April 5, 2005
WHO KNEW?:
The difference between Jews and Judaism: The Schiavo tragedy highlighted an unfortunately little known and often misunderstood aspect about Jewry (Rabbi Avi Shafran, 4/05/05, JewishWorldReview.com)
The phone began ringing here at Agudath Israel of America mere hours after we released a statement asking Michael Schiavo to spare his wife's life.The phone began ringing here at Agudath Israel of America mere hours after we released a statement asking Michael Schiavo to spare his wife's life.
We asked the late Terri Schiavo's husband to "recognize that what a court may consider legal can still constitute a grave violation of a higher law," and pointed out that "none of us can claim to know what constitutes a meaningful existence," and that "all of us have a responsibility to preserve even severely compromised life."
Our statement appeared in some media, primarily newspapers servicing the Orthodox Jewish community, like the weekly Yated Ne'eman and the daily Hamodia. But it also found its way onto the popular website JewishWorldReview.com as well as one maintained by supporters of Mrs. Schiavo's parents' struggle to save their daughter's life. Thence ensued the flood of calls.
Some were from observant Jews, gratified that we had articulated a straightforward Jewish take on the matter. But many — in fact, many more — came from non-Jewish Americans, clear across the country.
The callers' accents testified to their geographical diversity; the voices comprised a musical medley of northeastern enunciation, western drawl, mid-west mannerisms and southern comfort. And all were Christians, calling a Jewish organization just to say thank you.
More striking still, though, was something else, the single sentiment voiced, in different words, by a good number of the callers. As one succinctly put it: "You know, I never realized there were Jewish people who cared about 'life' issues."
Based on election returns there aren't many, which is shameful. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 5, 2005 10:49 AM
OJ: the Jewish vote for the Democrats is not about ideas. It is about ethnic identity and a world view that is very much stuck in an earlier age. The best description of the World view is Philip Roth's Plot Against America. Most of the Jewish Democrats believe that the novel was not a fiction; it was, a very thinly disguised and extremely accurate, picture of the political situtation in 2004.
The halachic position of Agudath Israel is I think both orthodox and a correct reading of Jewish authorities. If certain officials of other streams do not accept it, the non-acceptance is due to their desire to promote political positions not due to a different understanding of halachic authority.
I should note that there are orthodox positions in favor of embryonic stem cell research.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at April 5, 2005 12:47 PM"Jewish people who cared about 'life' issues." The entire universe of such Jews seems to consist of the Orthodox and my wife.
Posted by: Bob at April 5, 2005 12:56 PMRobert,
I thought Roth's novel rang false as anything other than a statement of Jewish paranoia circa 1956.
There is a staggering level of ignorance about Christianity except for some of the sillier, more blatantly pagan forms widespread in the Northeast, thus much of the hostility towards Christianity in our community becomes understandable but not excusable.
When I lived South of the Mason-Dixon Line, I was surprised not by the variety of Christianity, but by its warmth towards Jews, which was quite different from that by my non-Jewish maternal relatives in the Midwest, let alone how different it was from the open hostility exhibited by many Irish and Polish Catholics. Our views are formed not only by our own experiences but also by the stories of family and friends who lived under Popes and Tsars back in horrible old Europe. The behavior of the Orthodox or the RC Church or even the German Lutherans there was something completely foreign to the religious Protestants of the American South and West. But because we really don't see these people very often, our attitudes towards them get frozen in amber just as if the Black Hundreds were still running around Kishinev or Father Coughlin were still packing them in at MSG.
Posted by: bart at April 5, 2005 1:10 PMMe: Bart, you know this means that you and Michael Medved see eye to eye on something, don't you?
Bart:Aaaaeeeeeiiiiiiooooo!!!! [runs screaming from the room....]
Kirk,
LOL!!
I'm no fan of Medved, but then it would take something along the lines of Alec's treatment in A Clockwork Orange to get me to keep kosher. Because I've lived in parts of the country with relatively small Jewish populations, I have a different perspective. It just gets me nuts when I hear people even educated people say things about religious Christians in the American South that I know from experience to be patently untrue.
Prager I think says it far better and is more intellectually honest than Medved.
Posted by: bart at April 5, 2005 5:32 PMBart: "I thought Roth's novel rang false as anything other than a statement of Jewish paranoia circa 1956."
yes, but he nailed the mentality of liberal American Jews. Yes they are lost in the fog
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at April 5, 2005 7:02 PMRelated:
Posted by: Barry Meislin at April 6, 2005 4:03 AM