american atheist magazine sep 1985

8/9/2019 American Atheist Magazine Sep 1985

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September, 1985 A Journal .of Atheist News and Thought 2 .50

eeT TrA R eview of

T heA gnostic Position

The Torah M ilitantsee page 9

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AMERICAN ATHEISTS

is a non-profit, non-political, educational organization, dedicated to the complete and absolute separation of s tateand church. We accept the explanation of Thomas Jefferson that the First Amendment to the Constitution of theUnited States was meant to create a wall of separation between state and church.

American Atheists are organized to stimulate and promote freedom ofthought and inquiry concerning religiousbeliefs , creeds, dogmas, tenets, rituals and practices;

to collect and disseminate information, data and literature on all religions and promote a more thoroughunderstanding of them, their origins and histories;to advocate, labor for, and promote inall lawfulways , the complete and absolute separation ofstate and church ;to advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways , the establishment and maintenance of a thoroughly

secular system of education available to all ;to encourage the development and public acceptance ofa human ethical system, stressing the mutual sympathy,

understanding and interdependence ofallpeople and the corresponding respons ibility ofeach individualin relationto society;

to develop and propagate a social philosophy inwhich man isthe central figure who alone must be the source ofstrength, progress and ideals for the well-being and happiness of humanity ;

to promote the study of the arts and sciences and of all prob lems affecting the maintenance , perpetuation andenrichment of human (and other) life ;

to engage in such social, educationa l, legal and cultural ac tivity as willbe useful and beneficial to members ofAmerican Atheists and to society as a whole .

Atheism may be defined as the mental attitude wh ich unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims atestablishing a lifestyle and ethical outlook ver ifiable by experience and the scientific method, independent of allarbitrary assumptions of authority and creeds .

Materialism declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious purpose; that it is governed by its owninherent, immutable and impersonal laws ; that there is no supernatural interference in human life; that man-finding his resources within himself - can a nd must create his own destiny . Materialism restores to man h isdignity and his intellectual integrity . It teaches th at we must pr ize our lifeon ea rth and strive always to improve it . Itholds that man iscapable of creating a social sys tem based on reason and justice . Materialism 's faith is inman andman's ability to transform the world cult ure by his own efforts . This is a comm itment which is in very essence lifeasserting. It considers the struggle for progress as a moral obligation and impossible without noble ideas that

inspire man to bold creative works . Materialism h olds that humankind 's potential for good and for an outreach tomore fulfillingcultural development is, for all pr actical purposes, unlimited .

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American Atheists - P.O. Box 2117 - Austin , TX 78768-2117


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September, 1985 Vol . 27 , No.9

m e r i c n t h e i s tA Journal of Atheist News and Thought

Editorial : The Mask They Wear - Jon G. Murray 2Ask A .A. 5News and Comments : American Atheists Care 6The Torah Militant The Anti-Humanist Dogma of The Orthodox Right - H . J. Skutel 9The End of The World - Vladimir Milovidov 15See The Tree: A Review of The Agnostic Position - Madalyn O'Hair 16

A Few Meanings Please 19And An Atheists View 28Other Opinions 29A Few Arguments - For God's Sake? - Madalyn O'Hair 30

The Prospect of Physical Immortality, Part I: Why Die? - Frank R . Zindler 32Dial-An-Atheist 34

A Skeleton in The Cupboard - Margaret Bhatty 35Historical Notes 37George Eliot and Religion - Madalyn O'Hair 38Book Reviews 40Me Too - M. Hale 41Letters to The Editor 42Crosswords 43Reader Service 44

On The Cover : A significant number ofarticles in this month's American Atheist concern the position called agnost icism. A qu estionis therefore raised by the discussions in those articles ; is agnosticism a position? Or - is it rather an attempt to relate to antiquatedphilos ophical notions that a tree does not really exist unless there are eyes with which it may be seen? So long as the concept ofsupernaturalism (religion) survives , such arguments willcontinue to command the attention of those who create and maintain such

nonsensical attempts to relate to irrationality. And - the agnostic , in his /her attempt to fraternize with such advocates ofunreality (i .e.supernaturalism), willalso attempt to justify religion through one school of thought and chastise it through another . After reading ourmaterial ask yourself; should human thought and effort continue to be so wasted - forever? Then also ask yourself - do eyes reallyexist? G . Tholen

Editor /Robin Murray-O'Hair, Editor Emeritus/Madalyn O'Hair, Managing Edi- The American Atheist magazine ispublished monthly by the American Atheist Presstor /Jon G. Murray, Assistant Edi tor/Gerald Tholen, Copy Editor/Sandra M. P. (an affiliateofAmerican Atheists), 2210Hancock Dr ., Austin , TX 78768·2596,and theMcGann, Poetry /Angel ine Bennet, Gerald Tholen, Product ion Staff/Bi ll Kight, Society of Separationists, a non -profit, non -political , educational organization dedi -Claudia Kweder, Laura L . Morgenstern , Gloria Tholen, Non-Resident Staff /Mar- cated to the complete and absolute separation of state and church. (All rightsgaret Bhatty, Merrill Ho lste, LowellNewby, Fred Woodworth, Frank R . Zindler . reserved. Reproduction inwhole or inpart without written permission isprohibited.)

Mailingaddress: P .O. Box 2117, Austin , TX 78768 ·2117. Subscription isprovided asan incident of membership in the organization of American Atheists. Subscriptions

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E DITO RIA L /Jon G Murray

without their veracity immediately cominginto question . They were not allowed toadopt because they accepted no universa larbitrator of conduct within the dogma ofwhich they could mold their offspring. Theywere denied common burial because theyvalued life over the spiritual bliss of death.Their wills were broken and their estatesstripped as they were classed as madmenwho were not of sound mind . As a way ofinsuring their silence , employment wasdenied to them at the merest whisper ofthei r

Atheism. Those who did venture into busi -ness on their own found door after doorslammed in their faces by their fellow busi-nessmen, and they were boycotted by poten-tial customers .

Many could not stand the pressure o fholding firmlybehind an honest position andhad to begin a network ofvarious apologeticcovers for their Atheism. The purpose ofeach of these masks was to beg the forg ive-ness of the majority for their having anoriginalthought and not being a mere part ofthe herd. The Unitarians, the rationalists,the Ethical Culturists, the humanists, theskeptics, and many others banded together

in fear and have remained there ever since ,trying to justify their collective cowardice byevery oddball rationalization that could bemustered .

T H E M A SK T H EY W EA R

I this month's journal our editor-in-chiefdecided to concentrate on the topic ofagnosticism .

Here We Go Again

My first reaction to this as a regularcontributor to the journal was Here we goagain I am frankly rather tired of theincessant circular arguments that go on andon ad infinitum between the Atheist and theagnostic . These worthless arguments have

been continuing now in the academiccommunity for hundreds of years .All of philosophy, the world's most

useless discipline, has been consumed withthe need to bat the fundamental tenets ofidealism and materialism back and forth likeworn-out tennis balls. These discussionshave, for the most part, been conducted ineducational institutions and private clubs forthe very rich, or those fortunate enough tobe classed, through wealth and family,as theliterati . In essence, this is the supposedcreme de la creme ofsociety, who have beenfreed from the necessity of survival laborand who have had nothing better to do with

their time than to contemplate the vastnessof the universe. Often the zeal of their study has been directly proportional to thelevel of boredom in their dull wretched livessitting around the manor waiting for the huntto begin. These experts on human thoughtmost often gained their titles invarious fieldsby simply being there. Ifone hung arounda hospital and looked smart for long enough,the others incharge (who did not know whatthey were doing in any real sense either)simply dubbed one a doctor . Any bookcarrier in a law office could become abarrister. Usually the philosophers of theworld were ushered into their positions as amatter of birthright, not by virtue of theirsuperior intellect, or even by education.

I have always considered the output ofthese self-appointed solvers of the humanriddle to be essentially the beating to deathofideas with words . Ithink that isthe kindestway that it can be stated.

Back In The Real World

Meanwhile , back inthe real world ofsocialand political struggle, the Bradlaughs, theBesants, the Francis Wrights , the Owens of

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the world were leftto slugit out on their ownwith the hostile and vindictive religionistswho would give no quarter - not that anywas expected by the brave individual Athe-ists. While the arm-chair intellectuals de-bated, the militant Atheist was battered ,slandered, abused, jailed, and otherwisemade an example of the value of compli-ance. With their lives, their honor, and theirdignity, the Atheists took the heat while thephilosopher sat inthe shade with a mintjulepand debated the finer points of agnosticism .

The socio-cultural result of this was thatthose of means and stature who could havechanged society for the better did not do soand allowed those ofhonest conviction to godown the drain - while the status quosurvived. Instead of showing their gratitudeto those who fought and suffered so thatthey could relax, they invented new termin-ology to separate themselves from whatthey considered to be the gutter rabble-rousers . Thus the term agnostic was born .

The failure of the militant Atheists toeffect true social or political change was duein a great part to their abandonment bythose of means who were too gutless to

openly admit their solidarity . They couldhave remained at the manor and cultivatedthe militant as a mercenary for their ideals.They could not even bring themselves to dothat. What happened next was that the openAtheist became an untouchable inthe socialstrata, not unlike the caste system of India,or the black system of America during thisage. The noble name Atheism, born out ofhonesty and applied intelligence, was al-lowed to be dragged through the mud anddefamed, together with the persons whochampioned it . The establishment of allnations took every opportunity to slanderthe Atheist in whatever way possible . Thedefinition of Atheism was linked to insanityin every culture . The Atheist was classedwith the idiot, the buffoon , the person ofchildlike mind who could not comprehendthe value of complacency .

