Orthodox rabbis" who are concerned with the technicalities of kashruth laws. They apparently feel that ethical and legal matters should be left to government inspectors, not kashruth agencies.

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Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, a distinguished Orthodox rabbi with fifty years of service to our community, participated in the national interfaith prayer service convened under the auspices of President Barack Obama. We were saddened to read that Rabbi Lookstein was rebuked by the Rabbinical Council of America, of which he is a longtime member and leader. We believe that the RCA's public criticism of Rabbi Lookstein is an embarrassment for the Orthodox rabbinate and the Orthodox community.

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Today marks the inauguration of a new American President, Barack Obama.

A year ago, it did not seem very likely that Mr. Obama would or could be elected President. He was relatively young and inexperienced; he was a member of a racial minority group; he was opposed by "big name" candidates who seemed to have considerably more political clout.

And yet, he won the election, and became a new symbol of "the American dream"--an outsider of humble origins who reached the top of the American pyramid. How did he achieve this monumental success?

Surely he is a man of great talent, charisma, eloquence, intelligence, political know-how. But there are many others who also have wonderful qualities of leadership.

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Our prayers are with the people of Israel as they once again are compelled to defend themselves against the forces of terror, hatred and destruction. We pray that the time will come, speedily and soon, when Israel and its neighbors will live in peace and friendship, enabling all the people of the region to prosper and enjoy God's blessings.

As Israel faces the current dangers, I reprint on this blog an article of mine that was included in a recently published book, A Dream of Zion, edited by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin, published by Jewish Lights Publishing Co.  The volume includes essays by a variety of authors, on the theme: American Jews Reflect on Why Israel Matters to Them.  

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In my Angel for Shabbat column several weeks ago, I called attention to the problem of discrimination in the religious school system in Israel. In particular, I mentioned the horrifying practice of Beis Yaacov schools to not only have quotas limiting the number of Sephardic students, but that in Immanuel they actually built a physical barrier to separate Sephardic girls from Ashkenazic girls. Some religious schools have different entrances for children of different ethnic backgrounds.

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Shalom, and welcome to our new blog. I hope to use this blog to share my thinking on a variety of topics, and to elicit your responses, comments, questions.

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