How About the Easy Gift of Respect?

Click to enlarge. Project Inspire (affiliated with Aish HaTorah) is
selling outreach gifts for the "less-affiliated."

     Yes, you know the drill. Same problem as usual: the use of the phrase "less-affiliated." I have mentioned this in several other posts about Project Inspire's holiday outreach campaigns. Read them here, here, and here. (I discuss this in other posts as well, feel free to search this blog using the search feature.)
     While I find terms that appear to pass judgement on anyone's affiliation abhorrent, I was thinking about something else when I read this advertisement. This ad, like many of Project Inspire's other ads,  subconsciously serves to drive a wedge into Jewish culture as a whole, dividing us, in the words of Pink Floyd, into "us and them." This further serves to widen the gap between people who profess a desire to bring non-orthodox Jews to orthodoxy but then once they become orthodox, inevitably treat them and their children as second-class citizens.
     Furthermore, while it is very nice to give people gifts, such gift-giving can be perceived as awkward and even inappropriate in certain settings. Certain questions crop up when gifts from "acquaintances" are received: Why am I receiving this? Do I give a gift in return? Do I now owe this person something? What are the motives behind this gift? If this is a person at work, are there now concerns about job status, favoritism, and the disrupting the delicate social balance that needs to be maintained in the workplace?
     This isn't to say that there's anything wrong with a well-intentioned gift from the heart. And I'm thrilled to say that my own mom bakes honey cake and gives me one every year, but I know that there is genuine love in that gift, in addition to what has always been unconditional acceptance, even when she disagrees with choices I've made. I'm lucky to have a wonderful and diverse set of friends who are similar in that regard: we all accept each other, warts and all, without feeling the need to change each other. Such a gift from any of these people would never be second-guessed.
     I'm not sure if I've previously mentioned this, but a justification I've often heard for kiruv, not from Project Inspire, but from Chabad, was that the Jewish people should be considered like a body, and if one part of the body is hurting, the whole body works together to heal; we don't just cut people off. I think that we need to take this analogy of the Jewish people--and all people, really,--much further. Like a body, there are many different parts, and each part has its own unique qualities that make each part important. We cannot all be the spleen, nor can we all be the esophagus. We cannot all clone each other and be the left pinky toe. In order to be a whole and healthy society, we need to accept that we're not all exactly alike and weren't meant to be copies of each other, and honestly, not everyone is going to become (or wants to become) orthodox. Instead, we should respect each others' differences and see the good we all bring to our diverse communities, rather than focus on an imaginary scale of affiliation.

Is Chabad Ultra-Orthodox?

photo credit: http://umsenglishdepartment.blogspot.com/

     I spend a lot of time on this blog referring to "ultra-orthodox" outreach. Usually, unless otherwise noted, I am referring to outreach groups including Chabad. I bring this up because while perusing Chabad.org, the colorful, article-laden, information-rich website put out for those curious about all things Chabad and Jewish related, I happened upon an article in which that same question was asked. Here is Chabad.org's answer:

Is Chabad "Ultra-Orthodox?"

Chabad is referred to as an "Orthodox" Jewish movement because it adheres to Jewish practice and observance within the guidelines of Talmudic law and its codifiers. The prefix “ultra” is commonly used by media broadcasters, but it has no practical meaning. It is used to marginalize a group or to portray them as extremists battling with extremists of other religions.
Mother Theresa was never called “ultra-Catholic.” Albert Schweitzer was never “ultra-Calvinist.” Doctors Without Borders are not ultra-militant New-Agers. When a Chabad couple travel to a community, they are not interested in converts, in battles, or in brainwashing youth. They are only interested in sharing their Shabbat tables and the heritage that belongs to every Jew. A Chabad House is a “Jewish Center” and a Chabad rabbi is a rabbi, period.
If you hear Chabad described in the media as “ultra-Orthodox,” pick up the phone or fire off an email and complain. Tell them Chabad is a Jewish movement, without any labels, and they should describe it as such.1

     As that is a statement put out by Chabad, I'm hesitant to argue, after all, they probably know better than anyone else how to define themselves. However, I really think that their statement is simply one of semantics. According to the website MyJewishLearning.com, "the word "haredi" is a catchall term, either an adjective or a noun, which covers a broad array of theologically, politically, and socially conservative Orthodox Jews, sometimes referred to as "ultra-Orthodox." What unites haredim is their absolute reverence for Torah, including both the Written and Oral Law, as the central and determining factor in all aspects of life.... Certain groups of haredim, notably, but not exclusively, members of Chabad Lubavitch, do make contact with non-haredi Jews for the purpose of kiruv--encouraging others to adopt more stringent religious observance."2
     Ami Steinberger, a Jewish Press blogger, explains that "“Ultra-Orthodox” is the English term that describes a large group of Jews, whose religious practice tends to be very strict and whose dress remains very conservative, reminiscent of Eastern Europe before modernity. Many English speakers are familiar with another term that describes this group – Haredim..... [The term Haredi is further explained as meaning] "those who tremble before the word of God."3
     I completely understand why Chabad, who tends to define themselves as a movement and a philosophy, eschews the use of the term "ultra-orthodox." They don't want to appear threatening. Under the heading "Questions People Ask" in the handbook for outreach workers,  it's written that they find labels to be problematic because they divide people. To Chabadniks, one is simply a Jew. However welcoming and pluralistic this sounds, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, is cited as having stated that "the doctrines and ideologies of the Reform and Conservative movements, can only be classed in the category of heretical movements which have plagued our people at one time or another, only to disappear eventually, having no basis in our everlasting Torah, the Torah of truth, the living Torah, Toras Emes, Toras Chaim."4 
     Rather than divide people by labels, it is better to get rid of the labels that the Chabad movement finds problematic. To them, all non-orthodox Jews appear to be equal as (non-orthodox) Jews. However, to Lubavitchers, Chabad is Chabad, and even though they may fall under the Hebrew term haredi, they never want to be called by the English translation "ultra-orthodox."

1. What is Chabad? Frequently Asked Questions. Chabad.org. http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/776104/jewish/FAQ.htm

2. Weiss, Raysh. Haredim (Charedim.) MyJewishLearning.com http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Jewish_World_Today/Denominations/Orthodox/haredim.shtml
3. Steinberger, Ami. Ktzat Ivrit. The Jewish Press. com Blogs. January 30, 2013. http://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/ktzat-ivrit/in-hebrew-the-meaning-of-haredi/2013/01/30/
4. On Reform and Conservative Judaism. TrueJews.org. http://truejews.org/Igud_Historic_Declaration.htm