The Way It Has Been

In most recent history, Atheists were ex-cluded from legal procedures because oftheir lack of a morality based upon omni-potent authority. They could not take thewitnesses ' oath or the oath of public office

September, 1985

The Apologists

What has most fascinated me about theseapologetic movements is that they beginwith an intellectually superior position tothat of the religionist and then go to theirintellectual inferiors and ask them to pardonthe fact that someone has figured out thefraud and fallacy of a dogma by which theyhave been swallowed up. Ifyour intelligenceleads you to the position that smoking ishazardous to your health, you do not seekout smokers and say how sorry you are thatyou have figured out that something is badfor your health and ask them to forg ive youfor not smoking as they do . But the intelli-gent, sane, rational Atheist invents a coverword for himself and goes to the insane,irrational religionists and says, Please for-give me for being intelligent and rational.He begs to be allowed to participate in aculture based upon irrationality which hethen embraces . This is highly bizarre. The

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religionist should be coming, cowed, to theAtheist asking for us to allow them to con-tinue with their insanity and not the otherway around.

The agnostic constantly turns to the Athe-ist and accuses him ofbeing just as dogmaticas the religionist inhis belief that there is nogod. This is not only in the face of the factthat anAtheist has no belief system, but the

agnostic has the audacity to bring up theterm dogmatism, when the very philosoph-ic system that their armchair intellectualpredecessors formulated dictates that theproof-of-existence burden must be borne bythe person positing the existence of anyentity. The agnostic and the religionist set upa system ofrules for human thought and callitlogic. The Atheist says, Fine, according toyour own rules you have to prove the exis -tence of god because you posited such anexistence. The agnostic and the religionistcome back and say, Now, wait a minuteThat is dogmatic. In the case of the Atheistwe willbend the rules to allow for the posit-

ingofan uncaused first cause which we shallcall god. Again, this is so bizarre that itmakes one feelas though one isinthe middleof Wonderland with Alice. The Queen ofHearts just keeps changing the rules so thatthe Atheist cannot win.

Inthe meantime, the agnostic, under onefalse identity after another, is still essentiallywhat I choose to call a white nigger . Wehave allseen them, especially inthe South. Ablack politician tries so hard to be like thewhite political majority that the values andconcerns of the black community he issup-posed to be representing go out of the win-dow in favor of the quest for title, beingaccepted, and respectability. He is a com-mon Uncle Tom. The agnostic then is thesame, an Aunt Jane of the set of should-be -rational persons.

On The Use of Arrogance

I have made numerous analogies in previ-ous editorials between the plight of theBlacks and the plight of the Atheists in thiscountry. I think that the parallels are many .The oppression ofthe Blacks and their sub-jugation as the untouchables of Americawere only partially overcome when the Uncle Tom mentality was overcome bythe militant Black who demanded equalityinstead of apologizing for being different .The Malcolm Xs and others of militant famein the black community who said, Makewhitey call you Mr. Nigger brought aboutthe limited racial equality that we see today .The only way to gain that seat in the front ofthe bus was to take it and to say to the bigot, Move me if you dare . One simply cannotgo meekly to one's oppressor and ask forequality. Equality must be taken witharrogance .

The agnostic community inthis country is

Austin, Texas

composed of a bunch of spineless twerpswho cannot face the rigors of a life ofhonesty and straightforwardness. Theysimply prefer the tranquillity of the herd. Asan aggressive Atheist, I simply cannot sitback and stiflethe expression ofconclusionsto which myintellect brings me inorder to beaccepted. I will not pay for respectabilitywith my brain - that is too high of a price.

The Bible as Fly Paper

Iwillalso not be suckered into the biblicalerrancy trap either . There are those whosuffered under the dogma of a particularfaith forced on them by parental prerogativeduring their youth, who have since dedi-cated their adult lifeto striking back at thatwhich made them uncomfortable as a child.They kick the Bible of their youth much as achild plays kick-the-can as a way of ex-pending youthful energy and frustration.They are fixated with a notion of peckingtiny holes inthe book that caused them anx-

iety and frustration as a child, when theyshould simply throw the entire book away.Inallowing themselves to become so fixatedwithin the covers of the book, they haveacknowledged the victory ofreligion in theirlives . Religionhas trapped them within its setofwritten dogmas, and they willconsume allof their adult energies in the attempt to dis-credit something that has no overall intrinsicvalue to begin. Instead of just abandoningaltogether the dogmas that they have de-termined to be unsound, they must remainensnared in them through their desire todiscredit them in most minute detail . Butdiscredit them in front of whom? It is to thevery persons who accept them unequivo-cally on the basis offaith, having no desire orinclination to inspect them rationally . This islike trying to discredit the home team to afanatic baseball fan. It amounts to beatingone's head against the wall, being careful topound it on every little crack.

Twits Twerps

Ihave grown increasingly dismayed at thenumber of persons in the readership of thisjournal who are of the agnostic or biblicalerrancy frame of mind . This is apparentsimply by looking at what type of literaturepresented by Ame rican Atheist Press sellsthe most . Two categories are at the top ofthe Best Seller List :

(1) Anything with one of the fol-lowing key words in the title, Free-thought, Agnostic, Humanist or Ra-tionalist ;

(2) Anything that has to do withbiblical errancy in the form of contra-dictions, irrationalities, and anythingunbecoming or illegal in the conductof either laypersons or clergy, based

September, 1985

on biblical admonitions.

The works ofmilitant Atheists are simply notso palatable.

This obvious inclination towards apolo-getics turns me off cold. I cannot bringmyself to apologize for what Iam nor can Ibeless than honest about my conclusions con-cerning religion. It is impossible for me to

have my feet stuck in the flypaper . I wantfree of it completely.

Why I Am An Atheist

For almost a year now, whenever I amasked in the context ofa media appearancewhy Iam an Atheist, Isimply say, Because Ihave a high I .Q. and I use it.

I am then asked, Are you saying thatsomeone who believes ingod iseither stupidor less intelligent than you are?

My reply is simply, Yes.But that is an elitist position, is it not?

they gasp.

Again, I reply, Yes.Atheists are superior intellectually tothose who have convinced themselves thatthey need religion for some reason or other .

This is why I said, Here we go againwith more analysis ofagnosticism. The ques-tion ofwhether or not there is a god is totallyirrelevant to human life. The origin of theuniverse is a totally irrelevant piece of in-formation to our lives as well. I could careless about the relative finiteness or infinite-ness of the universe . Who gives a damn? Iam a finite organization and that is all thathas real significance to me . I don't under-stand why mankind has always had a drivingconcern to answer the questions of pur-pose or significance with respect to hu-man existence. My only purpose as ananimal is to continue my species by stayingalive to reproduce and see to the rearing ofmy young. Myexistence has no special built-in significance. What significance there is inmy life,I make inmy individual choice of lifestyle. But ifIceased to exist tomorrow every-thing else in the world would not cease withme. Cycles would continue as before . Thereare few of us around who can cope with thisknowledge, and I do not intend to be madeto feel inferior because I do not respectsomeone who must construct an elaboratemythological system to give their lifean arti -ficial purpose and significance. Iwillcon-tinue to openly show my disrespect , myintellectual repugnance, for those who can-not cope with their relative insignificanceand their singular purpose.

Who Wins Ultimately?

What is the use of trying to hide that con-tempt by even going to the extreme ofinventing a new term like agnosticism? I amperfectly content in living a life of honesty

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and integrity based upon fact . Arguing overthe existence of god is a complete andtotal waste oftime. Isuppose that an issue ofan Atheist journal such as this month's issueis needed from time to time for those stilltrapped in this useless chicken or the eggargument to get it off their chests. If thismakes those ofyou who are agnostic happy

and lets you vent some steam, so be it . Iseeno use or benefit in devoting a magazineissue to the question myself . While werekindle the agnostic-Atheist split in ourranks, the religious community rolls on initsrelentless march toward establishing a theo-cracy inthis nation under which Atheist andagnostic alike willnot be able to exist . ~

A BO UT T H E A UT H OR

A second generation AtheistMr. Murray has been the Director of

the American Atheist Center for nin eyears and is also the Managing Edito r

of the American Atheist. He advocate s Aggressive Atheism.

; ~ ~ ~~ s

~ ~ ~ ~ ; >

N o ah c a n so t o H e l l I w o u ld n ~ t r id e o n h isa r k i f h e B E G G E D m e

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ASK A A

In Letters to the Editor, readers givetheir opinions, ideas, and information.But in Ask A.A. American Atheistsanswers questions regarding its poli-

cies,positions,

and customs, aswell

asqueries of factual and historical sit-uations.

When I am asked if I am sure that goddoes not exist, Ialways qualifymy answer bysaying that I can' t be absolutely sure in thesame sense that religionists are absolutelysure, because I reject the idea of revealedtruth. I say something to the effect that ineveryday lifewe usually make our decisionsbased on incomplete information, so ourcertainties are usually relative. I say that forallpractical purposes and in allprobability Iconclude that beyond a reasonable doubt

god as ordinarily posited does not exist.I note that when you are asked the samequestion, you simply say that yes, you aresure that god does not exist . I have not yetbeen called upon publicly to explain the dis-crepancy, but I am sure that it is .only amatter of time, so I am asking you now forsome help in this. I want to be ready.

I realize that by qualifying my answer, Imake my position weaker . My concernthough, is that if I say I am certain or sureabsolutely I will lend support to those whosay that Atheism is just another religionbased on faith, that we are closed-minded,and that we are unscientific.

The scientific method does specify thattheoretical conclusions always be held ten-tative and subject to revision by new ev -idence, and Atheism as posited in our aimsand purposes is derived from science andmaterialism.

David Chris Allen, DirectorSalt Lake City Chapter

The difficulty is that you are asked onequestion by the ordinary persons you en-counter on talk shows or in student situa-tions, and you are answering an entirelydifferent question.

When just about anyone in the U .S. asksif you (or any Atheist spokesman in thesecircumstances) believe ingod, that person isreferring specifically to the god known inourcountry, in the Judea-Christian religion, asgiven life in the so -called source book ofthat religion, the Bible. They ask concernedwith a particular god, and you respond witha god theory analysis.

