Andy Bachman
Spiritual leader at Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue in Brooklyn

Andy Bachman

Bachman is the spiritual leader at Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn's largest Reform synagogue. He co-founded of Brooklyn Jews, a cultural program for young Jews.

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Keep It Separate

It seems pretty clear to me that one of American democracy's enduring gift to the world is our notion of a Constitutionally separate view of Church-State relations. It's a relationship that is, ironically, sacred. And it should remain that way.

Making an accommodation to Sharia Law or Jewish Law or Church Law of any variety should not be the business of elected officials. When we see such strategies employed in politics, they generally seem to be for two reasons: to keep the potential for conflict at bay or to infuse a debased secular political enterprise with morality.

In England and throughout Europe, we are witnessing a developing set of conflicts in the engagement with Islam--from dress to the application of religious law--and most decisions seem to be based upon a desire to keep the peace in the face of fears of radical Islam.

In the United States, though similar fears may be expressed about Islam, I believe that the American dream (though perceived of as in tatters) still resonates with most and therefore I also believe that most come here to transcend religion and assimilate into a broader American culture which will ultimately accept them despite difference. And one of the great equalizers in this enterprise is the doctrine of "separation of Church and State." It mandates that religious and civil law can co-exist but that in the final analysis, we are all citizens before we are subdivided into ethnic or religious sub-groups.

This poses challenges for maintaining individual group cohesion--certainly a matter often at the top of the Jewish communal agenda--but it's a trade-off Jews have been willing to make for more than 300 years here in North America in exchange for religious practice that is free of the State.

The beauty of democracies can be found in their "messiness" and their encouragement of compromise in order to please the greatest diversity of voices in the polity. Keeping Church/Synagogue/Mosque separate is the way to achieve Democracy's vision of domestic tranquility.

By Andy Bachman  |  February 18, 2008; 2:47 PM ET Save & Share:  Send E-mail   Facebook   Twitter   Digg   Yahoo Buzz   Del.icio.us   StumbleUpon   Technorati  
Previous: No Need for Separate Legal Systems | Next: Clearing the FOG of Shariah

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who did give you money, Russia? you know and you take money. you are responsible because you know.

as Etrusks had been, the arms legs of Anatolians are broken and cut off. the veins of information and breath and water are contaminated.

here is a prison. now you are responsible Russia and the families who give Russia money.

and the "blue suit LAvrov" is too.

Posted by: Levent Alkan | February 20, 2008 4:16 AM
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after the world war, all the university graduates, high school graduates, any clerks in government died.

who educated these generations? who shall provide with peace and frankness? who shall not cheat? who shall not have adultry?

Russia of Puskin?

Posted by: Levent Alkan | February 20, 2008 4:11 AM
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is Russia frank enough to announce whether Russia is with Rockefeller family or Soros family?

Turks dont know either of them, but with peace and cooperation. and this is what Turkey failed in history and in these ten years.

and by the way, Turkey is "Hindi" in Turkish and Hindi is "from India", not the animal itself.

Posted by: Levent Alkan | February 20, 2008 4:09 AM
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and Rockefeller does not have a good photo either.

on sunday i went to a hospital of dentists for my tooth to be taken out. where this hospital is known with VEysel Karani.

Veysel KArani is known with Coffee. and he is who had inherited the Coat of Ahmet prophet, the Coat known with His Grandsons and DAughter and "Son of Uncle FAther of Grandsons Husband of DAughter".

the rontgen x-ray equipment fell in front of a child on Tuesday. the child is healthy.

it has been reported that a electrical technician had tightened the screws of the x-ray equipment but not the company service.

Posted by: Levent Alkan | February 20, 2008 4:04 AM
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Foreign Minister of Russia
New Yorker Lavrov, poet,

put the missiles where George Soros is.
he may have photos here. but i dont look at his face.

2008 is the year of de-athe
When pains die, cheer begins, cheer is eternal

masonry began in where masonry ended.
There is not communism or Soviets any more.

but there must be frankness and education.
Why are you this much late? Why do you take many steps?

Because either party do not take their verbalization on.

You watch the steps but you do not educate.

if this is a chess, Christ must appear from the seeds in all of humanity on Earth.

and you must be able to educate too.

The arabic finance belongs to FAmily of Uncle of Muhammed

The family who had ceased the Emevi Umeyye FAmily that had tortured Muhammed

The family that Turks had joined in the end of tenth century.

i wish they shall have the seeds of Ahmet and His Daughter FAtima.

