The "Moser"

 

Dear JCCP/CBT Family,

For the first several months of the pandemic, the question that I was asked most frequently was to help our members understand the poor response of many members of the ultra-orthodox and Hasidic community in both our own area, and in Israel. Our members, who were taking the precautions recommended by our elected officials and public health experts, wanted to understand the actions and decisions of many members of those communities.

 

I’m not an ultra-orthodox or Hasidic Jew. So, I could not give them all the answers.  I too was and remain confused and frustrated by their indifference, and often lackadaisical response.

Last week, attention to the response of these communities to the pandemic was in the news again. In video that was widely seen throughout the nation, a demonstration in Borough Park protesting new policies enacted to stop the spread of the virus within certain NYC zip codes soon turned violent. During the protest, Heshy Tischler a local demagogue, radio talk show host, and candidate for the New York City Council, attacked a Jewish journalist (himself a member of the ultra-orthodox community) at a rally, and encouraged violence against him. Mr. Tischler called him a moser and soon after, the journalist was physically assaulted by other members of the religious community.

I want the members of our synagogue family to understand the meaning of this term moser.  Though it technically means informant, or “snitch”, it has a more specific meaning in Hebrew. It refers specifically to Jews who report on the activities of other Jews to hostile governments and leaders, so they might attack the Jewish community. A moser was dangerous. The punishment for the moser was death.

Every Jew, especially a communal leader, must be extremely careful when using such charged, emotionally laden words. Calling someone a moser is the kind of rhetoric that makes reporting crimes within the ultra-religious community to secular authorities impossible. It has been used to silence voices who wish to report sexual abuse in ultra-orthodox communities as well. Indeed, the word itself is linked to the term rodeph, also a term for one who endangers the lives of other Jews, the very word that irresponsible Rabbis in both Israel and the USA hurled against then against Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin of blessed memory, a word which ultimately inspired a Jewish extremist named you Yigal Amir to murder him.

 

Moser: That’s the word that Heshy Tischler directed against a Jewish reporter, writing for a newspaper that serves the ultra-orthodox community to a crowd that understands it’s meaning well.  And so few voices from within that segment of the Jewish community have rebuked him for his actions.  So allow me to say it clearly and unambiguously.  A reporter in a free society doing his or her job is not a moser. And Heshy Tischler is a criminal for calling him one. I can only hope and pray that he will be punished to the fullest extent for his evil actions. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Arthur Weiner