You told the OU’s Jewish Action magazine last month that the OU could accomplish much more if it had additional funds. What did you have in mind when you said that?
I think every single one of our programs is resource constrained. NCSY, for example, will send 1,100 teens to Israel this summer. About 500 of them are teens from public schools, all across the country. We provide substantial scholarship assistance to enable those teens to get to Israel and to participate, many of them for the very first time in their lives, in meaningful opportunities to learn Torah.
But there is a limit to the assistance we can provide. If we had greater resources, we would double or triple or quadruple the number of teens we send. That’s true in almost every aspect of our programming.
Is there any prospect of getting additional funds?
Absolutely. And I see that as a large part of my job.
Do you basically mean fundraising? Or something else?
It’s mostly in the area of fundraising. We are blessed in that we use the revenues we derive from our Kashruth Division to fund a wide variety of enormously important programs, but it doesn’t begin to pay the totality of the programs we run.
Concerning some of these programs: The OU runs a Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC). What is its purpose? Aren’t Chabad and Hillel already on campus?
First, I should point out that every campus we go to – and this fall we’ll be on 21 campuses across the United States and Canada – we go to at the invitation of, and in partnership with, the campus Hillel.
The other major difference is that the JLIC program is designed for Orthodox students on campus. While there is some measure of outreach to others, the emphasis is providing educational opportunity and infrastructure to Orthodox students on campus – a structure that they really wouldn’t have were it not for our couples.
As an organization that lobbies in Albany and Washington, the OU undoubtedly has to take a position on such hot-button issues as gay marriage, abortion, etc. Some Orthodox Jews believe that we have a duty to be active in the culture wars, acting as an ohr la’goyim byfighting for morality in this country. Others maintain we should only concern ourselves with the needs of the Orthodox Jewish community and otherwise mind our own business. What is the OU’s position?
We are not here to impose legislatively our Torah obligations on others. What we do seek to accomplish is to try to prevent legislation or regulation that would make it difficult or impossible for the frum community to be able to live in a manner consistent with our values. So our posture has been primarily defensive.
You talk of imposing our values on others. But isn’t all moral legislation an imposition? Aren’t public indecency laws an imposition by one group on another?
There clearly are some values that have been legislated that are universal in nature. But many others aren’t.
But opposition to homosexuality was pretty much universal in the West until very recently.
I think there’s a difference between communicating our Torah values – making clear where we stand – and seeking to impose those values on others. It’s a difficult balance. We don’t oppose legislation that provides civil rights. At the same time, we are always vigilant to try to preserve our own right to live the way we believe is appropriate.
You told Jewish Action that your in-laws and Rabbi Joseph Grunblatt of the Queens Jewish Center were significant influences on your life. How so?