While there has been some confusion as to what exactly they stand for, paraphernalia handed out by Occupy Wall Street activists at Zuccotti Park sums it up in a piece entitled "Declaration of the Occupation." In one line, they feel "wronged by the corporate forces of the world." The piece goes on to list a litany of accusations.
I do sympathize with a few of the sentiments expressed by the participants. I think it is a bad idea to bail out failed companies and is sometimes a good idea for the government to provide a "leg up" to those that are willing to work hard and contribute their fair share to society.
My understanding is that the implied solution that many are calling for is higher corporate taxation (and higher taxation for the wealthy, while we're at it). "Common wealth for all levels of culture," is the way one protestor expressed it in an interview with the New York Observer. Of course, this is a basic position that has been held by many on the Left since Karl Marx; I guess someone has just discovered a more exciting form of expression.
Counterbalancing the greedy Jewish banker anti-Semitic stereotype, it is commendable that many Jews have made the effort to weigh in on the conversation from a "Jewish values" perspective and to provide participants with access to Jewish services especially over the festival of Yom Kippur.
What I must object to however, is the efforts of some Jewish participants to hijack Jewish teachings as a means to further their political goals. Writer Jeanette Friedman, who was involved in organizing Yom Kippur services at the camp, wrote on The Forward's Sisterhood blog: "On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Isaiah speaks for God, who essentially says, 'Who needs you to fast and say all these prayers of repentance and offer me all of these sacrifices if you don't take care of your widows, your poor and your orphans?'"
It is true that Judaism encourages giving and care for the needy and holds charitable practices in the highest esteem, but primarily as it remains a social responsibility in the hands of the individual, as opposed to the government. As Britain's Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks writes in his book "The Dignity of Difference," "King David proposed redistribution. His sages told him that the cake wasn't big enough however it was sliced. Economic growth is more powerful than simple redistribution." He continues, "No religion can propose precise policies for the alleviation of hunger and disease. What it can do, is inspire us collectively with a vision of human solidarity." As majority leader Eric Cantor told a Jewish audience recently at an Upper West Side Synagogue, "a bureaucrat in Washington can't make as effective a decision about charity, as you can."
In truth, the implication that the government can or should impose any policies as a result of religious dictum, Jewish or otherwise, toys dangerously with first amendment promises and the separation of church and state that are the basis for the freedoms of our American society as we know them today.
The most productive, Jewish and impactful path that authentic activists with charitable concerns can take is in the private sector. Perhaps all this energy and exertion should be directed toward the establishment, for example, of a grassroots support organization that grants financial aid to struggling artists or writers like Jeanette Friedman, or partners corporate giving programs within large pharmaceutical companies with those that are in the greatest need of medical aid. Additionally, initiatives of this innovative nature are effective, pro-active and cut out the waste and red tape associated with the federal charity of Washington that is being called for.
The Jewish solution is certainly not government imposed. It calls for activists to encourage "genuine willingness on the part of those who gain to ensure that the losers also benefit," and to appeal to and inspire the spirit of charity as a personal obligation through effective and creative private sector programs.
The Author is the director of the Algemeiner Journal and the GJCF and can be e-mailed at defune@gjcf.com. Please visit Algemeiner.com.
Follow Dovid Efune on Twitter: www.twitter.com/efune
Kristin Knox: Occupy Wall Street Style
Reporters Roundtable: Obama and the Jews; Occupy Wall St.; The ...
Occupy Wall Street protests taking on a Jewish flavor | JTA - Jewish ...
How Occupy Wall Street is like Israel's summer protests | Nation ...
I particularly like your comment "There will be ample time in the future to discuss..." as if you will be the arbiter of when and where these issues will be discussed. The financial system crashed in 2008, just how long do you want to wait???
Don't you know most corporations are held by the symbolic "Jews" which Jeanette Friedman was talking to, not to the governments of the world? She knows whose behind the greed. Her message, falling on the ears of unrealized people, sounds like she's talking to the governments but she isn't, she's talking to those who everyone believes to be the devil kicked out of heaven, Lucifer. Read all of Isaiah 14 and see how verse 12 is talking about man, those man Jeanette Friedman know are responsible for for the world's condition. They may or may not be practicing Judaism but they are the people she's talking about and to.
I would leave it at that as far a policy is concerned but point out that the methods being used are a desecration by traditional standards
The 99% who don't have the largesse (I'm guessing you're not of the wealthiest 1% either) need protection, including regulations that kept a check on banks, corporations, and the very wealthy 1%. Jewish values of social justice are not a private "sector" concern. Everybody has a stake in this. Social Security and Medicare would not be here and enforced if the private sector got its way. You think companies like Exxon an Wal-Mart would help people keep their homes or get affordable housing or provide low cost healthcare?
But even as "Economic growth is more powerful than simple redistribution" it is still true that the rules of the land that Wall Street was subjected to have led to a CONTRACTION of the cake.
You need to think again.