I get at least five to 10 “friend requests” a day on social media from people identifying as Jewish who, on careful examination, are either proselytizing or are plain confused. Most of them aren’t Jewish but do their best to fake it for less-than-honest purposes.
Much more dangerous are non-Jews who claim to be Jewish to slander frum Jews to the media with biased stories that have no basis in reality. Without naming anyone, here are some of the activities of three such “Jews” that I have come across recently in media reports:
1) A “Jewish” man claimed he went to an Orthodox part of Brooklyn, entered a synagogue, and was “immediately attacked” for being black.
In fact, he entered a school (not a shul) with young children in attendance, he wasn’t wearing a yarmulke, and he refused to answer questions about why he was sneaking around children. He became hostile as soon as security asked him why he was there.
Several Jewish papers reported his story of “racism” as truth without questioning anyone else involved in the story.
2) A “convert” to Judaism spends her entire time on social media talking about how Jews treat her horribly because they don’t accept converts. Worse, she has spread rumors that Jews were heavily involved in the slave trade even though almost no reputable historian agrees with her.
She doesn’t mention that she “converted” online, that she doesn’t know anything about Judaism whatsoever, and that she still goes to church. Her bio on several websites doesn’t mention anything about her being Jewish, which she apparently only brings up when she engages with Jews. She has actually admitted that her conversion is extremely liberal and likely would be rejected by 99 percent of Jews.
3) Another “convert” to Judaism complains that she can’t get married because of xenophobia. She fails to mention that she has also claimed to convert to Islam in the past, has photos of herself in Islamic garb, and posts all over the Internet that Jews are “evil” and deserve to die.
She’s been removed from several shuls for obscene and obnoxious behavior, which has nothing to do with her status. Anyone with any sense would rightfully be scared of her. She is unstable, angry, and dangerous.
Amazingly, though, I’ve seen all three of these people in more than one Jewish publication speaking for the Jewish community. I’ve seen them all attack, with a Nazi-like hatred, the Jewish community as a whole.
That’s actually their entire shtick: Spreading libels about Jews while pretending to be Jewish. None of them has ever written anything nice about his or her Jewish experience, almost as if the defamation were planned.
I’m not dumb enough to think there isn’t some xenophobia and racism in our community. I’ve had more than a few people ask how I could be Jewish and Mexican – although these questions usually come from non-Orthodox Jews. (No one at my charedi yeshiva – Chaim Berlin – ever brought it up to me, and I actually learned with the rosh yeshiva’s son.)
But I ask that both Jewish and non-Jewish publications please verify the stories of people who make ridiculous claims about frum Jews as if they represent us or have anything to do with us. Make sure they have actual rabbis who converted them and that the degrees and experience they claim are real. Get an expert to speak to them to see if they have any real knowledge of the faith they claim to represent.
If they haven’t grown up in our community, spent extensive time with Orthodox Jews, and learned in yeshivas, and don’t actually practice our faith, they have no more right to speak for us than a Christian does.