A Red Bank Library Let’s Talk About Race Program
By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – Countering antisemitism with “cancel culture” doesn’t help, Rabbi Marc Kline told a Zoom room full of attendees at the latest Red Bank Public Library Let’s Talk About Race program.
There’s no “magic wand” to curb racism, Kline said at the end of a complex, sensitive session. But throughout his talk he insisted that conversations, curiosity and calling out racism all help humanize individuals in a society crippled by antisemitism and bigotry – byproducts of fear.
Fear is the result of ignorance, Kline said, and the only way forward is to understand each other, not necessarily agree.
Kline, previously a resident of Red Bank who served Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, now serves Temple Ohev Sholom in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He led the online discussion June 28 that examined the relationship between prejudice and religious fundamentalism.
The talk focused on educating attendees about antisemitism and the marriage of faith and fundamentalism that has birthed divisive politics throughout history. Kline offered a compassionate lens on the rise of orthodoxy in the United States and its “explosion” in Central Jersey, specifically in Lakewood.
How does one coexist with this community without feeling threatened by its growth? And why even try? Because it is in “our backyard,” Kline said. “This is going to be one of the hardest conversations for your region to go through. Especially because we have trained each other to not speak to each other.”
Kline recalled a conversation he had with a doctor in Kentucky who said that just because “I am a strictly observant Muslim doesn’t mean I’m a fundamentalist.” This is just as true in the Jewish and Christian religions, Kline said. Not every evangelical Christian is closed-minded, but “we lump people together.”
Before even attempting to bridge the gap, it is important to understand what divided us in the first place. Kline gave a PowerPoint presentation detailing the rise of religious fundamentalism in America.
Religious Fundamentalism Grows
The whole enterprise of creating America “was to escape religious persecution and fundamentalism,” Kline said. The most conservative parts of religion stayed out of politics.
Communism became “an issue” in the 20th century, said Kline, and during John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign some claimed the Catholic Church would control America.
But by the late 1970s, religious fundamentalism turned political.
The “real link” Kline said, between religion and politics can be traced to President Jimmy Carter. According to Kline’s presentation, beginning in 1976, when Democrat Jimmy Carter identified as being “born again,” evangelical Christians became a potential voting bloc. Carter was “too liberal” for the “moral majority” of “Jerry Falwell and many of the televangelist leaders,” Kline said, but the doors had been opened for some Christians, especially in the South, to bring a white, conservative base to power for the first time since the Civil War. The result? “The culture wars,” said Kline.
Kline blames these culture wars for “absolute separation” in the people of America based on religions that forced political ideologies.
The conservative bloc gave rise to Ronald Reagan in 1980, Kline said, and to what we’ve now “clearly seen as a religious political divide between the Democratic and Republican parties.”
Kline simply defines fundamentalism as the tendency of certain groups or individuals to believe “their way is the only way.” A “power play” by the fundamentalist left or right is equally “devastating,” he said.
The Birth of Israel
According to Kline, antisemitism is not new, and its roots can be traced back to before the Roman Emperor Constantine recognized Christianity.
Jerusalem, occupied throughout history by Jews, Christians and Muslims, was the center of a trade route and was “victimized” by every nation that came through seeking power, Kline said.
And, he noted, antisemitism has played a “huge role”
in how Jews have had to migrate, live and change around the world.
When Jewish people migrated to America, they lived in “ghettos – as, by the way, did the Italians that came and all of the immigrants,” Kline said. He argued that it isn’t a secret that the United States knew what was happening in Nazi Germany; by 1942, headlines across America spoke of the mass slaughter of Jews in Europe. Kline also noted that Madison Square Garden was “filled” with American Nazi Party rallies at the time.
Kline cited transcripts from meetings of world leaders between 1945 and 1948 that, he said, demonstrate how displaced Jews were forced to fight the war of independence in Israel, “even though they didn’t want to. But the alternative was to return them to their homes in Europe and Europe wouldn’t let them in.”
The United Nations passed a resolution calling for the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine and in 1948 David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel in an area formerly governed by the British. Most governments, including the United States, quickly recognized the new state. A day later, Egypt and Jordan seized Palestinian land in Gaza and the West Bank and war broke out.
However, Kline insisted, Israel was not created as “an apology” to the Jews. “It was part of an attempt to rid the world of the remnant Jews at the hands of the Arabs, or the Arabs at the hands of the Jews,” he said. When the 1948 Arab-Israeli War broke out, the U.N. “didn’t lift a finger to defend the nation it just created,” Kline said.
