Right to Carry an Unwelcome Message

Jews for Jesus will be allowed to hand out leaflets on campus, no longer subject to the trespassing arrests that occurred at Pierce College for several weeks last year.

As an American, a Jew, a rabbi, and an academic, I applaud this important procedural decision. Surely freedom of speech stands as the crown jewel among the constitutional safeguards that have enabled Jewish and other minority cultures to flourish within, and contribute to, American society. Surely, extending the boundaries of legitimate expression on the community college campuses can only raise their intellectual stature.

I applaud the procedure, and yet I abhor the substance--the message preached by Jews for Jesus.

Like most Jews, I maintain cordial relations with any number of Christians, whose right to practice their religion I would never dispute. I support interreligious dialogue and cooperation among clergy and laity alike. And I am encouraged by a rising current of theological understanding, which is gradually enabling Christians to respect the religious validity of the Jewish People.

Jews for Jesus preaches a message that flies in the face of the best Christian and Jewish understanding. A message that makes interreligious cooperation not less, but more difficult. A message that relies on confusions and half-truths.

That message holds that it is possible to be both Jewish and Christian. Well, it isn’t. And pretending the contrary works against the respectful mutuality which has been slowly, carefully building between the two religious communities since the Second World War.

Christian students on campus should know that the mainstream Christian churches have distanced themselves from both the message and the practices of Jews for Jesus. Jewish students on campus should know that authentic Judaism has an address at Pierce, as on college campuses across the country. It is called “Hillel.”

I serve as director for a Hillel Foundation that encompasses both Pierce and Valley Colleges. At Pierce, we maintain a booth on the mall and status as a recognized campus club. In addition, we have a full-scale Hillel House across the street from Valley College, where we sponsor a wide range of social, cultural and religious activities. In the future, we hope to create such a Hillel House contiguous to Pierce campus as well.

In America, there is freedom to speak, yes. But there is also the responsibility to distinguish between distortions and truths, the responsibility to take a people’s own word as to what it stands for. Above all, there exists the opportunity for Jews to connect themselves to the strong roots of their own enduring heritage.

RABBI SUSAN LAEMMLE

Van Nuys

Laemmle is director of the Valley-Pierce Hillel Foundation.