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My Encounter With Judge Roy Moore
M
aya Angelou famously wrote:
“I’ve learned that people will
forget what you said, people
will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel.”
Until I recently re-
read the newspaper
article about my meet-
ing with Judge Moore,
I did not remember
the exact words that
were spoken, nor the
exact month or day
Rabbi Dr. Sidney on which the meet-
ing happened. But I
Vineburg
will never forget the
hate and anger that
assaulted me that
day. The heat of a temper so hot with
“righteous indignation” against me
that I never experienced anything like
it before or after. All because of the 10
Commandments…
In March of 1998, Judge Roy Moore of
Alabama was leading an effort to place
the tablets of the 10 Commandments
on public courthouse property all over
the United States. For some reason, his
group decided that Green Bay, Wisc.,
was the perfect place to begin. As the
sole rabbi in Green Bay, I needed to
think carefully about my response to
this effort.
There was, I felt, nothing wrong with
putting the 10 Commandments on
public property provided that every
other religious group or sect have the
exact same ability to do so as well.
There had already been interest from
several other groups including the
adherents of Asatru, based
I was one of the leaders of the
on Norse mythology, the
“forces of darkness.” He then
Satanists, a variety of Christian
went on an anti-homosexual
groups, etc. I believed that the
tirade. During the yelling and
government, because of the
abuse, Judge Moore placidly ate
First Amendment, could not
his lunch and made no move to
endorse or prefer one theo-
stop his surrogate. I hastily left
logical tradition over the oth-
the gathering, followed by the
Judge Roy Moore
ers. By allowing any group to
advocate who had invited us in
place a monument, the county
the first place, apologizing pro-
would simply be providing
fusely.
equal access and not making a prefer-
The local newspaper got the story
ence.
(not from me) and it was one of the
Judge Moore’s group vehemently
factors that led to the end of Moore’s
opposed this idea. They declared that
group’s efforts in Green Bay.
the United States is a “Christian nation”
In the last 20 years, we have all
and that the only monument would
be the 10 Commandments, using the
translation from the King James Bible.
It was then that the local advocates
for the 10 Commandments monument
invited me to meet Judge Moore. He
was in Green Bay to speak at a local
church and would be having lunch at a
hotel restaurant afterward. I was invit-
ed to meet him along with members
of the County Board and the County
Executive.
When I arrived at the restaurant, I
was taken by some of the local advo-
cates to meet the judge. He shook
my hand and went back to eating his
lunch. Before I could find a place to
sit, Dean Young, Judge Moore’s execu-
tive director, confronted me. He asked
why I was there and said that I needed
to leave because the “forces of light
can’t mix with the forces of darkness.”
He proclaimed his utter disrespect for
me as a member of the clergy and that
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moved on from that event. I retired
from the pulpit in 2015 and moved to
Michigan to be close to family. Judge
Moore has been Chief Justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court twice and
removed twice. Moore probably does
not even remember the incident.
But I will never forget Roy Moore, sit-
ting and eating quietly while the hate
and prejudice he inspired tore at my
soul. •
Rabbi Dr. Sidney Vineburg is an adjunct professor
of education at Grand Canyon University and the
author of “The Prayers of David,” published by
the Museum of the Bible/Worthy Press. He lives
in Oak Park.
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