A Passive Rebellion
In 1967, Jews “who had always said, ‘Don’t make waves… let’s stay in our small communities,’ at that point said, ‘No, we need to have our role and our place in the world,’ ” Kline said. He noted that tradition teaches love and peace for the whole world, and Jews should “be part of the fabric of society.” Many Jews became involved in the Civil Rights movement, Kline said. “We marched with Dr. King.”
And in the 1970s, “somehow Jews became white,” Kline said. Modern Jews empowered with dollars were no longer banned; the signs went from, “No Jews, No Blacks, No Dogs” to “No Blacks, No Dogs,” he said.
“We thought we had made it at that point.”
Kline said he grew up believing he was part of the fabric of America and antisemitism was a thing of the past but, he said, “the world of antisemitism has continued to rally and grow around us.”
In the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world, there is a political fundamentalism that leans “very much to the right,”
Kline said.
Lakewood: The New World
According to a 2020 Pew report, the United States has the second largest population of Orthodox Haredi Jews – characterized by their strict adherence to Jewish law – in the world, “and the largest growth of the Orthodox population in America is in Central Jersey,” Kline said. Reasons for the population growth include higher life expectancy because of the “purity” of lifestyle within the Haredi community, which includes eating strictly Kosher food and living with a strong support system.
A growing population with specific needs requires special health care, food sources and more to maintain its lifestyle, another reason for the “exponential” growth of Jews in the area. The yeshiva (a religious school) built in Lakewood has a worldwide reputation as one of the preeminent places of ultra-Orthodox Jewish scholarship. The yeshiva – Beth Medrash Govoha – has grown from a dozen students in its first year to more than 7,000 this academic year, making it the largest yeshiva outside of Israel. This explains the “booming” economy of Lakewood which is growing “very insularly” into Franklin and other areas. It is one of the “most significant Jewish communities in the United States,” Kline said.
He acknowledged allegations that the Orthodox community does not always pay its fair share to live in a community, even mentioning “abuses” to the Medicare system in Lakewood. But, he argued, these exploitations can happen in any religion.
He argued that people mostly accommodate special daily needs of individuals – restaurants offering a separate gluten-free menu or a designated smoking area – but when it comes to religion, “We have absolute intolerance for each other,” he said.
When people are not accommodated, they “segregate themselves and build their own world,” Kline said. He shared a photo of major renovations to a municipal airport in Lakewood, under construction since last year. With an airport in Lakewood, Kline explained, people don’t have to deal with a society that’s intolerant to them.
According to Kline, the real “conundrum” Central Jersey faces is who defines fundamentalism.
The Hope
Despite differences, there are ways we can “respectfully coexist,” Kline said. And those ways are “rooted in the ethics of humanity.” The future is in bridging gaps by having conversations along the lines of, “I know who I am, but I also need to know who you are.”
“How do we bridge these gaps when one group wants to impose their beliefs on another?” Patty White, program committee member of the Red Bank Public Library, asked Kline during the Q&A session. “What if some groups are also refusing to interact at all with the community around them?”
Kline said there isn’t just one way to bring entire communities together but engagment is paramount. “People aren’t reaching out to the Lakewood community,” he said. Neither are they “breaking the ice with the mosque” on Red Hill Road in Middletown, he noted. It takes a “concerted effort,” said Kline.
Susan Wyman, another participant, wanted to know how people could move forward creatively given the Orthodox Jewish community “does not allow their children to interact with children outside” of it.
“Even while current standards of behavior don’t open many doors, that doesn’t mean they don’t open any doors,” Kline answered.
There are people in the Lakewood community who do “cherish” the idea of engaging, Kline said.
Linda Oppenheim asked Kline “how to call people in and out” of racist comments and behaviors.
Often people say things out of ignorance and without intention or malice, or “as with white privilege, we just don’t know any better because it’s off our radar,” Kline said.
“You’ve got to be honest.”
Let’s Talk About Race will celebrate nine years in August. The award-winning series of programs hosted by RBPL began in 2015 in an effort to expand dialogue and understanding among people of various races, religions and ethnic backgrounds who make up the Red Bank-area community. For more information, visit redbanklibrary.org.
The article originally appeared in the July 20 – 26, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
