Confronting Scandal

Erica Brown

Description

"We can battle insensitivity, immorality, and dishonesty in our lives individually and collectively as a people. We have a wonderful road map in the Torah and its traditions. It is time to think seriously about our reputation in the world and what we can do to enhance it, not because we want to look good but because we want to be good."
—from Chapter 6.

What should we do when we see other Jews behaving badly?

Most Jews are good, upstanding people who live by a strong moral code and follow Isaiah's words to be a light to others. But when Jews in the public sphere make headlines for being caught in scandals, their actions can provoke anger, shame and a sense of betrayal in the larger Jewish community.

In this insightful and timely book, Jewish scholar Dr. Erica Brown presents an intentional, disciplined framework to explore the emotions provoked in the Jewish community by reports of Jews committing crime. She proposes that we transform our sense of shame into actions that inspire and sustain a moral culture. Drawing from the Hebrew Bible, Talmud and our centuries-long Jewish commitment to ethics, she outlines ways you can activate and operate your personal moral compass, and shows how you can empower yourself with sacred obligation, responsibility, kindness and knowledge to increase Jewish pride.

Introduction: Above the Law? 1
1. Airing Dirty Laundry 25
2. Jews in Crime Who Are Doing Time 43
3. Thou Shalt Not Shame 65
4. Oy! Hypocrisy! 85
5. Is Repentance Possible? 107
6. When Jews Do Good Things 129
Notes 156
Acknowledgments 164
Suggestions for Further Reading 165

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Jewish thought
• Jewish ethics
• Hebrew Bible
• Jewish philosophy
• Judaism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 03 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580235860
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for Confronting Scandal: How Jews Can Respond When Jews Do Bad Things
I have been hoping for such a book and here at last it is. Confronting Scandal is a genuine act of conscience. Erica Brown rightly insists, with learning and with compassion, but also with an appropriate strictness, that the Jewish duty of self-criticism is to be taken seriously. Her polemic against moral complacence falls squarely into the great tradition of Jewish ethical literature. Her book deserves the close attention, and the deep gratitude, of her community.
- Leon Wieseltier
Sensitive and accessible . Demands we raise the bar on ethics, both personally and institutionally, by owning up to negative stereotypes, facing up to difficult truths, and living up to what it means to be a member of the Jewish people.
- Dr. Lawrence A. Hoffman , author, Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life , and editor, Who by Fire, Who by Water -Un taneh Tokef
In Confronting Scandal , Dr. Erica Brown, public intellectual par excellence, has written a compelling guide on the direction Jewish life must take if we are to remain true to the tenets of Judaism and have something to teach the world. This is an important book by an important writer.
- Rabbi Joseph Telushkin , author, Jewish Literacy, A Code of Jewish Ethics and Hillel: If Not Now, When?
An honest and thoughtful examination of one of the most vexing issues in communal life. A must read for anyone who cares about building a strong and ethical Jewish community for the future.
- Rabbi Jill Jacobs , author, There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law and Tradition
Erica Brown has written a bold, honest, and necessary book about our collective Jewish failure to come to terms with our collective Jewish failures. Engagingly written by one of American Jewry s most refreshing new voices, it deserves to be widely read and deeply heeded.
- Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks , chief rabbi of Britain and the Commonwealth
Confronting Scandal is an important and courageous book for all, especially at this moment in Jewish history. It is important reading for Jewish community leaders who are already facing the terrifying issues that Erica raises without the benefit of her Jewish knowledge and wisdom. Confronting Scandal provides clear, informed, and wise Jewish context for confronting these challenges.
- Barry Shrage , president, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston
Erica Brown has written a fascinating, disturbing, and important book. Unafraid to directly address a topic about which many Jews have quietly whispered to one another, she asks us to grapple with very real issues. She has once again demonstrated why so many people think of her as one of the most important voices in Jewish life today.
- Deborah E. Lipstadt, PhD , Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Emory University
ALSO BY DR. ERICA BROWN
The Case for Jewish Peoplehood: Can We Be One? (with Dr. Misha Galperin; foreword by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin)
Inspired Jewish Leadership: Practical Approaches to Building Strong Communities
Spiritual Boredom: Rediscovering the Wonder of Judaism
Confronting Scandal: How Jews Can Respond When Jews Do Bad Things
2010 Hardcover Edition, First Printing 2010 by Erica Brown
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please write or fax your request to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail] .
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Erica, 1966- Confronting scandal: how Jews can respond when Jews do bad things / Erica
Brown.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-58023-440-5 (hardcover)
1. Self-defeating behavior. 2. Jewish ethics. 3. Jews in public life. 4. Errors. 5. Scandals. I. Title. BF637.S37B76 2010 296.3 6-dc22
2010025285
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in the United States of America Jacket design: Tim Holtz
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of Longhill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.jewishlights.com
For my parents
Contents
Introduction: Above the Law?
1. Airing Dirty Laundry
2. Jews in Crime Who Are Doing Time
3. Thou Shalt Not Shame
4. Oy! Hypocrisy!
5. Is Repentance Possible?
6. When Jews Do Good Things
Notes
Acknowledgments
Suggestions for Further Reading

