Teaneck, NJ – Orthodox Shul Takes Rabbi To Task For Bashing Obama

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    Teaneck, NJ – Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, New Jersey is home to some two thousand Modern Orthodox Jewish members. At its religious helm is Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, known for his right-wing opinions and his ability to seek out and stir up controversy, including referring to the Rabin administration as the “the Rabin Judenrat”.

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    Haaretz reports (http://bit.ly/T5WkJN) that Rabbi Pruzansky has once more raised the ire of many of his congregants with his blog post entitled “The Decline and Fall of the American Empire”, wherein he vilifies the “affirmative action president” and the president’s supporters following Mr. Obama’s re-election “nightmare”.

    In his post, Rabbi Pruzansky wrote, “One might reasonably object that not every Obama supporter could be unintelligent. But they must then rationally explain how the agenda can be paid for, aside from racking up multi-trillion dollar deficits.”

    He also spoke derisively about the immigrant community, attributing Mr. Obama’s win to those “primarily from the Third World” who “do not share the traditional American values that attracted immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries.” Rabbi Pruzansky noted that, “It is a different world, and a different America. Obama is part of that different America, knows it, and knows how to tap into it.”

    In response to Rabbi Pruzansky’s post, the synagogue’s executive board has circulated a petition among its membership to call the “rabbi to order.” Bnai Yeshurun members said that while they appreciate that the rabbi is entitled to free speech, they feel strongly that his blog “insults and denigrates” community members. In fact, they say, the rabbi’s fanaticism has “driven away many members of his congregation over the years” and has led to the establishment of at least seven other synagogues in Teaneck – many of which are filled with the rabbi’s critics, including ADL National Director Abraham Foxman.

    Rabbi Pruzansky was apparently unfazed by his congregation’s concerns. In an e-mail he replied, “Unfortunately, you are making a mountain out what is not even a molehill. A handful of members took personally what was a generic statement, in line with today’s American cultural norm of taking offense easily, repeatedly and quickly. In a shul of 2,000 people, this type of disagreement is not really uncommon. In fact, I’m surprised it is not more common. But I respect their right of free speech and am not in the least disturbed by their letter.”

    In addition to his position as a shul rabbi, Rabbi Pruzansky serves as a trustee of the Rabbinical Council of America and on the board of the Beth Din of America where he also acts as a judge.


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    95 Comments
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    radrad
    radrad
    11 years ago

    And he is correct!
    Go rabbi pruzansky

    Brian
    Brian
    11 years ago

    I support the Rabbi 100%. I’m not a congregant of his, rather a congregant of a Crown Heights Shul, yet I agree with many of his sentiments. Regardless of what his opinions are, I support a Rabbi having private sentiments outside his shul. He’s not only a Rabbi, he is a private person as well, entitled to rights just like everyone else.

    DRE53
    DRE53
    11 years ago

    What a chilul hashem and unjewish this is.
    As a public figure e should weigh his words before posting them.

    monalisa
    monalisa
    11 years ago

    What did he say that was wrong? On the contrary, he is 100% right. I wish more community leaders would have the guts to speak out.

    11 years ago

    As a member of his Shul, I am sickened about his speech and plan to leave with my family to join a neighborhood Shul. My wife and I are both educated and have decent careers. We both voted for Obama for our own reasons. I am also upset that Pruzansky has called so much attention to our Shul in the media. No need for us to be affiliated with such negativity caused by one man. Shabbos needs to be peaceful for all members and it no longer is.

    SherryTheNoahide
    SherryTheNoahide
    11 years ago

    Yes a person has free speech, but that doesn’t give the person the right to use his position to bully other people with it!

    If I was in charge of putting together the newsletter of a small, orthodox congregation, made up of probably mostly Republican voters…there’s no way I’d use even a small position like THAT to try to gripe & moan about the GOP! For what?! What *good* does that do?!

    Those of you saying “Go Rabbi!” & speaking in favor of this sort of thing, can ONLY say you approve of the behavior because he’s saying something you like! lol Wait until a young Rabbi in charge of the youth (hypothetical situation here) gets up & cracks jokes about prominent Republican figures & warns people about how it’s not moral to vote for them because of their views on the poor…

    THEN how would you feel?! You’d feel bullied! You’d feel like it’s unfair that you have to sit there & listen to that “garbage”, right? All that icky hippie tree-hugger commune talk. 😀

    Admit it: if the talk was on the OTHER end of the spectrum, you’d find him to be highly unprofessional & would be complaining yourselves! There’s no way you’d just let that go!

    So at least be fair, and admit that politics probably just DOESN’T belong in the shuls, in the churches, or anywhere religion based! The most any of ’em ought to be doing is maybe saying general prayers for the President at the most…but that’s it! Otherwise, what’s going on in the Torah is much more important to our lives!

