When I attended Kol Nidre services on Friday night, the president of the synagogue got up near the end in order to deliver the obligatory fundraising schpiel. It was the standard speech- a laundry list of things the temple had been doing that year, a plea for more funds in order to continue and expand on such efforts, and then an explanation of their new fundraising structure. It was then that the speech veered dramatically and inexplicably into Marxist doctrine:
"Call it socialistic, but I think that the notion of 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need' has worked very well for Jewish communities throughout the years."I'd heard variations on this same speech a couple of dozen times- but never before had the speaker chosen to appeal for donations from the assembled congregants by invoking The Communist Manifesto.
Now I should make clear that this was not any type of conspicuously left-wing synagogue, but rather a typical suburban reform shul, in which the rabbi had just finished giving a John Kerry-like sermon in which he took about six different positions on the Israeli security fence. But I found it more than a bit ironic that a well-intentioned plea for money, from one rich Jew to a congregation of other rich Jews, found a way to quote Karl Marx. Not to mention a little depressing, considering that no, such systems have NOT worked particularly well for Jewish communities, at ANY time throughout history, and especially not in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, let alone in Westchester County.
(For newer readers unfamiliar with the "Burn Your Siddur" concept, here's an explanation).
UPDATE: Esther has enlisted in the "Burn Your Siddur" cause. Since she likely goes to synagogue a lot more frequently than I do, she should be able to come up with a lot more good ideas.
Posted by Stephen Silver at September 27, 2004 01:42 AMIs this like airlinemeals.net? Fun!
Here's the "photo" of my Kol Nidre sermon. Rabbi Zimmerman talked about "love". I didn't lose interest, yet wasn't inclined to action. But for those that were, we were told specifically that the "torah forbids marital relations on Kol Nidre". Nothing mentioned about extra-marital relations....