Orthodox Jewish Leaders Suggest Establishing Mechanism to Enforce Ethics in the Orthodox Community

Orthodox Jewish leaders discussed the suggestion of establishing a self-policing mechanism to enforce ethics within the Orthodox Jewish community at a Sabbath evening forum of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (UOJCA) national convention here. The session was one aspect of the convention’s theme, “Jewish Priorities for the Eighties: Towards an Orthodox Renaissance,” whose aim was to launch a massive, two-year effort to draft a master plan for the Jewish community in the decades ahead.

Rabbi Maurice Lamm, of Congregation Beth Jacob, Beverly Hills, California, stated that “the Jewish community must develop a built-in mechanism designed to prevent those who are proven of civil and moral crimes from holding positions of trust in the community. ” He suggested two specific measures to deal with the problem, which he described as “pragmatic” and “educational.”

The pragmatic approach calls for the incorporation of “a specific by-law or amendment, which would automatically remove any officer or member of a governing body upon conviction of a felony, even before sentencing.” Lamm explained that the main advantage of this approach is that “since it would not be directed against any specific individual, it would likely be adopted unanimously by virtually all Jewish organizations.”

Lamm’s educational approach calls for “a special intensive curriculum of “mussar” (traditional Jewish ethics) studies to be instituted in all of our schools, with added incentives and rewards for students whose “midos” (personal ethical standards of behavior) excel.” He expressed the hope that through such an intensive educational program further ethical embarrassments in the Jewish community can be avoided.

CALLS FOR NATIONAL BET DIN

Rabbi J. David Bleich, of the Yorkville Synagogue and Yeshiva University in New York, called for the establishment of a national Bet Din (ecclesiastic court) composed of rabbinic authorities designated by each of the four major Orthodox rabbinic organizations in the United States. This body would be empowered to deal authoritatively with the many halachic and ethical issues facing the Jewish community.

Noting that each of these Orthodox rabbinic bodies sponsors its own Bet Din, Bleich pointed out that the activities of presently existing rabbinic courts are limited to execution of “gitten” (bills of divorce) and sitting in judgments with regard to financial disputes when all parties accept the jurisdiction of the Bet Din. Precisely because of the plurality of such bodies, no one can speak on behalf of the community as an entirely, he said.

Bleich deplored those symptoms which he said indicate a lack of ethical sensitivity within the Orthodox community. He pointed to instances in which husbands cannot be compelled to issue a religious divorce even after the marriage has irrevocably deteriorated, unethical business practices on the part of individuals and the issuing of fraudulent kashruth certification.

Bleich emphasized that “this situation can be corrected. Judaism does provide for social and religious sanctions designed to enforce compliance with the dictates of Jewish law. Yet no individual rabbi or group of rabbis feels authorized to employ such sanctions because no person or group represents the community as a whole.”

Emphasizing the need for all segments of the Orthodox community to be represented on a single Bet Din, Bleich said: “Such a Bet Din would be empowered to compel individuals and organizations to appear before it, to defend actions and policies and would have ‘subpoena power’ to compel surrender of financial records and documents.”