Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site eisx.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!spuxll!eisx!sms From: sms@eisx.UUCP (Samuel Saal) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: RE: Re: Heat and light over a menorah Message-ID: <834@eisx.UUCP> Date: Mon, 17-Dec-84 15:28:54 EST Article-I.D.: eisx.834 Posted: Mon Dec 17 15:28:54 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 18-Dec-84 07:01:50 EST Organization: AT&T Info. Sys. Labs, South Plainfield NJ Lines: 71 > > The following is the major part of an article which appeared in > the S.F. Chronicle and which I am posting for the most part without > any comment. > > The article concerns the efforts of a Lubavitcher Rabbi (Eli Cohen) to > put a giant menorah near the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge. > The article was written by a non-Jew, Warren Hinkle. > > *************************************************************** > > Comments? > > bill peter Last year I joined a Bnai Brith Singles group in my area. I had believed that the pluralism which had existed in the Hillel in the school I went to would exist in other BB groups. Pluralism has its pros and cons. It is good because it allows *all* Jews to identify with Judaism without any guilt even if they did not practice their Judaism. This allows at least a connection with other Jews. From that connection further education may occur leading to bringing these less committed Jews closer to Judaism. If you don't come to class, you can't learn and pluralism would seem to bring people to the classroom. The negative aspect is that pluralism leads to at least grudging acceptence of groups at the farthest fringes of Judaism and legitimizes some groups which could be harmful to Judism as a whole. The most extreme case I've seen was a fundamentalist Christian who claimed that since she followed "all" of Judaism's laws (and then some) she should be considered a Jewess. In this example I see an entry for some cults such as the Jews for Jesus. Fortunately, thisdid not occur in the case I mentioned. The majority of my experiences were positive and tended towards the first case. The point of this lengthy introduction is that I expected BB to maintain this policy beyond "the college experience". In fact, they do not. I have been on their mailing list for the last year or so and I have found that their "pluralism" extends from "center" to "left" only. There does not appear to be any room for the Orthodox view and only very little for any type of traditional view. To be sure, they pay lip service to Jewish Education, but it is obvious from the discussions of christmas on the net that those Jewish children who have the most jealousy of their peers' holidays are those who don't have the strong Jewish educational backgrounds. They see their peers (usually in public school) participating in their celebrations. This forces their parents to elevate the level of Chanukah from a minor (read: post Biblical) holiday to a major one (read: as if of Biblical origin). In the various BB publications I've read I've seen a lot of cultural Judaism Zionism and political activity within the US However, the most positive RELIGIOUS (read practice) expression was to wish everyone a happy new year in the Sept/Oct issues and to print a Menorah on the cover of the Dec issue of the national magazine. This is the priority of holidays which the Christians see in the Jewish calender (actually, since I am not a Christian I don't know that it is not reversed :-)). They know of very few other holidays in the Jewish calendar. With all of this, I am not surprised that BB lead in the fight *agaionst* the Menorah in San Francisco. If they can't exhibit a positive view of the mitzvot in their own (internal) publications, I would not expect them to support the public display of a mitzvah. Sam Saal ..!ihnp4!eisx!sms The opinions expressed in this essay have very little bearing on reality and may be nothing more than a good way of blowing off steam for the author.