A hate crime turned into a teachable moment for five Staten Island teenagers who defaced a North Shore synagogue last month – as reported HERE on YW.
The teens, all eighth-grade boys and girls, were not prosecuted for scrawling swastikas on the doors of Temple Israel Reform Congregation in the borough’s Randall Manor section. Instead, they and their parents met last week with Rabbi Jacob Jungreis of Brooklyn, a Holocaust survivor who described his life as a young boy in Hungary, where he was taunted by his neighbors for being a “dirty Jew,” and as an 11-year-old headed for Auschwitz.
Rabbi Lester Polonsky, spiritual leader of Temple Israel, said at the end of the two-hour meeting, “there was an understanding of the depth of the tragedy of the Holocaust.”
Jeffrey Ganz, president of the congregation of Temple Israel, applauded the rabbi’s decision not to punish the teens for what he and others believe was more a misguided prank than a malicious crime.
(SILIVE)
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7 Responses
Is this supposed to be a feel good story? Are we supposed to learn from the Reform how to treat our fellow human?
If there was ever a lesson to be be learned from the Holocaust, not that there is only one, it should include that we cannot run from our identities, as the Nazi’s yemach shemom looked back 3 generations to determine one’s “Jewishness”. Reform saught and seeks to destroy our identity by changing our Torah, Avodah and Gemilas Chasodim. It is therefore not very heartwarming to see their response to young son’im in the manner they have shown.
this is my opinion. What say you?
VELICHER CHOSID: B’h your opinion is ONLY YOUR opinion and no one else’s. What this “rabbi” did was exemplary and I truly believe that these kids learned more than if they had been prosecuted. Furthermore, what is your attack on Reform have to do with the article??
This Reform leader probably did the right thing, but “velicher choosid” is still corect about one thing: the Reform leader might want to reject most of Judaism in order to better fit into the outside world, but he was unable to actually fit in.
Contrary to a very prevalent non-Orthodox creed, imitating the goyim will NOT save a Jew from being persecuted.
It is relevant to the article in the sense that everything that happens must teach us something. We can learn that important piece of hashkafah from this incident.
On the other hand, the Torah tells us, “im ra’aiv sona’acha, ha’achilaihu lachem, v’im tzamai hashkaihu muyim” (Mishlai 25:21). “If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread; if he is thirsty, give him water.”
Perhaps kindness to an enemy sometimes has its place. The end result will be what it says in the next posuk: you’ll really be heaping coals on his head, and Hashem will repay you later.
There’s no guarantee that any solution will work. The only guarantee for safety is teshuvah. But fighting hatred with repercussions seldom works anyway.
For teens, this was probably the best way. For adults might have been another matter. But teens are more likely to have the ability to learn and change their behavior than adults.
Give credit where credit is due. Jail time would not prevent them from doing it again. They will just succumb next time to peer pressure, etc.. The ‘Rabbi’ handled this very well. Who knows if these kids will have positive influence on other kids not to do such a criminal act.
“If your enemy is hungry” applies to other Jews – and selectively applied in other situations as it makes sense (Darchei shalom, etc.).
It’s hard to give ‘sh’koah to non-frum in religious matters, especially those who generally mislead the masses. Nonetheless, we should try to find a way in situations like this – to applaud him as a person, not in his ‘official’ capacity. Rabbi Jungreis knows the score, I’m sure he made an impression if one could be made.
I agree with you, lastword.