    StevenWright
    Member
    StevenWright
    11 years ago

    If something he “passkens” won’t be to their liking they’ll call him to task too?

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    11 years ago

    It is a shame when a rov can’t say the emes because it will offend some uber liberal wusses.

    What they want is Goy Azum v’rov – a goy who happens to be a rov!

    DovidTheK
    DovidTheK
    11 years ago

    How can any member of an orthodox shul disagree with the Rabbi? Obama is an anti-semite and America has changed for the worse.

    sissel613
    sissel613
    11 years ago

    Funny. I remember so many years ago that Rabbi Meir Kahane HY”D was criticized for his “inflammatory” statements. Now many of those critics (including me) are saying he was right. So Rabbi Pruzansky, keep on truckin’. Keep a lesson from Rabbi Kahane

    5TResident
    Noble Member
    5TResident
    11 years ago

    I knew Rabbi Pruzansky when he was the Rav at Etz Chaim in Kew Gardens Hills. While I agreed with much of his sentiment, I found his manners of speech to be vile and full of sinas chinum. I once heard him refer to Rabin as “bacteria”. Pruzansky is entitled to his views but he needs to tone down the rhetoric.

    kehati
    kehati
    11 years ago

    This is America and we are all free to voice our political opinions. Having said that, we are also Jews in Golus and should use our sechel when making comments that will be heard by “the world”.

    yosher
    yosher
    11 years ago

    Rabbi Pruzansky is an Ehrlihe Yid, aTalmid Chocham, a well educated scholar and lawyer: his right, nay his obligation, to express his views, reflect his role as a manhig. Foxman is no loss to any shul! If one makes a movie it is Foxman’s condemnation that will insure success.

    leahle
    leahle
    11 years ago

    The Rabbi is entitled to his opinions and can exercise his right to freedom of speech outside of work. His congregants are also entitled to consider hiring a new rabbi when his contract expires if they are uncomfortable with someone who has misinformed, racist beliefs and who insults the intelligence of the 70 percent of fellow Yidden who have rational fundamental disagreements with his political views. The same holds true for a Rabbi who publicly demeans the intelligence of Republican Jews and fellow citizens.

    mutti
    mutti
    11 years ago

    The good thing is that in this election marijuana also became legal in some states. With Obama and weed all will be fine!

    Anon Ibid Opcit
    Anon Ibid Opcit
    11 years ago

    It’s not just “bashing Obama”. It’s really nasty, uncharitable remarks oppressing the poor. Combine that with going back and changing them when called on it without owning up to making the changes.

    msmarbut
    msmarbut
    11 years ago

    i come from a different tradition — Reform Judaism, and in Texas — but find it’s virtually impossible to find a Reform rabbi savvy enough to figure out that what has been happening in the country will directly impact Jews. Rabbi Pruzansky, your article is sobering and on target. Count me in as a blog follower.

    RobertS
    RobertS
    11 years ago

    In the US, like at Shul, everybody wants more and bigger service offerings, tzedakah, food, infrastructure etc. but at Shul, at least people pay for it instead of demanding that others pay for it.

    11 years ago

    Only in USA can you fire a Rav.
    He’s the Rav and the members should listen. If don’t agree its fine but he’s got the right to voice his opinion!

    Besides I agree with him,,,,,

    shlomozalman
    shlomozalman
    11 years ago

    A shul where everyone likes the Rabbi is not a real shul.

    Berl
    Berl
    11 years ago

    Rabbi Pruzansky is not only wise, a talmid chocham, a baal tzedaka and a machnis orach, and a tzaddik, he is also correct
    Those congregants of his who can not accept what he is saying should leave and join a conservative or reform “church”. Or they can open their own Shul ,Congregation Anshei Sodom Adas Korach Bnei Meri

    11 years ago

    When a rabbi does this as his platform to interact with Israel, he undermines any authority that Hashem has placed in him as a rabbi. I am sure that G-d is a G-d of equal rights and we all have a right to vote Democrat or Republican as Americans.

    itchemeir
    itchemeir
    11 years ago

    kul hakavod to Rav Pruzansky! let his opponents leave and open a new shul: cong. Yoshvei Choshech uBaalei Riv.

    itchemeir
    itchemeir
    11 years ago

    oy – i don’t like that rabbi!

    yosher
    yosher
    11 years ago

    I have now become aware of the source of this email attack on the Rav: I would expect that this particular family would not dare attack a Rav, for any reason whatsoever, for the next ten generations! Know from where you come.

    11 years ago

    The most unpopular thing in the world is emes (truth), and anyone who is going to have the courage to go public with the emes needs to have a lot of courage. May Hashem give Rabbi Pruzansky and all others who selflessly espouse unpopular truths the strength to withstand the inevitable backlash by those in power and the masses who either don’t think for themselves or whose main motives are keeping in their comfort zones. YASHER KOACH to Rabbi Pruzansky. May Hashem bless you for your courageous stand on many ethical issues where others fear to tread.

