Jew Or Not, A Crook's A Crook

'How can a religious person justify being a slumlord?" asked the cover of the Dec. 8 issue of The Village Voice. This piece, which featured interviews with me and other Jewish leaders, considered the presence of religious Jews among the worst slumlords in New York.

Jew or not, a crook's a crook
By Rabbi Jill Jacobs • New York Daily News

'How can a religious person justify being a slumlord?" asked the cover of the Dec. 8 issue of The Village Voice. This piece, which featured interviews with me and other Jewish leaders, considered the presence of religious Jews among the worst slumlords in New York.

If the article was provocative, the responses in online comments were downright incendiary. Most fell into two categories. Some commenters took advantage of this opportunity to vent their own hateful anti-Semitic filth ("The narrative of the 'Holocaust' is not supported by the forensic evidence"). Others complained that The Voice's decision to run the article was, in itself, anti-Semitic. ("For The Voice to put up this horrible front-page picture is equal to what was done by the Sturmer in Nazi Germany.")

Both responses miss the essential point of the article: Some Jews, including rabbis and even Orthodox rabbis, are calling out co-religionists who engage in exploitative behaviors. Anti-Semites may claim that all Jews are greedy and self-involved, but their message falls flat with an audience aware of rabbis who base their arguments and legal rulings against slumlords on Jewish sources.

Meanwhile, those readers who cry anti-Semitism must explain why The Voice chose to feature sympathetic religious Jews who are appalled by religious slumlords.

I chose to be interviewed for that article because I, as a rabbi, feel obligated to speak out when other Jews mask hateful or criminal behavior with outwardly religious identities. I am pained when I meet people who believe that all religious Jews are slumlords or tax evaders. I alone cannot change this perception, but I can offer a different model - a rabbi who draws on Jewish tradition to preach our responsibility to all people. If I do not speak out, I allow anti-Semitic stereotypes to fester.

Some have asked: Why air dirty laundry in the pages of secular newspapers like The Village Voice and the Daily News? Why not conduct an internal conversation in Jewish newspapers? First of all, in the Internet age, the boundary between public and private has largely disappeared. Jews no longer have secret conversations in Yiddish in the pages of the Forverts. Now, Jewish newspapers are accessible to anyone with a Web connection.

Furthermore, far more Jews read The Village Voice, the Daily News and The New York Times than their local Jewish paper. Like other ethnic and religious groups, Jews can now have communal conversations in the secular media.

More to the point, the "dirty laundry" of Jewish slumlords is already public. Every time a man in a black hat and coat refuses to turn on the hot water, allows rats to run through an apartment building or ignores a city violation, his tenants make assumptions about Judaism. By telling a secular newspaper that Jewish law requires landlords to make their rental units habitable, I am simply publicizing a different interpretation of Judaism. I am not revealing secrets about Jewish slumlords - these slumlords have already revealed themselves.

Many have asked whether Jews make up a disproportionate percentage of slumlords. I can't answer this question without spending months sorting through tens of thousands of property deeds and housing violations. Nor am I interested in the answer. Whatever the percentage might be, I will speak out as long as there is a single slumlord who claims to be a religious Jew.

I expect other religious and communal leaders to do the same. The fact that rabbis and Jewish businesspeople are willing to condemn improper behaviors among Jewish landlords should inspire Christian, Muslim, Hindu and other leaders to do the same - as many already do. Jews in black hats may be the most noticeable of the religious slumlords, in part because they play into anti-Semitic stereotypes that observers may already hold. But I have no doubt that other New York City slumlords regularly show up in church, mosque or temple.

I also invite us to celebrate those landlords whose religious traditions inspire them to behave like mensches, as we say in Yiddish. I hope that the public discussion of Jewish slumlords will provoke responsible Jewish landlords to speak publicly about the relationship between their religious beliefs and their honesty in business.

