Community Views Publisher's Notebook The Herd Mentality And Meaningful Judaism We've Gone Overboard With Jonathan Pollard VICTORIA E. GREEN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS ARTHUR M. HORWITZ PUBLISHER F pardon, he, too, is considered a closet anti-Semite and we are instructed not to vote for his re- election. Talk about single-issue humanitarian politics. Enough already. grounds. That American Jewry's biggest defender of the downtrodden challenge today is assimilation and dispos- — that means acceptance. From sessed, Alan the president's Cabinet to the Dershowitz, calls it a miscar- U.S. Supreme Court, from the riage of justice. A newspaper in halls of Congress to the presi- Canada carries a box on its front dents' offices at many of the page, counting the number of weeks this political prisoner has been incarcerated. De- fense groups clog the fax lines with the lat- est in their efforts to secure a pardon. Another Nelson Mandela? A modern- day Nathan Hale? No, it's Jonathan Jay Pol- lard, the poster boy for American Jews who feel there is an anti- Semite lurking in every shadow. Even though Mr. Pollard swiped 1,100 — that's right, 1,100 — classi- fied documents while an analyst with U.S. Naval Intelligence, and even though he accepted money and gifts for this informa- Jonathan Pollard: Hero or villain? tion (so much for act- ing out of blind love and devotion to Israel), he re- world's leading academic insti- mains a "political prisoner of tutions, Jews have earned posi- Zion," as his father called him tions of importance based on in a 1987 interview with The their individual merits. And let's not forget that the former chief Jewish News. And that appreciative care- of naval operations, Jeremy Bo- taker of Zion, Prime Minister orda, was a Jew. If you believe there is an anti- Yitzhak Shamir, said in 1987 that the Pollard family's Semite wherever you look, then predicament "may be a human- consider giving your time, mon- itarian problem or a moral prob- ey and attention to the Anti- lem, but it is not a problem with Defamation League. If you care which the State of Israel has to deeply about America's rela- tionship with Israel, then roll up concern itself" your sleeves and support AIPAC. And if you worry about whether your grandchildren will be Jewish, then invest in Jew- ish education at home and at our synagogues, day schools and other communal institutions. Jonathan Pollard is no hero. He is no role model. He is no For his actions, Mr. Pollard "prisoner of Zion." He commit- is serving a life sentence, the ted espionage. He got caught. same fate as those other Amer- He took money. He's serving the ican Navy "superheroes," Jerry maximum sentence allowed. Whitworth and John Walker. Nothing more, nothing less. But because Mr. Pollard was Same sentence as John Walk- spying for the benefit of Israel, er. Mr. Pollard's family and and former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger was out to friends have every right to try get him, the severity of his sen- and secure leniency. But please, tence must be anti-Semitic. And the American Jewish commu- when President Clinton, ar- nity has more important issues guably the best friend Israel — and rallying points for justice ever had in the White House, and equality — than Jonathan declines to grant Mr. Pollard a Jay Pollard. ❑ or the past few years, I've been spending New Year's Eve in New York City, vis- iting my friend Nina. While we singlehandedly bol- stered the local economy, we talked, as we do every year at New Year's, about what's im- portant in our lives. As usual, Judaism was a big topic of discussion. Both of us were brought up in the Re- form tradition, and both of us like to read and learn about Judaism and Jewish history. The focus of our conversation was on a change we have noticed in Judaism over the past few years. Within our respective congre- gations, mine Reform and Nina's Conservative, it is apparent that the observance of Judaism has tak- en on a more emo- tional dimension. For example, at the end of Nina's Shabbat services, they sing "Kol HaNeshema," put their arms around each other and sway back and forth, which led to our coining the term "group-hug Judaism." My own congre- gation has added a "healing prayer" to High Holy Day and other services which, until re- cently, involved the afflicted going to the bimah to receive the bless- ings of the congregation. Somehow, this smacks of tel- evangelism to me, and it renders me mightily uncomfortable. The rabbi now permits people to re- main in their seats for the bless- ing, but I still find the whole thing very far outside my tradi- tion. We wondered how this trend fits into the grand scheme of Jewish history. Nina pointed out that the historic appeal of the Chasidic movement was that, in many cases, Orthodox Judaism had become dry and formalistic. The charisma of Chasidic lead- ers put drama, emotion and heart into the forms of obser- vance people already knew. There seems to be a renaissance in Chasidic-like observances, with the present efforts to re- store emotional and ritual ob- servance and thus make Judaism more involving. Since both Nina and I are Victoria E. Green is a Bloomfield Hills attorney on staff at the Michigan Internet Communication Association. lawyers, maybe it's inevitable most significant and perhaps that our method of becoming most relevant to the partici- more involved in our religion has pants. As a participant, I question focused more on study than emo- tion. We both believe firmly that whether the new emotionalism reading the texts and commen- is the "right" first step in our taries, culling the morals and quest for significance, meaning, teachings from them, and then and possibly even salvation. It finding ways to make them per- seems that our congregations are sonally relevant takes time and following the herd because that's effort — but that these are the the way the herd is moving. I'm keys to our feeling involved in beginning to feel that in not fol- lowing the herd, I'm being looked Judaism. For me, it helps bring me at askance by my fellow congre- closer to Reform Judaism as it gants. It's ironic, since I perceive the was originally developed and practiced. By knowing what Or- purpose of the group-hug school thodox Judaism requires, one of Judaism as bringing people can positively and actively into the group, creating an all- choose which forms of obser- inclusive warmth that welcomes vance are the most personally everyone, certainly not exclud- ing people. significant. I Basically, don't believe that the emotion being expressed by group-hug Ju- daism is sincere. I think the mean- ing is still there in the prayers and the laws, and that by studying them, and apply- ing them to daily life, one will get more out of Ju- daism and being Jewish than a transient emo- tional high will ever provide. This is a more difficult route, but it is genuine. I imagine that My major objection to the some may argue that emotional "group-hug" school of Judaism is appeal is crucial, as it has the that it strikes me as shallow. I potential to attract people who don't see genuine reflection as to feel alienated from Judaism, where these "new traditions" fit and even some who sought spir- into the overall scheme of Ju- itual relief in other religions. I daism. Because the emotional don't think that's an adequate is so appealing at a basic level, I reason. Comfort is not easy to come by think the possibility — and the in this world, and if these new forms of observance bring com- fort, that's great. It's just very definitely not my cup of comfort. I don't want to force my form of Judaism on others, and I object to having other forms of Judaism forced on me. I'm comfortable with my lev- danger — exists for Jews to en- el of observance; I don't want to gage in these new forms of wor- be proselytized by my own peo- ship in the same glassy-eyed and ple and ostracized if I choose not unquestioning way that has oc- to follow the herd. I hope this change in obser- curred off and on throughout the vance and outreach is part of a centuries. Perhaps the emphasis on emo- pendulum swing. Ideally, the tional and quasi-"politically cor- pendulum will eventually come rect" elements in Judaism is a to rest at a comfortable middle way to make Judaism more at- ground, not overly emotional and tractive and more in tune with not overly dry. If the pendulum ever stops current values. Of course, I think that's what the Reform tradition swinging, it will be because Ju- does best: chooses to observe the daism is no longer a dynamic, parts of Judaism that are the living religion ❑ Turned off by "group-hug" Judaism. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel re- quests a release from prison on The issue has taken on knee-jerk proportions.