About Jewish Lights
Copyright
Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may go well with you .
-D EUTERONOMY 6:18
INTRODUCTION
Above the Law?
For the sin we committed before You openly and secretly .
Y OM K IPPUR PRAYER BOOK
A s this goes to print, any number of well-known Jews are in big trouble with the law, including but not limited to the former prime minister of Israel and its president, a Washington lobbyist, and several money managers, investment bankers, stockbrokers, and rabbis. The crimes range in type and duration: alleged rape, money laundering, fraud, pedophilia. The list goes on and on, a painful catalogue of scandal that has been fodder for sermons and anti-Semites. But mostly, it s been the kind of titillating reading in the newspapers and the blogosphere that makes you want to shout, You did what? to someone you don t even know. We fret that our people aren t looking good or being good and that our reputation is taking a beating.
Most Jews are good, upstanding people who live by a strong moral code and follow Isaiah s words to be a light to others. Why this book then? Why single out certain Jews in the public sphere who have been caught for crimes and misdemeanors? That seems to bring only more attention to the wrong sort, to those we d rather not think about given a choice.
The idea for this book surfaced many years ago. A beloved Conservative rabbi in our community was found guilty of a heinous crime; he was a colleague and friend to many of the people with whom I worked, and I had studied with him myself. There was shock and the inevitable office gossip, but no intentional, disciplined framework to explore the emotions this incident provoked. People needed to talk. I put some Jewish sources together, added a few reflective questions, and scheduled a class. The room was packed. There were only three questions I asked everyone to take a few, quiet moments to address in writing:
Name an incident that particularly affected you when a Jewish person in the public arena did wrong.
What feelings does this kind of behavior evoke in you?
What can we do to stop this kind of bad behavior?
As the conversation got heated, it was clear that people needed a forum and spiritual framework to think about collective shame and discomfort. We rarely have structured ways to think about deviant behavior, particularly when it is committed by rabbis, Jewish leaders, or anyone held to some higher standard. What does it mean to stand on principle when you don t have a moral leg to stand on? The word hypocrisy kept flashing in my brain, like one of those blinking neon signs on a lonely highway in the middle of nowhere.
I remember a vivid moment when a well-known television evangelist confessed to adultery. A popular magazine carried a black-and-white photograph of a congregant collapsed and crying on the steps of the church. With this man s confession, it seemed that her whole spiritual world had caved in on itself. Her role model was a fake, a charlatan. He was not a spiritual leader; he was a person struggling with temptation, just like anyone else but maybe worse because he made himself into a charismatic role model of the highest order.
People shared their reflections, and it was shocking how many different criminals were mentioned in answer to my first question. The Jews who committed public crimes that raised personal discomfort ranged from gangster Bugsy Siegel to a camp counselor who acted inappropriately with a camper; from Yigal Amir, the Israeli who murdered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, to David Berkowitz, the infamous serial killer of the 1970s known as the Son of Sam. One person remembered a discussion at his dinner table about Berkowitz: the murderer was adopted as a baby so maybe, just maybe, Berkowitz wasn t really Jewish.
As we went around the room, people mentioned day school educators, congregational rabbis, and famous criminals, all lumped together as the cause of group shame. When I asked those in the room to share the emotions that such incidents generated, it went way beyond embarrassment. There was pain, revulsion, nausea, responsibility, awkwardness, distaste, exhaustion, and helplessness. No one, it seemed, was emotionally neutral. People were highly animated, and not only about the recent incident but also about childhood moral wounds where their treasured illusions of what a good person is became bruised. At that time, I thought to myself, This would be a very important book. I hope someone writes it. The incident died down in the papers, and the source sheets were filed. I turned to other subjects in my writing.
A few years later, I dusted the sheets off again, so to speak. It was only a week after the Bernie Madoff disaster, and my co-workers and I were dazed. Professionals and lay leaders in the Jewish not-for-profit universe simply did not know what to make of this thief. My colleagues in education were equally stupefied that such a philanthropist could stoop so low as to hurt those in the charitable world he was ostensibly trying to help. How could this have happened? Again, I knew that we needed to spend some time as