Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lanl.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!philabs!cmcl2!lanl!wkp From: wkp@lanl.ARPA Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: Human rights and Judaism: A hope for 5746. Message-ID: <31430@lanl.ARPA> Date: Fri, 4-Oct-85 08:49:08 EDT Article-I.D.: lanl.31430 Posted: Fri Oct 4 08:49:08 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 06:24:26 EDT References: <31087@lanl.ARPA> <97@unc.unc.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory Lines: 33 In article <97@unc.unc.UUCP> fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) writes: >If the Orthodox rabbis in South Africa publicly express their disapproval >of apartheid, what will this accomplish? In the words of Rabbi Isaacson: "As Jews we should have known better. We should have instincively recoiled from perpetrating on others the injustices that we, more any other people, have suffered from." >These rabbis have no influence on the non-Jewish community there. >Most rabbis have a hard enough time getting their own congregations to >listen. I believe their role should be to try to prevent South African >Jews from absorbing the racist mentality of their fellow citizens. This viewpoint seems a little provincial, and not worthy of an "am segula" [chosen people]. Recently, another orthodox rabbi (R. Barry Marcus of the Northern Suburbs Hebrew Congregation in South Africa) has called publicly for "a new spirit of brotherhood." The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has for the first time criticized the government's apartheid policies. >But when Rev Ben Isaacson did speak out, why did the other Rabbis "ostracize" >him (assuming your information is correct)? Were they afraid of a white, >anti-Jewish backlash, or what? For those of you who don't read Hebrew, an account of this appears in the September 18th Israel edition of the Jerusalem Post, p. 2. It is not uncommon for outspoken rabbis to be ostracized from their peers because of social and religious disagreements. [B'karov etzl'cha, Meir Kahane!] -- bill peter ihnp4!lanl!wkp