The horror in the news of a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis and one more recently in Philadelphia having many tombstones uprooted, decimated and totally destroyed is a reminder that anti-Semitism is alive and well in the United States. Fear of going to a local JCC because of bomb threats having been called in to them is definitely on the minds of many. Do we allow our children to attend well-known publicized programs or are we reticent because of the almost weekly incidents that have been occurring? All of these incidents and news items are indeed troubling. However, they are not as mind boggling to us as an incident that took place at a restaurant that we patronized last week in Boca Raton.
As many know, the seating arrangements in kosher restaurants make it easy in many cases to hear the conversations of those sitting nearby. Without even making an effort to hear what people are saying you are almost forced to hear their conversations due to the close proximity of the tables. In some cases the loudness almost takes over the discussion you may privately be having at your own table.
Adjacent to our table were two couples dining together. At least one of the males in the group must have been a rabbi known to many who entered the restaurant. He was definitely not local and we are almost positive that he was from somewhere in Brooklyn (it doesn’t really matter). All of a sudden we heard a comment that definitely made us put down our forks. “What’s the name of that rabbi in Manhattan?” he questioned the others at the table. “Oh yes, Avi Weiss. I’d like to take him and put him in a bathroom and throw away the key so that he could never get out.” We sat there enraged. Nina in particular wanted so badly to scream at this man. You are talking about someone who we know personally and, irregardless, you are showing total disrespect to another human being. How dare you speak of him or anyone that way?
Of course the entire discussion that followed was predominantly about the horror of women becoming involved in leadership roles in Yiddishkeit. However, that wasn’t enough. The conversation then turned to the topic of homosexuality and the abomination that it is. It took a lot to keep Nina from standing and tossing their table on the floor.
How can anyone, especially someone who considers himself a religious Jew, defame Judaism and even more importantly, defame God, who is merciful and gracious and caring and loving. How can anyone insult someone who is honestly trying to serve God? We can certainly disagree with approaches that we consider wrong or misguided, or even harmful, but do it respectfully! That is perhaps the greatest characteristic of Chabad. The Rebbe, Zecher Tzaddik Livracha, modeled and called on all his followers and, indeed, on all mankind, to be caring of all—especially Jews who have long ago rejected Judaism, or intermarried or who have intermingled with non-Jews to the point that his shluchim employ everything they can do to find a Jew that no one even knows is (or was) Jewish. That is what a real Jew is and does.
If anyone asked us, I would say that this type of individual, a so-called rabbi who was sitting next to us in a Boca Raton restaurant, was committing a far greater crime than the individuals who are vandalizing cemeteries. What ever happened to kol yisroel avreyim zeh b’zeh? Who is actually the perpetrator of a greater crime? If the Jews in today’s world and unfortunately the Jews in the so-called yeshivish and charedi world cannot get their acts together in understanding that we are all one people, we will continue to experience more anti-Semitism within ourselves than outside of our own.
Rabbi Mordechai and Nina Glick joined the Teaneck/Bergenfield communities after living in Montreal for the larger part of their married life. Rabbi Dr. Glick was the Rav of Congregation Ahavat Yisroel, had a private practice as a clinical psychologist and taught psychology at Champlain College. Nina coordinated all Yachad activities in Montreal for more than 15 years and was instrumental in the establishment of Maison Shalom, a group home for young adults with special needs. The Glicks together participated in marriage retreats sponsored by the OU throughout the USA for many years.
By Rabbi Mordechai and Nina Glick
