Several weeks ago New York Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote a piece assailing Orthodox Jews and since attack pieces like this are sadly not infrequent in the media this was not surprising. But what was indeed quite surprising and saddening was a response penned by an Orthodox writer of some note in the Jewish Week. She wrote that she “was deeply disturbed” by Bruni’s column because of her instinct to “protect my people ” and went on to say that in the Orthodox community there are “isolated cases … not ‘patterns of criminality.’$$separatequotes$$”
But then her self-avowed protective instinct seemed to wane writing that she “must acknowledge that within the ultra-Orthodox community a strong patriarchy … can go unquestioned sadly leading — at times — to the scurrilous behaviors you’ve described.” And just to make clear her willingness to offer the “ultra-Orthodox” up to the wolves in place of her “people ” she doubled down on it:
If it appears I am making a distinction between types of Orthodoxies you’re right. I am. Increasingly there is a universe of difference between modern and ultra-Orthodox Jews and journalists who pay attention will note the not-so-subtle differences.
Quite an irony all this. Just one year ago she and I were both participants in a symposium in Jewish Action the Orthodox Union’s quarterly magazine on the topic of Jewish unity. In her essay she wrote of her belief that “the only way unity and true ahavat Yisrael can be achieved is to believe in one’s heart and to illustrate through one’s actions that family comes first.” Well said.
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