LET THAT BE A LESSON

I do not know if Irv Rubin and his Jewish Defense League henchmen are innocent or guilty of the alleged plot to bomb a mosque and the office of an Arab-American congressman. Let the American system of justice treat them fairly, and let justice prevail, period.

I do know that, if the allegations are true, their plot was abhorrent and well outside the purview of Torah teaching and the Rabbinic tradition, at least as I have come to know it. No matter what tortured sophistry the JDL folks employ to create a veneer of Torah-justification for their treachery, they can only hide so long from the scrutiny of a heritage that demands that Jews be rachamanim bnai rachamanim – merciful decedents of merciful ancestors – and heirs to a legacy “whose ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.”

Sorry. Woe unto us if we feel obliged to enter into a debate as to the rectitude of Jews blowing up mosques in the name of Judaism. The only issue subject to further discussion is how vocal the Jews of America should be in denouncing the alleged plot and its perpetrators and in disassociating the cherished teachings of Judaism from terrorist activities.

My answer: The denunciation and disassociation must be swift, loud, and unequivocal. If guilty, Irv Rubin, et al, blaspheme Judaism, period. Twisting Torah and Talmud to justify terrorism is heresy, period. Jews who trample on the ways of pleasantness and peace may be Jews by birth, but they have lost their claim to the covenant of Jewish peoplehood, period.

I know, I know. The allegation will issue forth that folks of my ilk have only one desire: to make nice-nice to the gentile neighbors in the vain delusion that they will see us as “nice Jews,” who obligingly roll over and play dead to win social approval – like the Old World mah yofis yid, who obligingly danced on demand to entertain the drunken goyim.

Believe that if you wish. I believe that the issue at stake is whether Jews are prepared – in the tradition of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, et al – to accept the mantle of moral exemplar, by promptly and vocally denouncing evil, no matter which popularity race it wins or loses.

Jews and many Christians rightfully chafed when, in the aftermath of September 11, most Imams and Mullahs right here in the US were neither swift nor definitive in their condemnation of the evils perpetrated in the name of Allah. Men (and women) charged with moral leadership did not, by and large, lead morally. And we all, not merely Muslims, have suffered for it.

Jews are now faced with the same moral imperative. The magnitude of the alleged crime is inconsequential. To torch a mosque or an office bespeaks an evil spirit that would stop at little else. We either denounce it, or our silence will be regarded as approval, or at least indifference. We have an incredible opportunity to enlighten the world as to how a people that claims divine guidance – Jew, Christian, Muslim – must act on the moral imperative that is implicit therein. Jews have a responsibility to disassociate Judaism from terrorism, not for the sake of winning favor with the gentiles, but to send the world an example of the right way to cut off the lifeline to those who plot horror in the name of God.

The gentiles who understand already understand. The gentiles who do not understand will never understand. In the end, the only legitimate question is, “Do we understand?”