In America, religion is a matter for public debate. Religious leaders of all persuasions therefore bear responsibility to speak publicly about the attitudes and behaviors of members of their denominations.

Jacobs is the author of "There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice Through Jewish Law and Tradition."

Comments

[ruthie]

How can a religious person justify being a slumlord?"
C'MON they don't care about these non-jews. EASY. they feel they are far superior. they.don't.care.
in monsey people who are not jewish, are LUCKY IF THEY hear the words *please and thank you* coming from a chasid.
these are not religious people to me. this is a brainwashed cult.
and i'm SURE there are good religious people too, i know many but the hard core social services grubbing chasidim are PHONIES. and they give us all reason to worry. they're so corrupt and wield incredible power by block voting. and just continue ripping the system off and treating tenants in slums they own like vermin. rockland county...i have a few friends who returned to trinidad but used to live in a small apt. house owned by a hasid. 16 years ago i wondered to myself...why doesn't the owner take better care of the building...ah, yes, there's also GREED. but they really really will not acknowledge someones presence IF THEY'RE NOT JEWISH.

[Yerachmiel Lopin]

I agree with most of what Rabbi Jacobs says. However, I think she was not true to her own Conservative convictions when she equated a religious Jew with a man in a black coat and hat. By her standards, a Conservative Jew who keeps Shabbat by not working and attending synagogue and keeps kosher is a religious Jew, whether or not he or she drives to services in a car on Shabbat. There are plenty of Conservative Jewish crooks and slumlords. Though I will say that Conservative, Reform and secular Jewish crooks have tended to migrate up to less gritty forms of geneiveh.

Certainly, Michael Milliken, a great baal tzedakah, but also a convicted fraudster, continues to be honored by Conservative Institutions which bear his name. Etc, Etc.

Rabbi Jacobs, please keep up your war against unethical practices but be sure to include all the ganovim of klal yisroel, including especially those in your own Conservative movement.

I say, expose

[GMan Group]

Who here thinks that Jill Jacobs can speak Yiddish?

[Critical minyan]

Boring. She had the daily news editorial page as a forum. She should have named some names and toppled a few apple carts.

[uncle sam]

Is it really a big revelation that Rabbis speak out against Jewish businesspeople who transgress -a Chabad rabbi I know in Los Angels, points out that one of the questions you are asked when entering heaven is whether you honest in your business dealings - he consistently speaks out against dishonest business practices by Jews who he says should be particularly ethical if they follow Jewish religious practice.

[Bassy the Haredi Slayer]

a Chabad rabbi I know in Los Angels... consistently speaks out against dishonest business practices by Jews ...

Who that would be ? Does Cunin know that there is Chabbad rabbi in LA who supports honest business practices ? I do not think Cunin will let someone under his control to say this kind of heresy

[Isa]

Chabad has the Tanya that sort of says non-Jews are not human.

What is the excuse for the rest of these rascals?

Or are they still living back 100 years ago in the Ukraine?

[Yechiel]

Shmarya
Mazel Tov. For the first time we can agree on something. I can't put my finger on it, but this is a subject that always annoyed me; greed.
However, fair is fair; people should also know that many a tenant refuse to pay their rents and evicting them takes months of headaches thru the legal system. This is not an excuse, just a piece of information that the public is sometimes unaware of. I know at least 2 landlords who had to sell their buildings; they could not afford to keep it.
Having said that I staunchly believe that people who are greed driven should be exposed and no organization or individual shall except their charitable donations. They shall be chastised and excommunicated.

[Yechiel]

I said I can't put my finger on it...
I mean to say that I am unsure of the reason I dislike greedy people.

[Shmarya]

Who here thinks that Jill Jacobs can speak Yiddish?

Posted by: GMan Group | December 27, 2010 at 08:59 AM

Better question: Who here thinks Rashi could speak Yiddish?

[Yechiel]

Shmarya
Rashi din't pretend he can...

