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Robin,
Leaders of Rabbinic Organizations are only galvanized to do something when there is a catastrophe. And even them they goes nowhere.
I just returned from the Memorial for the murdered students organized by the OU at the YI of Flatbush. Yes it was a memorial. Yes I expected the Rabbis to talk about G-d, belief, chizuk, etc. But I expected something more. As I looked around the shul, I saw people I recognized from Flatbush, people who care about Israel and who have the potential to be motivated to act at the right moment. Neither Rabbi Goldwasser nor Rabbi Weinreb talked about the continual attacks on Israel from Aza & the need for proper response. They never talked about the pressure Israel is under from the Bush administration to fulfill the Road Map which the PA never fulfilled and never will. The people should have been told that the only response to the massacre we in the US have is to do become active in our support of Israel. But alas, the Rabbis never gave direction. The people listened politely and passively, said Tehillim & davened Maariv. No passion. No call to action. People left as empty handed as when they came. Biblical commentators often spoke of Biblical leaders who failed as leaders when they did not fulfill the potential of the moment.
When the Children of Israel stood at the Red Sea, Moses also cried out to God. God admonished Moses & said, "Why are you calling out to me; speak to the Children of Israel & travel (do something). The Rabbinic leaders, whether they be OU or Agudah, only cry out after a catastrophe; they are too establishment, each in their own way, to call out to American Jewry to act. I fully understand OU's perfidy in abstaining & remaining w/i the PCJA. Like the House Jew, they don't have the mindset to do anything else. I am a hopeful pessimist. I see the glass as half empty but I believe that the glass can be filled. I don't hold out much hope that the present Rabbinic leaders of the establishment organizations will fulfill that role.
Kol Tuv,
Aaron Kinsberg
PS The meeting seemed more of an attempt for OU p.r. after the PCJA debacle than to really accomplish something. They didn't even take names for follow up activity.
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