The answer to the question posed is anabsolutely unqualified statement: Goddoes not exist. He has never existed. This isa phantasmagoria of sick minds. You and

Austin, Texas

your questioner are then both operating onthe same plane, talking about the sameindividual god. It is important that you keepthis in mind and be comfortable with it.

The niceties of the god theory, the genericconcept ofgod, and the scientific method ofevaluation are not appropriate in this the-atre of operations.

In Allthe Questions You Ever Wanted toAsk American Atheists with All of theAnswers, authored by Jon Murray andMadalyn O'Hair, pages 17-21, there is ananalysis of the components of the god the -ory as evidenced in the history of the world.Don't give your own esoteric definition ofwhat you think the god idea might be, butrather use what has always been acceptedby all of humankind for as long as there hasbeen human history. When you look at

those ideas, you willhave no difficulty at allsaying flatly: God does not exist. No scien-tific study could possibly support the absur-dities inherent in the thirteen characteristicsof the generic god idea.

In regard to the probability factor ofscientific concern, Albert Ellis answeredthat in a speech at the Seventh AnnualNational American Atheist Convention inChicago, Illinois in 1977. He noted that cur-rently there is a trend in all of science tostate that there is only a probability con-cerned with natural laws and that scientistsare not 100% certain of their ground anymore or at least at this time. They are only99.999999999999999999999999999999999%certain. They can only show that naturallaws have been operative in the same wayfor only 4 billion years. He laughed andsaid, For all practical purposes inyour life,then, you can accept that natural laws 'maybe true .' To premise your life on the veryslim hope that they may not be true is to actin an absurd and unproductive fashion .

Remember that the probability factorruns for fantasy ideas too. We can not be100%certain that there are no leprechauns,elves, gnomes, fairies. We are only 99.9999%certain that during the last 4 billion yearsthere have been none.

Stop to think about thatjust for a momentand see ifyou have any hesitation in regardto the god idea.

In addition, the discussion on agnosticismin this issue will be enlightening to you.

Some day, could you explain inyour mag -azine or newsletter exactly what the Sus-taining Fund is, ifit doesn't sustain you? Isthe Sustaining Fund sustained strictly bydonations? What's it used for?

Louis ReynoldsArizona

September, 1985

The American Atheist Center SustainingTrust Fund was established in 1980 to freethe American Atheist Center, eventually,from dependence on individual donations. Ifan organization needs to receive donationsto survive, it is constantly expending effortson fund-raising rather than on activism.

At the Tenth Annual National Conven-tion of American Atheists, inDetroit, Michi-gan, Gerald Tholen, Vice-President ofAmerican Atheists, proposed the genericidea of the establishment of a SustainingTrust, based on repayable, non-interest-bearing, one -year loans from members,rather than gifts. The idea was acceptedand subsequently put into action .

Since the loans were often very small,the interest derived from their investmentdid not cover the cost of handling them .

(Even at a 10% return, $50 in one full yearonly earns 5.00 .) The Trust Fund wastherefore converted to a gifts and largeloans only basis in 1982. The money in theSustaining Trust Fund is itself forever invio-late, but the interest from it is used for thedaily operating expenses of The AmericanAtheist Center. Donors to the SustainingTrust Fund are named in each month'sInsider's Newsletter.

Tofree the American Atheist Center fromthe need of yearly fundraising, it was esti-mated in 1980 that a $2% million trust wasnecessary. At ten percent per annum (the1980 rate), interest would yield 250,000 ayear or approximately 20,000 a month.

The best laid schemes 0 mice and mengang aft a-gley.

1. Interest rates have dropped from 10%in 1980 to 7.3% at the time of this writing.

2. Atheists are parsimonious, and theirfive-year record indicates that the AmericanAtheist Center can expect to receive 25,000 a year. At this rate, it will take onehundred years to attain the goal of 2.5million.

Therefore the American Atheist Centerthrows every spare buck it can acquire intothe fund. Currently itstands at 245,000.96,and from this approximately 18,000 a yearis earned, or 1,500 a month.

This is a far cry from the necessary goal .No, this does not sustain The AmericanAtheist Center. At the present rate, it willtake ninety -five more years to make ourgoal of being actually sustained by theTrust Fund. Yes, American Atheists doesneed continuing financial aid as does everycause organization. No, the SustainingTrust Fund does NOT (presently) sustainthe Center. Can we count on you to help dothat?

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N E W S A ND CO M ME N TS

A M ERICA N AT H EIST S CA RE

12th Annual National American Atheis tConvention in Washington, D.C ., in 1982 ,there were perhaps two hundred and moreAmerican Atheists happily on a picket lineinfront of the White House itself.

They found that they could step out intothe streets anywhere and that they hadlacked freedom of speech only because oftheir own inner fears. The Detroit Chapterpicketed over a local concern - an Atheistpoliceman having been fired from his employ-ment . And Pittsburgh Chapter members

drove to Michigan to help. The VirginiaChapter picketed, and Arnold Via, as asingle protesting picket vote, defied 100,000born-againers assembled inD.C . In Chicago ,Illinois,Chris Drew invaded the territory ofthe Jesuits themselves to hoist his signs .

American Atheists recaptured the nation 'scolors and its flag and raised those colorsand that flag defiantly in the name oftheultimate freedom of all humankind : freedomof the mind. And they are to be seen , theseAmerican Atheists picketers, now , all overthe United States: in Austin and Houston ,Texas, in San Francisco and Los Angeles ,California, in Tucson, Arizona and in Salt

Lake City, Utah, in New York City and inthe heart of Falwell land - Virginia. In fact ,they are everywhere .

And that little list of 'The Chicago Forty-Seven is typed up and in a filingcabinet inthe American Atheist - a little bit of history.The messages of the thirty-f ive two-sidedsigns are preserved also. Someday, we willengrave them all on a plaque and somehowhave that plaque posted there inthe Chicagopark: the first place inthe world that personsusing the brave and proud name of Atheiststood their grounds and claimed their r ightof freedom to be .

Now, a new phase is found . For Atheists

are not picketing alone anymore. Onceupon a time, back inthe beginning, when Dr .O'Hair would volunteer to march with an-other cause group she would be rudely toldto stay clear . Almost every group preferrednot to be contaminated with Atheism, butas Atheists, led by the Murray-O'Hairs ,spoke out for peace , for population control,for equal opportunity, forfreedom of speech,they slowly began to be accepted as allies .After having the doors slammed in theirfaces for several decades, now and then Dr .O'Hair was even asked to come and speak .

More often than not, San Francisco hashad to speak for the nation . Indeed it couldwell be said that it was in that city that thefirst stirr ings against U .S. intervention inVietnam were expressed . It was from thatcity that the mood turned against militarismin the 196Os. And, so it is again in themid-1980s .

American Atheists may be slow inreport -ing on the event, but this is not a newsmagazine. It is a magazine which takespositions and analyzes the news after the

fact . Itis important to look at current eventsof our era, from the distance and perspec-tive of a little time. In addition to that, theChapters are slow, quite often , in havingpictures developed and sent to the AmericanAtheist Center . The Center reads aboutChapters' activities in the interesting and,often, provocative Chapter Newsletters thatthey all issue - and then delights in thepictures when they do arrive. A magazine isfor visuals, as wellas ideas. So, here we arereporting an event of late April .

Itis an American Atheist event ofthe typethat was initiated in Chicago on October 5,1979 - a day of many historic firsts.

Heretofore Atheists had been afraid openly,in public , to say they were Atheists, oftenmasquerading as humanists, agnostics,secularists, and even Unitarians . But notonly had they been jolted out of anonimityand cover words by the Murray-O'Hairfamily, it was now proposed that on thathistoric date they should hit the bricks,with their feet of course, and picket, notalone for the first time in the United Statesfor just the function ofpicketing, but for thefirst time in history - to picket a reigningpope . It was all to be done in front of thepublic, with the hot bright lightsof the mediaworld reporting it step by step .

Carol Wojtyla, alias John Paul II, alsoknown as the Pope, a medievalist, had cometo the United States to be adored byswarm-ing crowds and a servile media as he at-tempted to grab our country by the scruff ofits neck and carry it back to the fourteenthcentury. The homage paid was knee deep allover the nation. And, itwas at this point thatAmerican Atheists not alone sued to keephim and a Roman Catholic Mass off theWashington Mall,but defiantly picketed himin Chicago with the abrupt message: Wojtyla Go Home

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Oh, there were not that many who werebrave that day . By actual nose count theyamounted to forty-seven persons. Therewere more police and more media thanthere were picketers . Death threats againstDr. Madalyn O'Hair were taken seriously,and long after the fact the Center wasapprised that a person equipped with rifleand scope was arrested in the hotel over-looking the determined picketers. JonMurray and Dr . O'Hair were at the head ofthe line, and there were incidents by the

score . Chapter Directors came in fromChicago, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Michi-gan, North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, andWisconsin.

The picket signs were crude and some-what flimsy for the Windy City. But, thespirit of determination and joy made up foreverything. By the end of the day they wereall excited, exhausted, and brave enough toadmit that they also had been afraid, butdetermined, to do it .

Nothing untoward happened to anyonewho participated. No one lost his job. Noone was ostracized by neighbors or friends .Not one person on the line was divorced by

his mate because of his activities. But out ofitcame a sense of By damn we did it Andin the eyes of the media and America,suddenly the Atheists were thought to be alittle braver, certainly more visual - andnone of them had horns, tails, or elongatedteeth. No matter who was questioned bythemedia - and most everyone was - theAtheists were found to be educated on theissues, intelligent, articulate, and caring asmuch for their country and its basic prin-ciples as anyone else in the nation.

