BOSTON - Orthodox Jewish students at Brandeis University slammed the institution’s administrators for placing an advertisement in The New York Times Magazine that called the institution “anything but Orthodox” .
The Sunday advertisement read, “Brandeis was founded by Jews. But, it’s anything but Orthodox.” The text was in a two-page spread as part of a marketing campaign promoting the university. Brandeis was founded by Jewish community members in the Boston area in 1948 as a nonsectarian research university at a time when Ivy League universities in the Northeast were limiting admissions of Jewish students. The institution is named after Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. It must be noted that one would THINK that Brandeis himself would have attended the institution bearing his own name but did not do so - despite the tuition break he would definitely have received. That says a LOT about the quality of the place.
Leaders of the Brandeis Orthodox Organization ["BOO"], a student group, sent an email to members on Tuesday saying that they were “hurt and disappointed” by the ad. Orthodox people call this "Onaas Dvarim" - a Biblical injunction forbidding one from offending or hurting his fellow in any way. They said they contacted the administration to prevent this kind of messaging in the future. A group of students stood outside the office of the President and BOOED loudly.
A statement from Brandeis in response affirmed that the university is “deeply committed to our Orthodox community members, they pay tuition and we also don't want to lose out on their donations after they leave the university. We don't like Orthodox, but we love their money” and that “the ad was intended not to offend [we are liberals and liberals never want to offend. It isn't liberal!!!], but to underscore both the diversity of our community and our unusual origin story. We wanted at once to reveal our anti-religious bias to pander to our wide anti-orthodox donor pool and then do serious damage control by apologizing. Also, we would never offend Muslims. That would be against our ethic of equity. But Orthodox Jews are like family and family remains family. So we figured a little hurt feelings would be no big deal. Doesn't Ben Shapiro [certainly a cousin of Matt] say that bias doesn't care about your feelings??”
“We know that for decades, Brandeis has provided Orthodox Jewish students like ourselves a place where they could comfortably grow and succeed,” wrote Matt ["Motty"] Shapiro and Shoshana ["Shosh"] Weinstein, the president and vice president of the Brandeis Orthodox Organization. “However, the statement that was made in this advertisement was unacceptable and antithetical to Brandeis’ values. Not to mention stupid and really bad for public relations. Bias against Orthodox Jews is also a form of antisemitism.”
The statement from the university described the ad as “a play on words meant to highlight Brandeis’ unique story and history of innovation—as do the other ads in the campaign.” Weinstein said that she failed to see the play on words in the sentence "Brandeis was founded by Jews. But, it’s anything but Orthodox." She said that as it is her rabbis tried to dissuade her from attending Brandeis because, in their words "it is no place for a frum kosher bas Yisrael" but she didn't heed their words. She resolved to remain Orthodox despite the very non-Orthodox atmosphere on campus and the exhortation of the Rambam only to be in an environment conducive to religious purity. It hasn't been easy but in the meantime she has more or less held her ground.
Shapiro added that despite his first name "Orthodox Jews refuse to be a 'doormat' to the capricious advertising strategies of the 'Orthophobe' administration".
Malka Simkovich, chair of Jewish studies and director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, also blasted the ad: “Oh Jesus!!! In this ad, ‘Orthodox’ clearly means rigid, antiquated, monolithic, and unevolving. Since Orthodox Jews would reject these adjectives in their self-definition, this line is problematic,” she tweeted. "Many Orthodox Jews never even use words like "rigid" "antiquated" "monolithic" and "unevolving". Some don't even know what they mean. So the ad is totally off."
"Disappointing ad from Brandeis,” tweeted Dovid Bashevkin, a rabbi and director of education at National Conference of Synagogue Youth, the youth wing of the Orthodox Union. “But with all that actual Orthodox Jews face I find this seriously distasteful. On the other hand - this is going to make a GREAT podcast. I have to get the president of the university on my podcast to dialogue with an Orthodox student and a Conservative rabbi.”
Always the opportunist [we don't mean that in the pejorative sense but rather as one who takes advantage of opportunities to bring good to the world] - we congratulate Rabbi Bashevkin for turning this lemon into lemonade.
We emailed Rabbi Ally Ehrman, blogger, pundit and self-styled "Michiginer Rebbe" for his reaction but he declined to comment. "Some of my best friends went to Brandeis. I don't want to offend them".
