Orthodox Attitudes towards others
Posted by: richardmgreen ()
Date: July 10, 2002 11:04PM

I had this book called "Phillip Birnbaum's Book of Jewish Concepts". It was given to me by my Hebrew school and thirty odd years later it's still in print.
When discussing a convert or "meshummad", (a spiritually destroyed person), the book says "... what vile being forsakes the religion of his youth...[to follow another religion]?"
Well, let's examine this. In the first instance, when you're a child you haven't had a chance to put what you've been taught to the test yet. My beliefs have changed drastically over the years and so have many other people's.
Secondly, this is VERY strong language, but I think that it shows what some orthodox Jews think about non-orthodox Jews. Vile being? What about a Christian who forsakes the religion of his youth to become a ger (convert to Judaism)".
On the Hillel guestbook ([www.hillel.org.il]) where I comment frequently people have called the organization disgusting etc. They can only see their own point of view.

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