This past Tuesday (Nov 14, 2023), like many others, I was on a bus headed toward the rally to support Israel in Washington DC, when suddenly, I see a message on a WhatsApp chat I am on. The message was forwarded from the sender’s “rabbi,” who was urging his constituents to not attend the rally, based on the signed letter of four Roshei Yeshivot from Lakewood. If you have not heard about this letter, I truly regret to bring it to your attention. In this letter, the BMG leadership from Lakewood urged their communities and Jews nationwide not to attend the unity rally because “its organizers and participants are not among the keepers of the faith of Israel.” In essence, the BMG leadership not only believes that the average observant Jew is so mentally feeble that a mere whiff of air within the vicinity of the non-observant will be enough to make us stray from Judaism, but that the entirety of those who choose to go after the proclamation which was distributed are not “pious with regard to God’s word.”
What pompous disrespect for the Jewish people to suggest that the rally is sullied by the presence of those whose Hashkafa is not in line with Lakewood’s. The impossible standard of simultaneously being shocked that the Jews lack much needed support and fear of associating with anyone who would want to provide such support boggles the mind. But logical fallacies aside, something much worse is happening because of this letter. It breaks the unity which this atrocity built. Lest you think I am overdramatizing this subject, allow me to point out that BMG has over 8,000 students enrolled in its programs according to their website. That means close to 10,000 families. Who knows, maybe instead of 290,000 attendees at the march we would have had far more attendance and a far more powerful display of unity for the Jewish and moral cause of Israel’s fight. And it is not only the Lakewood families affected by this letter – it has reached pocket communities in Queens and Brooklyn (and those are just the ones I am aware of). Part of the forwarded message in the chat regarding the attendees / speakers / organizers of the rally written by this so called “rabbi” states, “They are evil people who daily influence our brothers and sisters to hate Torah values. Nothing good could come out of such corrupt people and it is a terrible sin to attend such a hillul Hashem where 100% kefira will be espoused and h"v label under the banner of being Jewish… I hereby call on all those in our kehila who are either on their way or about to go to halt their plans. (emphasis added)” Try to grasp this. According to this person, the rally “is a terrible sin.” It is a terrible sin to hear from the mother of the kidnapped Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Rachel Goldberg. A terrible sin to hear from the cousin of SIX of the hostages. A terrible sin to hear from people who want to present their allegiance to Israel. A terrible sin to show that almost 300,000 people took an entire day out of their lives to be there together from all over America. Had BMG been at Har Sinai, they would have urged us not to go because of the Eirev Rav. This message in the chat might not have been from Lakewood, but it is the direct echo of Lakewood.
Rav Berel Wein, an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi and academic who inspired much of my Judaism, was driven to tears by the sheer absurdity of Jews telling other Jews not to support the Jews. He said that we only survived the Soviet Union because of the rallies. Dear brothers and sisters, please do not allow yourselves to fall prey to the signatures of a few in favor of the unity of the nation. They cannot be viewed as absolute. To quote Rachel Goldberg’s speech at the DC rally regarding the hostages, “they want to ask everyone in the world, all the screamers, the indifferent, the experts, the academics, the knowledgeable, the passives, the perfectly outraged, the righteous, the indignant, the haters, the leaders, the lovers, every single one of us.. ‘WHY? Why is the whole world accepting’ … Where were you when your brother’s blood cried out from the ground? What the world needs to start thinking about today is what will your excuse be?” I encourage all of us to ask this question sincerely.