After Chicago, it was never so difficultagain. After Chicago, picketing came easily.After Chicago, more and more Atheists

walked around with their bare faces hangingout. After Chicago more and more began toopenly identify. And they all found out thesame thing : Freedom of speech isfor thosewho claim it .

And after Chicago, American Atheistsfound Bob Fenn, of the Denver, Colorado,Chapter . He manufactures beautiful, dig-nified, plastic picket signs for Atheists, andthey are all over the country now: alwaysred-white-and-blue. Most of the time theysport a l ittle American flag along with theAmerican Atheist symbol . Bythe time of the

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daughters, w ho late r bear his chi ldren.

NE W S N D OMMENTS

Soon she was called in as a fund-raiser,here and there, and later she filled th isfunct ion often . After all, Amer ican Atheistsdo not l ive in isolation - they are morepoliticized and mo re aware than perhapsany othe r group in the nation .

It is still exhilarating though, to pick up anewspaper , turn on a televis ion set, and aswe see the assembled groups o f protestorsdeterm inedly ma rching past sudde nly, intoview swingsthe Ame rican Atheist contingent- banners afur '

And that happened again i n San Franciscowhen that city was a kick-off po int formassive national demonstrat ions for peace ,jobs and justice earlier this yea r. On April21, 50,000 pe rsons rallied to start the job ofawaken ing America . Dubbed the SpringMobi lization, the march was a coalition oflabor and cause groups of every conce ivabletype - the Gray Panthers , Vietnam Veter-ans for Peace , Free South Af rica, Amer icanAtheists . The march was about every-thing : peace , the nuclear f reeze, senio rcitizens ' rights, aparthe id, Nicaragua , ElSalvado r, free speec h, the homeless, domes-tic budget c uts, wom en's rights, armsbuildup, racial rights, and Atheism.

A seventy-year -old re tiree viewed the en-tire mar ch with more ins ightful wisdom thananyone else:

I wanted to stand up and be cou nt-ed. Anything that affec ts people a f-fects me. Look around yo u. Youn g

and old. Y ou know , you s it at hom ethinking nobod y cares. Then youcome out a nd see allthe se people whofeel just like you do.

He was talking , in part, about John andMinerva Massen , for they are the Directorsof the San Francisco Chapter of Amer icanAtheists. And, w e are allinexpressibly proudthat John and M inerva and Chapte r repre-sentativ es were there.

The next time that there is a demonstra -tion in your home town - we suggest youget your own sign, id entifying yourself as anAmerican Ath eist, and get in th ere with the

rest who care .Certainly BillTalley, the Director of theDenver, Colora do, Chapter does that with agreat deal of reg ularity. And he is alway saccompanied by a contingent of tha t Chap-ter. It was like that again on June 1 whenGovernor Dick Lamm went to curry voteswith the Roma n Catholic Church byme etingwith Cardin al John Krol, archbishop of thePhiladelphia s ee of t hat churc h, at a national Conference on Pornography in Denver .Krol w as intent on att acking anyone whowas trying to discredit religious lea ders,

Austin, Texas

God, and the Ten Commandments. Unde rthis criterion, allAtheists a re pornographersIn ·an inverse answer to t he query as towhether or not adult married couples shouldbe allowed to watch pornographic video-tapes in their own homes , the followingextraordinary statement was made by Kro '

No one is exempt from the la ws ofGod. No one has the right to dowrong. We can't push as ide moralstandards and set ou r own standa rds.That 's what Hitler did . [Emphasisadded .]

Of course, born again U .S. SurgeonGenera l Koop was the re to protest the rightofanyone to purchase and view, or purchaseand read , what they desired . He declared,

The Federal Communications Com-miss ion and the Fede ral Trade Com-mission should be look ing int o thisproblem .

It's not even a moral ity lesson. Andits impossib le for biblical apo logists torationalize it as anyt hing but an ob-scene, salacious , and degrading pieceof filth.

Talley nice ly put the Atheist pos itionwhen he noted that relig ious sexual repres-sion is w hat ails so ciety an d that the way tocombat o ffensive mate rials is through mo re honesty abou t sex and ethics, be-ginning in kindergarten and extendingthougho ut all of the American expe rience.

As viewed dispassionate ly from Austin, itgives a great sense of p ride and s atisfactionto see Ame rican Atheism come into its own .And we can only hope that whe n the reportof the July 4th blaspheme- in comes infrom t he Boston, Massac husett s, Chapter itwillbe stil l more good news . Good enough /news fo r you to be thin king about what youwant to carryon you r sign - whether you

are a picket line of on e person such as wasArnol d Via in Virgini a, Chris Dr ew inChicago , and (over twenty years ago)Madalyn O'Hair in Maryland, or ifyou are inwith a group ringing the Pen tagon withPeace P anels, walking with women for theE.R.A., or ch ampioning fr ee spee ch. Letthem all know t hat you are an AmericanAtheist and that Atheists care.

The San Francisco C hapter of Am erican Ath eists March for Peace during the SpringMobilization on Apri l 21, 1985.

That was about a ll that Bil l Ta lley had tohear. By that afternoon h e had assembled agroup of Atheis ts to give the Cardinal andKoop a bit of his own. W earing T-shirtsbearing a Ho ly Ghost -Buster emblem, thegroup had a smut r ead-in, strictly from theGood Book . Talley mo unted t he back end ofa truck draped wi th an Am erican flag andread obscene Biblepas sages. For one report-er he ela borated on th e story of Genesiswherein Lot commits incest with his two

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N E W S AND C O M M E N T S

Colorado Ame rican Atheists picket the National Conference on Pornography . Left toright : Tim Chambers ; John Pete rson; Gale Schreier; Bob Fenn ; BillTa lley, Chapte r Direc-tor; Edith Fenn ; Rob Granhold ; and Erica Bryne .

Our nation is sick. As other nations lookat it, they see , with disgust a nd fear, theterrorist n ation ofthe world , with the Nation-al Secur ity Council stationed in the WhiteHouse and the CIA on the Potomac pl ottingdestabiliza tions o f other nations , back ing upfascist mili tary regimes , actively ass isting inthe s laughter of civilians i n El Salvador, inNicaragua , in Lebanon, in the Philipp ines.

Reagan , as commander-in-chief ofthe armedservices, has engaged our mili tary in aggres-sive acts o f war inthe invasion of Grenada ,the naval shell ing of Lebanon , the blockad-ing of Nicaraguan por ts, and ground wa rs inAfghanistan and Central Amer ica.

We are a ba rbarian and law less interna-tional nuclea r armed bully ready to destro ythe world to force our willupon it.

--. A Ll P - Hf Tf'F T H E R E W ERE Y U

f G I O N IN '~ fA MIL Y~ is:

Page 8 September, 1985

Militarily we emulate the Hun . We hav eone allyonly : Israel , which sucks our bloo d.

Citizens of ou r nation , political and reli-gious illiterates , permit themselves to bemanipula ted by the most reactionary une du-ucated scum that has ever risen to the top of melting pot of America ~ the born again ers.

While we shed crocodile tears abou t ourthous ands of veterans who were exposed toAgent Orange inV ietnam (not really helpingthem at all) we say or do nothing about thatcountry s tillsuffering from the decimation ofits land base, its rural farm a reas and itscivilianpopulation because of that chemical .

While Reagan crushes the un ion move-ment in the United States he pr aises Po -land's Solidarity . The world k nows thatunion leaders in the United Stat es would begiven the Philadelphia solu tion ifthey triedwhat the CIA and Vat ican financed Les

Wale ska church-based S olidarity attemptedin Po land. American unions one after an-other have either been crushed or forced totake cut backs in pay as well as benefits .Runaway factories aban don employees andnorthern citie s taking flight to areas withcheapertaxe s and non-union la bor. Our land ,our w ater, our sky is polluted beyond recov-ery for profit taki ng as we worry about whowillwin the Nation al Leagu e Pennant .

Our nation is mi litariz ed at the expense ofhealth care , librar ies, educational institu-tions, adequ ate nutrition for a ll. The shrink-ing safety net of publ ic funded institutionswhich should aid persons who fall from the

system - vitally h urt by i t - is cut backdaily. Women, t he aged , the young, thehungry the opp ressed and the needy arebeing discarded .

The Mid dle Clas s itself is under attack but-- so artfu l is it that the membe rs of that class

do not know, even yet , that it is in the pro-cess of being phased out.

There are cries a gainst Ap artheid, butneither Watt s nor Miami has been rebuiltand unemployment among young Blackmales in many of o ur citie s reaches 50% . Noone gives a damn. In ev ery city of our nationone can see t he home less, the starvin g, theunemployed, the c hildren. Inner city androadway infra structure decay is a spector .

Yet, the most prestigious uni versity inourland, Harvard, gives the lauditory theme ofthe decade: M aximize profits.

> ;- ' In the midst of all of it the Atheist seekssome reco gnition to exist so that he can be apart ofthe solution, inhisown right, acknowl-edged for what he is - a caring human whowants to use his intellect to set things right .

We are proud of all the Atheists as theyput a t imid toe fo rward for in the final analy-sis we willprobably be the ones who comeup with the solut ions for the nation's ills .

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H. J Skutel

T HE T ORA H M ILIT A NTT H E A NT I H UM A NIST DOGM A OF

T HE ORT HODOX RIGH T

[TJhe Jewish chauvinism of the pres-ent time has very deep roots in thefanaticism of the Jewish religion, in theBible and even more in the Talmud.

Dr. Israel Shahak,chairperson of the Israeli League

for Human and Civil Rights

I response to the racist and terroristoutrages of Israel's religious extremistsand, more specifically, to the election to theKnesset of Rabbi Meir Kahane, voices havebeen raised in both Israel and the UnitedStates which, in contradistinction, purportto represent the spirit and tenets ofauthen-tic Judaism, To hear these Jewish notablestell it, Judaism has always been actuated bylofty considerations of universal love andjustice, which have been perverted by aminority of misguided zealots.

