In his defense of the National Council of Young Israel, Abe Krieger (Letters, Nov. 18) feels it necessary to take two low blows towards his fellow Jews. He says anyone unhappy with his or her local Young Israel should “walk or drive down the block to the Conservative Temple.”
I attended an Orthodox shul for the first 24 years of my life and have attended a Conservative shul for the last 13. I’m not sure how many Conservative Jews Krieger socializes with, but every one of them that I daven alongside refers to it as their “shul” or “synagogue.” To try and demean the movement through silly word game seems bitter and trite.
Secondly, he clearly wanted to take a dig at the level of “hashkafa” [religious practice] within the movement when he added “or drive” at the end of his point. Its sad that Krieger feels the need to demean his fellow Jews in order to get his point across, but maybe he was late to his shul the day the baal koreh [Torah reader] read Leviticus 19:18.
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