Who speaks for Judaism? In the American press, it’s often a non-Orthodox Jew whose values are rooted in 21st-century liberalism rather than Torah. Thus, an uninformed reader of the news would be excused for thinking that Judaism, for example, celebrates gay marriage, transgender rights, and abortion on demand.
A new group, the Coalition for Jewish Values, hopes to change this state of affairs. Headed by seven Orthodox rabbis – Dov Fischer, Avrohom Gordimer, Pesach Lerner, Yaakov Menken, Steven Pruzansky, Yoel Schoenfeld, and Aryeh Spero – the group aims to counter distortions of Judaism by serving as a Torah-true voice in the public square.
The group’s director, Rabbi Yaakov Menken, is a co-founder and editor of cross-currents.com and is the founding director of Project Genesis. He was educated in, among other places, Princeton University, Ohr Somayach, and the Mirrer Yeshiva.
The Jewish Press: Your organization aims to represent Torah values to the public, but don’t organizations like the OU and Agudath Israel already do that?
Rabbi Menken: To a certain extent they do. The OU, for example, has an Advocacy Center, but it focuses mainly on issues that directly affect the Jewish community. It restricts itself in this manner because it doesn’t wish to offend politicians who don’t share our values but who may, for example, be willing to vote in favor of school funding. So we perceived a void that needed to be filled.
Why do you think it’s important for a frum organization to comment publicly on hot-button cultural issues?
We regard it as a chillul Hashem when liberal rabbis offer opinions in the media that clearly run contrary to the Torah. They’ll say, for example, “Judaism requires that we support those who are transgender.” That’s a chillul Hashem. And it alienates some of the people who support us the most. At a recent conference, the head of a major Christian pro-Israel organization said to me, “I can’t tell you how often people ask me, ‘Why are you devoting so much time to supporting the Jews and Israel when Jews oppose us on our core issues?’ ”
Your organization has released several statements in the last few months in support of the Trump administration. What would you say to someone who argued that conservative politics, not Torah, drives your positions?
Our recent op-eds would not surprise any Orthodox Jew. One of them, for example, defended Vice President Mike Pence who was being ridiculed for distancing himself from women other than his wife. It’s true that our positions in general fall in the category of what people would call “conservative,” but that’s because “conservative” is the name given to those who support traditional values. So it’s not that we’re being driven by politics. It’s that our religion puts us into a particular political camp.
Orthodox Jews comprise roughly 10 percent of American Jewry. Doesn’t that mean that liberal Jews will continue to represent “Jewish” values to the public, no matter how hard organizations like yours try to promote authentic Judaism?
First of all, Orthodox Jews outnumber Reform and Conservative Jews in terms of rabbis by a ratio of at least ten to one.
Second, frum Jews care about Jewish issues much more than others Jews since it’s that which constitutes our lives.
Third, there’s a huge population shift underway. Very sadly, outside the Orthodox community the intermarriage rate is approaching 70 percent and they are not replacing their numbers. They’re having fewer than two children per family while the frum community is having upwards of six – with a near zero intermarriage rate. So it’s clear that we’re on the cusp of a very dramatic demographic change, and I guess we’re riding the wave, so to speak.
Some people believe that Jews have a responsibility to be a light unto the nations and therefore take sides in America’s culture wars. Others maintain that Jews in galus have no business getting involved in cultural politics – that we should seek to protect the Jewish community but otherwise keep a low political profile. What’s the position of the Coalition for Jewish Values?
Since we are in a democracy, influencing policy means trying to influence the populace to recognize that we share common values. It should not only be Christians who are saying that biblical values are critical to the success of a modern civilized society. It is a chillul Hashem that there isn’t a Jewish voice doing that.
All the core values we now consider critical to a first-world civilization come out of the Torah: respect for human life, peace rather than warfare, justice under the law, the idea that even a king is not completely immune to prosecution for violating the law, universal education, the importance of having a family, social responsibility, charity, kindness to animals, etc.
The “modern” idea of having a balance of power existed in Jewish society 3,300 years ago. The king had to consult with the Sanhedrin and the urim v’tumim. And David Hamelech, for example, had a chavrusa who was called Mipiboshes, which literally means “From his mouth, embarrassment” because the goal of that chavrusa, says the Gemara, was to tell David Hamelech when he was wrong in halacha.
The state of American morality has been declining for decades now. Many thinkers, such as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, argue that an immoral civilization decaying from within cannot long survive. Looking to the future, are you optimistic or pessimistic about this country’s prospects?
I hope there will be a certain pushback, a recognition that perhaps we’ve crossed a bridge too far, and that we have to return to some core values. If we can contribute to that in a positive way, we will make a safer America for everyone since a more civilized society is a safer society.
Right now – and I don’t think anyone disputes this – we’re watching society become more coarse, less focused on values and more focused on “personal liberty” to do whatever unreasonable thing one might wish to do. It’s the “me” generation, a society that’s becoming very selfish.
That’s a problem for all Americans, and it’s certainly not good for Jews. These trends have led to the demonization of Israel and the flourishing of the anti-Semitic BDS movement on campus.
You believe the increase in anti-Semitism is related to America’s moral decline?
I definitely see them coming together. What is anti-Semitism about? Anti-Semitism is a pushback against the idea of Jewish morality and Jewish values spreading across the world. Hitler was very proud to say “I’m a barbarian.” He wanted Germans who could be imperious, ruthless, and cruel. Conscience is a Jewish blemish like circumcision, he said. Getting rid of Jews was part and parcel of his rejection of the Jewish values that are at the core of a first-world civilization.
Don’t some people claim these quotes from Hitler are fraudulent?
There are those who will question the authenticity of any Hitler quote unless he wrote it himself in Mein Kampf. But it’s not only in character for Hitler to have said these things, it’s also in line with how we’ve always understood anti-Semitism to operate. Anti-Semites don’t just hate Jews. They hate Judaism.
Your organization has existed now for a few months. Are media outlets starting to take notice?
“Starting” is the operative word. So far we’ve been quoted primarily in Orthodox journals, but that’s beginning to change. I’ll give you an example: The Faith and Freedom Coalition, one of the largest faith-based conservative organizations in the country, recently held a conference in Washington at which both President Trump and Vice President Pence spoke. On Friday morning, its lineup concluded with Charles Krauthammer, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kellyanne Conway, Ambassador Ron Dermer – and me. That tells you how important they feel our voice is.