Opinion

Editorials are posted and archved on JNOnline. corn.

Greenberg's Views

Editorial

The Wrong Approach

T

he -Union for Reform
Judaism is no stranger
to social action and lib-
eral politics. The nation's largest
Jewish movement, with 1.5 mil-
lion members, sees positions
such as support for gay rights
and opposition to cuts in social
services as growing naturally
from a proper reading of the
Torah.
From opposition to the war in
Iraq to support for the
Millennium Development Goals
to end world poverty, the Reform
delegates to the URJ biennial
convention in Houston in
November did their best to
establish themselves as the lead-
ers of religious liberalism.
But on the final day.of the
convention, the more than 2,000
voting delegates easily passed a
resolution opposing the nomina-
tion of Samuel Alito to the U.S.
Supreme Court and thus aban-
doned the moral high ground
they had spent much of the week
claiming.
It's important to understand
the careful line the Reform . .
movement had walked on judi-

cial nominations. Unlike organi-
zations such as the National .
Council of Jewish Women, the
Reform movement has not auto-
matically opposed President
Bush's conservative court picks.
The URJ did not oppose the
recent nomination of Chief
Justice John Roberts.
Further, the URJ established a
careful process for considering
court nominees in 2002. To be
opposed, a nominee must be
. of tipping the Supreme Court's
unqualified, incompetent,
balance against the 1973 Roe vs.
unwilling to follow accepted •
Wade abortion ruling was
principles of jurisprudence or
enough to reject Alito. It didn't
openly bigoted; or the nominee
matter that there's no reason to
must pose a threat to issues of
think any other Bush nominee
core concern to the Reform
would look favorably on Roe vs.
movement or risk destroying the Wade. It didn't matter that no
court's balance.
.
one expects the Reform resolu-
The anti-Alito resolution left
tion to stop Alito.
no doubt that the man himself is
The right approach to the
not the problem: "There is a gen- judicial nomination process
eral consensus that he is a per-
would have been the one that the
son of the highest levels of intel- union previously used and that
ligence, competence ; integrity,
many speakers argued for: Let
and judicial temperament!' No
the nominee go through his con-
one who spoke during the
firmation hearings. Give him a
debate disagreed.
•
chance to explain his judicial
Instead, the Reform delegates
philosophy and to address any
.decided that the mere possibility concerns •about the more than

300 decisions he wrote as an
appellate judge. Then decide
whether he deserves a lifetime
appointment to the nation's
highest court.
Instead, the URJ denied him
that most basic of rights, due
process. The URJ decided that
the right to an abortion is so
important that we can't even
wait to hear whether that right is
in danger. The URJ might as well
simplify its standards: "No mat-
ter how decent, intelligent, fair
and sympathetic to religious
minorities a court nominee is,
the union will oppose him or her
unless he or' she is willing to .
swear to defend Roe vs. Wade!'
That's a shame. Not because of

the position on abortion — we
don't want to see Roe v. Wade
toppled either — but because
the URJ has eliminated itself as
an impartial voice for the Jewish
commuhity on judicial nomi-
nees. The Reform movement, a
popular leader on many human
rights issues, has declared for
posterity not that it will stand
against the rightward shift of the
Supreme Court, but that it will
sacrifice good individuals in
order to defend political
beliefs. ❑

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letters@thejewishnews.com .

Reality Check

Season's Bleatings

.

I

'ye been giving it a lot of
careful thought, and I've
come to the conclusion that
Bill O'Reilly is, to use the accept-
ed medical term, meshuggene
(crazy).
.
The Fox News Channel com-
mentator and a host of imitators
are on a crusade (and that is
' exactly the right word) against .
places that tell their employees
to say "Happy Holidays" instead
of "Merry Christmas!'
If that's the most important
thing they've got to worry about
this country must be in far bet-
ter shape that I thought.
O'Reilly seems to believe that
this salutation is part of a dark
multiculturalist conspiracy
.
aimed at debunking religious
belief.
Let me make this clear. I don't
give a hoot if they wish me

40

December 8 • 2005

"Happy Holidays" or "Merry
Christmas" or "Go soak your
head."
If people want to extend a
cheery Yule greeting, let them
live and be well. And if some
unit of government wants to
make itself look ridiculous and
call its giant spruce a "Holiday
Tree that's theirbusiness. What
other holiday besides Christmas
has a decorated tree as its cen-
terpiece, unless you're a druid?
Of course, it's a Christmas tree.
So what?
The important thing is I know
it's not my holiday, and my chil-
dren knew it was not their holi-
day.
But in a TV. interview on-his
network, O'Reilly, in a perfect
frenzy of anger, said those secu-
larists who have inflicted "Happy
Holidays" on the nation are

motivated by a desire
holiday rather than a
to tear down "our
religious one.
Judeo-Christian sys-
When judges rule
tem of belief."
that red-nosed reindeer
To which one can
and Santas, but not
only respond: "Huh?"
creches, can appear on
How did the Judeo
courthouse lawns they.
part get mixed up in
George Cantor are simply trying to
this?
Columnist
find a way around an
Just a few minutes
inconvenient fact:
before, he was instructing Jewish
Government is not supposed
shoppers who were offended by
to shut down for religious holi-
a "Merry Christmas" to take
days. But if it tried to operate on
their business somewhere else.
Christmas, not enough employ-
Now he wants them to join
ees would show up to run the
hands with him and dance
store. So it must secularize the
around the Judeo-Christian tree. day to make everyone constitu-
This.guy is off the wall.
tionally comfortable.
I have no problem with
It's the. same reason school
Christians who want to restore
districts with a large number of
the religious content to their hol- Jewish students and teachers
idal. But the plain fact is that the shut down for the High Holidays
American Christmas has
and call it a "fall break!' Of
become secularized, a national
course, they have closed for reli-

gious reasons but they must pre-
tend they haven't.
So it is with Christmas.
The problem with people like
O'Reilly is that 'they want it both
ways. They want to emphasize
the sacred content of the day
while demanding the sort of
universality that only a secular
holiday can have in America.
We have worked out a nice
balance between the sacred and
the secular in this country. It's an
understanding that is largely
unwritten, but it works.
O'Reilly, I'm sure, would be
furious at being called a dema-
gogue. But if it walks like a duck
and quacks like a duck — you
can serve it for holiday
dinner. ❑