May 28, 2013

Thank you Jay Michaelson

"We fail to act because, I think, deep in the hearts of non orthodox Jews there lingers the belief that the Haredim are the real Jews, or the safeguards of our future, or perhaps the sweet, cuddly Tevyes of our imagined Yiddish roots."  (Forward, May 27, 13)


"But they are not. Of course, there are wonderful Haredi Jews out there. But the Haredi system threatens the demographic and cultural stability of the Jewish community, both in the United states and in Israel. Jewish fundamentalism is not good for the Jews." 

What Jews? The Jews all over America that don't even know that they're Jewish? Or they're not even sure if they're Jewish or not? Or they hate the fact that they're Jewish?

Cultural stability? What cultural stability? That the OTD's eat Cholent before going to McDonald's? Are we stopping OTD's from eating Cholent?  Or do you mean the Reform culture of eating snails and shrimp in order not to be embarrassed in front of their gentile friends that they're Jewish? 

For this we plead guilty! But before you get embarrassed, first find out if you're really a Jew. Your mother has to be Jewish. And so her mother, and her mother, and so on. And a convert must be an orthodox convert. You have to seriously want to keep G-d's commandments in order for the conversion to kick in. Judaism is not a joke, and G-d is not an idiot.

So after all this, how many Jews are still left in America?  And the ones that are still left give money to Chabad et al, for the reason outlined by Jay Michaelson in the beginning of this post. And most Jews don't feel bad if their tax money ends up in the hands of a kollel guy for the same reason.