Last month Marc Hansen of the Des Moines Register came out and did a nice follow up story about Beth El Jacob, the Orthodox Congregation of Des Moines and Iowa. They had been here a couple of years ago when Rabbi Schwarzbaum began attempting to bring new families to our city in the hope of growing the congregation and this was a new look at the three families who have arrived over the past sixteen months.
Since the article came out the vitriol of some people has been astonishing. (And no, we're not linking.) You see, the Register, and many other newspapers, allow people to hide behind a "screen name", a mask, and remain anonymous. I've always thought that is a poor journalistic decision and written about it several times. But...hey it gets "eyes" on the website and that...not journalism, is the important thing to the "bean counters".
My advice to my secular clients as well as Beth El Jacob is to ignore the hateful comments and rants of those who cower behind fake identities. However, in a strange way, it's useful to review these posts to get a sense of how misguided and confused some people have become. And, it's interesting that the more "hateful" the speech the less likely the writer wishes to be identified. Perhaps it's because they are simply lying or they just feel the need to tip lances at a windmill.
There is so much hurt, distrust, fear and hate in our society and our faith. Perhaps the Messiah isn't that far off after all.
See you in Shul
One more thing: My name is Michael Libbie and you can reach me at the shul most every day....in case you really want to talk.