More from the mailbag

[DB: I seem to have missed a uniquely awful Cross Currents article from earlier this month. At least five people wrote me letters of complaint about it. What follows is one of them]

Hello there,

long time listener, first time caller.

Yakov Menken's article is just stupid. He ignores the fact that EVERY yeshiva criticizes "the left." Writing a book that can be debated is exactly what they should do.

And he thinks that "the left" has no arguments so they resort to bashing the right. How ridiculous. There are plenty of good arguments that "the left" uses all the time. Even a cursory tour around the blogosphere would demonstrate that. The book is an addition to all that.

In fact, there are precious few good books written for a wider audience (i.e. not preaching to the choir) about the validity of traditional Judaism. The charge that Menken levels at "the left" is much more appropriate for the right.

dumb article

Please protest for us. Thanks.

I don't have anything to add to this aside for an anecdote or three. First: I went to MO schools, and never heard a word from anyone about the right. My kids go to Charedi schools and so far there've been at least three incidents of MO-bashing I've had to complain about. Second: I daven at MO shuls, shteibles and a yeshiva. The folks in the MO place and the yeshiva have nothing to say about the members of other shuls. The shteible-hoppers, however, can hardly go a week without saying something nasty about the style, or the habits, or the behavior exhibited at the other two places. Third: I read a few blogs written by reform and conservative Jews. IIRC, not one of them have ever said anything critical of charedim; meanwhile, Yakov Mencken and Cross Currents, the self-appointed voices of Torah Judaism, run post after post that insult, demean and denigrate other types of Jews. (while always sparing a kind word for Christians)

Can any of you in reader-land corroborate my experiences? What explains it?