Update on Masa’s Ad Campaign

September 9, 2009 · Filed Under Baum's Blog 

 

I have some updates about my previous blog post – about Masa’s ad campaign aiming toward “lost” Israelis who have moved into the Diaspora – and whom Masa fears will intermarry.

Masa decided to drop the ad campaign (after much negative feedback in the blogosphere and elsewhere).  They say that “The main goal of a recently launched ad campaign in Israel was to try to engage an often apathetic Israeli population in MASA and involve them in the key goal of bringing larger numbers of young Jews from around the world on long-term Israel programs.”

I am glad that Masa dropped the ads.  However, their chalking this up to “misinterpretation” seems rather lame to me.  Just because they have listened to the public response and dropped the ad, have their values changed?

I also want to share with you part of a very disturbing comment I received on that blog post.  I did not post the comment because I considered it to be attacking.  Here’s part of it:

“Masa is absolutely correct in it’s message that intermarriage is bad for the Jewish community….  Intermarriage is destroying the Jewish community…. You are not a real Rabbi and not even a real Jew!”

This commenter has overstepped the bounds of healthy discourse.  There can be no appropriate conversation about the future of the Jewish community if a self-appointed arbiter simply attacks others.

What is most disturbing is his accusation that I am not a real rabbi or a real Jew.  It is absolutely astounding to me that there are people who think they can decide whether someone else is Jewish.  I am an ordained rabbi – ordained by one of the big three rabbinic seminaries.  If this person writing the comment has the audacity to tell me I am not really Jewish, then I can only imagine what he is saying to others.  And he claims to be worried about the future of the Jewish people!

So, here’s my response to whomever wrote the comment.  It’s not intermarriage that could destroy the Jewish community – it’s this kind of intolerance that will.

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Comments

One Response to “Update on Masa’s Ad Campaign”

  1. NiceJewishBoy Says:
    September 28th, 2009 at 1:53 am

    Dear Rabbi Baum,

    I am glad you didn’t allow that unpleasant comment to be posted on this website.
    I don’t have anything else to say about this as you already said it with the following: “It is absolutely astounding to me that there are people who think they can decide whether someone else is Jewish.” And your response about intolerance summed it up perfectly.

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