Pour Some Sugar On Me
Does this look to you like a serious reckoning with valid concerns, or like a stand-up act?
I have only a few moments to write this. I have to get back to memorizing page 32b of Tractate Sanhedrin, as I was instructed to do daily by my partners at the Jewish Enrichment Center. Thankfully, those anti-feminist Orthodox people don’t require me to wrap teffilin every day as they apparently did to that poor, unsuspecting Birthright Israel alumnus in Gal Beckerman’s article, “Birthright Alumni Center Tied to Haredi Outreach”. Then I would certainly have no time to put pen to paper. Fortunately, I have a moment off to respond…
It’s the first titillating paragraph of Rebecca Sugar’s “response” to mounting criticisms about the way she farmed out all Birthright NEXT programming in the New York area to the JEC, a haredi kiruv (ultra-Orthodox evangelism) organization.
Ms. Sugar, listen carefully. First, let me congratulate you on your writing style. You’ve hit heights of snark I can only spy forlornly through a dented telescope. Second, you’re missing the point:
The concern raised by Gal Beckerman and the editors of the Jewish Daily Forward, by David Kelsey, by Shmarya Rosenberg, and by yours truly and fellow Jewschool bloggers & commenters was not that Orthodox Jews can’t run pluralistic Jewish institutions that cater to, respect, and serve the entire Jewish community. Some of the best Hillel professionals I’ve ever met are Orthodox. I’ve seen Jews who affiliate in whole or in part with Orthodox forms of Judaism become valued leaders in Jewish social justice organizations like JUFJ, communities like Jews in the Woods, and educational projects like Limmud.
However, Ms. Sugar — and this is a big however — these individuals were honest, righteous frum men and women whose love of the wider Jewish community was broader than any partisan loyalties they held for their own brand of Jewishness. They were not flag-wavers or missionaries. They were not liars. They were not stealth kiruv workers.
The folks at The JEC are stealth kiruv workers. As reported by Gal Beckerman,
In conversations with the Forward, a handful of Birthright alumni have painted a picture of the JEC as a place where Orthodoxy [sic] is the end goal, though it is encouraged through slow, gentle steps that are often difficult to perceive. “If they had just said, if their whole mission statement was, we’re Orthodox Jews, we’d love to present this lifestyle to you and see if it’s for you, and then did the same exact things that they are doing, that would not bother me,” said David Siegel, who was involved with the JEC for two years and went on three of the center’s follow-up trips to Israel.
“Each and every one of them on a person-to-person level is totally open to helping you understand life, spirituality, growth, relationships; anything you want to talk about, they’re open about it,” said another Birthright alumnus, who asked to remain anonymous. “The issue for me was eventually after spending a lot of time there, it became apparent that they did have an agenda to try and get me to incorporate Orthodox practice into my life. And that became awkward.” After he started individual studies with a rabbi, the situation became strained. “Eventually they wanted me to start memorizing sections of Talmud even though that was not something I was interested in doing,” the anonymous alumnus said. “They wanted me to start wrapping tefillin. I didn’t want to do that, either. And instead of just saying, all right, do your own thing, they kept bringing it up and pressing the issue.”
This would not be a problem if there were other Birthright NEXT providers in the NY area — but the JEC is the only authorized provider of Birthright NEXT programming in that largest BRI alumni community in the world.
This would not be a problem if the JEC were open about its Haredi affiliation, kiruv goals, and connection to Ohr Somayach — but it’s not.
This would not be a problem if the JEC supported Birthright’s non-Haredi alumni in their diversity of Jewish styles and nurtured their personal paths of Jewish growth — but Jewish growth only means one thing for the JEC.
This would not be a problem if the JEC didn’t sponsor extreme right-wing political speakers under the guise of Jewish educational programming — but we’ve already reported on that here.
It comes down to the simple proposition that the Birthright program is not supposed to be a kiruv scam, Ms. Sugar. And no false accusations of Ortho-bashing, no matter how cleverly worded, can distract from that truth.
Her response reads like a moderated version of the “disgusting little antisemitic cretin of unfortunately Jewish ancestry” quip mentioned the other day. Such are the retorts when one is unwilling to address the situation at hand.
Ridicule is a wholly appropriate response to the article in the Forward. What I see are Jewish professionals, long aching to break a big fat piece of NEXT/JEC cash for their cause celeb, lining up to take their snipe.
Yes, yes, they’re a monopoly, and they’re Orthodox, the brutality! It seems that impassioned please to the management or the funders haven’t worked, so now it’s on to attacking the organization and its members directly.
And she mocked us!
Well, now it’s personal.
Failed Messiah is demanding Rebecca declare whether or not she is Orthodox. Witch hunt, anyone? This is a joke. Some people need new hobbies, and others need new jobs.
Thankfully, those anti-feminist Orthodox people don’t require me to wrap teffilin every day
Of course they don’t – she’s a woman. 🙂
As a long time JEC attendee and Birthright Alum I can tell you that the JEC is very upfront that the Rabbis are Orthodox. There is NO AGENDA. They simply say “This is Judaism as we see it. This is what the Torah says as we interpret it – take it or leave it, your choice.”
I have never felt pressure to do anything, believe anything and most importantly become anything. I asked about the relationship with Orh Whatever. There is none. I do not know a single guy who has gone there and I have been involved since 2006. I hadn’t even heard about it until this article came out.
I think all of the people like you, like FailedMessiah, like Beckerman need to speak to a happy JEC attendee. Not one so clearly with his own adgenda; who is a stand up comedian by profession trying to get noticed or his own axe to grind.
I’m stunned that no one has spoken to anyone who had a good experience. I’m stunned no one has asked about what that axe actually is.
There have been many people who have had a positive experience at the jec, I’m sure. I did hear through the grapevine that Siegel and his “Anonymous” friend (BTW – we all know who you are Anonymous) were making calls to a lot of other people who go to the jec – looking for people to corroborate their story. Sounds like an axe to grind or an agenda to me….
It’s not even competent snark: Orthodox kiruv organizations would not be involved in teaching women Talmud, let alone having them memorize it. (I was tempted to look up Sanhendrin 32b and see if I could come up with good counter-snark, but I’ll leave that as an exercise to the reader. 🙂 )
I love the ridiculous argument of “well, you never point out the good stuff”. I wonder if that was learned from the hardcore Pro-Israel world…”you only bash Israel, you never point out the good things…”
THAT’S WHAT CRITICAL THINKING IS! YOU LOOK IN BETWEEN THE THINGS THAT LOOK GOOD AND YOU FIND THE THINGS THAT AREN’T GOOD!!!
wolfman writes:
(I was tempted to look up Sanhendrin 32b and see if I could come up with good counter-snark, but I’ll leave that as an exercise to the reader. 🙂 )
Balaam’s Donkey writes:
I love the ridiculous argument of “well, you never point out the good stuff”. I wonder if that was learned from the hardcore Pro-Israel world…”you only bash Israel, you never point out the good things…”
These are actually one and the same — she’s using the Gemara citation to very subtly bring in that same ridiculous argument. Sanhedrin 32b says (in a discussion of court procedure) “Kol mi she-yodeia lo zechut, yavo vilameid alav” — “Whoever has exonerating evidence for him, come and teach it”.
Heh, I had checked the tractate, but was at a loss as to how she might have considered it relevant to her argument.