A particularly forceful enunciation of thisviewwas made by Haim Cohn, former Dep-uty President Emeritus of the SupremeCourt ofIsrael, inthe opening speech at thefounding conference of the InternationalCenter for Peace in the Middle East in TelAviv on December 15, 1982 . Cohn wasspeaking at a time when extremists amongIsrael's Orthodox were urging the annexa-tion ofSouth Lebanon, which they describedas the territories ofthe tribes ofNaftali andAsher and another part of Eretz Israel(i.e.,the Biblically-promised Land of Israel,stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates) .'

And what of Jewish morality? Wehave witnessed oflate (and not onlyof

late) manifestations of the Halacha[Orthodox religious law] being inter-

*1have chosen to use the term OrthodoxRight whereas there are many self-de-scribed Orthodox Jews who incline towardsa liberal interpretation of parts ofthe Scrip-tures . Roughly twenty percent of the IsraeliJewish population and ten percent of theNorth American Jewish population identifywith Orthodoxy.

Austin, Texas

preted to the effect that the Torah*was extolling wars and conquests, asif the people singled out to be thechosen people were indeed superiorto other peoples and had every rightto despise and subdue them . Wereject this distortion ·ofJudaism andits values .... We are determined tosee to it that Jewish ethics are rein-stated intheir glory . The greatest pre-cept of the Torah is that all mankindwas created in God's image, and weare enjoined to loveallmen who werecreated by the one God .

Subsequently, Rabbi Chaim Pearl, rabbiemeritus ofNew York 's Conservative AdathIsrael Synagogue, decried this freak unionof Torah and terror so destructive ofJew-ish ethical standards. 2 Dr . Israel Katz, headof Israel's Center for Social Policy Studies,admonished all moulders of public opinionto join forces . . . for the extirpation ofruthless practices and the preservation ofthe true humanistic Jewish values, whileIsrael's Attorney General Yitzhak Zamirinveighed against proponents of Kahan-ism, which is a distortion of Judaism,which strives for justice . 4

Infact, the ethical-universalism commonlyascribed to Judaism by well-meaning com-munal leaders and Zionist apologists is re-garded as unfounded, if not arrant heresy,by thousands of Orthodox and ultra-Or-thodox Jews who have proven the staunch-est supporters of right-wing politicians inIsrael and the U.S.5

Why is this so?The Reformist-Orthodox Schism

Over the centuries, observant Jews haveendeavored to adapt the rituals and mituahs

*Comprising for the Orthodox both the so-called Old Testament (Written Law) and thepost-Biblical compilation of laws and inter-pretations known as the Talmud (Oral Law) .

September , 1985

(commandments) of the Torah revealed atSinai to the changed circumstances of theDispersion. The loss ofthe Second Temple,priesthood, and sacrifices in the first centuryA.D. engendered Rabbinic Judaism (em-bracing all subsequent sects and tenden-cies), which substituted intheir stead prayer ,good deeds, and rigorous study of theTorah. National purity and collective moralperfection, it was believed, would entice theAlmighty to send a human Mess iah whowould ingather the exiles - this timeforever - in the Promised Land. Dur ing theMiddle Ages (the period of classical Juda-ism), in both the Christian world and theArab-Islamic world, but particularly in theformer, this biblically-inspired ethnocentrismwas enhanced as a consequence of Jewsbeing regarded as a theologically threat-ening minority, frequently subject to off i-cially instigated violence and despoliation.

Beginning in the latter part of the eigh-teenth century and continuing into the mid-nineteenth century, a number of GermanJewish intellectuals, among them philoso-pher Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) andhistorians Leopold Zunz (1794-1886) andAbraham Geiger (1810-1874), attempted toreconcile normative (i.e., Orthodox) Juda-ism with the secular rationalism of theEnlightenment .

In the new secular code of ethics di-vorced from religious beliefand independentof dogma promulgated by the eighteenthcentury philosophes, primary importancewas assigned to the love of humanity, aconcept already present in the teachings of

Christ, Seneca, and Montaigne, but whichnow exerted an unprecedented influence.sAccordingly, in the minds of many religiousJews the centrality of the Children of Israelin the divine Order and pining for the Mes-siah was supplanted by a new spirit ofhumanitarianism which maintained that greater joy and satisfaction was the rewardof those people endowed with a capacityfor love and compassion . . . beyond theirbiological pale. Evidence of this broadenedmoral and social vista appears in the mus-ings of Menasseh Ben Porath (1767-1831), a

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Jew livin g in present -day Byelorussia :

Assuming that the Creator, blessedbe He, wou ld one day place me, myfamily. and my beloved ones and rela-tives in a state of everlasting we ll-being, but there would s till remain evilinthe wor ld afflicting some livingcrea-tures, especially human beings, Isure-

ly woul d not choose to enjoy s uch alot. . . . What difference is therebetwe en me and all ot her creatures?All are His handiwork . As long asthere still remains even one livin gcreature that has not attained its rela-tive perfection ... it certainly is impos-sible to think t hat the final goal of abetter wor ld has been reached .

The cer emonial and liturgical reformsinitiated by the German maskilim (enlight-eners) became the ba sis of the JewishReform Movement which , by 1850 , becamethe dominant force in the religious lif e ofGerman Jewry. Contemporaneously , Ger-man-Jewish immi grants were establishingReform synago gues in the U .S.

In contr ast to the then-predominant Or-thodox v iew, the Reformists rejected thedoctrine of a persona l Messiah and Kash-ruth (dietary laws), recognized the sanct ityand validity of the two ot her revea led reli -gions, and most i mportant from an ethicalstandpoint, averred t hat the moral laws ofthe Hebrew Scriptures were universally ap-plicable . Indeed, at the Reform-led Pitts-burgh Conference i n November, 1885, itwas resolved that all mention of the return ofJewry to it s ancient homeland and restora -tion of th e Temple be expun ged from Re-form prayerbooks . The Pittsburgh platformproclaimed the doctrine of Israel 's prophet-directed universal mission to the nat ions anddenied that Jews were a nation in t heir ownright.

A cynical analysis of the motives and rami-fications ofRefo rmism isoffered byone Jew-ish commentator :

The term prophetic Judaism wasfirst put into circulation by the earlyReform rabbis in Germany and wastheir warrant for housebreaking Juda -

ism for t he acculturated upper classand its social satellites by spaying itofits ric hest traditions and ethnic vigor .Furthermore , the term provided theacculturated Jew w ith the conceit thathis obscene pursuit of social ac cep-tance by his Christ ian peers h ad adivinely-preordained higher purpose .... The prophetic Jew gravita tes, inpolitics, to the liberal w ingofhis c oun-try's Establishment , while his ch ildrensomet imes tu rn from the parentalbourgeois env ironment ... to Popu-lism or m ore formal radical d octrines ,

Page 10

a process wh ich produced LeonTrotsky and Rosa Luxemburg ... aswell as the young Jews on the Ameri-can campus today who ... empathizewith Black Panther anti -Semitism andwith Al-Fatah. 8

Needless to say, Reform Judaism, trauma-tized by Nazi anti- Semitism and the re vela-

tions of the Holocaust, su bsequently joinedthe other branche s of Judaism (excludingcertain anti-Zioni st Hassidic sects)* in itssupport for political Zionism .

Meanwhile, Orthodoxy , with its Talmud icfundamentalism , remained, for the mos tpart , firmly ensconced among the insularshetI (little town) Jews of Eastern Europe .Professor Shubert Sp ero of Israel 's Ortho-dox-run Bar-I lan University, de lineates thepsycho-ideological supports w hich under liethe Orthodox -extremist out look:

Fundamentalism consists ofa rig -id, literalistic approach to the Bibleand to rabbinic teachings, w ithout themediation of an historica l perspective.Example : the argument that re tainingYamit [returned to Egypt in April,1982] , Sidon [in southern Lebanon] ,and Hebron [on the West Bank] mustbe fought for with eq ual zeal becauseall three are inc luded in the borders ofthe Land of Israel as promise d by Godto Abraham .

Particularism constitutes a focus-ing on God , Torah, and Israel intermswhich completely block out the widerworld with its concerns , outlooks , andability to affect Israe l.

Authoritariani sm . . . tends todesensiti ze one to t he normal prompt-ings ofreason and morality. Ifa ll ques-tions are answere d in terms of per-mitted or fo rbidden, w ith obed i-ence to a hi gher authority the over-riding virtue, then the power of theindividual to discriminate betweenwhat is normal and immoral, intelli -gent and foolish is progressivelydeadened .

Not surprising ly, the Reformist threat wasgreeted with intractable hostility by the tra -

ditionalist leaders , as may be seen from thepronouncement by a group of nineteenth-century Polish ra bbis in t he city of Lissa :

All commandments and prohibi-tions contained inthe books ofMoses ,and that, too, in the form that they

*Thousands of ultra-Orthodo x Jews rejectpolitical Zionism, maintain ing that the Je w-ish national home can, properly sp eaking,only be rec onstituted by the Mess iah.

