[By Dovid Kates]
Recently an editorial printed in the Hamodiah has called out the new mayor, Bill de Blasio, for not visiting the Stark Shiva. It labeled Mayor de Blasio’s silence as a deafening one. The editorial is one that assumes a bit too much for my taste. This is why.
Comforting victims of tragedies is important, especially when the tragedies are so ghastly. It is always a nice thing when a mayor or public official comforts victims or visits a Shiva house, but since when did it become a mayoral obligation?
Murders have gone down in New York City, true. But the fact of the matter is that there were 334 murders in New York City in 2013 and 419 in 2012. If the mayor had to visit every family of a murder victim in this city, spending an hour going there, an hour back and an hour visiting, that would take up some 35% of the mayor’s time and day.
There is no question that Reb Menachem Stark was an upstanding baal chessed in his community, but all that does not obligate a mayor to pay a shiva call. This is a judgement call of the mayor, and only the mayor. It is a grave Chutzpah for us to dictate what politicians should or should not be doing.
True, the mayor should have publicly condemned the way the New York Post covered the murder. He didn’t and that is disturbing. But there is a difference.
But paying personal visits takes time. Precious time. And although we may not be aware of this, New York City does not revolve solely around us. We are not the end all of everything and it is about time that we stopped acting like we are and adopt some humility. Why didn’t Obama pay a Shiva call either? It would be nice if the President of the United States did that. But he is not obligated to.
And let’s get another thing straight. When the Hamodia op-ed says that the mayor has apparently abandoned the Orthodox Jewish community, we have to realize one very important principle: Politicians act out of their own personal interests, they do not act out of friendship. Sometimes these interests intersect. Sometimes, however, they do not intersect.
This is a case where they may not intersect, not because of abandonment of the Jewish community, but because of the particular business that Mr. Stark was in. Mr. de Blasio is a fine and wonderful person, but at the end of the day he represents the left wing of the Democratic Party. The left and “landlords” – any landlord – do not mix.
Landlords are in the business of making money – lots of it. They do so by maximizing profits and reducing expenses. And these principles of maximizing profits dictate certain realities and truths.
They do not want rent stabilization. Tenants and the left wing of the Democtratic party do want rent stabilization. Years ago it was the landlords that finally got rid of rent conrol. The left and the tenants were livid. Landlords do not want tougher legislation regarding mandatory upgrading of infrastructure. Tenants want all these things and more.
To suddenly embrace the Stark family and make a ‘Shiva Call’ would be abandoning his constituency, no matter how horrific the murder was.
And once we are on the topic, let’s not for a moment think that Mr. de Blasio will necessarily stand by everything that is important to the Orthodox Jewish community. Where will he go on the issue of Metzitzah b’Peh? It is far from clear that he will support the Orthodox position on this. Why? Because his interests lie in where he will get the most mileage with his core constituency. If he will hit a homerun with those to the left for appearing to place protecting children over pandering to votes – he will do that.
Might he still pay the Shiva call? Yes. Because at the end of the day we are still his future voters. Is he obligated to do so? Certainly not.
Dovid Kates – Brooklyn, NY
NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.
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10 Responses
All do respect but I could disagree more. The fact that he didn’t speak out against lawless insanity AND he didn’t pay his respect are one thing. It shows his lack of sensitivity. Time ? Doesn’t have time ? Every mayor does it . If he has time to shovel he has time to comfort a whole community of New Yorkers in pain .
By: Roizy Waldman
The Silence of the Good People
In light of the New York Post’s refusal to apologize for their lurid coverage of Menachem Stark’s murder, many people are questioning the necessity of the efforts the community has employed in the condemnation of this newspaper. The press conference in Borough Hall, the petitions on social media, the calls to advertisers asking them to boycott the paper, the numerous verbal denunciations by other newspapers, journals, blogs, etc. – all of it, it would appear, had been for naught. The Post has not apologized nor expressed regret in any way. In fact, they continue to refer to Stark derogatorily.
