The more religious the Jew, the less he cares about Donald Sterling’s putative racism. The more religious the Jew, the less he cares about what people say privately. The more religious the Jew, the less he cares about the goyim and their sensitivities. The more religious the Jew, the less he cares for blacks. There is no mitzva against racism in the Torah and there is no divine directive in the Jewish tradition to fight bigotry. Instead, it is usually a made-up way to be Jewish by those who aren’t interested in studying and observing the Torah.
Do you think Jews in Williamsburg, Crown Heighs and Mear Shearim care about Donald Sterling? Do you think they care about blacks? These Jews, when they talk about blacks, often say things far harsher than Sterling’s recently revealed remarks.
If you go to any traditional Orthodox shul, you’ll be unlikely to find any concern about civil rights for blacks and latinos and Muslims and gays.
It is the secular Jew who is more likely to think that being pro-civil rights is essential to his Jewish identity.
Those Jews who speak out against what Donald sterling said in private are out of touch with Judaism. They are moral show-offs who are alien to the rabbinic tradition. And they are lighting the fires of the next crematoria.
Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Museum of Tolerance told the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles: “There’s no place in America for this kind of racism. We believe the action to ban him for life is correct, and we will not accept any donations from Donald Sterling in the future.”
If there is no place in America for this kind of racism, that means that Rabbi Hier and the Museum of Tolerance either stand for genocide against people who speak like Donald Sterling (probably a majority of the population at one time or another) or for ethnic cleansing (the forceful expulsion of most people out of America). I see no alternative meaning to what the rabbi says. He is effectively calling for totalitarian surveillance of private speech and the end of the First Amendment by making this kind of conversation, talk that was common sense for most of America’s history, illegal.
As for not taking Donald Sterling’s money, I am sure that an examination of Rabbi Hier’s donors would reveal people far more unsavory than Donald Sterling.
The more religious the Jewish organization, the more likely they are to have no problem taking money from the likes of Donald Sterling. Rabbi Hier’s Museum of Tolerance has no precedence in Torah and it primarily appeals to those who are ignorant of the rabbinic tradition.
Banning Sterling for life “is what should happen whenever someone makes anti-Semitic or racist remarks, as millions of people are touched by this view,” according to Hier. So if anyone says anything like this in private they should be banned for life from public life. Wow. Rabbi Hier’s worldview is totalitarian. I wonder if he advocates putting people like Sterling into re-education camps or does he just want them dead or simply expelled from America?
Jewish Federation of Los Angeles CEO Jay Sanderson says: “Donald Sterling is clearly not a member of the Jewish community.” Why exactly? Because he said racist things in private? If that is the standard, most Jews are not part of the Jewish community. The Torah commands the genocide of a particular race — Amalek. The Torah community must not be part of the Jewish community. Israel is systematically rounding up African immigrants in the country illegally and shipping them back to Africa. Israel and its supporters must not be part of the Jewish community according to this type of thinking.
If Jewish organizations were happy to take Donald Sterling’s money before these latest remarks, there is no moral reason to stop taking it now. If you are doing good, then Donald Sterling’s money will help you do more good. Do you care more about how you preen publicly or how much good you do?