September , 1985

have rece ived byTalmu dic interpreta -tion, are ofdivine ori gin, binding for al ltime upon the Jew , and not one o fthese commandments or prohibitions ,be its character what it may, can everbe abolished o r modified by anyhuman authority. 10

Nor has the Ort hodox attitude concern -

ing the inviolability of the Scriptureschanged . [T]he whole Conservative a ndReform so-called approac hes to Torah andHalacha [are] abs olutely groundless , erro-neous , without any vestige of truth, de-signed to deceiv e the inexperienced, fulmi-nates an eminent Talmud ist, Dr. ChaimZimmerman . In a joint statement den ounc-ing Aba Ebban 's portrayal of Juda ism intheAutumn , 1984, PBS s eries Heritage : Civili-zation and the Jews five major Orth odoxorganizations assai led the Jewish S tate'smost art iculate defender for sugges ting oursacred Torah i s a man-au thored work ,incorpora ting myth and legend , of our faithas a slowly evo lved invention, and our God-given Halacha as a changeable sy stem ... The st atement wen t on to say that, A pre-sentation ofJudaism deriv ing from a secularhistorical, cultural , and humanis tic view -point , no matte r how laudato ry, misses theentire focus and axis of Jewish history . '

Now, the Talmudic interpretation s re-ferred to bythe aforecited Polish rabbis hav eproved a continuous source of emba rrass-ment for progressive Jews . As Dr . IsraelShahak has shown in a cou rageous s tudy,the Torah and certain quas i-canon ical, post-Talmud ic literature (no less esteemed by theOrthodox) abound with dubious , if notclearly deroga tory, referen ces to non-Jews .12 This is least of all eviden t to theassimilated North Am erican or lio n-Ortho-dox Jew, familiar on ly with the EnglishMasoretic text of the Bi ble.

[W]hen Ortho dox Jews today (or allJews before about 1780) read the Bible , theyare reading a very different book , with atotally different meaning, from the Bible asread by non-Jews or non-Orthodox Jews ,explains Shahak . ''This distinction applieseven inIsrael , although both part ies read thetext in Hebrew . Experien ce, particularlysince 1967 , has repeatedly c orroborated

this. Many Jews in Israel (and elsewhere)who ar e not Orthodox and have little de-tailed knowledge of the Jewish religion , havetried to shame Orthodox Israelis (or right-wingers who are st rongly influenced by reli-gion) out of their inhuman attitude towardsthe Palestinians by quot ing to them versesfrom the Bible in their pla in humane se nse. Itwas always found, howeve r, that such ar-guments do not have the sl ightes t effect onthose who follow classical Judaism . 13

In his book, A History Of Zionism (NewYo rk: Schocken, 1972) , Walter Laque urdescribes the profound discomfo rt expe-

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r ienced by the Jewish enlighteners duringthe nineteenth-centu ry per iod of Emanc ipa-tion as they str uggled to portr ay Judaism asa repos itory of un iversal humanist ic values ,

Much of the apologet ic literature con-centrated on refu ting anti-Semi tic attackson the Jew ish religion , but inth is respect theJewish l iberals we re on shak ier ground thanthey real ized, w rites Laqueur. The anti -

Semites red iscovered the Talmud and the[sixteenth-century] Shulkan A rukh [theautho ritative code of Orthod ox law]whe re-as the Jews had just about managed toforget them . Educated J ews of that genera -tion genu inely belie ved that 'their religionhad always taught uni versalist eth ics,' andthe genera l Jewish pub lic was ge nuinelyastonished and outraged when it realizedthat this was not so and that the Talmudincluded sayings and injunctions wh ich madestrange reading in the mode rn context

The Pure And The Impure

The ant i-humanist content of Orthodoxy ,accentuated in the hom ilies and declarationsof its right-wing adherents , derives first andforemost from the conception of the Jewishpeople as the Chosen ofGod. Those whointerpret the concept ofchosenness to meanthat the Jews chose G-d rather than thatG-d chose Israel, reveal their G-dlessness ,as well as their intellectual dishonesty , Rabbi Dr . Samuel Turk tells the over 200,000readers of New York's internationally-cir-culated , Engl ish-language Jewish Pressweekly . The whole Torah is permeatedwith the divine selection of Israel . 14

Inthe same paper, Rabbi Abraham Stone

expands on the idea of the Jewish people asthe cente rpiece of C reation , citing in theprocess the relevant Talmudic passages :

Indeed , G-d expresses an innatelove to each and every Jew , as Baal -Shem-Tov [the founder of the mys-tically-oriented Hassid ic movement]teaches . Thus, the creat ion of theworld - for the sake of the Jewishpeople (Ber . 1:1, Rashi) - is not onlyfor the sake ofKlalY isroel [the Jewishcollectiv ity] but is also intended foreach individual [Jew] . ...

For this reason each Jew is required

to say - f or my sake the world wascreated (Mishna , Sanhedri n 4:5).And, in the sa me vei n - Whoeversaves one Jew ish soul is regarded ashaving save d the entire world. For, ifeven on ly one Jew is missing , there issomething b asic lackin g in the entir eCreation. IS

I t is unfor tunate tha t Judaism has bee narbitrarily classified with allthe 'religio ns' ofthe earth , lamen ts Rabbi Dov Ahar oni-Fisch, until re cently Executi ve Director of

Austin, Texas

Herut Zionists of America . Only the Jewswere perso nally br iefed by god , asser tsFisch, the event conf irmed by millions oflive wi tnesses who stood at the foot ofMount Sinai. >

The assumpt ion that Jews , by v irtue o fbeing god 's chosen , are supe rior to non-Jews , informs the sp irit and content ofOrthodo x Right e xeget ics and popula r lit-

erature.In the birth o f Esau and Ja cob, Rabb iAbraham Hecht , president of the o ne-thousa nd-member Rabb inica l Counc il ofAmerica (the country's largest Orthodo xrabbin ical organization), d ivines the dichot-omy bet ween the Jew ish people and thegentile nations of the wor ld. Jacob , sermo n-izes Hecht ,

personif ies the Jewish people . He isdescr ibed as an innocent , perfec tman , dwelling in tents . In contrast ,Esau is ident ified as the embodimen tof the hunter, a man of the field.

Jacob represents the pu rity of learn -ing a nd the perfect ion of moral a ndethica l conduct in the serv ice of G-d ,while Esau demonstrates brute forceand beast-like cunning .

The Jew ish people , Hecht concludes , aretherefore a source of blessing to everynation and count ry which willrece ive them .Their superior knowledge and moral recti -tude creates the environment conducive tothe improvement of the way of life of thenations amongst whom they reside. 17

A leading propagandist of Jewish superi-ority is Yok heved Saks , a prolific Israeli

author (s ixty-ninebooks, o ne hundred thirty-eight plays , forty songs) of religious chil-dren's literature . Evilin her books regularlytakes the form of secularist Jews and Arabs .The latter are portrayed , in the words ofonereviewer, as having heavy hairy arms , atwisted mouth , black eyes shining with an-ger, they stink , they listen to noisy music .They have low morals , they maltreat chil-dren, they swear, they are cowards and ,worst of all , they steal from Jews . IB Inter-viewed at her residence in the Orthodox -dominated city of Bne i Brak, north of TelAviv , Saks synopsized her viewof humanity : I think that the Arabs have a very clear

mentality : they a re Arabs . I never heard astory of an Arab who s uffered an inju rybecause he defended a child or a wo man.But t his judgme nt does not conce rn Arabsonly. They are not worse than Germans.Americans and Europeans are more polite,but they are also morally inf erior. I think thatwe are a superior race .... 19

The Man ichean perception of Jew andnon-Jew as bearer s, respectively, of humanand anim al natures, mo ral/spirit ual as op-posed to an instinctua l predisposition, origi-nates in the ca nonical and quasi -canonica l

September, 1985

writings in which Orthodo x learning ha s forcentu ries been steeped . Severa l canonicalpassages compare non-Je ws to an imals (i,e.,Berakhot 58a , Kiddushi n 68a, Ezekiel23:20),20 and , in fact , the Yi ddish wordShaygets, denoting a gentile boy or youngman , i s derived from the Heb rew Shegetzwhich , according to the Meggido ModemHebrew -English Dict iona ry, published in

Israel, means : unclean an imal; loathsomecreatu re; abominat ion and , final ly, wretch ;unruly youngs ter; gentile youngster. 21

Regard ing the sub -human , inherently im-pure nature o f non-Jews, the revered twelfth-century Jew ish sage Maimon ides (Ramban),says the fol lowing:

[A] Ge ntile does not contractcorpse unclea nness ; and if a Gentiletouches, carries , or ove rshadows acorpse he is a s one who d id not touchit. To what i s this like? It is like a beastwhich touches a corpse o r overshad-ows it. And th is applies not to corpse

uncleanness only , but to any otherkind of uncleanness : neither Gentilesnor cattle a re suscept ible to any un-cleanness .... Of al l animated crea-tures there is no spe cies which, whileyet alive, cont racts ... uncl eannessexcept a man alone , provided he is anIsraelite . .

[T]he Sages have dec reed, M aimonideswrites further on , that all Gentiles, maleand female ... convey u ncleanness like menwith a flux in every respect , provided thatthe male is aged n ine years a nd a day ormore and the female th ree yea rs and a da y

or more . 23 Acco rdingly , the abridged codi-fication of Orthodox law , the Kitzur Shulha nAruh, found in nearly ever y Orthodo x home,cautions the Orthodox woman upon le avingthe mikueh (purificato ry bath) to

take precaution to ha ve one of herfriends meet her and touch he r, sothat no unknown thing such as a dog ,an ass , a pig , a horse, a lepe r, or evenan ignorant [irrelig ious] person o r aheathen [no n-Jew] would meet herfirst. If any of the se do mee t her, aGod-fearing woman should performthe immers ion aga in.24 -

Numerous s imilar examp les of gentile-avoida nce can be cited from the variouspopular gu ides for the obse rvant

The uncleanl iness of the goyim and th econcomitant imperative that the Chosendefend themselves from all cont aminatinginfluences, expl ains the Orthodox-extrem-ists' abh orrence to intermarriage or, asRabbi Kahane has made clear, to any inti-mate commin gling between Jew and non-Jew. In Beersheba and Dimona itisnot onlyArabs who bed Jewi sh girls . I t is als o Black

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Hebrews [Negroes from the United Statesnot recognized as Jews] and the Portugueseworkers on the Negev bases, Kahane wrotethree years ago in his column (still continu-ing) in the Jewish Press . In Nahariya andTel Aviv, it isalso UN soldiers . In allof EretzYisrael there is abomination and desecra-tion. ...

