Orthodox Rabbi Debunks Left’s Declare That Conservatives Need To Pressure ‘Christian Values’ Down People’ Throats
OXON HILL, Md.—Rabbi Yaakov Menken, whose group represents greater than 2,000 Orthodox Jewish rabbis on public coverage, instructed The Every day Sign that his group constitutes residing proof that social conservatives aren’t attempting to pressure “Christian values” down People’ throats, as many on the Left declare.
When conservatives communicate up, “the Left will instantly declare that solely Christians consider this; due to this fact, you’re attempting to shove Christian values down America’s throat; due to this fact, it’s a violation of [the separation of] church and state to be pro-life, or to be pro-family, or any of these items,” Menken, managing director of the Baltimore-based Coalition for Jewish Values, mentioned in an interview on the annual Conservative Political Motion Convention, or CPAC.
He recalled that “the Jewish Left” attacked his group early on by describing it as “espousing positions extra typically related to evangelical Christians. To which our unwritten response was, ‘Nicely, yeah, the place do you assume the evangelicals obtained them from?’”
Menken famous that conservative values “want a Jewish voice,” and his group emerged as a result of a bunch of Orthodox rabbis realized that “there was no person talking out on behalf of Jewish custom.”
“All you have been listening to was partisan leftism disguised as if it have been Jewish values,” he recalled. The rabbi famous that many on the Jewish Left cite the notion of Tikkun Olam, or “Repairing the World,” as an excuse to advocate for no matter political targets they espouse and declare it is part of their religion.
“Something I need to do is ‘repairing the world’; so, my very own private ideology is due to this fact Judaism, which implies you will be on two sides of a problem and each declare to be representing Jewish values,” Menken mentioned. “It doesn’t work that manner, clearly, and the entire level of the Bible is there’s a ethical customary that everyone’s purported to observe, and also you don’t get to remake it on the fly.”
The rabbi famous that on “sure points,” to be able to be “a conventional rabbi, you must come out a sure manner, and folks don’t notice that the overwhelming majority of rabbis in America are on the precise wing, very conservative of their values, as in comparison with the typical Jew.”
Menken defined that, whereas Christians who reject Christianity are now not known as Christian, however make up the atheist Left, “you would be a Jew and never consider in Judaism.” This results in the phenomenon the place “you’ve this picture of the Jews as being all on the Left, whereas the concerned Jews and the rabbis, those that truly know Judaism and people who let Judaism drive their values, are on the Proper, and so they wanted to have a voice.”
The rabbi additionally countered what he known as the “asinine” concept that abortion is a spiritual freedom challenge for Jews.
“The concept that an elective abortion is a spiritual obligation is clearly asinine,” Menken mentioned. “It doesn’t start to make logical sense.”
He mocked the concept of “Jews for feticide” and warned that weaponizing non secular liberty on this manner is “profoundly harmful” as a result of “if every little thing turns into a spiritual liberty challenge, then nothing is a spiritual liberty challenge.”
The Coalition for Jewish Values claimed credit score when Home Republicans, led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., booted Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the Overseas Affairs Committee earlier this yr.
The coalition had despatched letters to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., however she by no means acted on them. “That is tolerating antisemitism in Congress,” Menken argued. He recalled that when he despatched the same letter to McCarthy, “the [House majority] whip’s workplace despatched it out to each legislative director on the Republican facet, who had a replica of our letter.”
“It regarded like Speaker McCarthy didn’t have the votes, after which it turned out that he did, after our letter,” Menken mentioned. “So, no less than based on others, we have been by some means accountable, or partially accountable, for that occuring.”
The Coalition for Jewish Values additionally despatched a letter to Amazon, urging the Huge Tech firm to cease counting on the left-leaning Southern Poverty Legislation Middle for its Amazon Smile program. The SPLC routinely manufacturers mainstream conservative and Christian organizations “hate teams,” placing them on a map alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. A terrorist used the SPLC map to focus on the Household Analysis Council, a conservative Christian nonprofit, in 2012.
Menken recalled that somebody referred to him because the “Jewish Tony Perkins,” referring to the Household Analysis Council’s president.
“Nicely, I take that as a praise,” Menken mentioned. “I imply, he’s on the market fearlessly espousing primary conventional values, and he does it on the Christian facet, and I’m doing it on the Jewish facet.”
“We’re Orthodox Jews. Something the woke left calls ‘hateful,’ ‘bigoted’ and ‘racist,’ we do,” he added.
