Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein recently accused Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum in Cross-Currents of cheapening Jewish heroism and history. I would comment directly on the site, but I think I’m blocked (Yay!).
Here’s the main part of the article:
A few days ago, R Aron Teitelbaum of Satmar/Kiryas Yoel voiced his disapproval of the New York State Commissioner of Education for her ongoing attempt to force compliance with state curricular standards…
“She wants to change Klal Yisrael and remove us from our religion exactly as the Greeks wanted in their time, to destroy the education institutions, a decree of forced conversion (shmad). Who would have thought that here, in the greatest democracy in the world, a time would come when a decree on education would become reality?”
The Rebbe is known to be a clever, smart man. He cannot actually believe that the NYS Dept of Education is working for the apostasy of the Torah-true Jews of Kiryas Yoel and Williamsburg. So its just a bit of literary flourish, right? A bit of dramatic exaggeration? In a country currently awash with hyperbole, the Rebbe is perhaps no different than many in politics, broadcasting, and the academic world.
But there is something else wrong with this. Employing the “shmad” charge in this context cheapens centuries of Jewish history, and minimizes the sacrifices of countless Jews who laid down their lives in times of real gezeiras shmad. They knew the difference between the NYS Commissioner of Education and the likes of Antiochus, Torquemada, Count Uvarov, and the raiding parties in Iran that forcibly converted entire villages of Jews.
No. What Rabbi Adlerstein cannot imagine is that this is the case with all government education. Public schooling is an intentional threat to all religion or pseudo-religion (except for state “power religion”). Read the relevant chapter in Rothbard’s “For a New Liberty” for the historical proof. Polish up with Gatto’s “The Underground History of American Education” (free here).
Now maybe Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum doesn’t know all that either. But government education really is Shmad! Rabbi Brand expands the halachic “Shmad” category to state expulsions of Jews from the land of Israel, and similar matters as well.
The Rebbe certainly knows that there is no locale in the entire country with a larger percentage of people living on the public dole than Kiryas Yoel. Not too many people are going to believe that the government is trying to wipe them out as a community. The Satmar argument that the State’s demands are excessive has some merit. It would be better, however, if it did not match that excessiveness with words that are a slap in the face of centuries of kedoshim.
That is an actual valid point. “Who pays the piper calls the tune.”