I found Gary Rosenblatt’s column, “Is it ‘Anti-Orthodox’ To Seek A Safer Community?” (Aug. 5), both eloquent and a bit generalized. There is Orthodox and then there is Orthodox.
I doubt that The Jewish Week receives much criticism of being “anti-Orthodox” from mainstream institutions like Yeshiva University, Young Israel or the Orthodox Union. The literary finger wagging seems consistently from the right-wing segment of this community.
And the reason why, I believe, is that the only ones in a position to criticize — or raise questions regarding — the behavior of the “black hat” part of Orthodoxy is, in their minds, their rabbis. Those in the right-wing segment of the Orthodox community feel that non-Orthodox institutions, community-based newspapers and the rest of the world simply doesn’t have the right.
When your newspaper has a front-page picture of a rabbi taken away in handcuffs, if the rabbi is, let’s say, Reform, that’s “journalism” — if it’s a black hatter it’s unnecessary “bashing.” Looking ahead, I see no reason why this will change.
Highland Park, N.J.
