-WHAT’S WRONG WITH US JEWS?

COMMENT

Who speaks out for Judaism?

Alan Simons

NOVEMBER 23, 2009 -  J.J. Rousseau, the 18^th century French philosopher said, “The Jews in Dispersion have not the possibility of proclaiming their own truth to humankind; but I believe that when they once have a free Commonwealth, with schools and universities of their own where they can speak out safely, we shall be able to learn what it is that the Jewish people have to say to us.”

To which we might add, that today in the 21^st century, we Jews are still trying to communicate, to coexist with each other, let alone trying to figure out what we have to say to all the billions of Christians and Muslims.

Communication is about giving-taking, asking-answering, sending-receiving. It’s not something we’re known to be good at.

For as Frank Luntz, the US-based political and business pollster has pointed out, “Why do Jews make such lousy communicators? For hundreds of years, we used the great art of language development to entertain as well as educate. It is no coincidence that so many of the great intellectuals, academics, writers and performers come from our ranks.”

He adds, “The ability of Jews to understand and connect with people transcends international boundaries. It is in our culture and in our blood. But over the past 20 years, we have developed some very destructive communication habits that have seriously undermined our efforts and the causes we believe in. Our words lose their resonance and our style and tone offend. We assert when we should inform. We reject when we should interject. We push people away when we should pull them in. . . Non-Jews do not want to hear our complaints. They want to know our solutions.”

Let’s face it, in spite of our fighting qualities, most of which are directed against each other, who is there amongst us that stands up for unity within the ranks of the Jewish people?

What do we want?

“You Jewish people. What exactly do you want?” How many times have you heard the question from non-Jewish friends and neighbours? Well actually, we don’t know what we want, do we! Which is abysmal, since as a nation we’ve had more time than anyone else to come up with the answer. Perhaps we will never reach an answer. Perhaps there isn’t one. Perhaps we don’t want to. Perhaps we are so ingrained in believing no one really cares about who we are, that after so many generations of being hurt, we have turned inwardly to hurt each other.

Just look at what is happening in Israel with the ongoing violence perpetrated by hundreds of Haredim against anyone who doesn’t come up to their so-called standards. “The Siege of Intel”, where we Jews, according to many Haredim, have become the “Nazis.”

Just look at what happened last week in Israel when Israeli police arrested a Jewish woman for wearing a tallit at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. It was reported that, “Police said wearing the tallit was a violation of a High Court ruling that a dress code must by abided by at the Jewish holy site. Nofrat Frenkel had been taking part in a monthly ceremony organised by the Women of the Wall religious group. The chairwoman of the group, Anat Hoffman, criticised the move as unprecedented in Israel’s history.” And what does the law say about the settlers (l) walking around armed to the hilt?

Just at look at what happened in Yemen. Last March, I first reported that the Yemeni Jewish community pleaded for Jews in the Diaspora to come to their aid. Rabbi Yahya Yusuf, leader of the 65-member community in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, said they had been “suffering terribly of late.” Many had been finding it very difficult to even feed their children. “We have sold everything we possess to buy food for our families. We even sold our women’s gold rings. We have run out of money,” he said. “We appeal to aid organisations and benevolent contributors to assist us,” said Yusuf.

Why did we take so long to come to their assistance, and why were they resettled in of all places Monsey, New York, the home of the ultra-orthodox. It therefore behoves me to ask what role did the ultra-orthodox play in the resettlement of the “refugees”, as they have been refered to. Why Monsey and not Israel? What a slap in the face for Sharansky’s Jewish Agency.

As a side note it was reported by Reuters on November 20 that Yemen has “arrested two men who planned to assassinate Rabbi Yahya Yusuf, after he had criticized Shiite rebels in northern Yemen for fighting against the government in a television interview.”

This past October, I reported the results of an international survey showing how members of five major religions view their religious leadership. Here are some of the findings: The survey, conducted in August-September 2009, found that within the Jewish community there is great distrust and unhappiness with leadership, as well as low expectations. National and international religious leadership receive only 58% trust among Jews, compared to 90% for Muslims and 74% for Christians. Jews have the lowest level of willingness to forgive their leaders for their faults; 71% for local and 61% for national leaders. Only 65% of Jews believe Jewish leadership is important to their religion, compared to 86% of Christians and 79% of Muslims Only 34% of Jews say they have a national leader The survey respondents did not include Haredi Jews.

In addition, Jewish responses showed the highest expectations for religious leaders to be involved in politics. When asked about the appropriateness of the involvement of Jewish leaders in national politics, the highest response indicating that it is appropriate came from Jewish respondents, 59% of whom considered it appropriate. Literature emanating from the conference concluded, “There is room to consider that Jewish leadership is so implicated in politics as to have become identified by it.”

Unfortunately, no one mentioned this to Britain’s chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, who in a lecture some weeks later in London to a Christian think tank said:  “Muslims needed to learn to separate religion from power.”

Go figure!

There are only about 13.1 million Jews in the world, which is about the same as the population of metro Los Angeles and its surrounding area. Why is it that with such a small population we can’t put our act together as a people?

(Photo credit: Mazinx)

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