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From: david@fisher.UUCP (David Rubin)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: "Sabotage of Humanitarian Efforts by Political Opportunists"
Message-ID: <540@fisher.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 10:23:45 EST
Article-I.D.: fisher.540
Posted: Thu Feb 21 10:23:45 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 03:43:09 EST
References: <21577@lanl.ARPA> <490@sfmag.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Princeton University Department of Statistics
Lines: 43

> Early arrivals from Ethiopia, and their leaders, consented to the
> quiet  proposal by Harav Ovadia Yosef and other major poskim that
> they immerse in a mikveh, lechumra, i.e., to remove any lingering
> uncertainties   concerning  their  halachic  status..............
>..................................................................
> ............................................................... a
> hue  and  cry  was  raised  by  Shulamit  Aloni,   Yossi   Sarid,
> Conservatives,  and  other  would-be humanitarians, with familiar
> anti-Torah polemics, gaining what political  mileage  they  could
> with their traditional incantations against "religious coercion".
> These fools have caused great harm, undermining what  could  have
> been   a  straightforward  dignified absorbtion process. They can
> congratulate  themselves   for   causing   the   new   immigrants
> embarassment and confusion, and for dividing the Jewish people at
> a time when economic and military problems are at crisis level.
> 
> 				Yitzchok Samet

Yitzchok evidently feels it is disruptive to the social peace to have
the Ethiopian Jews choose for themselves.  Nothing the non-Orthodox
advocate would inhibit those who believe as Yitzchok does from making
their case directly to the immigrants to persuade them to "convert"
voluntarily.  If your case is so powerful, why do you fear having the
choice left to them?  It is because you believe they will not agree
with you.  If not, why?  You will not concede that your position just
might be mistaken; you will not admit your case is anything but
compelling; you will not suggest (at least aloud) that the Ethiopians
are incapable of making a reasoned choice or are morally regressed.
You deal with the immigrant's leaders, who are unaware of life in 
Israel or the modern Jewish world, and implicitly threaten that they
will not be "accepted" less they follow your bidding.  Under such
circumstances, it is not surprising that a "deal" would be cut with
those leaders, and that the "deal" could not stand the light of day.

It strikes me as more than ironic that those who preach "my way or the
highway" are the ones who accuse "dissenters" of being divisive ---
especially as the "dissenters" are more numerous and do nothing to
inhibit the Orthodox from making their case.  The resort to statute
and state coercion is a tacit admission that you fear you cannot make
your case.

					David Rubin
			{allegra|astrovax|princeton}!fisher!david