Toward whose tradition? A once-obscure conservative Jewish group called Toward Tradition and an ad-hoc consortium of well-known liberal Jews have been duking it out recently in advertisements on The New York Times’ prominent op-ed page.
Each side has claimed to represent Judaism’s true teachings on current politics, especially in light of the changing political climate in the country.
The volley of ads – each of which costs $17,610 – has elevated Jewish political disagreements into the realm of religion.
At stake is more than winning a political disagreement, say participants.
According to Leonard Fein, an author of the liberal ad, at stake is whether Jews who may have no other connection to Jewish life but their work in the area of social justice will still view that as a legitimate expression of their Jewishness.
“It may lead them to choose not to affiliate with the community in any way if they perceive the community as being informed by or led by the right-wing ideology,” said Fein, a longtime activist on behalf of liberal causes.
According to Rabbi Daniel Lapin, founder of Toward Tradition, which began the exchange with an ad placed on Dec. 16, at stake is the Jewish voice in the future of America’s conservative government.
The Toward Tradition ad was headlined “Mazel Tov Speaker Gingrich – We Know All About 10 Point Contracts.” It lauded incoming Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s conservative “Contract with America” as being rooted in Jewish values.
The ad said that “Judaism is a conservative and traditional religion.”
“We believe in such things as fewer government regulations,” the ad continued.
It also said that Jewish tradition “requires charity to be administered locally and for it never to foster dependency,” thereby linking Torah to the Republican platform of smaller government and a substantially limited welfare system.
The ad was signed by 51 conservatives, including Heritage Foundation analyst Marshall Breger, columnist Mona Charen and movie critic Michael Medved.
The liberals’ Jan. 3 retort was placed by a group calling itself the Ad Hoc Jewish Coalition for Social Justice. Most of the coalition’s members are well- known for their liberal credentials.
They included Fein, Conservative Rabbis Arthur Hertzberg and Harold Schulweis, Reform Rabbis Alexander Schindler and David Saperstein, Reconstructionist Rabbi David Teutsch and a lone-Orthodox rabbi, Walter Wurzburger.
They countered Toward Tradition by writing that “Judaism’s core political commitment is to the pursuit of justice.
“It is precisely because we hold both the American and the Jewish traditions dear that we oppose the current mean-spirited turn from a politics of justice, equity and compassion,” the ad read.
“That is the politics our traditions imply; that is the politics most American Jews endorse. It is a politics sharply at odds with the assumptions and policies of the Republican Contract with America.”
The exchange of ads once again places the spotlight on Toward Tradition, led by Lapin from Mercer Island, Wash. Until recently, it was a tiny and nearly unknown group.
The organization has benefited from the shift in political winds that gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress in November’s elections.
Since then, the group has been enjoying “a phenomenal amount of visibility,” which is leading to “enormous growth,” according to Lapin.
Toward Tradition’s new magazine, “Perspectives,” has 12,000 subscribers, says Lapin, and the organization has a 1995 budget of $620,000 – a 50 percent increase over 1994.
Lapin has fired a public relations company and plans to open offices in Washington and New York in the coming months.
More ads in The New York Times are also on Lapin’s agenda.
Both Saperstein and Fein said that Toward Tradition’s ads are important not because of the organization’s growth but because of the way ads on the pages of The New York Times shape the opinion of the public and elected officials.
The Toward Tradition ad last month “misrepresented to Jews and to political leaders of both parties where Jews stand at this crossroads in American political life,” said Saperstein.
“By every measurable standard – voting patterns, positions taken by Jewish organizations – in the whole, the Jewish community has remained absolutely consistent over the last 60 years in its abiding commitment to a government playing a central role in shaping a more just and compassionate America,” said Saperstein, director of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center.
By contrast, Rabbi Samuel Dresner, a disciple of the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, signed on to the conservative ad.
Dresner, a visiting professor of philosophy at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, said he saw no dissonance between his views and those of his teacher. Heschel was a noted leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and a prominent activist on behalf of liberal political causes.
Heschel, Dresner said, would have become more politically conservative had he lived longer. “He too would have modified his positions,” said Dresner, who studied with Heschel from 1942 until his death in 1972.
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