In December, 1983, Israeli rabbi EphraimZalmanovitch, head ofthe Institute for Exam-ining Social Problems in the Eyes of theHalacha, ruled that Arabs should not bepermitted to buy flats inhouses where Jewslive. Zalmanovitch's decision, submitted forconsideration to the Minister of Housing,was prompted bythe demands ofthe Jewishresidents of the so -called Coptic QuarterofJaffa that non -J.ews should not be permit-ted to settle in a new building in that neigh -borhood. A similar ruling by Rabbi YosephYashar, the Ashkenzai (European) ChiefRabbi of Acre, decreed that the 137 Arabfamilies which already live in the suburb ofKiryat Wolfson should be expelled and

other Arab families prevented from livingthere in the future. 26Meanwhile, Rabbi Kahane, who enjoys

the support ofnumerous right-wingers intheKnesset, continues to agitate for legislationreminiscent of the 1935 Nazi racial puritylaws, which would impose fines and impris-onment on any non-Jew having sexual rela-tions with a Jew. In keeping with Talmudiclaw, Kahane has suggested flogging for theoffending Jew .

In a Jewish Press article (August 3,1984)entitled Is She Jewish? , written inthe formof an open letter, the fictive writer, Steve,beseeches his cousin Andy not to go through

with his contemplated marriage to a non-Jewish girl . All manner of fearsome pros-pects are evoked to discourage the waywardyoung man: Goyish children, burial of hiswife and children ina non -Jewish cemetery,misery for his parents, etc. But exactlywhere in the scale of Creation this non-Jewish girl stands is best suggested by thepiteous supplication to Andy: Don't throwyour glorious holy heritage in the toilet .

Jews wishing to battle against the plagueofintermarriage can join Hineni (Here Iam),an 18,OOO-memberNew York-based inter-national organization founded in 1973 bythe glamorous Orthodox revivalist andHolocaust survivor Rebbetzin Esther Jun-greis. Jewish purity, preaches Jungreis, isindispensable for the fulfillment of Jewishdestiny. The Jew has been designated toserve as the conscience of mankind, sherhapsodizes inone ofher inspirational book -lets, with a mission to educate and elevateman to the heights ofcompassion, righteous-ness, and brotherhood. A Zionist militantwho describes the Arabs as renowned fortheir thievery , the Rebbetzin (wife of anOrthodox rabbi) can be seen Sunday after-noons on television in five hundred cities,

Page 12

coast to coast . Recommended reading for Jewish par-

ents is How to Stop an Intermarriage (NewYork: Feldheim, 1984)by Oregon-born rabbiKalman Packouz, described on the backcover as an internationally renowned ex-pert on intermarriage prevention . In a reso-lute, matter-of-fact tone, Packouz proffers avariety of polemical and even physicallycoercive devices for thwarting a mixed mar-riage. One strategem calls for the rabbi con -cerned to ask the future bride (a Gentiledeemed ready for conversion) to repeatafter him a statement offensive to non-Jews . The essence of this method , explainsPackouz, isto pit the non-Jew's latent anti-Semitism and love for her religion againsther self-image as a would-be Jew.

According to a March 13, 1984, report byIsrael Shahak, certain Orthodox rabbis inIsrael require the prospective convert to spit on the Crucifix or before a Church toprove their allegiance to Judaism .

The Orthodox Right's obsession with the

Hebraic authenticity of one's antecedentshas now been wedded to computer technol-ogy. Operating out ofa three-story buildingin Brooklyn, New York, Rabbi Naftali Hal-berstam, assisted by six researchers, oper-ates the World Jewish Geneological Organi-zation (Yochsin Institute), designed to tracethe lineage of individualJews. At present, hiscomputer database contains the names andfamily histories of about 100,000 Jews. Therabbi, a prominent Hassidic leader whoclaims to have -traced his own lineage backto King David, believes there willbe a morepressing need for ancestral investigation inlight of the Reform decision to accept as

Jews children born of a non-Jewish mothermarried to a Jewish father . With the sophisticated research tools

made available by our system , says RobertKatz, manager of the J.G.O ., it is now pos-sible to trace back familyhistories to Adam,the first man. 27

In short, all non-Jews in Orthodox lawremain strangers forever, with inferior sta-tus, until they are converted in accordancewith the rigorous and, some would argue,demeaning criteria of the Halacha (e.g.,immersion ofa naked female convert infrontof three rabbis) . In Israel, non-Jews whoabide by the seven Noachide command-

ments (i.e., establish courts of justice andforswear idolatry, murder, stealing, incest,blasphemy, and the eating offlesh torn froma living animal) receive the status of GerToshav (resident alien) and are allowed tolive under conditions of accepted inferiority

*According to researchers at the AmericanJewish Committee, 12-16,000conversions ayear are performed by non-Orthodox rab-bis, 2-3,000 by Orthodox ones.

September, 1985

among Jews. As Gershom Schoken , editorof Ha'a retz (October 19, 1984) explains , in aJewish state run instrict conformity with theHalacha there shall be no objection to therestoration of slavery. In fact, it is question-able whether in such a religiously-chargedatmosphere Christians would even qualifyfor resident alien status. A pamphlet en -titled When a Jew Becomes a Christian , written by the late highly-respected Rabb iAryeh Kaplan and published by the Nationa lConference of Synagogue Youth (the four-thousand-member youth movement of theUnion of Orthodox Jewish Congregationsof America), reads in part :

Christians claim that [the] three-part god that they worship isthe sameas the God worshipped by the Jews.This is not true. The Bible states(Deuteronomy 6:4), Hear Israel,the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd isOne. ... Idolatry does not necessar-ily mean worshipping a god of stone

and wood .... The three-part god ofChristianity is not the G-d of Ju-daism .... Christianity for a Jew is aform of idolatry ...

Hence, so long as Christians persist inworshipping Jesus as god incarnate, more-over adorning their homes and sanctuarieswith graven images of him and those ofnumerous saints, Christians would ipso fac-to remain idolaters whose presence in Israelwould constitute, in Orthodox law , hillulha'shem - a desecration of god 's name .

If there is a group that wants to putbombs in Christian establishments , which

are a disgrace to Israel, you won't expect meto be against them , declares a West Bankcomputer programmer and supporter ofMeir Kahane.P

It is saddening that the long-persecutedEthiopian Jews willnow be able to join withtheir Israeli co-religionists in a shared aver-sion to Israeli non-Jews. The Arabs are evilinthe eyes ofthe Ethiopians . They are some-thing inferior and bad which one must takecare to avoid, reads a January 7 report inAlHamishmar. In defending the Jewishness ofthe Falashas, Rabbi David Shloush, Sephar -die (Oriental) chief rabbi of Natanya, notesapprovingly how it was their practice in

Ethiopia to purify themselves after asso-ciating with non-Jews at the market, andhow they initiallyrefused to pray on Mt. Zion because of the proximity of a church. 29

The Sanctity of (Jewish) Life

A popularly-held belief, reinforced byscores ofpost -Reform Jewish historians andexegetes and their well-meaning, ifignorant,Christian counterparts, is that Judaism , inall its parts, has always regarded both Jew-ish and non-Jewish lifeas sacred.

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The un ique status and stature of ma n is adominant feature of Biblical and rabbinicmorality , writes Hebrew University ph ilos-opher Dr. David Hartman. In the Talmud ,the fact that Adam was or iginally createdalone was intended to teach tha t he whosaved a single lifeshould be regarded as ifhehad saved an entire wo rld, and he who de-stroyed a single life should be regarded ashaving destroyed an entire wo rld. 30

The former Israeli Defense Minister (nowMinister of Industry and Trade) ArielSharon , alluded to this concept during hisrecent libel trial against Time magazine . ATime article (February 21 , 1983)alleged thatSharon had encouraged Lebanese Phalan-gists in September, 1982, to k ill Palestiniancivilians in the Sabra and Shat illa refugeecamps in revenge for the assassination ofLebanese President -elect Bashir Gemayel .Sharon, an early patron of the Gush Emu-nim and himself the known perpetrator ofnumerous attacks on Arab civilians,testifiedin his defense that high moral values hadguided his long military career and thathuman life had always been the mostimportant thing in the religion , culture , andeducation of the Jewish state.

In fact, Orthodox fanatics regard as ludi -crous any notion of the coequal value ofJewish and non-Jewish life . According totheir reading of the Talmud, any acts ofdecency to non-Jews are done to forestalltheir host ility (i .e., for the sake of peace , in the interests ofpeace , etc.) or to secure

or enhance Jewish p rosperity . (Jewish apos-tates , on the other hand, are deemed unde-serving of even feigned goodwill ) Thesefundamentalis ts point, for example , to pas-

sages advising that , one is not obliged tobring them [idolators] up [from the pit],though one must not cast them down [intoit] (Avodah Zarah , 26b) ; that An Israelitewoman should not act as a midw ife to aheathen , because she delivers a child toidolatry (Avodah Zarah, 26a), and toMaimon ides (Mishna Torah , Sabbath , 2,20-21) whe re it is held pe rmissible to violatethe Sabbath when the possibility exists thatan Israelite may be under a col lapsedbuilding, and not a heathen - even ifi tbe a thousand heathens . A rab life , specifi -cally , is cons idered i rrelevant on the basis ofSukkah, 52b, stating that one of the four

things wh ich god repents that He hadcreated are the Ishmaelites .

