Love Across Boundaries

Once again the Baltimore Jewish Community is struggling with the issue of opening the local Jewish Community Center on Shabbos. I was reading a number of articles in the Baltimore Jewish Times on the subject, when something struck me. One article quoted Orthodox rabbis such as Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, the late Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Israel, and Rabbi Yissachar Frand, still on the Ner Israel staff, as saying that they are concerned and care about their non-Orthodox fellow community members and about the Shabbos observance, such as it is, of those community members.When I mentioned this to a friend who carefully wends his way through the philosophical minefield that exists within the Orthodox and non-Orthodox communities, he responded to me by saying that the Orthodox concern about caring about their Shabbos as well comes across as condescending. It seems that we never hear from members of the Orthodox community about how much they care about those outside that community on a personal basis, until such time as there is a chance of the JCC opening on Shabbos. Even more so, we rarely find members of the Orthodox community acting in a manner that shows that they truly care about their non-Orthodox fellows in the community. Other than attempts at outreach, essentially trying to get the other community members to become Orthodox, we don't find that those in the Orthodox community care about others as they are and where they are now. We don't find mutual respect and honor.We live in a very polarized community. That is why intra-communal debates such as this one, find it difficult to arrive at a meeting of minds that rarely communicate with each other.

Allow me to offer an example. There is a rally scheduled for this Sunday to show the community's concern about the possibility of the JCC opening. It is clear that there are people outside the Orthodox community who are disturbed by this turn of events as well. Are they being invited to attend? If a Conservative or Reform rabbi was opposed to the opening, will he be welcome on the dais alongside the Orthodox rabbis? I suspect the answer is no. Even when we are preaching of our love and concern for our neighbor, we are building and strengthening fences at the same time.

I see this division so clearly demonstrated at the juncture of Baltimore and Pikesville, near Park Heights and Slade. You have lined up in a row Temple Oheb Shalom on one side of Park Heights Avenue, and across the street Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, each representing the Reform communities. Right in the backyard of Baltimore Hebrew is located Suburban Orthodox Congregation. Do these congregations ever get together and celebrate their joint heritage? Do the Orthodox and Reform neighbors even know each other at all? Isn't it sad that we can be so close and yet so far?