    Dr_Bert_Miller
    Dr_Bert_Miller
    11 years ago

    I met Rav Pruzansky on Sukkos 1988. I like him and I certainly understand why people criticize him. Those people are wrong and he is right. Had our Jewish brothers and sisters who just voted for Mr. Obama lived in 1932 Germany, they probably would have voted for A.H. y’s.

    I did not write that B.O. = A. H. He does not. However, the same brain cancer that moved some German Jews in 1932 to vote for A. H. has moved about 70% of American Jewish voters to vote for Mr. Obama.

    jackr
    jackr
    11 years ago

    Kol HaKavod to Rabbi Pruzansky. It’s nice to finally see leaders in the Jewish community who aren’t afraid to say it like it is.

    shayaB
    shayaB
    11 years ago

    A Shul should not just reflect the personality and opinions of its’ congregants. The job of a Rav is to lead, not follow. If the Rav is not a good fit for this Kehilla perhaps they should part company but a Rav should not be treated like a dog to be lead around on a leash. It denigrates the Rav and gives the Shul board the feeling that they are ultimately in charge. This is not Kavod Harav. It sounds like many of those who are upset with the Rav’s posting feel that their opinion is more important that the Rav. This may be the way a democracy works, but Torah is not a Democracy. Good luck to everyone involved but public bickering helps no one.

    Sherree
    Sherree
    11 years ago

    Jews can be their own worst enemies. When I read how many Jews and from which areas voted for Obama, and for what reasons, it sickened me. I agree with the Rabbi. It frightens me that Obama has four more years to play golf and play with our lives not to mention the future of our children and grandchildren. It is a scary proposition. I don’t trust him, I have no faith in him and I was extremely depressed when I watched the outcome of the election. HE is NOT a friend of Israel nor a friend of the Jews in general. But WE as a whole nation are stupid people. WE do NOT recognize the signs Hashem sends us. WE are so busy prophesizing, judging, and blaming others for everything that goes wrong in our lives that we refuse to see the writing on the wall.

    When something bad happens it is a message to each and every one of us, not to our neighbors and NOT to the goyim down the block. WE need to internalize and see what we each have to do in our own lives, in our own daled amos, and in our own relationships to make our own tikun. After we each correct ourselves then we can worry about tikun olam! So lets remember that when people come up with other theories.

    neezoogshoin
    neezoogshoin
    11 years ago

    When I studied at FDU, I would often pop in for mincha there. There was usually a shiur after mincha, and I really enjoyed listening to him. He is very strong-minded, and I give him credit for sticking to his beliefs and not allowing some misguided members to distract him from voicing his honest and informed opinion.

    Reb Yid
    Reb Yid
    11 years ago

    Hey. If the majority of Americans voting for Obama means they get to have Obama as President, then 2000 members at this shul get to have Rabbi Pruzansky as their rav. If you don’t like democracy then you can’t have Obama as your President.

    11 years ago

    To #40 -Sherree- I voted for Obama in 2012, and I am very glad that I did so. I am getting a little tired of the defamatory remarks from other Yidden, who allege that we didn’t know what we were doing, that we were not too intelligent to have done so, are not religious enough, or are not good enough as “they” are. I can sleep well at night, knowing that I made the right choice. Also, all of this propaganda that Obama is no friend of EY, is bubba meises. Even Ehud Barak, the most heavily decorated soldier in the history of the IDF, has repeatedly stated that Obama supplied EY with the Iron Dome system, has shared an unprecedented amount of intelligence, and has supplied other weapons systems to EY. Further, he stated that in recent memory, no other American President has been so supportive, pertaining to military matters, as Obama has been. Case closed!

    Crazykanoiy
    Crazykanoiy
    11 years ago

    I don’t understand the whole fuss. Rabbi Pruzansky wrote in his article that the majority of the American people are dumb and greedy and therefore the only hope is to move to Eretz Yisrael. If the Rabbi plans on following his own advice then there is no need for the members of the Shul to call him to order.

    11 years ago

    Pruzansky is entitled to his views, but I suspect that his congregation will soon provide him ample time to express them. B’yh, he will not be rav at this or any other shul by this time next year. How he can support the racist agenda of the right wing bigots who have taken control of the Republican party is beyond understanding. The Jewish voters of American voted 3:1 for Obama. The Jewish voters of NJ strongly rejected the candidacy of a so called “chassidic” rav who also ran on an anti_Obama agenda against a respected Democratic candidate who has served his community well and has been a friend of EY.