Furthermore, we know that as with all occurrences, this brouhaha will soon die down. This is human nature. Sad and horrifying as this murder is, it will soon give way to new events. In a few days or weeks, nothing will have changed. Regardless of what the Post has written, Menachem’s family and friends will remember him as a loving son and brother, a loving father and husband, and as a kind, friendly, generous person. The chassidic community will continue to live their lives. And the Post’s writers, too, will find new culprits to vilify, new stories to sensationalize.
Why, then, all the efforts?
About a half century ago, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
And this is why we speak out. Do we have more power than Rupert Murdoch? Can we physically stop a writer from writing or a newspaper from publishing? Of course we can’t. And we know it. But our powerlessness should not stop us from speaking up.
At about the same time when Dr. King was appealing to the “good people,” Hannah Arendt shook the literary and Jewish world when she published her article on the Eichmann trial. Her articles and subsequent book were controversial mainly because despite its philosophical credence, it, in essence, placed part of the Holocaust’s blame on the victims themselves, and because it humanized, some would say justified, the acts of the Nazi perpetrators.
The New York Post acted similarly.
In our current internet age, where anyone can post anything, it’s difficult to ascertain truth from lies. But the veracity of the Post’s (or others’) claims is not the issue. No matter what, Menachem Stark did not deserve to die. He is not the one to be put on trial here; his killers are.
And so, we speak out. We write, we shout, we cry. And we do all this not because we think the Post will change –unethical people tend to remain unethical—but to preserve our own humanity. Complacency when faced with injustice, “the appalling silence of the good people” – sadly, history has taught us what that can lead to.
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Yes, there are many murders, but we are the Am Hanivchar.
How could you compare?
One of the largest newspapers in New York came out, for all purposes, in favor of the murder. In a big city, no mayor would have time to visit every murder victim – but the decision of the Post to glorify the murder requires the mayor to make a public statement disassociating himself from the pro-murder policy of the Post. In this situation, the goyim have a relevant saying “you are part of the solution, or you are part of the problem.”
to z: Should the mayor have visited the families of every one of the 334 murder victims in 2013? Each day spend 2+ hours on this? If you needed to, would you be able to find that kind of time in your schedule? And I imagine that the mayor is even busier than you are.
What about make a statement? condemning the horrible murder? Would you want the mayor to make 334 statements per year condemning every horrible murder? only if the victim is a member of a large group of people that care about him or her? I do not want my mayor making such statements every day, for ever murder that takes place. Where would you draw the line? How about if once every three months the mayor condemns all terrible murders, he can even say the names of the 80 people killed that quarter. Would that be enough?
Would you want the moetzes gedolei Torah to condemn this murder? Why not? They are our leaders and I certainly hope they condemn this crime. Do you want the governor of NY state to condemn this? What about the NY Yankees? Also, at the end of the day, why is it important for a public official to publicly condemn that which every single NYC resident — including the terrible murderers ym”sh — know?
Even before getting to the shiva call, how much time does it take to condemn inciteful l news reporting which in outrages more of the same and instigates extreme hate? This time it affects the Jews . Is this a new trend? Papers are permitted to incite and encourage hate and the mayor is quiet.? What I fit were incitement against the Italian population ?….the post encourages violence… It’s ok..
This is not a mayoral responsibility to attend a businessmen’s shiva nor his obligation to comment on news papers headlines. I didn’t vote for him I saw him as a high taxation socialist. But to say he has an obligation. Absolutely not.
Until all the facts are in keeping quite is a smart thing.
Visiting wounded or injured police or fire men on the job that’s something else
a voice of sanity
to z
every mayor does what, visit every murder victim not true.
Let us be honest our self appointed askanim love there pictures with these people and love invitations to white house dinners and inaugurations that they convince themselves that by not speaking out they are doing a mitzvah. Every so called askan should call out the mayor on this! Metizah Bpeh is an issue where the mayor might disagree with us but human decency for Jewish blood is not an issue up for discussion this is something only blinded by kovod askanim can defend.
Even ADL in their letter to Post didn’t condemn the title so you expect Mayor to go beyond that?