From the Shapell's newsletter. Nearly all of this newsletter consists of letters from students. And every letter is built around Oct 7 and the alleged anti-Semitism that is swarming America. And on top of that there is Torah study-- Gemara for the men and Rashi for the women.
And that leads us to the grand prize, the soldier.
So what's my point here? These are new BTs. Shouldn't they be excited about finding G-d, who barely gets a mention here, as well as a life plan of mitzvos? Why is Oct 7 and defending Israel the main thing and textual studies the next thing after that? This is Modern Orthodoxy today: anti-Semitism, Israel, and Gemara, and by Gemara they always mean lomdus. It's not a far cry from the Reform Jewish Hebrew school Holocaust and Israel. It's that with a little Torah study on top.
For me this is banal. I hesitate to criticize the students. Their accomplishment in becoming frum is monumental, and if this is the way the works for them then they should go for it. But I suspect that the school is shaping their minds, as several of them write here, and to what is it shaping them? Secularity for the most part.
As for the antisemitism, somebody should tell them that America continues to be the least anti-Semitic country in history. The Congress continuously passes laws criminalizing antisemitism and the administration is instituting policy that denies visas to anybody who criticizes the state of Israel, which is not antisemitism, particularly given the government's conduct over the last 20 months. Campus protests and encampments are not anti-Semitic. Half the protestors are Jewish and they are protesting actions of the IDF. So let's drop the crybaby bit. But they can't because Zionism has been fueled by obsession with anti-Semitism since Herzl and even when there isn't any, they imagine it. That's really the god that they worship.
In short, Shapell's is a Zionism training ground, even though most of the rabbis walk around in black suits. How confusing.
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