Letters to the Editor
February 10, 2009
Is Tolerance Always Appropriate?
As a cynical old lawyer, I suspect the real objective of the Yeshiva University Tolerance Committee is to equate homosexual conduct with race, gender, religion, and ethnicity as a Worthy protected class or activity.
I agree with Rabbi Yosef Blau that homosexuals should be treated with no less respect than mechalilei shabbos. And, like him, I would have no problem hearing "a gay person speak on campus about his trials as an Orthodox Jew." But that is hardly the issue. A gay spokesman is much more likely to proclaim the legitimacy of homosexual conduct as a valid alternative lifestyle than to talk about his "trials."
I'm sure the Tolerance Committee would recognize Rabbi Blau's right to teach that chilul shabbos is sinful. Would it "tolerate" the same view of the homosexual act, or would that be bigotry and hate speech?
Michael Schopf '64
Tolerant Enough?
I have just resumed receiving The Commentator after a 50 year hiatus. As a graduate of YUHSB ('55), YC ('59), and AECOM ('63), and a former copy editor of the Commie, I'm delighted to see that you still openly examine difficult matters.
When I read the front page article in the Jan. 1 issue about the controversy surrounding the YU Tolerance Committee, I was perplexed. With my Orthodox upbringing, I always felt deeply that tolerance is an inherent Jewish value. My father and brother both received Smicha from Yeshiva, and I was taught that Jews have been the victims of so much intolerance and persecution that we should be exquisitely sensitive to the rights of others, Jew and Gentile alike. If other Jews aren't interfering with our lives, is it not for Hashem to judge their actions?
When I read the remarkable letter from Dr. Pearl Herzog, which attributed Yeshiva's huge loss with Madoff to Hashem's retribution for the re-hiring of a transgender professor, I thought the late Jerry Falwell could have ghost-written the letter (pun intended). It was Falwell who "pointed the finger" for 9/11 at gays, lesbians, and feminists. If one transgender professor (and throw in one Tolerance Committee), could be blamed for the loss of $100 million, was the Holocaust due to the fact that world-famous Albert Einstein ate treif and was a mechalel Shabbos?
If this kind of skewed thinking is prevalent at Yeshiva, the zealots have taken over in a way I don't recognize, and I deplore it. I imagine the student body was more heterogeneous in my day, in part because the Jewish Studies program for students from irreligious backgrounds had just been initiated. Also, as a straight physician I have a message for the homophobic among your readers. Whether or not you are aware of them, there are certainly gays at Yeshiva and lesbians at Stem; biology dictates it. Are the hormonal imbalances that lead to those orientations, or to the more difficult and heart-wrenching decision to change gender, not the work of Hashem?
Personally, I have no tolerance for this whole line of argument, and I fear for a YU that finds tolerance to be controversial. I hope the Gentiles I work among never find out that tolerance is controversial at my alma mater.
Lawrence I. Bonchek
Halakhic Mask
I have spent a considerable amount of time contemplating and discussing Dr. Pearl Herzog's letter to the editor published in the most recent edition of The Commentator, which advanced the hypothesis that YU's refusal to illegally fire a transgender faculty member caused God to financially punish the university through the Madoff scandal. I have yet to decide which aspect of the note is more distasteful: the author's claim to understand with perfect clarity God's decisions or her extreme intolerance of others. It is well past time for our community and institutions to stop hiding intolerance behind the mask of Halakha. You, Dr. Pearl, may choose to live your life according to Halakha, but it is not your place to decide how others should live theirs. I recognize the danger of censoring letters to the editor, but I daresay The Commentator's editorial decision-makers would not hesitate to decline publication of any letters written in a belligerent tone. I remind the editorial leadership of The Commentator that hateful sentiments expressed in even the most respectful language are no less hateful.
Avi Kelin YC '08
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