Tolerance Can Only Go So Far

Chasdim protesting government guidelines last year (Times Union)

I try. I really do try to be tolerant of fellow Jews whose religious views do not match my own. Most of the time I succeed. But there are lines that I cannot in good conscience cross. Both on the right and the left. 

I cannot be tolerant of fellow Jews whose views are so extreme that they reject centuries long traditions claiming they are against Halacha. Traditions that have been well accepted by mainstream religious leaders both in the past and currently. Even if not as a first choice, they are nonetheless accepted as legitimate. And in some cases - like adherents of  TIDE and TuM they are accepted as a first choice! That was my reaction to the following headline and text (some of which is excerpted beneath the headline) from the Times Union: 

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis decide to sue New York over having to teach English, science 

Rabbis from ultra-Orthodox private schools said they are planning to sue the state Education Department over regulations about what they teach, they decided at a meeting Sunday... 

…the rabbis said no state inspectors will be allowed into any of the yeshivas.

“We are not going to let the government into our school system,” Klein said. “The curriculum they want to implement in our schools is against God, against our faith and against Torah.” 

I don't think they are going to get very far with that lawsuit. The court has already ruled that the state has the right to set up educational guidelines in all schools, public, private, and parochial. But what really rankles me is their suggestion that teaching the English language is against the Torah. That is a lie and they know it. 

That they have objections to things like teaching sex education or the theory of evolution might be arguable. But English? It is beyond Chutzpah to include that as something that is against God, against our faith and against Torah.

It may be against their Hashkafa (mistakenly in my view) but it is absolutely not against the Torah. To characterize it that way is not only a Chilul HaShem but a public defamation of the vast majority of Orthodox Jewish day schools and high schools that teach it!

Pronouncements like this can have very negative repercussions for Yeshivos. Even for those that fully and faithfully comply. Who is to say that there won’t be extra scrutiny by state education officials on those schools on the basis of what these extremist Chasidim are saying? The last thing any school that has faithfully executed the state mandates is to be placed under a state microscope. I therefore strenuously protest what these rabbis are doing for their own narrow purposes.

If there is anything good coming out of this it is that they have decided to no longer take any form of mandated government funding for things like lunch programs: 

(Their rabbinic leaders) directed their schools to stop accepting public funding for school lunches, after-school care and other subsidies. Instead, they said, they will organize community kitchens to provide lunches. 

At least they will no longer be accused of accepting money under false pretenses. The idea that the government must subsidize things like that in private and parochial schools means that they must qualify as schools that follow state educational guidelines. Since they will not be doing that, they should not be taking that financial aid. 

If they want to continue to be mired in ignorance of a basic education including the English language that is their right. But in no way should they ever be held up as role models for the Jewish people - no matter how ‘Frum’ they look. The sad part about that is that their Chasidim do not deserve such an ignominious fate. They deserve a lot better than what their leaders are giving them. 

End of rant.