O pinion
Take it From a Fat Rabbi: Nobody
Needs Your Dieting Advice
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Proposed Bill Potentially Fatal for Israel
I’M WRITING IN RESPONSE to “House Bill on Israel is
Flawed, But Our Jewish Civil War is Worse,” on April 29.

The bill to limit aid to Israel, proposed by Rep. Betty McCollum
(D-Minn.) and other progressives will harm Israel. It is endorsed
by known anti-Israel/anti-Jewish legislators. Pro-Israel Jewish
organizations should absolutely take a public stand against it. Aid
to Israel should not be based on the falsely reported treatment of
the Palestinians. The bill is not flawed — it is potentially fatal.

No Jewish organization should find merit in a bill to hobble
Israel. Israel’s legitimacy is denied in most of the Islamic world,
its physical and economic safety are consistently under attack,
the double standards applied to Israel are legion. And yet ...

Yehuda Kurtzer identifies himself as a progressive Zionist,
part of the broad spectrum of pro-Israel groups. He warns that
progressive values must be included or eventually Jewish groups
will fade. He stressed the need for Israel to address Palestinian
self-determination and their human rights, as if Israel’s 70 years
of inviting compromise had never occurred. And when does
Arab recognition of Jewish rights and self-determination begin?
Progressive Zionists support for Israel, based on documented
facts, is very welcome. Those of us who have done it for so long
can use more help.

But you cannot properly assess
anyone’s health just by their
size. Ask yourself: What does
Jewish tradition teach us about
how to care for the sick? One
thing is to pay attention to a
person’s actual needs and
desires, and not the needs that
we are projecting onto them.

When the Talmud (Berakhot
5b) has us follow Rabbi
Yochanan, a famed healer, as he
BY RABBI MINNA BROMBERG
visits the sick, we learn that his
very first question is “are your
DO YOU WANT to know one
sufferings welcome to you?” We
small but powerful way we
can all follow this model of first
could make Jewish life more
assessing whether our “help” is
inclusive? wanted.

Stop telling fat people about
You do not need to give
up your own diet. But please
your diet and asking if they’d
be mindful of how your
like to join you.

Roberta E. Dzubow | Plymouth Meeting
relationship with your body
Last year I launched
— and how you talk about
Fat Torah, with the aim of
Piece on Rise of Antisemitism Lacked Context
it publicly — impacts those
confronting weight stigma
I wanted to respond to Shira Goodman’s and Jeremy Bannett’s
op-ed (“Antisemitism Mutated Like a Deadly Virus in 2020,”
May 6) in the Exponent.

I yearn for a world in which our Jewish communities can be places of
What they left out is context, which is that crime also
belonging for bodies of every size. There is no shortage of work to be
mutated wildly at the same time as antisemitic incidents spread.

Robberies, rapes, shootings and murders rose rapidly, often over
done to get there.

100% in several categories. In New York where I live, the cause is
largely due to the recent “No Bail” law, which effectively releases
in Jewish communal life and summer camps, programs for around you, especially when criminals within hours of being arrested.

deploying Jewish tradition in elders, Hillels and more — to that relationship aligns with
A recent example of this is the arrest of a serial synagogue
ways that are liberatory for all be places that welcome us as oppressive stereotypes rather defiler who had been arrested 41 times for his actions and was
bodies. It has been my pleasure whole human beings, created than disrupting them.

arrested yet once more for repeating his antisemitic attacks. The
to connect with people in in the Divine image. Anyone
I yearn for a world in which no bail law left the judge no choice but to release him back onto
Jewish communities who are who has been even a little bit our Jewish communities can be the streets, no doubt to repeat his criminal activity. Forty-two
tired of diet culture interfering fat for more than five minutes places of belonging for bodies of attacks, which should have ended at one.

with our full enjoyment of in our fatphobic culture is every size. There is no shortage
Added to this are new laws which remove limited immunity from
traditional foods and appalled already deeply familiar with of work to be done to get there police, criminalize several techniques used to subdue a perpetrator
by the enshrinement of weight the sense that they don’t fit in. — from making sure we have and an atmosphere that demonizes them and coddles the criminal.

loss as a Jewish value. They are
When you suggest a diet to seating that can accommo- Derek Chauvin’s actions were criminal and he was punished, but
deeply concerned about how us, you reinforce the message date the largest among us, to you can’t use him as the poster boy for all police without decreasing
the pervasiveness of dispar- that this space is one in which breaking ourselves of the habit police morale and emboldening the criminal class.

As anarchy takes over the streets of our cities, Jews, Asians
aging attitudes toward fatness we cannot or ought not belong. of using fatness and fat people
and other vulnerable minorities will see increases in attacks. It’s
and fat people harms not only If you are taken aback when as the targets of “humor.” But
time to reject the knee-jerk reaction to demonize all because of
the largest among us, but also we do not respond with grati- please know, my dear dieter,
the crimes
of the few. l
those who are struggling to tude, please know that we have that simply holding yourself
Steve Heitner | Middle Island, New York
recover from eating disorders already received too many of back from trying to recruit
(among the most deadly of these offers and your “new” others to your diet plan would
STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
mental illnesses).

diet (or “program” or “healthy truly be a wonderful starting
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and let-
My inbox is blessedly full of lifestyle”) only reminds us that point for making a world of
ters to the editor published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They do
their righteous anger, genuine we have heard it all before.

difference. l
not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing
Group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Exponent. Send
sadness and deep love of the
Often this urge to share
letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to 215-569-3389. Letters should be a
Jewish community, despite your diet comes from a place of Rabbi Minna Bromberg is founder
maximum of 200 words and may be edited for clarity and brevity. Unsigned letters will not be
its failure to protect its own being “concerned about health.” and president of Fat Torah.

published. from fatphobia and the many
oppressive forces that so often
intertwine with it, including
misogyny, ableism, healthism,
homophobia, transphobia and
white supremacy.

But one problem has only
recently occurred to me, 10 years
in the rabbinate and 30 years as
a fat activist notwithstanding:
Working with individuals has its
limits when what we are seeking
is systemic change. The people
who most need a fat rabbi’s
advice — about how to “know
better so you can do better” (to
paraphrase Maya Angelou) or
how to confront weight stigma
within themselves before they
continue afflicting others with
it — are the ones least likely to
seek my counsel.

We want our communi-
ties — synagogues, schools,
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM JEWISH EXPONENT
MAY 13, 2021
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