RELIGION

and its employees
Wish Everyone
A Healthy
And Most Joyous

NEW YEAR

With fervent prayers for
peace and friendship
among all mankind

Appro-s.inlaely, ten -years ago, it was unfortu
nately necessary, to find a nursing facility- for
NC,E.
mother.
my
IT WAS A V E,11Ni DEPOSSING EVERIEit
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Rex Lani CO develop 'and build a
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\x/INDVAtItE IS LOCATED
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MINGION R
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BETWE.,EN
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Drop in or call 6.61- 1100 for an appointrnent.

Strong Media Bias
Against Orthodox Jews

MARVIN SCHICK

Special to the Jewish News

W

e do not need opin-
ion polls to know
that, overwhelm-
ngly, American Jews do not
side with the Orthodox in the
religious wars which beset
Israel.
Overwhelmingly, American
Jews aren't Orthodox — or,
for that matter, religious in
any meaningful sense — and
their innate rejection of the
Orthodox position is rein-
forced and intensified by
what most of us read about
Israeli affairs. Many of us are
skeptical, if not angry, about
how the media reports on
Arab-Israeli relations, with
charges 'of bias now being
common. We manage to ac-
cept, however, as gospel truth
what the same journalists
feed us about religious issues.
It apparently doesn't cross
many minds that a Washing-
ton Post or New York Times
reporter who has predisposi-
tions regarding treatment of
Palestinians, might also be
prejudiced on religion.
In our publications, there is
a torrent of anti-Orthodox
reportage and analysis. By a
hundred-fold, at least, attacks
against the Orthodox predom-
inate in our media against
defenses of the Orthodox posi-
tion. The Jerusalem Post
leads the charge in its daily
and weekly editions, with a
drumbeat of savage criticism
of Orthodoxy which demon-
strates that whatever else is
on-the minds of those respon-
sible for that newspaper, they
have serious hang-ups about
the religion which we call
Judaism and which provides
the only justification we have
for a Jewish state.
Media bias against relig-
ious Jews is reflected in the
coinage of the term "ultra-
Orthodox," which is intend-
ed — quite successfully, in
fact — to depict in a repellent
fashion those who occupy the
mainstream of Orthodoxy.
For the sake of symmetry,
and also because it is more ac-
curate, those who rail con-
stantly against religion in
Israel should be identified as
"ultra-secularist."
There is a myth about the
secularists, according to
which they are under con-
stant attack from the forces of
dark age Orthodoxy. Like
most myths, its frequent

Marvin Schick, a political scientist
and legal activist in New York, is a
regular contributor to these pages.

100

FRIDAY, SEPT. 25, 1987

repetition enhances its ac-
ceptability. It would be a good
thing for those who are end-
lessly attacking the Orthodox
to hold their fire for a while
as they survey the religious
battlefield and see how one-
sided the onslaught has been.
Within the Orthodox camp,
persons who are regarded as
being moderates have been
alarmed by the ferocity of the
attacks against religious
Jews.
There is a second myth,
which goes to the heart of the
conflict between the
secularists and Orthodox. It is
that the ultras relentlessly
seek to expand their control
over the lives of non-
observant Jews through addi-
tional legislation which im-

Contrary to what
most of us believe,
the Orthodox
struggle is not to
change the status
quo but to
maintain it.

poses religious or halachic
standards on all Israelis. The
Orthodox, it is believed, are
not satisfied with the accom-
modations to religious law
which have 'already been
made and which limit the
freedom of those who aren't
religious. They want to
establish a theocratic state,
much the way that Khomeini
has turned Iran into a
Moslem state.
Admittedly, the Orthodox
have contributed handsomely
to this perception by relying
too heavily on the political
process. They have fought bat-
tles which they could not win
and which probably should
not have been fought in any
case. I share the opinion of
Rabbi Louis Bernstein of the
Religious Zionists of America
that the recent efforts to
amend the Law of Return
were ill-advised, not only
because they were doomed to
failure but, more important-
ly, because the Knesset is a
civil, not a religious, body and
it is not the forum for de-
ciding the question of "who is
a Jew?"
But the Orthodox have a
case, which is where the sec-
ond myth comes into the pic
ture. Contrary to what we are
being told and what most of
us believe, their struggle is
not to change the status quo
but to maintain it. They seek
to keep the commitments