Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Orthodox Jews are not Evangelicals in Funny Hats

Yeshiva World has five tips on what not to do when trying to attract Orthodox Jewish votes. Paladino should have read rule #2:
2- Don’t bash gays. This is the major mistake that many politicians outside of Boro Park make. They think that Boro Parkers care about social issues. They’re wrong. Boro Parkers care about social-service issues not social issues. As far as they are concerned, violating shabbos, eating pork and gay marriage are in the same category – transgressions of Jewish law. But Boro Parkers aren’t trying to convert the world, they’re only trying to improve theirs.

That doesn't mean the Haredim support gay marriage, they just can distinguish between the spiritual and the secular. As one Lubavitcher put it with regards to Cuomo's gay marriage stance: "He's not running for Rabbi".

Should be required reading for conservative NY pols who still can't figure out why their red meat conservatism isn't getting them the Jewish vote.

1 comment:

N. Friedman said...

David,

You write: "That doesn't mean the Haredim support gay marriage, they just can distinguish between the spiritual and the secular."

I do not think that the Haredim view gay marriage as a secular matter and that is certainly not what the source you cite indicates. The Haredim distinguish between types of sins, man against man versus sins against God or, as they would say, G-d. In their view, homosexual acts are a sin against God, which is not the same as a sin against another person. See this article, which, I think, accurately explains the classical Jewish view of the matter.