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Hearken to the podcast right here and browse a lightly-edited transcript under.
Tyler O’Neil: That is Tyler O’Neil. I’m managing editor at The Every day Sign and I’m honored to have Rabbi Yaakov Menken, who’s managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, a very stalwart voice for conventional Jewish values within the public sq. pushing again in opposition to woke ideology and particularly a number of the assaults of the [Anti-Defamation League]. However most just lately you had a terrific second of affect concerning—
Rabbi Yaakov Menken: [Rep.] Ilhan Omar.
O’Neil: Ilhan Omar. Sure. Precisely. Yeah, so speak slightly bit in regards to the letter that you just despatched to Home Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy.
Menken: Yeah. As a result of we had despatched three letters. Initially, thanks a lot for having me.
O’Neil: Oh yeah, no downside.
Menken: We had three letters despatched to Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi earlier, because the day that she was nominated to be on that committee, Rep. Ilhan Omar, to be on [the Committee on] Overseas Affairs. That is tolerating antisemitism in Congress.
And with Rep. McCarthy, clearly, it hit dwelling in a really completely different manner. We all know that the whips workplace despatched it out to each legislative director on the Republican facet, had a replica of, or no less than information of, our letter. And that meant that a number of of the individuals who have been saying that they—clearly, they mentioned, “No, we’re going to vote in opposition to, we’re not going to take away her.” It regarded like Speaker McCarthy didn’t have the votes. After which it turned out that he did, after our letter. So no less than based on others, we have been by some means accountable, or partially accountable, for that occuring.
O’Neil: And the Coalition for Jewish Values represents over 2,000 rabbis in the US. Are you able to discuss your group’s beginnings and what you’re wanting ahead to now? The way you’re advocating on their behalf?
Menken: Nicely, the beginning of our group was a bunch of rabbis realizing that there was no person talking out on behalf of Jewish custom. That each one you have been listening to was partisan leftism disguised as if it have been Jewish values.
Tikkun olam, repairing the world. Something I need to do is repairing the world, so my very own private ideology is due to this fact Judaism, which implies you will be on two sides of a problem and each declare to be representing Jewish values. It doesn’t work that manner, clearly. And the entire level of the Bible is there’s a ethical customary that everyone’s purported to observe and also you don’t get to remake it on the fly.
So what occurred is we acknowledged that there’s sure points the place to be able to be a conventional rabbi, you must come out a sure manner. And that folks don’t notice that the overwhelming majority of rabbis in America are on the precise wing, very conservative of their values as in comparison with the typical Jew.
You might be a Jew and never consider in Judaism. So the Christian who doesn’t consider in Christianity, they now not name them Christian. That’s the atheist Left. However on the subject of the Jewish group, they nonetheless are Jews. And so thus you’ve this picture of the Jews as being all on the Left, whereas the concerned Jews and the rabbis, those that truly know Judaism and people who let Judaism drive their values, are on the Proper. And so they wanted to have a voice.
O’Neil: Nicely, and that’s why you get these Jewish leftists arguing that abortion, for instance, is a spiritual freedom challenge.
Menken: Yeah. The Jews for feticide.
O’Neil: Yeah. Proper?
Menken: It’s unbelievable. I imply, to begin with, the concept that an elective abortion is a spiritual obligation is clearly asinine. It doesn’t start to make logical sense. However these aren’t individuals who truly care about non secular liberty as a result of that is profoundly harmful. If every little thing turns into a spiritual liberty challenge, then nothing is a spiritual liberty challenge.
And a shoutout to my good friend, the lawyer, Howie Slugh, on the Jewish Coalition for Spiritual Liberty, which is a authorized outfit that recordsdata amici and the like on behalf of non secular liberty from a Jewish perspective. They’re nice allies.
He’s the one who identified, he says, “In case your faith solely has one obligation, that’s when it’s time to doubt the sincerity of that faith.” If it simply occurs to be that the one factor that authorities doesn’t need to allow you to do, like smoke pot, is the one non secular obligation your faith has, it is likely to be that you just’re making up the faith because it goes alongside.
O’Neil: However then there are—
Menken: So that is Jews who don’t consider that observing the Sabbath is a spiritual obligation.
O’Neil: Oh my God.
Menken: That is Friday and I turned you down for a Saturday interview as a result of—
O’Neil: Oh yeah, in fact.
Menken: … I’m not going to be in entrance of a mic or no digital camera tomorrow. Not those who consider preserving kosher is a Jewish obligation. They definitely don’t consider that residing in Israel fulfills a Jewish obligation, however, oh yeah, accessing an abortion, that’s our non secular obligation.
