O pinion
Rabbis Take Steps to Address
Harassment Issue
BY RABBI JOSHUA WAXMAN AND
RABBI JILL MADERER
ALL PEOPLE OF conscience
have been shaken and disturbed
by the revelations that have come
to light in recent months about
prominent public individuals
who have abused their power to
create hostile and humiliating
workplace environments
We have seen countless exam-
ples of people in power using
promises of advancement or
threats of demotion to demand
sexual favors from employees.

Of course, the organizations that
have employed these predators
have publicly promoted values of
respect for all employees and zero
tolerance for harassment, even
as they have privately devalued
and humiliated victims. The val-
ues these companies have pub-
licly espoused are not matched by
their inner workings.

In discussing the Ark, which
lay first at the center of the
Mishkan which the Israelites car-
ried with them in the desert and
then was housed in Solomon’s
Temple in Jerusalem, the rabbis
of the Talmud make an import-
ant observation. The Torah pro-
vides a detailed description of the
construction of the Ark, which
is to be made of acacia wood
and then covered with gold, both
inside and out (Exodus 25:11).

Given that the Ark is never
to be opened, the ancient rabbis
wonder why the inside needs to
be coated with gold just like
the outside. In response, they
derive the principle of “tocho
k’varo” — that our inner val-
ues must match our outward
appearances if our community
and our religious institutions
can be places where God can
truly dwell (B. Yoma 72b).

If the twinned problems of
sexual harassment and cov-
er-ups are out there in the wider
community, then they’re in
here, in our Jewish community.

Jewish communal leaders
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM have also been guilty of such
offenses. All of us have work to
do to prevent harassment, sexual
assault and devaluing or disre-
spectful language or behavior.

This includes Jewish leaders who
represent critical Jewish teach-
ings and values such as dignity
for all people — people who
should be held to the highest
standard for ethical behavior.

All of us, including in the
Jewish world, are at risk of putting
on one face in public but revealing
a different one in private. We need
to do the sacred work to ensure
that what is on the inside matches
what is on the outside.

The Board of Rabbis of
Greater Philadelphia recognizes
that we need to ensure our local
Jewish organizations are truly
embracing and living the ethi-
cal standards and values that we
publicly promote, including the
imperative of tocho k’varo.

As an organization, we have
joined with Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia to create two
half-day trainings for synagogue
employees who hold supervisory
responsibilities. These trainings,
following the B’kavod: Safe,
Respectful Jewish Workplaces
curriculum, focus on the syna-
gogue environment and provide
crucial information and guidance
to improve our communal insti-
tutions and to commit to making
our synagogue communities safe
and supportive environments.

And the Board of Rabbis rec-
ognizes we need to do still more
— not just demanding that our
communal leaders to take part
in these crucial trainings, but
engaging in them ourselves. As
clergy we have an indispensable
role to play both in understanding
the dangers that people in posi-
tions of authority can fall into,
and in modelling our own moral
leadership by taking a clear stand
against harassment and abusive
conditions in our communities.

Therefore, the Board of Rabbis
has worked with the B’kavod
staff to create a special training
program for rabbis and cantors,
focusing on the issues we face as
spiritual leaders. The training will
take place next week, and we are
subsidizing the cost for all par-
ticipants to emphasize the vital
importance we place on making
sure our synagogues and the orga-
nizations where we work can be
safe and supportive for all people
who work, visit, and pray in them.

In a time of increasing aware-
ness around this critical issue,
our moral leadership demands
that we take a proactive stance
to help protect against dangers
and dynamics that we know
exist in the Jewish world, just as
in the wider world. The two of
us have solid feminist creden-
tials and consider ourselves sen-
sitive, aware and caring. Still,
we understand that we — all of
us — make mistakes and need
to learn how to do better.

While there is no precipitat-
ing event in the local commu-
nity that leads us to take this
step, we believe that raising and
responding to these issues is part
of our commitment and respon-
sibility as rabbis and spiritual
leaders, and we are grateful for
the opportunity for growth this
program and the conversations
that come out of it will provide.

The Ark was the place where,
according to Torah, God’s pres-
ence was most directly manifest.

If our synagogues are also to be
houses of God, we need to ensure
that, like the Ark, our inside
matches our outside. Only when
our highest values permeate
every aspect of what we do, inside
and out, are our synagogues wor-
thy of being places where God’s
presence can truly dwell. l
Rabbi Joshua Waxman is spiritual
leader of Congregation Or Hadash
in Fort Washington and is president
of the Board of Rabbis of Greater
Philadelphia. Rabbi Jill Maderer
is senior rabbi of Congregation
Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.

JEWISH EXPONENT
KVETCH ’N KVELL
We’re Not Born to Hate
JOSHUA RUNYAN’S COLUMN (“How Do You Learn to
Hate?” Feb. 21) raised an important issue as he celebrated the
birth of his youngest son. A baby is, as he posited, the embodi-
ment of a tabula rasa, a clean slate, on which much will be writ-
ten, by his parents, his family, his community and so on.

So how does an innocent child grow to be a mensch or a
white supremacist (G-d forbid)? As Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
70-year-old musical South Pacific put it so cogently in their song
“You’ve Got to Be Taught to Hate”: “You’ve got to be taught from
year to year, it’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear ...

you’ve got to be taught.”
Racism is not born in you — it happens after you’re born.

Was a 4- or 5-year-old dressed in a KKK robe born hating black
people and Jews? Was a 10-year-old from Westboro Baptist
Church holding a sign that reads “G-d hates fags” born hating
gay people? No and no — they were both “carefully taught from
year to year.”
Rachel Garber | Philadelphia
Barrack Alums Support Unions
We are a Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy alumni family that
values human dignity, worker’s rights and social justice. We
learned about the importance of unions through the lifelong
dedication of our grandfather Leon Shore, who was one of the
founders and leaders of the Philadelphia Teachers Union.

We were lucky enough to learn in the homey walls of old
Akiba. Since changing the name and location, the only connec-
tion that we have is the teachers. Learning at Barrack is unique
due to the teacher’s support and commitment. The ethical work-
ing conditions, provided to the teachers through the union, is
precisely what enabled them to give it their all.

We are deeply concerned about the board’s decision to nullify
the union (“Barrack Board to No Longer Recognize Union,” Jan.

23). It was a point of pride that our private school had a strong
union. In Elon’s 13 years of teaching, he can attest that staff
are strongest and more dedicated when unionized. In order to
express our Jewish values of honoring work and labor, we should
have a union. Dissolving the teacher’s union is hypocritical and
a poor example for a Jewish institution.

We could never send our children to a school that was
involved in union busting. Happy teachers who are secure in
their jobs and able to take risks in their teaching create a warm
school environment. That is where we want to send our children.

We hope the board rethinks this decision, and we stand in
solidarity with the teachers. l
Elon Shore ’01 | Princeton, N.J.

Mira B. Shore ’06 | Philadelphia
Doron Shore ’12 | Botswana
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MARCH 7, 2019
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