Anxious lest these antiquated socia l cate-gories and retrograde p recepts langu ish andwither away in obscur ity, the med ievalists ofthe Orthod ox Right d utifully resuscitate andinfuse them w ith fresh leg itimacy in homi-letic d iscourses read b y thousands. *

*Contras t this situation with the assessmentofCa tholicism 's changed view of Jews o ver

Austin, Texas

Thou shalt not stand id ly by the blood ofthy neighbor (Leviticus 19:16), explainsRabbi Dr . Samuel Turk , o bligates us not toact indi fferently when ou r fellow Jew is inmortal danger . ... What the Torah asks ,Turk conti nues, is that there shal l exist aspirit o f friendship between one Jew andanothe r. 32

The Habad Hass id, Rabbi Shmuel But -man, one ofthe thousands ofultra-Orthodo xfollowers of the famed Lubavitcher Rebbe ,Menachem Schneerson (honored by RonaldReagan on April 13 , 1984, for his moral andspiritual wisdom ), elaborates on prec iselywho among our fellow men is to be loved:

Everything in the world revolvesaround and is dependent upon Jewsand their conduct . ... Prefacing pray -ers with a declaration ofintent to loveone's fellow induces G-d to fulfilltherequests made in prayer . Just as afather is happy when all his childrenlivetogether in harmony , and hastensto fulfilltheir desires, so G-d complieswith our requests in prayers when Hischildren - all Jews - live in peaceand brotherly love .... The utteranceof Ihereby take upon myself to fulfillthe mitzvah, 'love your fellowas you r-self is obviously an expression oflove and un ity between Jews .33

Widespread acceptance ofthese morally -circumsc ribed attitudes among Orthodoxy 'sfuture edu cators and spir itual leaders issug -gested by an anecdote from the liberally -inclined Rabb i Steven Risk in of New York 'sLincoln Square Synagogue :

When Mesiv ta Ohr To rah - Man-hattan Hebrew High Schools - wereabout to open nine years ago , I inter -viewed approximately one dozenrabbinic candidates from major yeshi-vot [religious colleges] throughout thecountry. One ofthe questions Iaskedwas: If you prepay for an electricshaver at a gent ile-owned departmentstore and receive two shavers in the

the past twenty years from Rabb i A.

James Rudin , director of i nterrel igiousaffairs for the Amer ican Jew ish Com-mittee (Op Ed page, New York Times,February 23 , 1985): American Catholictextbooks have been purged of anti-Jewish mater ial, anti-Semitic prayers arebeing removed from liturgy , and seminar -ies are changing their teachings abo utJews and Judaism . Wit h the 'teaching ofcontempt' about Jews a nd Juda ism co n-demned, many young people cannot re-membe r the animus that once poisonedrelations.

Septemb er, 1985

mail, what s hould you do with th esecond shave r? Much to my sho ckand chagr in, all but one of these m us-makhim [holders of rabbinical de-grees] main tained that the secondshaver was to be kep t as wel l, and anumber even insisted tha t it was for-bidden to return the shave r, as onedare not strengthen the hand of theGenti le. Needless to say , the onecandidate who insisted that the sha verbe returned w ith a note explain ingthat, as an Orthodox Jew, it is forb id-den to keep property which o ne didnot pay for - thus inject ing the in-junction to sanctify God's Name intheeyes of the gentile world - rece ivedthe position .P

Interviews with ultra -Ortho dox Israeliyoungsters indicate the horrific en d to whicha brutally particularistic e thos may lead.Comments one teenage stude nt in BneiBrak : Inspite of the fact that A riel Sharon isnot only a secular person but e ven eats non-kosher food , he does not vio lently opp osereligion , and perhaps w ithout his knowingthis, his opinions abo ut the Arabs aresomewhat s imilar to the op inions ofthe reli-gious Jews . The opinions o f the religiousJews are that all Arabs s hould be killed. 35Asked in another interview when the Mes-siah would come , a ten-year-old girl in Jeru-salem replied : This is well known. After wekillall the goyim. How d id she know? Fromschool . And her fathe r, who studies duringthe day and teaches ot hers in the eve-nings .... her father who knows so much,confirms th is. It is so wri tten. 36 Studies

done in recent years , advises edu cationalpsychologist D r. K. Benyam ini, show adeterioration in the image ofthe Israel i Arab.Religious children a re more extreme in theirnegative attitude towards the Arab . 37

When addressing kindred hearts , repre-sentatives of the Ort hodox Righ t shame -lessly e xalt the selective spirit of compass ionand tolerance to which they subscr ibe, whilepointing to the necessity for moderation lestthe wrath of the Ge ntiles be aroused. *Speaking at the 1984 convention of theNationa l Counc il of Young Israel (whose

*But not always . When a Jewish Pressreader, a newsstand operato r, complained(January 13 , 1984) to columnist Rabb i Abra-ham S tone that his anti-gen tile commentar-ies would only bring out p rovocations anddisrespect f rom no n-Jews who were pur-chas ing the Press from his newsstand, Stonelashed back : How long must Jews live witha galut [exile] mentalit y? It's high time thatJews worry less wha t non-Jews might think- as long as we do the right thi ng as pre-scribed in the Torah ....

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member synagogues serve over 200,000Orthodox Jews), New York Rabbi AryehRalbag, according to one report,

emphasized the overriding impor-tance of avoiding antagonizing thenon-Jewish world to the point ofincit-ing more dangerous attacks againstIsrael and the Jewish people. For that

reason, classical Torah scholars had,for instance, permitted Jewish doc-tors to desecrate the Sabbath to savenon-Jewish lives, even though such adispensation is not normally part ofJewish law . Thus, Rabbi Ralbag rea-soned , the government of the State ofIsrael may be justified in protecting,for instance, the Moslem mosques onthe Temple Mount inJerusalem, eventhough there isa mitzvah inthe Torahto destroy the shrines of non-Jewishreligions in Israel . 38

Two months later, in a scathing attack in

the Jerusalem Post (Int . Ed.), Henry Sieg-man, executive director of the AmericanJewish Congress, deplored the ambivalentresponse to Jewish terrorism from theOrthodox community in the U.S., no lessthan in Israel . Repugnance for Jewish ter-ror, Siegman noted, was most pronouncedamong Israeli secularists. The Orthodox

. response, on the other hand, he continued,

seems to suggest that for this seg-ment of the community (i.e., thosewho are most observant of religiouslaw and ritual), non-Jewish lifeis lessvaluable than Jewish life. Indeed, forsome it seems to be virtually worth-less, except for the concern of mayomru hagoyim (what will the non-Jews say?). What this says about the ·ethical standards of Orthodox Juda-ism is painful to contemplate .

Reformism Not Enough

The presence of anti-humanist tendenciesinJudaism, blatantly propagated by a smallnumber of influential voices among theOrthodox, must be vociferously repudiatedby progressive Jews. Anything less rendershypocritical the work of the Anti-DefamationLeague, the past fusillades of indignationlevelled at Jesse Jackson and Louis Farak-han, efforts to further Jewish-Christian dia-logue, and repeated evocations of theHolocaust, predicated as it was on a racialsupremacist ideology. Moreover, insupport-ably deficient is any critique of politicalZionism which ignores the wellsprings ofscripturally-based exclusivism from which itdraws.

There are in Judaism elements of dis-crimination and hostility against Gentilesthat were written as religious 'musts' and

Page 14

'decrees ,' writes Hebrew University Pro-fessor Yehoshafat Harkabi in Ha'aretz(August 9, 1984) . It is from them thatKahane draws his power more than from hissupporters .... As long as the Jews were aminority in a gentile area, they couldn'tafford to take hostile stands to the goyim.But once we had the power in our hands andwe again became an active element in his-

tory, these elements in our tradition beganto bloom . Itisconceivable that for many Jews, how-

ever liberal and humanistic they considerthemselves, a forthright confrontation withthe pernicious assumptions ofthe OrthodoxRight willprecipitate a painful reexaminationofthe scriptural components oftheir Jewishidentity. More important, however, is themuch-needed soul-searching which a ground-swell of progressive-inspired incriminationwillhopefully provoke inthe extremist camp.

Meanwhile, it is unreasonable to expectthat non-Jews (anymore than the majority ofsecular Jews) are capable of identifying the

doctrinal and ritualistic features which dis-tinguish the various tendencies in Judaism .Given, therefore, the bravado ofthe extrem-ist rabbis, and in the absence of any vigor-ous, sustained censure, there is the abidingdanger that the self-serving, tribalistic ethicsofthe Orthodox Rightwillbe seized upon bythe ill-informed or demagogic and be attrib-uted to Jews collectively .

References

1. From an advertisement by Gush Emu-nim (Bloc ofthe Faithful) in Ma'ariv, October3,1982 . .

2. Opinion page, Jerusalem Post (Int. Ed.),.June 24-July 1, 1984.

3. Quoted in David Krivine, Living withViolence , Ibid., July 2-8, 1984 .

4. The Danger of Kahanism,' Ibid., weekending December 22, 1984.

5. Hanna Kim, A Conservative Society , Al Hamishmar, March 28, 1984. See alsointerviews with Jewish-American supportersofSharon in Tel Avivweekly Koteret Rashit(January 30, 1985), wherein an Orthodoxmerchant tells the paper's New York cor-respondent Michael Shemer, Since the six-ties there has been a change here . Then (theJews) voted for Democrats, nd their(Israeli) idols were Abba Eban and PinhasSapir . Today the Jews vote for Republicansand even for the more extreme amongthem.

Ronald Reagan's liaison with the Jewishcommunity is former law professor Dr .Marshall Breger, an Orthodox Jew .. 6. Henri Peyre , The Influence of 18th Cen-tury Ideas on The French Revolution , Journal of The History ofIdeas, Vol . 4,1949 ,p.74.

7. Quoted in Isaac E. Barzilay, Menassehof Iiya and The Enlightenment, Jewish

September , 1985

Social Studies, Winter 1984, p. 6 .8. Judd L . Teller, The Jewish Experience

with Liberalism, Judaism, Winter 1972,p.47.

9. Messianism in Context, JerusalemPost (Int. Ed.) , June 24-July 1, 1984 .

10. Quoted in David Philipson, The ReformMovement in Judaism (New York: Macmi l-lan, 1907), p. 82.

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american atheist magazine sep 1985

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