Now i ask you Lavrov, shall you heal Rockefeller and Soros?

Do not interfere with Turkey.

They have not come to healthy frequency after the world war.

and do not change the frequency for more noise.

From Europe and USA, they moved to Suudi Arabia and CEntral Asia.

You do not provide the internal peace and love.

but this is not related with your problems with Suudi Arabia and Muhammed

so do not accept that you have another enemy.

Your internal enemy has not come to peace yet. You must have a square.

what is the speed of light to take a mass to another place?

three “hound read thou send” kills all meters and measures

from mills to invoices, from invoices to authors that shake

if M is a Star
if E is Grace that enters the Open Locks,

then the Grace that Opens the Locks and Fills the Cells is the Speed of Light

at least square is in Moses and Hebrew
but this is not what Russia and Masonry want.

There is a story of two brothers
One makes pottery, the other makes rice

One needs sun to dry the pottery but not rain
The other needs rain but not sun.

There are many times that it rains while it shines

in Suudi Arabia it is known as the House of Abraham is washed up

And it is rainbow as far as i know in Ireland.

Ireland and Suudi Arabia are brothers genetically


Posted by: Levent Alkan | February 20, 2008 3:54 AM
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Dear Paganplace,

Don't get me wrong, I think that these things should be available. But there are infrequent but significant reports of women hemorrhaging to death from RU486. So medical help is indicated if someone is going to use it. Plan B does seem to be a different matter that prevents implantation.

Posted by: The Moderate | February 19, 2008 8:06 PM
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The Moderate:

"BTW, RU486 is now available OTC. Maybe it should not be, because some degree of medical supervision is warranted by some deaths cause by the drug, but it is."

Well, 'Plan B' is, in some places. which is a bit different, and better. Which is probably a necessary thing, as certain Christians are demanding the right to not-fill-medically-supervised prescriptions if they happen to be the glorified cashier.

Even if they were given the prescription by their doctor cause of much steeper risks to their lives if they were to carry a pregnancy to term.

I'm just seeing picking up my medicine from a Creationist asking me, "Do you have any questions about this prescription?"

"I dunno, are you a Nobel-prize-winning endocrinologist doing this for fun, or can I have my medicine?" :)

Posted by: Paganplace | February 19, 2008 5:20 PM
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Jews faith the being in the burning bush was God don't they? How sure are you about that? Think of the consequences if that being was Devil. Why Jews would be scattered to the four corners of the world, hated and despised, made to live in ghettos, subjected to inquisitions and even herded like cattle into gas chambers. But only if the being in the burning bush wasn't God and just happened to be the Devil that would be God, Lucifer or maybe one of his competitors.

http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul Need I say more?

Posted by: BGone | February 19, 2008 11:20 AM
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Dear Andy,

"okay moderate. point well taken. in fairness, i don't think it's my mistaken language that motivates some of these e-missives."

Thanks. I definitely don't think it is you who has anything to do with the e-missives. Just that the cleaner we with respect to the facts the more successful we will be at clarifying the issues that are batted around On Faith. One guy I corresponded with recently had it that it was "unconstitutional" for individual voters to consider their religious conscience when selecting a candidate.

In case you did not notice my previous posts, I liked your essay a lot. I saw it a a "voice of reason" kind of post. I look forward to reading your work in the future.

All the best.

Mod

Posted by: The Moderate | February 18, 2008 9:25 PM
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okay moderate. point well taken. in fairness, i don't think it's my mistaken language that motivates some of these e-missives.

Posted by: andy | February 18, 2008 6:01 PM
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Nikki and Andy:

"Think about, for example, the Amish, who are exempt from certain laws regarding keeping children in public schools,"

Nikki, what do you think the home schooling movement is about? It is not tied to the Amish. If you can teach your children well enough at home to meet the standards of education, you can do it. Amish has nothing whatever to do with it.

"... "private" Catholic hospitals, which, though they are often the sole hospital in a given US county, refuse to give morning-after pills to rape victims (standard practice in public hospitals)."

Why the quotation marks on private? Why do you suppose that only the Catholics built the only hospitals in "a given county"? To suggest that because the commercial for profit hospital systems have decided that they can't extract enough money from an area that the Catholic Hospitals built in out an ethic of community service should be accountable to YOUR ideas of when a life can be terminated is poppycock.

BTW, RU486 is now available OTC. Maybe it should not be, because some degree of medical supervision is warranted by some deaths cause by the drug, but it is.

Andy:

There is no "separation clause" in the Constitution to fulfill.

