Hiding and Seeking

The other night I watched what was probably the most compelling documentary film that I've ever seen. PBS's weekly show P.O.V. aired Hiding and Seeking by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky on Tuesday night.

Most fathers should have Menachem Daum's problems. An Orthodox Jew and child of Polish Holocaust survivors, Daum has spent many years interviewing camp survivors about the impact of the Nazi "final solution" on Jewish religious faith. Daum worries his two sons' inwardly-focused version of Orthodoxy may be leading them into intolerance toward the world outside the confines of the yeshiva. He has similar misgivings over what he sees as growing insularity in Orthodox Judaism, both in Brooklyn, N.Y., where Daum grew up and reared his sons, and in Israel, where his sons have moved to immerse themselves in Talmudic studies.

So it's no laughing matter when Daum's wife, Rifka, comes home one night from a lecture with a tape of a rabbi openly preaching "hatred" of the non-Jewish world. Daum's first reaction is to try to raise an outcry in his own Brooklyn Orthodox community. But community leaders and media mostly ignore him. His second reaction is to consider the "ethical legacy" he might — and should — be leaving his children. So he flies to Israel, the audio tape in hand, to discuss the matter with his sons, who have adopted a strict Orthodox Judaism centered on study of the Torah and other sacred Jewish writings. Thus begins the difficult and revelatory journey documented by the Emmy® nominated filmmaking team of Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky, in "Hiding and Seeking."

Belief.net has a long interview with Menachem Daum that expands a bit on the documentary and it's definitely recommended reading.

What struck me both watching the documentary and reading the belief.net interview was how there are parallels between some of the ultra orthodox Jewish Yeshivas (religious schools) and the uber orthodox Muslim Mudrasa's that spawned the likes of Taliban and al Queda members. The theology is decidedly different. But, the demonizing of others to the extent of being taught that it is not only okay to hate these others but that it's what their distorted version of "god" wants.

This was clearly a post-9/11 film. It was a response to what I really felt. I felt I could understand Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. I could understand this concept of blinding yourself and losing yourself in this religion that you don’t see your connectedness to the rest of humanity. I knew it. I had never been in one, but I sort of felt I could understand where they’re coming from. And I realized that much of what drives them is very parallel to some of the less-attractive elements of the Haredi world.

Very sobering words. I think the parallel is broader than just one between uber conservative Muslim and Jewish religious gurus, though. It seems to me that any arch-conservative religious movement is capable of the same kind of dehumanization of any who aren't full-fledged members of the group. The Salem Witch Trials... the enslavement, sadistic beating and raping of black slaves... the stockpiling of weapons for Armageddon by David Koresh and his drones. Each and every one was justified by self-righteous religious rhetoric coming from religious conservatives.

That's not to say that all religious conservatives are bad or evil or even that conservative religiosity is bad or evil. My parents are religious conservatives and there is nothing bad or evil or hateful about them. But, when was the last time you heard of a religious liberal preaching racial hatred?

I'm just sayin'...