The following message was posted by Gregory Andrus, on his Facebook page titled “Portraits of the Jersey Shore”.
My family and I went to the local bowling lanes on this rainy Tuesday. The place was filled to overflowing with people from the Orthodox community, as they had off in celebration of their Passover. I didn’t mind, it just meant that we had to wait longer to get a lane.
Now, elephant in the room, it is no secret that this community has been reviled wide and far by many people who live in proximity to the Orthodox community. So I was interested in seeing what my experience would be.
As my family waited in line for shoes, a father with little kids who were ahead of us saw we were waiting behind them and insisted we go ahead of them when it was their turn. Then this man pictured here, Joel, helped clear out the extra bowling balls so we would have room to put ours down. We settled into the lane next to theirs. He and I became fast friends, and after a while, our families began to cheer each other on when someone had a good score. We enjoyed each other so much. Everywhere throughout the bowling lanes, kids, moms, dads would all smile at me as I walked by and smiled at them.
I talked to Joel and asked him about the reputation the Orthodox community seems to have been given.
“People make assumptions about our entire community based on word of mouth. Sure there are some bad apples, but there are bad apples with any community — Mexican, Chinese, Christian. … I wish people of all different cultures would show each other respect,” he told me. “People want us to blend in with their version of what culture should be, but I think Mexicans should be able to keep their culture, and the same for the Chinese, or Christians and yes, us too.
“I wish people would stop being prejudiced just because they don’t understand someone else’s culture, and take the time to get to know each other without trying to change each other. We need to respect each other and live in peace with one another. We are all here on earth living together, and we are all loved by God.”
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14 Responses
Joel, what about אשר בחר בנו מכל העמים
Thank you YWN for posting this! Mi kiamcha yisroel. We need to publicize more positive stories like this. An emessdika Kidush Hashem. Not just for the goyim to see. It’s especially for Torah haters who regularly comment on this site who are always eagerly awaiting the next “scandal” so they can bash the Torah community as a whole.
wowwow what a kidush litvish!
Thank you Joel; That’s so true the knowledge that G-d loves me and you is just plain simple common sense!
Religion is great but the knowledge of G-d and that he loves us is common sense and does not require religion; were such human knowledge solely dependent on religion that would be a very sad state of affairs.
The opposite is true religion needs G-d; religion can uplift an individual with his common sense included, to heights otherwise not easily attainable without religion.
Religion needs G-d not the other way around. Meaning the knowledge of g-d is secure or possible whether there is religion or not. Religion may secure knowledge of G-d but is not the sole source of knowledge of G-d.
Sometimes a person thinks to himself does g-d love me? How I wish for that person, to be asked come on really do you really think he does not love you!
Very nice!
@Theo
Real classy. Hey George! We are the chosen ones and you guys are not!
Mr Theo,
Think about this one,
אשר בחר בנו מכל העמים is right, we’re chosen & expected to make קידוש השם wherever & whenever possible, & that’s precisely what Joel did
Theo; That means we got the Torah. What does it have to do with getting along with other groups?
Theo; Actually being a mentsch is a prerequisite to Kabolas Hatorah.
This is a typical Lakewood Jew. If everytime a frum Jew did what Joel did made the news, you’d have news stories such as this one about eight times a day, every day.
Which is a good thing.
The only problem is that the press barons and their subscribers aren’t interested in stories such as this.
Theo,
רפואה שלימה
Go ask your favorite Gadol your ludicrous question.
Theo dor tahpuchos
Joseph, unfortunately I haven’t run into too many of those “typical” Lakewood Jews you are talking about. Maybe one day we will be zoche’ to have this as the norm. I shall not get further into it.
(Joel did a wonderful thing, and his family should be proud of him)
TGIShabbos, I guess you haven’t run into many Lakewood Jews at all. If you would, then you would realize that this is pretty much the norm.