There is the Establishment Clause: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...

And the Free Exercise Clause: "...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

That is all they wrote.

An imaginary "Separation Clause" drives a lot of whacked out diatribes on these blogs.

Please get your facts right.

Posted by: The Moderate | February 17, 2008 10:12 PM
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Nikki, I couldn't agree more. So let's say I'm not being romantic, just admiring of the separation clause's great potential, as yet completely fulfilled.

Posted by: andy | February 17, 2008 6:27 PM
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I agree with you, Rabbi Bachman, but I want to point out that the "wall" between Church and State--in the United States--is not always so solid or so clear. Think about, for example, the Amish, who are exempt from certain laws regarding keeping children in public schools, or "private" Catholic hospitals, which, though they are often the sole hospital in a given US county, refuse to give morning-after pills to rape victims (standard practice in public hospitals). I would warn us all against romanticizing how the U.S. has applied its own constitutional mandate separating Church and State. We still have a way to go before we reach meaningful pluralism in terms of religious practie.

Posted by: Nikki | February 17, 2008 4:47 PM
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Hillary Clinton is Now A-JEWISH-PRINCESS & no more a METHODIST QUEEN!:


!
>))))2)0)0)8))))) "NO-SHARIA!"
!
!
!
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}}}{}}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}}
[ ?: +) http:///\ VOTE http://\Hillary )
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
{}{}{}{}}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}}{}{}{}{}
[ ?: +) http:///\ VOTE http://\Hillary )
[][][][][]][][]][]][]]][]][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
PEACE, PAZ, SALAAM, SHOLOM:........______________
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton МИР,평화, 和平:


VOTE:
NO' Sharia!
NO Hallakha!
NO Caste System(s)!
NO Rule By BiBLE, GiTA, QURAN!
NO Theocracy!
No Monarchist!
NO Putting Down Woman Anywhere!
MORE Protection For Kids!

THANK YOU!

SHOOKRIA!

KHUDA-HAFIZ!

Posted by: Hillary Clinton is Now A-JEWISH-PRINCESS & no more a METHODIST QUEEN | February 17, 2008 2:56 PM
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Pakistan is on Stolen Land that belongs to Greater iNDIA, not Arabs like Israel:

Hello HUMATES from sweet sweet S.PACE-S.HiP Momma /Poppa EARTH (Planet of many many many Worlds like Here, but in varied Temperature as Hue Frequecies), aka S.S. GAiA, S.S. GEOiD, S.S. TELLUSng something!

Pakistan is on Stolen Land that belongs to Greater iNDIA, not Arabs like Israel:

Important" PAKiSATAN, aka PAKISTAN(s) [west & East] are on STOLEN-LAND from Sweet iNDIA, the place where "i" left my Hat but not me Heart!

Please Do not DENY that giant PAKISTAN , un-like ancient tiny ISRAEL, was 'stolen' under Islamic [Religious, more than political] Pretext's via "AL TAQIYAH" conspiracy aka 1st iSLAMIC SHARIA to conquer. And 2nd "AL TAQIYA" is to rule the Tribes therein & therefrom!


Posted by: Anonymous | February 17, 2008 2:54 PM
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"... where in the world would we be without Jewish humor?"

... where in the world would we be without Jewish wisdom?

Poorer.

Posted by: The Moderate | February 16, 2008 9:51 PM
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Dear Andy,

Well said. The Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause protect us all. Encroachments by Baptists, Atheists, Moslems or anyone else on either clause is damaging to the sacred balance you identify.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Posted by: The Moderate | February 16, 2008 9:47 PM
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Well said. I watched all three installments of the "Jewish Americans" on television and it certainly underscores everything you have written in this treatise.

From the Diaspora, to the Russian pogroms, to Catholic persecution, to the Dreyfuss Affair, to the Shoah, Jews have been the living example of what it means to suffer under governments with no respect for diverse religions - or any religion. Although the Jewish community went through the same xenophobic prejudices as other emigrants in America, in the end it was the American ideal that finally prevailed.

Not only has this been a good thing for the Jews, but it has deeply enriched our culture, society, philosophy, and weltanschauung.

It may sound like patronizing and seem like a cheap shot, but where in the world would we be without Jewish humor? Look around you. The one thing most lacking is a sense of humor. Thanks to our Jewish neighbors, we are full to overflowing with humor and wit in the US.

Mazel Tov!

Posted by: Johnny B. Goode | February 16, 2008 4:58 PM
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