O pinion
Ben and Jerry’s Noxious Fuming
BY LEON S. MALMUD
BEN COHEN AND Jerry
Greenfield are very clever and
successful businessmen. They
developed a brand of tasty
and cutely named varieties of
butter-fat rich ice cream that
achieved marketing success in
a highly competitive market in
both the United States and inter-
nationally. They also developed
a highly effective marketing
campaign that links their
product with ideals of social
justice and climate change.

Like so many other clever
and successful businesses,
Ben & Jerry’s value profit over
their ideals and are willing to
suspend their principles when
they get in the way of making
money. They sell to countries
who support their ideals, who
believe in democratic rule,
religious and racial justice,
and the equality of women. We
know who those countries are.

They also sell without guilt
to countries who embody the
opposite agenda. Perhaps those
countries are less well known,
so I’ll name a few. China, for
example, who forces “re-ed-
ucation” by incarcerating
one million Muslims in the
western provinces. Let us not
forget Russia, with its klepto-
cratic leadership and persistent
poverty, or Iran, the world’s
greatest sponsor of interna-
tional terrorism. Nor should
we forget those countries who
torture, imprison, rape, enslave
and murder their Christian
minorities. Aren’t they even
more worthy of Ben & Jerry’s’
righteous indignation, or are
their markets too precious to
place in jeopardy?
Ben & Jerry’s’ past selling
history must be considered
when trying to understand
why they chose the Palestinian
cause for their social justice
succor. I suspect that they
cleverly intended to use their
platform to expand their brand
by appealing to the worst in
some by attacking the world’s
oldest and greatest scapegoat.

The market they might lose
in Israel and among some
American Jews and evangel-
icals is relatively small when
compared to the anti-Israel
market around the world.

It is true that Israel has
some internal problems of
equality, but so do all the other
nations of the world, including,
sadly, our own. However, Ben
& Jerry’s have not enacted
a boycott against any other,
possibly because they knew
that it might affect their profit-
ability. Targeting Russia’s
leadership or Iran’s corrupt
mullahs, who are out to destroy
our country, would probably
end in retaliatory internet or
terrorist attacks, which are
certainly bad for business.

Targeting Israel may be
good for Ben & Jerry’s profits,
but not necessarily as good for
the cause of social justice or,
for that matter, our nation. Did
you know that Israel is the most
environmentally conscious
and productive nation in the
Middle East? It has been the
United States’ most steadfast
and staunchest ally in the
Middle East since its founding
in 1948.

Israel also shares Ben
& Jerry’s and our nation’s
democratic ideals. Israeli
Arabs are full participants in
the Knesset, Israeli and Arab
women enjoy equal rights and
there is universal health care
and educational opportunities
for all. Despite the contempt
directed toward their home,
Israelis endeavor to be ambas-
sadors for good to other
countries during disasters,
regardless of which religion
is practiced there. While
watching TV, it is common to
see dogs with Magen Davids on
their coverings searching for
victims of earthquakes across
the world or to see the health
care workers wearing kippahs
tending to the injured.

Yes, the Palestinian people
need help. They are victims,
not of Israel, but of their own
most often corrupt leadership,
which practices terrorism, not
peace. This same leadership
diverts money from needed
health, education and housing
reforms for their own people
to pay for weapons that ruin
their chances for a peaceful
and prosperous country. They
are not bent on a two-state
strategy, which they rejected,
but a two-step solution:
first, the west bank and East
Jerusalem; second, all of the
land between Jordan and the
Mediterranean. Shame on you, Ben & Jerry’s,
for choosing the wrong target to
boost your sales. In the interest
of your feigned concern for the
environment, I say that people
should stop buying your ice
cream because the methane gas
from your many cows is helping
to destroy the earth’s protective
atmosphere, even more than
the noxious rhetoric emanating
from your mouths. l
Leon S. Malmud is the dean
emeritus of the Lewis Katz School
of Medicine at Temple University.

Baseball Can Handle Orthodox Jewish Players if They Make
it to the Big Leagues. Here’s Why
BY RON KAPLAN
THE ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
made baseball history when
they made Jacob Steinmetz,
a 17-year-old right-handed
pitcher from Woodmere, New
18 AUGUST 5, 2021
York, their third-round pick
in the Major League Baseball
draft. Steinmetz, who lists at
6-feet-5 and 220 pounds, is the
first Orthodox Jewish player to
be selected in baseball’s annual
talent hunt, which dates to
1965. The media made a big
deal that he “keeps the Sabbath
and eats only kosher food,”
although the teen does play
on Shabbat and holidays — he
walks to the fields in those
situations. The next day, the Washington
Nationals selected college
prospect Elie Kligman as their
final and 20th-round pick,
making the Las Vegas player
the second Orthodox player to
be drafted. Kligman, 18, won’t
play on Shabbat, as the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency noted.

It’s uncharted territory for
Orthodox Jewish players and
Major League Baseball. Eleven
players who identify as Jewish
have appeared in at least one
major league game this season
and none would consider
himself “observant” in the
traditional sense. The group
includes pitcher Dean Kremer
of the Baltimore Orioles, the
first Israeli to be drafted.

To find an observant
Jewish ballplayer, you need
JEWISH EXPONENT
to consult a 2015 novel, “The
Season of Pepsi Meyers” by
Abie Rotenberg, in which the
New York Yankees sign an
Orthodox Jewish phenom. As
one would expect, the budding
superstar is faced with all sorts
of challenges and temptations,
from how to keep kosher on
the road, to fitting in his daily
prayers, to sitting out games on
Shabbat and holy days.

Not that the majors haven’t
tried to accommodate a player’s
religion. Roy Campanella, a three-time
MVP for the Brooklyn Dodgers,
didn’t play on Sundays early in
his career in the Negro Leagues
as a promise to his mother. In
the mid-1980s, Edwin Correa, a
Seventh-day Adventist, pitched
for the Chicago White Sox and
Texas Rangers. A starter, he
refused to work on his Sabbath,
which also fell on Friday night
and Saturday. Happily for him,
he was able to follow his code
thanks to the flexibility of other
members of the pitching staff.

Sadly, injuries curtailed his
career and he was finished by
the age of 23.

Many of the children of
Jewish immigrants dreamed of
playing in the majors; whether
their parents agreed is a
different story. The sentiments
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM