Editor's Notebook

Countering A Low
Jewish Self-Image

In Search Of
The Real Weiss

RABBI ARNIE SLEUTELBERG SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

GARY ROSENBLATT EDITOR

Horror story
predictions
abound concern-
ing the future of
the American
Jewish commu-
nity. Demogra-
phers with their
computer driven
numbers calculate an expo-
nentially increasing drop-out
of committed Jews. How can
this be? Why is this so? Are
these predictions true?
Like all predictions, by de-
finition, they must be calcu-
lated based on current and
past information patterns.
They cannot factor in un-
known future developments.
In fact, demographers in this
case will tell you that they
hope they are wrong. They
hope that something signifi-
cant will change so that the
tide will turn and Jews will
decide to recommit them-
selves. Their predictions are
warnings. They say: if you
continue along your present
course, these predictions will
hold true. Implicit, of course,
is that our numbers might be-
gin to increase once again if
there is some significant peo-
ple-wide change of attitude in
support of Jewish thinking,

The chancel-
lor of the Jew-
ish Theologi-
cal Seminary
recently called
Rabbi Avi
Weiss "the Al
Sharpton of
the Jewish
community." And the Vil-
lage Voice suggested that
New Yorkers may soon be
referring to the Rev. Sharp-
ton, the minister whose spe-
cialty is racial politics, as
"the black Avi Weiss."
Who is this Avi Weiss,
the Orthodox rabbi and ac-
tivist written about so often
in the New York daily press
in its coverage of the Crown
Heights tragedy and trau-
ma? Is he, as he claims, the
bold and sincere voice of a
fearful and angry Jewish
community, speaking out
against Mayor David Dink-
ins for allegedly failing to
protect Jewish blood? Or is
he a demagogue, as the
mayor has charged, dan-
gerously raising black-Jew-
ish tensions to the burning
point?
Some Jewish leaders in
New York, puzzled and an-
gered by Rabbi Weiss's con-
frontational behavior,
describe him in Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde terms, as the
beloved and soft-spoken
spiritual leader of a vibrant
Orthodox congregation in
the affluent Riverdale sec-
tion of the . Bronx, New
York, and also as an out-
spoken activist who has led
protests, and often been ar-
rested, at the scene of vir-
tually every Jewish
flashpoint in the last two
decades, from Soviet em-
bassies around the world to
Bitburg, Germany, from
Jonathan Pollard's cell in
Marion, Ill., to Pat
Buchanan's campaign trail,
from the convent at
Auschwitz to the tense
streets of Crown Heights.
It is the Crown Heights
case that prompted my call
to Rabbi Weiss who, in an
interview, asserted that
there is no inner conflict for
him between the peace-lov-
ing rabbi and the shouting
activist.
"For me, my political
protest on behalf of Am Yis-
roel , the Jewish people, is
a deeply religious state-
ment in the spirit of Ray
Kook," he said, referring to
Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak
Kook, the late chief rabbi of
Palestine who stressed the
centrality of Jewish na-
tionalism.
Rabbi Weiss has become

creation of a new and innov-
ative educational system for
my congregation. I consult-
ed our sources including the
V'ahavta blessing in which we
are commanded to teach our
children diligently in the

11111111111=111111111=11

■ 1111111=11111

•

ways of Jewish living. I real-
ized that our parents can't
teach what they don't know.
In this country, we Jews have
evolved to the point where
many of our parents no longer
know how to think Jewishly
or act Jewishly, let alone
teach Jewishly. Somehow we
lost an entire generation of

A need for experientially fun education.

living and doing.
Many Jews have a low Jew-
ish self image, possibly due to
a woefully inadequate level of
ewish knowledge coupled
with integrated living in a
gentile society with little re-
inforcement for Jewish living.
We have lost touch with the
beauty, meaningfulness and
ife's fulfillment possible
rough living Jewishly.
All of this became clearer
to me while pondering the

Jews whose education was so
sorely lacking that their abil-
ity to transmit Jewish values
and Jewish living to the next
generation is severely im-
paired. We have an entire
generation of American Jews
whose education remains
whatever they remember of a
13-year-old's uninspired un-
derstanding.
The V'ahavta blessing con-
tinues commanding that we

SELF IMAGE page 10

a ubiquitous figure at
protest rallies on behalf of
Jewish causes over the last
two decades, often leading
groups of students (he
teaches at Stern. College,
the women's branch of
Yeshiva University) and
wearing a tallit or concen-
tration camp pajamas, a
dramatic reminder of the
lessons of the Holocaust. He
says that his current activ-
ity on Crown Heights is no
different than that of past
protests, but the negative
reaction he is receiving
from some Jewish New
Yorkers is because this con-
troversy is taking place "in
their own back yard.
"They were safe when I
was at the convent in
Auschwitz," where he was
beaten and ridiculed, "but
with this taking place in
New York, they feel more
vulnerable."
And that's his point. He

says Jewish New Yorkers
should be treated with the
same respect and protection
as other ethnic or minority
groups and that they are
not. But he believes that
Jews are afraid to speak
out. So he has taken it upon
himself to try to articulate
those fears and concerns in
what he calls a peaceful, le-
gitimate form of protest in
the style of Rev. Martin
Luther King, making use of
graphic imagery and pas-
sionate language rather
than espousing violence.
Rabbi Weiss says that
politics, too, can become an
act of holiness and that his
point is to demand of the
mayor equal sensitivity to
Jewish concerns. The rabbi
accuses the mayor of a dou-
ble standard, of distin-
guishing "between
anti-black racist violence
and anti-Jewish racist vio-
lence."
Rabbi Weiss says he is
pained by the mayor's at-

tempt to make of him a
"scapegoat for the Crown
Heights community" and to
divide New York Jewry be-
tween "the Park Avenue
Jews and amcha," the He-
brew word for peoplehood
which is also the name of
Rabbi Weiss's activist or-
ganization.
The rabbi emphasizes
that he has no political am-
bitions and that his mission
is motivated by love of Jews
rather than personal ag-
grandizement. He says he
has never endorsed a polit-
ical candidate (he voted for
Mayor Dinkins), and has
never called the mayor a
racist or anti-Semite. He
blames the media for dis-
torting and exaggerating
his position through quick
sound-bites and superficial
coverage.
"I never said the mayor
was responsible for the
murder of Yankele Rosen-
baum," asserts Rabbi
Weiss, referring to the 29-
year-old Australian Chasid
who was killed during the
Crown Heights riots of Au-
gust 1991. But he does hold
the mayor responsible for
either instructing the police
to "hold back" during the 72
hours of the riots, which the
rabbi maintains was a
"pogrom," or for not fmding
out who issued those orders
and taking appropriate ac-
tion. "Sitting back, doing
nothing, renders him cul-
pable," he says of the may-
or. "Ultimately he is the one
who is responsible." And he
has written that "the may-
or's double standard con-
tributed to Yankele's
death."
A number of establish-
ment Jewish leaders have
criticized Rabbi Weiss for
his high-profile role in this
and other controversies.
Several suggest that his
motivation is sincere but
that his media-focused ef-
forts have proven counter-
productive. They say his
rhetoric is too personal and
emotional, that he grand-
stands rather than heals.
"Avi leads with his heart,
not his head," said one offi-
cial.
Rabbi Weiss admits that
this charge was true on at
least one occasion. He says
he now regrets his passion-
ate defense of the Jewish
West Bank settlers in Israel
who were jailed some years
ago for planning and carry-
ing out several bomb at-
tacks, one of which resulted
in an Arab mayor losing his

THE REAL WEISS page 10

