LETTERS TO EDITOR


November 20, 2012

Politics And The Pulpit

Your Oct. 26 story “Politics and the Pulpit” poses a question in the subtitle that the article does not answer. “Has Separation of Synagogue and State Become Obsolete?” Ever since the issue of Question 6 was first raised by our rabbis, I have been asking why this discussion doesn’t violate the laws of the separation of church and state. We walk a slippery slope when we go from interpreting the Torah and discussing or even arguing its meaning (a process that I wholeheartedly endorse) to using its perceived meaning to tell people how they should vote. I agree with Rabbi [Ronald] Shulman when he says that “Judaism’s primary ethical value is that all human beings should be treated with dignity,” but I also agree with Rabbis [Moshe] Hauer, [Menachem] Goldberger and [Yaakov] Hopfer when they say, “Constituents [should] stop the pulpit politics and make their opinions known not on the lawn, but at the ballot box.” Both constituents and rabbis should stop the pulpit politics.  I go to synagogue for many reasons; politics is not one of them.
Jack Zager
Baltimore



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