"…[The Novominsker Rebbe Rabbi Yaakov] Perlow heads an organization [Agudath Israel of America] that is, by definition, extremist. They believe themselves to be upholding the strictest, and thus most correct, interpretation of God’s own Divine law; they believe that the existence of the Jewish people, the coming of Messiah, and quite possibly the world itself depends on the painstaking observance of that interpretation — which is not, in their understanding, an interpretation at all, but simply Jewish law, halakhah.…"
Above: The Novominsker Rebbe Rabbi Yaakov Perlow
Emily Hauser responds in the Forward to remarks made by the Novominsker Rebbe Rabbi Yaakov Perlow at Agudath Israel of America's annual dinner earlier this week. Perlow, who is the rabbinic head of Agudah, lashed out at secular and non-Orthodox Jews, calling them heretics and enemies of the true Judaism practiced by haredim:
…[The Novominsker Rebbe Rabbi Yaakov] Perlow heads an organization [Agudath Israel of America] that is, by definition, extremist. They believe themselves to be upholding the strictest, and thus most correct, interpretation of God’s own Divine law; they believe that the existence of the Jewish people, the coming of Messiah, and quite possibly the world itself depends on the painstaking observance of that interpretation — which is not, in their understanding, an interpretation at all, but simply Jewish law, halakhah.
Of course he thinks you’re a bad Jew — no, I’m sorry, not a “bad Jew.” He thinks that you’re a literal danger to Judaism itself. You have come — yes, you! — to “subvert and destroy the eternal values” of the Jewish people. You!…
There’s a reason that when women try to read Torah at the Western Wall, they’re met with spit, thrown chairs, and hateful words. There’s a reason that when Israel dipped its toes into paying non-Orthodox rabbis (as it pays many, many ultra-Orthodox rabbis, who get to decide who gets married, which conversions count, and how and where you may be buried), we were told that such rabbis are “destroyers of religion” and “haters of the Lord.” There’s a reason, and that reason is that they mean it.
Among the non-Orthodox, there’s an unfortunate, and very powerful, tendency to bow to the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox as the arbiters of “real” Judaism — you’ll note that Israeli presidential candidate (and entirely secular Jew) Rubi Rivlin compared non-Orthodoxy to “idol worship” and has reportedly hesitated to call Reform and Conservative rabbis “rabbis.” I hate to tell my American Jewish friends how utterly typical Rivlin’s attitude is of broadly-held Israeli opinion, but here’s the truth: It’s very typical. The ultra-Orthodox control religious life in the Jewish State, and they’ve done an excellent job of convincing the Jewish public that everyone else is doing it wrong.
But it must be acknowledged that we’ve helped. When non-Orthodox shuls call Chabad to teach us how to make matzo, we’re saying we’re not good enough. When we donate to Orthodox yeshivas to which we would never send our children, we’re saying we’re not good enough. When we let Israeli politicians insult our faith and spiritual practice and quietly presume that they somehow know better simply by virtue of their living in Israel — we’re saying we’re not good enough.…
The take home lesson here is that when you stop funding them, when you stop donating to their charities and their yeshivas and their causes, they will weaken and begin to fade away.
Stop viewing haredim as the true representatives of authentic Judaism – an idea that anyway would have confused most, if not all, of the rabbis living 1,000 years ago because haredism itself was only created as an ideology about 250 years ago and much of it – especially its concepts of Daas Torah (the infallibility of haredi rabbis) and hasidic rebbes who are closer to the Divine than everyone else and also considered to be infallible – is utterly foreign to the histoical Judaism that preceded it.
Haredism is an insular circular, self-referential cult of its own making.
Stop funding it, stop coddling it, and eventually it will be forced to moderate to survive.
But non-Orthodox movements are also unarguably getting weaker and smaller as more and more Jews opt to be secular, Buddhist, New Age or just disconnected. The organized Jewish community is a vapid place with lots of press releases issues touting programs that often do little good and inspire very few people.
As I've argued before, what would actually truly help Jewish continuity would be a free open secular Jewish online university that would teach Jewish history, culture and literature alongside evolutionary biology, anthropology, physics, advanced math, languages, linguistics, etc.
That secular Jewish university could also have online high school level classes and CLE courses.
Set this up, make sure course credits are easily transferable to universities and colleges across the country, and make sure all the Jewish history, culture and literature classes are free, and you'll have tons of young Jews taking classes.
Without preaching, without doing much of anything else, you'll see grassroots social groups of young Jews form and blossom. You'll see high affiliation rates. And you'll see the downward demographic slide of the American Jewish community begin to right itself.
Setting up this Jewish secular online university would cost less than all the money the Jewish community wastes now on failed programs meant to ensure continuity.
But chances are, this Jewish secular online university will never be done by the organized Jewish community.
Why?
Because it doesn't play into current Jewish leadership preconceived notions about continuity and because it would be perceived as unwanted competition for non-Orthodox synagogues and rabbis and for Brandies, Yeshiva University and the other non-free universities with Jewish origins.
But if we want to stop haredim from taking over Judaism, besides cutting off their funding and calling out their BS, we need to foster a climate of secular Jewish knowledge.
Chabad isn't the answer, people. Spinoza is.