If this doesn't get the crowds in - nothing will...
AJN WATCH - the on-line voice of Australian Orthodox Jewry observes and comments on matters of interest to that community. We particularly monitor prejudice and monopolistic abuse of influence in the pages of the Australian Jewish News - the main source of information to and about Australian Jewry. We spotlight errors, expose misrepresentations and vigorously advocate our community's positions.
Before passing judgment against this approach, ask yourself if maybe this is a typical way to attract the South African crowd. I am not familiar enough with their culture but, it may very well be suited to reach a certain South African segment of Jews. And it does not promote a 'booze up' as you imply, so it is only offering beer--big deal! It may be the only way to reach a certain crowd, it may be that these Jews are at such a level and would not be interested in doing anything Jewish on RH at all, and hey, if it works, then don't knock it! Better than going to the sporting events or the theatre that day. And one mitzvah leads to another, one never knows how many people will become more involved in their Jewishness from this one event.
ReplyDeleteS may be right, but I wonder how far we should go to attract people to shul?
ReplyDeleteTzeniusly dressed dancing girls? Non-Jewish fire-eaters? A petting farm?
Isn't a shul supposed to be a makom kadosh a holy site?
I just an't imagine any of this happeing in a mosque - lehavdil.
we're not Muslims, we are allowed to have a beer or two. You are making much ado about nothing. The fire eaters and the petting farms are not bad ideas and have been done before, especially Lag B'Omer. The dancing girls, to my knowledge, can probably be found in some liberal shules somewhere and have never been done by any Orthodox group and I doubt they ever will. Calm down, this is not going to ruin our fellow Jews. We have bigger issues, like how come they are so cooled down to Yiddishkeit in the first place and what are you doing about it?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I thought the purpose of this blog was to critique the damage the AJN newspaper does to Jews, not to criticise the outreach efforts of sincere Jews trying to bring people back to Torah.
ReplyDelete"non-chabad doverite", perhaps you are unaware that it is minhag yisrael in every community I've ever heard of to have kiddushim at shul. I doubt that your shul is an exception. So how is event this different from the kiddushim your shul has, at least once in a while? Most communities have kiddushim at shul only by day, but in South Africa the minhag is to have them at night as well; they call it a "brocho". I see no reason to distinguish a day kiddush from a night one.
ReplyDelete