O’Neil: Proper.
Menken: Proper. There’s slightly downside with that.
O’Neil: … And also you’ve spoken out up to now in opposition to the best way that the activist Left pushes LGBT ideology in a manner that threatens non secular liberty, the non secular liberty of Jews as properly. Would you handle that?
Menken: This new Respect for Marriage Act. Really, it’s actually an attention-grabbing descriptor of our affect, in addition to the Ilhan Omar letter, is the truth that when ADF did a letter to the Republican facet, begging them to “please don’t permit the Respect for Marriage Act to cross,” which sadly they did, and there have been some superb sellouts there, and I used to be actually stunned by that.
However be that as it could, on the entrance web page of that letter with 80 signatures, there have been solely 10, 9 out of 10 have been multimillion-dollar family identify organizations, like Heritage Basis, that everyone has heard of. The tenth group, the one one which wasn’t a multimillion-dollar trigger, was us.
O’Neil: Yeah.
Menken: And that’s as a result of these values causes want a Jewish voice. They want range. Really, bang for buck, because it have been. We’re manner in extra of anyone else as a result of we’re like a pressure multiplier.
The Left will instantly declare that solely Christians consider this. Subsequently, you’re attempting to shove Christian values down America’s throat. Subsequently, it’s a violation of church and state to be pro-life or to be pro-family or any of these items. Which, guess what? The Jewish Left, in a single early hit piece in opposition to us, they described us as espousing positions extra typically related to evangelical Christians. To that are unwritten response was, “Nicely, yeah, the place do you assume the evangelicals obtained them from?”
O’Neil: Proper. So, on that line, I need to speak briefly in regards to the Southern Poverty Legislation Middle. You guys have been—
Menken: Oh, simply our favourite folks. Actually.
O’Neil: I wrote a guide about them known as “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Legislation Middle.” And also you guys had an important letter to Amazon.
Menken: Sure.
O’Neil: Telling them to not depend on this group, to exclude folks from Amazon Smile.
Menken: One other nice success of ours, they shut down Amazon Smile solely. No. Sadly, in the course of the time of Amazon Smile, they have been counting on the SPLC’s “hate map,” regardless that that hate map has been used to commit an precise hate crime.
O’Neil: An act of terror.
Menken: Yeah, an act of terror in opposition to Household Analysis Council. By the best way, any individual simply known as me the Jewish Tony Perkins.
O’Neil: Oh, no.
Menken: Nicely, I take that as a praise. I imply, he’s on the market fearlessly espousing primary conventional values, and he does it on the Christian facet and I’m doing it on the Jewish facet.
O’Neil: And he will get smeared for it.
Menken: And he will get smeared.
O’Neil: And also you face it too.
Menken: We’re Orthodox Jews. Something the woke Left calls hateful, bigoted, and racist, we do. Now, my daughter obtained married final yr in a lodge ballroom.
O’Neil: Congratulations. Mazel tov.
Menken: Public lodging, proper? With a divider between women and men. And no, you didn’t get to resolve which you’re whenever you are available. So based on the Equality Act, that was like, if not for the non secular exemption, that’s a hate crime.
O’Neil: Oh my. Yeah.
Menken: So I’m not truly exaggerating after I say—and the reality of the matter is that anyone that hues to conventional values, the woke Left is now calling you a bigot and attempting to drive you from the general public sphere. And we’re like, OK, however we’re Jews. We’ve 3,000 years of expertise with different governments telling us we’re flawed. This isn’t a brand new expertise for us and due to this fact we’re simply—I do know that after I go dwelling, the opposite rabbis on my block are like, “Good going. That was good. You mentioned the precise issues.” So we don’t get silenced by the Left.
O’Neil: Yeah. Nicely, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us, Rabbi Menken, and we sit up for—
Menken: Recognize this chance. You’ve been a pricey good friend for years. I imply, actually. Your reporting has gone manner again on our behalf and bringing a few of these tales to the general public is admittedly vital. And so we admire you as a lot as you admire us.
O’Neil: And the way can folks observe your work?
Menken: Nicely, me personally, I’m @YMenken on social media and @CJValues is the group, together with cjvalues.org or, when you like typing, coalitionforjewishvalues.org. In case you can’t discover us, simply Google “Coalition for Jewish Values.” We come proper up. It’s all good.
O’Neil: Yeah. Nicely, thanks once more.
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