Letters to the Editor	Print

Volume 4 , Issue 2 (Dec, 1990 | Kislev, 5751)

Dear Sirs:

I enjoyed the article by Orrin Tilevitz entitled ?Tax Ethics for Jews? (The Jewish Review, September, 1990). As Mr. Tilevitz points out, the obligation to pay taxes is a halakhic obligation; any Jew who cheats on his taxes is violating an express prohibition of the Shulkhan Arukh (Hoshen Mishpat 369: 6).

What makes this issue so pressing (and your decision to print Mr. Tilevitz's article so courageous), is the extent to which Jewish organizations are facilitating violations of this halakha. Many synagogues and other Jewish organizations regularly offer goods and services to their members, payable with a check made out to the organization; the organization knows that the member is purchasing the item through them in order to deduct the amount of the check as a charitable contribution. The law, however, is quite clear that purchases of plane tickets, Catskill weekends or even a lulav and etrog are simply not deductible, no matter whom the check is made out to. By allowing their members to purchase these items through the organization, the organization is providing a methods for its members to take phony tax deductions. In many cases, the members who take these illegal deductions believe they are acting lawfully; in such instances the organization is clearly guilty of placing stumbling blocks before the blind.

Finally, lest there be any doubt as to the seriousness with which our Rabbis viewed the sin of tax evasion, the Talmud states (Semachot 2:9): ?He who steals from taxes or public property spills blood ? not only does he spill blood, but it is as though he worships idols, commits incest and violates the Sabbath.?

Very truly yours,

Clifford M.J. Felig

New York, N.Y.

Dear Editor:

If, as you hope, ?the new year 5751 will bring mutual respect and tolerance for differences of opinion,? (Editorial, Sept.‑Oct. 1990), the place to start is in your editorial column.? In that regard, you are off to a bad start this year.

In criticizing Orthodox rabbis and rabbinical organizations for publicizing their ongoing political squabbles in the Jewish Week, you take some false and gratuitous snipes at that newspaper.? You scoffingly refer to it as a Federation‑UJA newspaper when, in fact, the Jewish Week is independent of that organization.? You describe the Jewish Week as ?a periodical that has rarely shown? any interest in positively portraying any group of Orthodox Jews.? As a subscriber to that paper, I can attest to the fact that it routinely covers stories of interest to all different kinds of Jews ‑ Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform ‑ in a reasonably fair and objective manner, and publishes op‑ed columns that run the gamut of Jewish opinion.? As a matter of fact, Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, the noted Orthodox scholar whose interview was prominently featured in your September‑October 1990 issue, has a column that runs in The Jewish Week on a weekly basis.

Anybody concerned with the concept of Jewish unity ought to be outraged at your conclusion that Orthodox rabbis should not have publicized their differences in a newspaper that has ?a readership whose majority is more likely than not, non Orthodox.? I could understand criticizing Jews for airing our dirty laundry in front of a Gentile public that is eager to pounce on any excuse to give vent to its latent anti‑semitism; but to insist that non‑Orthodox Jews not be exposed to such laundry is to underestimate their intelligence and to undermine their position as part and parcel of the Jewish mishpacha.

No, I am not at all associated with the Jewish Week, other than the fact that I happen to read it.? As a Jew, though, I would like to exercise my right to know what is going on in the Orthodox community, including any arguments that may be going on between its leaders.? I am more likely to glean this kind of information from The Jewish Week, which at least attempts to be objective within a Jewish framework, than from an Orthodox publication like The Jewish Review, which is more likely to engage in white‑washing and to have us believe that all the leaders of the Orthodox community are tzadikim.

Sincerely,

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Zachary M. Berman