Op-Eds

Look, let’s call it fair and square: I would not have handled the request the way Prof. Klein did. Maybe because I also am a rabbi, I try to manifest a certain sensitivity for students in certain situations that perhaps other professors understandably do not. Prof. Klein handled it his way, with a bit less aplomb. But, for goodness sakes, he did not deserve to be suspended!

The Black Civil Rights movement of 70 and 60 years ago was one of the holiest, most righteous movements in human history. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, on the other hand, took shape in the aftermath of the George Zimmerman incident in Florida and the subsequent Michael Brown incident in Ferguson, Missouri. In both cases, the media narrative that dominated America’s television airwaves and print journals proved to be one after another litany of pure lies.

Although my wife and I are proud residents of the great New York City urban wonder, we realize that our children desperately need a change of scenery during the summer. They need to be in a place they can play, relax, reenergize and be inspired. While day camps provide this experience for younger children, children beyond this age are stuck; the one place they can go for a summer break is sleepaway camp.

We all know the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. It is not just a children’s story. Rather, it is an eternal story about human nature. If people are surrounded by a mass or a mob who speak nonsense as a Truth — with a capital “T” — then perfectly sensible people who internally know better will fall into line and babble the same “Truth.”

The Emperor is naked. And as to those who now proclaim “America has systemic racism,” that is a lie, a damned lie. It is a lie about America, and it is a damned lie about Americans. Racism is not “systemic” in America. It does not permeate the System. We Americans are a good people. We just are.

The ideal of Justice is characterized and epitomized by that blindfolded lady holding balanced scales. The lady can spend her time weighing the scales while blindfolded because she is not concerned that someone will throw a Molotov cocktail at her. The kind of vicious animal who would torch the restaurant of an innocent African-American family is an evil Satan.

For Orthodox Jews, prayer needs to occur at certain times, in a certain order, with a certain text and with certain participants. It is not up to us to make changes to suit our preferences.

The entire scene is so surreal and incredibly bizarre – so absolutely crazy – that it begs for explanation. Some have suggested that these politicians and their ilk in blue states have purposefully made things as bad as possible in an effort to destroy the country and thereby blame President Trump as we head into elections.

Rav Meir Kahane Hy”d (may G-d avenge his blood) was the bugaboo for the Israeli Left and their exaggerated cries that “Israeli Democracy” is imperiled. But the Left never lost the right to compete fully and to overthrow the freely expressed will of the majority, and Israeli democracy has not been infringed. Rather, the once-dominant Labor Party seems to have died on its own, the result of decades of wrong-headed policies, promulgated by party heads who were simply wrong.