Israel Matzav: America's modern Orthodox Jewish leadership afflicted with the poritz syndrome?

Friday, February 07, 2014

America's modern Orthodox Jewish leadership afflicted with the poritz syndrome?

Is America's modern Orthodox Jewish leadership infected by the poritz syndrome?

Please recall what the poritz syndrome is:

Poritz (in Yiddish )was the ruler back in old eastern Europe who could make or break the lives of the Jews living in his shmate kingdom.

The Jews developed a behavior that was all about pleasing the Poritz.

They did not know it but they were dhimmis just like their brothers in the Arab countries.

Sadly , this behavior was not fool proof and when the need for money or property or blood came up - the Jews got their pogrom.

The CZAR USED TO SEND THE KASAKS to burn houses and rape Jewish women so that their terrible poverty and anger over it will not make them do this to him.

Some Jews seem to suffer from the Poritz syndrome even though they really should not.

There have been some voices in Israel this week - like the Dry Bones cartoon above - that hint at ulterior motives of US Secretary of State John FN Kerry in pursuing a 'two-state solution' between Israel and the 'Palestinians.'

Even Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League - about as mainstream as you can get among the American secular Jewish leadership, but someone who sees anti-Semitism in every corner - blasted Kerry earlier this week.

Describing the potential for expanded boycotts of Israel makes it more, not less, likely that the talks will not succeed; makes it more, not less, likely that Israel will be blamed if the talks fail; and more, not less, likely that boycotts will ensue. Your comments, irrespective of your intentions, will inevitably be seen by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists as an incentive not to reach an agreement; as an indicator that if things fall apart, Israel will be blamed; and as legitimizing boycott activity.

...

But the core of the conflict was and remains Palestinian unwillingness to accept Israel's legitimacy and permanence as a Jewish state. That is why the Palestinians rejected the 1947 partition, that is why they rejected recognizing Israel after the 1967 war, and that is why Israeli offers at Camp David in 2000 and Annapolis in 2008 were rejected or allowed to go unanswered. It is Palestinians who must hear the message that not only has their rejectionism been the major obstacle to peace, but it has also been the main source of their suffering and misery over the years. It is time for them to make the qualitative leap toward peace and acceptance of the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

On Thursday, a group of Israeli rabbis calling themselves the Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel, published a letter that accused Kerry of declaring war against God.

“Your incessant efforts to expropriate integral parts of our Holy Land and hand them over to Abbas’s terrorist gang, amount to a declaration of war against the Creator and Ruler of the universe! For G-d awarded the entire Land of Israel to our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in order that they bequeath it, as an everlasting inheritance, to their descendants, the Jewish people, until the end of all time,” the Rabbis wrote.

“If you continue on this destructive path, you will ensure your everlasting disgrace in Jewish history for bringing calamity upon the Jewish people,” the letter continued, invoking the specter “heavenly punishment for everyone involved.”

On Thursday afternoon, the Rabbinical Council of America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, the two most prominent voices of modern Orthodox Jewry in the United States, blasted the aforementioned committee.

In a joint release, the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America, which together represent a large plurality of modern orthodox Jews in the United States, repudiated the nationalist Rabbis’ words, which they defined as “extreme and offensive rhetoric.”

The Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel seemed to “arrogate to themselves unusual insight into the desires of the Almighty,” the American Jewish groups noted mockingly.

While world Jewry and especially those living in Israel have “ serious concerns” regarding Kerry’s proposals, “such concerns must only be expressed with civility and on the substance of the issues, not degenerating into personal venom and threats,” the organizations asserted.

While OU and RCA have aired their own objections with the Obama administration, they stated, “we have found no reason to question their intentions in pursuing this effort.”

"The letter of the Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel may represent the views of its signators; it does not represent ours."

I'm not a big fan of people deciding for themselves that they know God's desires. Still, I have to wonder: Why did the OU and the RCA get involved? Are they afraid of what the Obama administration might do to the American (Orthodox) Jewish community if they remain silent? Is this another manifestation of the poritz syndrome?

Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, American Jewish leadership, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, Modern Orthodox, Orthodox Jews, poritz syndrome