“Verging on fascism” is how a US committee characterised the suspension of Chief Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag by the Amsterdam Orthodox Jewish community (NIHS).

In an email to national daily de Volkskrant, spokesperson Susie Rosenbluth of the Committee for the Declaration On the Torah Approach To Homosexuality writes: 

"Even in these times of political correctness run amok, freedom of speech and freedom of religion are considered holy both in Israel and in the United States."

The NIHS suspended Chief Rabbi Ralbag after he signed a statement which rejects homosexuality as a lifestyle and describes it as an illness which can be cured. The declaration was signed by 162 rabbis and mental health practitioners last year.

The US committee says it’s shocking that in the Netherlands a religious leader should be denied the right to speak out on "centuries-old religious truths" and says it is not clear which Jews the Amsterdam orthodox Jewish community (NIHS) represents as it is formally part of the orthodox movement. 

New Jersey Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, one of the signatories to the declaration, says he knows what motivated the peculiar reaction of the Amsterdam orthodox Jewish community:

“Dutch society is so tolerant, with legal and open prostitution and a sharp reduction in faithfulness in marriage, that it is impossible for Jews who grow up in such surroundings to embrace the moral message of the Torah. They are in spiritual shock.”

NIHS Chair Ronnie Eisenmann had hoped the suspension would prevent a schism between the orthodox and more liberal wings of the Dutch Jewish community, but de Volkskrant says a quick resolution is now unlikely.

Chief Rabbi Ralbag was scheduled to meet with the NIHS in Amsterdam on Sunday evening but reportedly postponed his visit by several weeks after receiving death threats.

(gsh/ae)

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