Manis Friedman - Moment Magazine Controversy

Moment Magazine Controversy

Rabbi Friedman was one of the featured Rabbis responding to questions posed in Moment Magazine's ongoing "Ask The Rabbi" forum. One of the questions posed was "How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors?" Rabbi Friedman's response was printed with several errors, including the omission of a paragraph as well as stylistic detail. Included in his response as printed was the following quote:

"I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral. The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle.) "The first Israeli prime minister who declares that he will follow the Old Testament will finally bring peace to the Middle East. First, the Arabs will stop using children as shields. Second, they will stop taking hostages knowing that we will not be intimidated. Third, with their holy sites destroyed, they will stop believing that G-d is on their side. Result: no civilian casualties, no children in the line of fire, no false sense of righteousness, in fact, no war."

Attempts by the rabbi to have the magazine correct the errors were not successful, despite the great controversy caused and the deep offense taken by many readers including Jews, Muslims and others. Rabbi Friedman released a statement addressing those readers, which included:

"It is obvious, I thought, that any neighbor of the Jewish people should be treated, as the Torah commands us, with respect and compassion. Fundamental to the Jewish faith is the concept that every human being was created in the image of G-d, and our sages instruct us to support the non-Jewish poor along with the poor of our own brethren. The sub-question I chose to address instead is: how should we act in time of war, when our neighbors attack us, using their women, children and religious holy places as shields. I attempted to briefly address some of the ethical issues related to forcing the military to withhold fire from certain people and places, at the unbearable cost of widespread bloodshed (on both sides!) -- when one’s own family and nation is mercilessly targeted from those very people and places."