Just as I was getting my blood pressure down after pesach, I have been asked whether I have read this week's "Voice of Anglo-Jewish Orhodoxy". Now obviously people with blood pressure shouldn't really come within 5 miles of the JT, but I confess that in moments of weakness, I need the laugh. This past week hasn't been one of those though, so how could I have known what I was missing?
Lying here in hospital having my blood pressure stabilised, I know now. On p35 of the said Voice, Judge Leonard Gerber has set out his vision of Anglo-Jewry under Charedi rule. It is priceless. A Shakespearean farce without all the fancy language, the essence of it is that the next Chief Rabbi needs to be acceptable to "Anglo-Jewish Orthodoxy". As such, academic credentials without having adequate knowledge of halocho or having a suitable Yeshiva background would mean the office-holder did not have the "allegiance necessary".
Pardon??? Is it not the case that "Anglo-Jewish Orthodoxy", which I understand to mean the Adass Yisroel, Kedassia etc set up all its own institutions back in the last century specifically to avoid interacting with mainstream Anglo-Jewry?? Now it expects the next Chief Rabbi to represent its style of orthodoxy?!!?!! Get real man!
The fact is that we in the UOHC set up our stall in the face of Anglo-Jewish England and "our ways are not their ways", so why on earth should our criteria be taken into account in the selection of a suitable post-holder? Whoever he is needs to have allegiance to those paying his salary surely, not to those who don't support the institutions of Anglo-Jewry (eg the Beth-Din). (The nurse is here telling me to lie still and stop foaming at the bit or I might not live long....)
For my part, I don't see why Anglo-Jewry can't be led by a learned female spiritual leader, and I know a woman who is learned, spiritual, spirited and a real leader of men.....
Wish you a refuah sheleima but on one condition! you promise NEVER to read that rag again! We cant afford to lose you
ReplyDeleteI know of someone who tried to reply to this article, but the JT wouldn't publish it. This must be why JLG didn't submit his piece to the JC, where it could have met with critical acclaim. This way no-one gets a right of reply! He has used the Tribune as a shield and that's a bit of a sorry shame.
ReplyDeleteCant you tell us who this woman is?
ReplyDeleteAnyway they were offered Rabbi Broyde who happens to be both a modern orthodox and reform rabbi. He wears different hats at different times depending who he is talking or writing to. I think we should have one who can wear all three hats at once. Then everyone would be happy. Oh I am sorry except you. You would only go for a woman. To include that hat or shaitel would be a trifle difficult.
Sorry, I can't reveal anything more about her at present.
DeleteMy next choice for this post would be a charedi man I suppose. The main thing would have to be to keep Judge Gerber satisfied.
Sorry but I need to have a bit of a rant this morning about the article in question. You see I felt that some of it was halachically questionable, in that one is not supposed to speak ill of the dead (who are not here to defend themselves; and from whom we cannot ask forgiveness).
ReplyDeleteJG on the other hand, ignored the fact that Hakodesh Boruch Hu suffered some of Anglo-Jewry's leaders to lead long, happy and productive lives within their community, and wrote that "their passing should not be regretted". Oh dear. People with a different life view to the Orthodox approach have died, and regardless of their value within their own cirle, we in the charedi sector are too frum to view their passing as any kind of loss.
Surely the Tribune should have sought rabbinc advice before allowing offensive and derogatory (not to mention contrary to halocho) material to appear in its strictly orthodox pages.
And then to cap it all the sweet Mrs. C. Adam (do I know her?) has taken the trouble to put a letter in this weeks's Drivel, congratulating them on publishing this "thoughtful" and "well-balanced" appreciation of all the issues!
Well I have now stopped laughing and am back in hospital having my sides stitched and my blood pressure stabilised (again). Mr. Blogs thinks I am too charedi, but he doesn't know how much worse some others are.
SH Lost Hope
ReplyDeleteYou have forfeited my good wishes by succumbing to temptation. Why did u read that rag again! You are displaying troubling addictive tendencies
Very sorry to upset you! What is behind your gripe against the paper by the way? I mean apart from the news and pictures and some of the articles, and perhaps the adverts and the general tone of it, what is there not to like about it? Do you know the people who run it? Who/what do you prefer, the paper or the people behind it?? Do you enjoy the JC on the quiet (like most charedim)... Can't help feeling I'm standing on a minefield !
DeleteMy gripe is, for what it's worth, their page 3 is not in keeping with other papers of a similar standard of news presentation.
DeleteJudge Judy: Do you think LG has read the wider Jewish papers this week? Because the Jewish News has reported that the new Chairman of St. Albans (US) Synagogue is now a, a,..... WOMAN!! Hope their rov isn't from Mir.
ReplyDeleteIf Jews' College had not closed and the US was still training and ordaining its own rabbinate it would be interesting to see from which background the majority of pulpits were filled. By there not being this choice they have been forced to go more to the right. The actual membership, at least away from NW London, hasn't shifted. Anglo-Jewry is pretty much the same as it always was.
ReplyDeleteThere was ONLY ONE suitable candidate from within their own ranks, despite such a wealth of more right-wing rabbis from good yeshiva backgrounds. When it came to the crunch, there was no other viable candidate for the post other than the person they have selected. In other words they HAVEN'T gone for the one with the hightest credentials in learning and Talmudic scholarship at the expense of other things. The US rabbinate needs to take heed of this fact. They were prepared to import from abroad rather than appoint anyone from the more right-wing of their own.
What have you got against frum yidden promoting learning and yiddishkeit in the United Synagogue? Seems an ok thing to do to me.
ReplyDeleteLife is too short to begin to answer you. Did you even read the article?? Don't you think that those working in these communities were well aware of the challenges and therefore don't need LG criticising their efforts for not being sufficiently halachically orientated? Some of my best friends are US, and I can tell you LG is not the flavour of the month even in their own frummer circles!!
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