    Smokey
    Smokey
    11 years ago

    In most Orthodox shuls, it is the yinger mesnchen in Amani suits, the ones who have good jobs, who speak so fervently about how important it is that Republicans win elections because Republicans will cut down on entitlements, free-loaders, food stamps, etc. but I have often wondered if these young people have ever consulted their own parents about their positions, that is, the senior citizens who are worried that their social security pensions will be cut down, their Medicare and Medicaid will be affected, their local food supply programs will be eliminated. Next time you hear someone in your shul wave the flag for the Grand Old Party, ask him how his grand old mommy and grand old daddy are getting along, if he throws them a few bennys ($100 bills) once in a while, and which party’s candidates their parents are supporting these days.

    11 years ago

    i agree with what he says & can just say one message about the future that awaits us ahead

    i’m watching as the situation & economy gets worse & worse. And the craziest part about it is, that it doesn’t surprise me or shock me this entire country is about to collapse slowly but surely. The world is run by Hashem & nobody else (not obama or the gedolim etc…)
    you can save yourself now from losing everything, by stopping on depending on the government & depend on Hashem alone & then you will not lack anything & actually have a smooth & happy life.
    be prepared for all your rights & freedoms to be taken away slowly but surely-not in one shot-& soon WE will not be able to live in the USA as frum yidden. all our rights & freedoms are being taken from us one at a time & the USA is about to become what used to be communist russia.
    pack your bags NOW & head for Eretz Yisroel, while the pressure is not so hard & before america is attacked by iran. for then it will be too late & everyone will be leaving in poverty, wishing they had left-now-when they were told

    Josh38
    Josh38
    11 years ago

    Look at the Cross Currents site where the negative comments about the article outweighed the positive ones by about 4 to 1. And the typical reader of that blog is not a left-leaning Obama voter. The point of most of the negative comments there were objecting to the offensive and insulting tone of R’ Pruzansky’s article, not to whether we should have voted for Obama or Romney.

    bewhiskered
    bewhiskered
    11 years ago

    “Primarily from the Third World” who “do not share the traditional American values that attracted immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries.”

    Of course, the 19th century was a time of much more traditional American values such as slavery! And, feral racists like Pruzansky would simply love to re-instate that great American Southern institution! In addition to their hatred of minorities, the other common denominator that bigots share is their pathetic cowardice to admit to being bigots. Pruzansky is no different!

    Smokey
    Smokey
    11 years ago

    “Thank God we have in America perhaps the largest percentage of any country in the world of the pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock; certainly the greatest of any nation in the Nordic breed. It is for the preservation of that splendid stock that has characterized us that I would make this not an asylum for the oppressed of all countries, but a country to assimilate and perfect that splendid type of manhood that has made America the foremost Nation in her progress and in her power, and yet the youngest of all the nations. I myself believe that the preservation of her institutions depends upon us now taking counsel with our condition and our experience during the last World War.”

    These words were spoken by Senator Ellison DuRant Smith of South Carolina on April 9, 1924, in a speech in Congress in support of the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, an act which was informally known as the “Shut the Door Act”, and which severely limited immigration of Jews from eastern European countries, and Italians from Italy. Sound familiar?

    Smokey
    Smokey
    11 years ago

    As a general rule, it’s not prudent for a rabbi to voice his support for one candidate or another while speaking in shul, because the shul stands to lose its tax exemption as a result. I’ve noticed lately, that many Orthodox rabbis have given the knock to Obama. It’s as though they feel very restricted in applying the rules of loshon hora to fellow Jews, so they must vent their anger at what they consider a nice goyishe target, so why not Obama? Not only is he a goy, but one that is half-Christian and half-Muslim so you get 2 for 1 on one knock. Meanwhile, Obama keeps supporting Israel’s handling of the Hamas terrorists. Menachem Begin, himself, couldn’t have shown a stronger attitude in favor of Israel’s right to respond to the rockets from Israel’s enemies than Obama has. So yasher koach to Barack Obama, and let’s give him a ticker tape parade down Main Street of Teaneck, NJ.

    Smokey
    Smokey
    11 years ago

    The way the rabbonim explain it is that the Torah recognizes the institution of slavery as a human weakness, but that slavery is not accepted as an institution that can be morally justified under Torah law. The same attitude applies in the case of a woman captured in war by a Jewish soldier. She is allowed to go through a mourning period for her parents before the soldier can marry her, but such behavior by the Jewish soldier should not be encouraged. Here is the explanation in the words of the distinguished rabbi, Rabbi Beryl Wein:

    “There is a conception in Torah that the Torah dealt with the reality of the weakness of human behavior and allowed under very strict and hoarded circumstances behavior and institutions, which were not in the purview of the great moral framework.”.

    ..

    Old_Chief
    Old_Chief
    11 years ago

    I can see the Rabbi is one with the psycho-Baptists, and other evangelicals. Politically ideological demigods have no place in the pulpit. Take this one down.