As reported by the Jewish Daily Forward, LA Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, was born Donald Tokowitz. “He was born to Jewish immigrants in Chicago who had, in fact, fled Eastern Europe to get away from the kind of attitudes their son — if it is confirmed that it is him — was caught on tape adamantly defending as part of a ‘culture.'”
So how do we as Jews react to the incredibly insensitive racist remarks uttered by a wealthy man of Jewish extraction? What do our enduring Jewish values teach us regarding how to respond to this situation?
As I assert in my new book, “Renaissance: A Strategic Plan for Transforming Judaism,” available from Amazon, (http://www.amazon.com/Renaissance-Strategic-Plan-Transforming-Judaism/dp/1493627228/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398959189&sr=1-14&keywords=jim+stein), if Judaism is to remain relevant and meaningful in the Twenty-First Century, we need to view actions in the real world through the prism of fundamental Jewish Values. People today are looking for more than a dry discussion of values. They need a context for their meaning and application in the real world. They want their religious leaders and organizations be rooted, resolute and connected. Above all, they want their leaders to conceptualize Jewish values by helping people apply them in a real and concrete fashion to the challenges and crises they are confronting in their daily lives. This is especially true in a spiritual context. If a synagogue cannot meaningfully respond to congregants’ seeking of truth, meaning and exploration along their spiritual journeys, then that synagogue has failed the litmus test of relevancy and needs to be re-imagined. Judaism must therefore espouse beliefs and practices that provide very real meaning and very real solutions for very real people in the context of their crowded and frenetic lives.
So what about Donald Sterling? What does our tradition, teaching and values tell us regarding his inappropriate beliefs and behavior?
As stated by Chancellor Arnold Eisen of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Judaism teaches us how to make sense of our time on earth and to make sure that our time is not wasted. It helps to provide meaning to our lives. Jews are God’s partners in creation. Its basic truth claims are: There is right and wrong; We must constantly affirm life; We need to choose between right and wrong and choose to enhance, acknowledge and be grateful for life; Justice, kindness and relationship are Judaism’s overriding and enduring values.
In Leviticus 19:18, the text reads: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself: I am the Lord.” This profound statement has been adopted and interpreted numerous times by Jews and non-Jews alike. For Donald Sterling to demean African Americans diminishes life and runs afoul of one of Judaism’s most enduring teachings.
Use this terrible incident as a way of teaching our children and ourselves how age-old Jewish values are relevant and important guides for how we should live our lives and how we need to treat and respect others.