OXON HILL, Md.—Rabbi Yaakov Menken, whose group represents greater than 2,000 Orthodox Jewish rabbis on public coverage, instructed The Day by day Sign that his group constitutes residing proof that social conservatives aren’t making an attempt to pressure “Christian values” down People’ throats, as many on the Left declare.
When conservatives converse up, “the Left will instantly declare that solely Christians imagine this; due to this fact, you’re making an attempt 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 this stuff,” 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 bought 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 had been listening to was partisan leftism disguised as if it had 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 objectives they espouse and declare it is part of their religion.
“Something I wish to do is ‘repairing the world’; so, my very own private ideology is due to this fact Judaism, which implies you might be on two sides of a problem and each declare to be representing Jewish values,” Menken mentioned. “It doesn’t work that method, clearly, and the entire level of the Bible is there’s a ethical normal that everyone’s imagined to comply with, and also you don’t get to remake it on the fly.”
The rabbi famous that on “sure points,” as a way to be “a conventional rabbi, you must come out a sure method, and other people don’t understand that the overwhelming majority of rabbis in America are on the suitable wing, very conservative of their values, as in comparison with the common Jew.”
Menken defined that, whereas Christians who reject Christianity are not known as Christian, however make up the atheist Left, “you would be a Jew and never imagine in Judaism.” This results in the phenomenon the place “you might have this picture of the Jews as being all on the Left, whereas the concerned Jews and the rabbis, those that really know Judaism and those that let Judaism drive their values, are on the Proper, they usually wanted to have a voice.”
The rabbi additionally countered what he known as the “asinine” concept that abortion is a spiritual freedom difficulty 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 method is “profoundly harmful” as a result of “if every part turns into a spiritual liberty difficulty, then nothing is a spiritual liberty difficulty.”
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 an analogous letter to McCarthy, “the [House majority] whip’s workplace despatched it out to each legislative director on the Republican aspect, 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, a minimum of in keeping with others, we had 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 Regulation 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 fundamental conventional values, and he does it on the Christian aspect, and I’m doing it on the Jewish aspect.”
“We’re Orthodox Jews. Something the woke left calls ‘hateful,’ ‘bigoted’ and ‘racist,’ we do,” he added.
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Take heed to the podcast right here and skim a lightly-edited transcript beneath.
Tyler O’Neil: That is Tyler O’Neil. I’m managing editor at The Day by 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 among the assaults of the [Anti-Defamation League]. However most not too long ago you had an excellent second of affect concerning—
Rabbi Yaakov Menken: [Rep.] Ilhan Omar.
O’Neil: Ilhan Omar. Sure. Precisely. Yeah, so speak just a little bit in regards to the letter that you simply 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 house in a really totally different method. We all know that the whips workplace despatched it out to each legislative director on the Republican aspect, had a replica of, or a minimum of information of, our letter. And that meant that a number of of the individuals who had 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 a minimum of in keeping with others, we had 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 america. 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 every one you had been listening to was partisan leftism disguised as if it had been Jewish values.
Tikkun olam, repairing the world. Something I wish to do is repairing the world, so my very own private ideology is due to this fact Judaism, which implies you might be on two sides of a problem and each declare to be representing Jewish values. It doesn’t work that method, clearly. And the entire level of the Bible is there’s a ethical normal that everyone’s imagined to comply with 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 as a way to be a conventional rabbi, you must come out a sure method. And that individuals don’t understand that the overwhelming majority of rabbis in America are on the suitable wing, very conservative of their values as in comparison with the common Jew.
You may be a Jew and never imagine in Judaism. So the Christian who doesn’t imagine in Christianity, they 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 might have this picture of the Jews as being all on the Left, whereas the concerned Jews and the rabbis, those that really know Judaism and those that 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 difficulty.
Menken: Yeah. The Jews for feticide.
O’Neil: Yeah. Proper?
Menken: It’s unbelievable. I imply, to start with, the concept that an elective abortion is a spiritual obligation is clearly asinine. It doesn’t start to make logical sense. However these should not individuals who really care about non secular liberty as a result of that is profoundly harmful. If every part turns into a spiritual liberty difficulty, then nothing is a spiritual liberty difficulty.
And a shoutout to my buddy, the lawyer, Howie Slugh, on the Jewish Coalition for Non secular Liberty, which is a authorized outfit that recordsdata amici and the like on behalf of spiritual 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 wish to allow you to do, like smoke pot, is the one non secular obligation your faith has, it could be that you simply’re making up the faith because it goes alongside.
O’Neil: However then there are—
Menken: So that is Jews who don’t imagine 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, after all.
Menken: … I’m not going to be in entrance of a mic or no digicam tomorrow. Not those who imagine maintaining kosher is a Jewish obligation. They definitely don’t imagine that residing in Israel fulfills a Jewish obligation, however, oh yeah, getting access to an abortion, that’s our non secular obligation.
O’Neil: Proper.
Menken: Proper. There’s just a little 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 method that threatens non secular liberty, the non secular liberty of Jews as nicely. Would you tackle that?
Menken: This new Respect for Marriage Act. Truly, it’s actually an attention-grabbing descriptor of our affect, moreover the Ilhan Omar letter, is the truth that when ADF did a letter to the Republican aspect, begging them to “please don’t enable the Respect for Marriage Act to move,” which sadly they did, and there have been some wonderful sellouts there, and I used to be actually stunned by that.
However be that as it might, on the entrance web page of that letter with 80 signatures, there have been solely 10, 9 out of 10 had been multimillion-dollar family title 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. Truly, bang for buck, because it had been. We’re method in extra of anyone else as a result of we’re like a pressure multiplier.
The Left will instantly declare that solely Christians imagine this. Subsequently, you’re making an attempt 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 this stuff. 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 bought them from?”
O’Neil: Proper. So, on that line, I wish to speak briefly in regards to the Southern Poverty Regulation Middle. You guys had been—
Menken: Oh, simply our favourite individuals. Actually.
O’Neil: I wrote a guide about them known as “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Regulation 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 individuals from Amazon Smile.
Menken: One other nice success of ours, they shut down Amazon Smile solely. No. Sadly, throughout the time of Amazon Smile, they had 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 person 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 fundamental conventional values, and he does it on the Christian aspect and I’m doing it on the Jewish aspect.
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 bought married final yr in a resort 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 might be while you are available. So in keeping with 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 really exaggerating once 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 making an attempt to drive you from the general public sphere. And we’re like, OK, however we’re Jews. Now we have 3,000 years of expertise with different governments telling us we’re improper. This isn’t a brand new expertise for us and due to this fact we’re simply—I do know that once I go house, the opposite rabbis on my block are like, “Good going. That was good. You mentioned the suitable 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 stay up for—
Menken: Respect this chance. You’ve been a pricey buddy for years. I imply, actually. Your reporting has gone method again on our behalf and bringing a few of these tales to the general public is absolutely vital. And so we admire you as a lot as you admire us.
O’Neil: And the way can individuals comply with your work?
Menken: Nicely, me personally, I’m @YMenken on social media and @CJValues is the group, together with cjvalues.org or, if you happen to 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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