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

I've heard one scholar say the Guide to the Perplexed was so brilliant that it had to have been written originally in Yiddish and later translated into Hebrew.

[LESKid]

A better question for Rabbi Jill: Does she pay her cleaning leady on the books?

[seymour]

Yechiel

what you say it true however having been in that business many years ago I can say that the landlord are many times at fault.

I took over as few building from frum yiddin it was amazing how the rents came in after the services and repairs where up to even minimal standers.

True I had to kick out non payers and bad people but most where just poor and honest and just wanted a decent place to live.

I was proud that people knew I was a Jew after being treated by animals by other Yiddish frum landlord. Some, chassadish and some modern orthodox

[Ben Dover]

Scotty "a Jewish leader"......whhhhooooooohaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

[Failed Shmarya]

me and other Jewish leaders should read "myself as well as with Jewish leaders". You are not a Jewish leader, you are a two bit wannabe muckraker.

[Rashi redt oichet afYiddish]

Rashi spoke the Judeo-Germanic dialect of the Rhineland that became the precursor of Yiddish. He would not have understood later Slavic contributions to the Yiddish of today but he would have understood the Yiddish of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's sichos with little assistance.

[Shmarya]

Rashi spoke the Judeo-Germanic dialect of the Rhineland that became the precursor of Yiddish. He would not have understood later Slavic contributions to the Yiddish of today but he would have understood the Yiddish of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's sichos with little assistance.

I believe Rashi spoke French as his primary language.

[Mike]

This is an interesting topic - in his commentaries sometimes Rashi translates words or phrases, mostly into medieval French but I remember occasionally he translated words into German (or that dialect maybe?)

BTW what does this have to do with slumlords? What am I missing?

[Shmarya]

BTW what does this have to do with slumlords? What am I missing?

Posted by: Mike | December 28, 2010 at 12:07 PM

It's about shooting the messenger rather than dealing with the message.

[god save israel]

i don't know Hebrew from Yiddish but i do know the landlord tenant act and i know their private residence.

[JC]

Slumlords, cumlords, when are we going to rid ourselves from these cocksucking hareidi fiends?

Kepp up the good work Shmarya! You are our beloved leader!

[uncle sam]

"Hareidi fiends"? I'd be willing to bet the wrongdoing committed by the orthodox is proportionately way less than that committed by non orthodox (I'd also be willing to bet that the same "improved" ratio also applies to Conservative Jews). Btw, the Chabad rabbi I referred to in a previous post (who speaks out loudly and often about the wrongness and non Jewishness of bad business behavior)is related to Cunin.

[Michelle]

B"H

My mother-in-law has been living in the same apartment in the Bronx for over 50 years.

One of those slum-lords is her landlord, and she is ashamed to see him come up to the apartment several times a week dressed in his long black coat, black hat, and tzit-tzit.

It is hillul Hashm for him to do such a thing, and then it is the height of cruelty to refuse to provide steam for his tenets--many of them elderly Jews.

Maybe he justifies his actions in his mind saying "they are all gentiles," but they aren't.

And even the gentiles can recognize sin when they see it.

Shame on him and all those like him. He does not fear G-d. He is an apostate, and anyone who gives such a man an aliyah or includes him in a Minyan is committing a sin.

You can say what you want about the author of this article, you can bad-mouth her from here to the end of time, but it doesn't change the fact that she speaks truth.

[Dave]

I may agree with "Uncle Sam" that the wrong doing committed by the orthodox is less than the general population at large. (When I visit New York I am not constantly worried about being attacked by an observant Jew on the street).

I have met some of the Cunin's. Some of them are very smart and kind and I am not at all surprised that one of them speaks loudly regarding Torah and business ethics. However all is not right in the methods that Chabad in California obtains money or the way it is spent. They publicly claim to raise funds for programs, the talk is that the money is spent on bank payments and real estate for family purposes.

All the money received from telethon should be accounted for and make available for the public to view. This should not be a problem