Joe emails: This is the new (well, it is more than a year old) quasi black hat shul in the valley for those valley-ites who wish they could be in La Brea but cannot afford the cost of a house on June Street.
This website stands in stark contrast to Bnai David. There is nothing about helping the psychotic homeless in the area or anything about a women’s prayer group.
The news letter under news has an archetypal orthodox old school diatribe of the right wing against same sex relationships (that should be as repulsive as eating blood, FTW!!). The photos are bereft of any women. The content is basic but the message is clear. We are not tolerant, we are authentic. If you have a problem with that, hit the bricks.
Seriously, you should do an analysis of shul websites and how they reflect the essence of a shul. Websites are great because they are meant to appeal to the outside world, but they are never edited by the outside world. It is how movies used to be made – do you think 2001 could ever be made today – no way, a focus group full of minorities would not appreciate the lack of fart jokes and the production would never take off. A shul website is sort of a film noir view of a shul.
I just took a look at Bnai David’s website and Rabbi K had spoken about the “controversy” over ordination of Women Rabbis. Give me a break – at a regular black hat orthodox shul if a rabbi got up and mentioned that there was such a controversy they would open the door with his head. I really think Bnai David needs to consider going back to some basic normative form of Orthodoxy and not opening the shul to every crackpot controversy just to show how cool it is. It is like there is some massive form of cognitive dissonance there that is forcing them to be super-tolerant, are they really that guilt ridden that they have a mechitza and only men can lead services. Jeez, it is called tradition. Maybe they should get on a bus and see Fiddler on the Roof.
