Rabbi Shafran is No Einstein

Rabbi Shafran trashes the man whose last name is synonymous with genius. Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, which is the leading ULTRA-Orthodox organization in the U.S.

In his essay respectfully entitled, “Baby Einstein,” Rabbi Shafran notes that, among his many sins and proof of how “wrongheaded” (but not quite “pigheaded”) was, R. Shafran points to Einstein’s agitation that the U.S. stop nuclear testing.

Now, why Einstein would have wanted to stop nuclear testing? Could it be that the great scientist foresaw that in some way, as difficult as it is to fathom, that the radiation fallout would somehow be bad for the environment, and even, dare I say it, people? What was this crazy Lefty dreamer thinking?

Well, if by any chance there are some haredim reading this, for your edification, nuclear fallout is really bad news. Yes, even if you aren’t in the exact area when the bomb goes off. No, really. It is accepted that thousands have died from nuclear testing. And others got sick. The true cost of nuclear testing is probably much higher. And it gets into the water supply. They’re still monitoring this in Nevada. It’s still a problem.

And Rabbi Shafran, in 2008, is criticizing Einstein for suspecting that danger.

Rabbi Shafran is also upset that, “He insisted that a Marxist be appointed the president of a university to which he was to lend his name.”

Marxism is, of course, monolithic. As Shafran notes,

Not that there’s anything wrong with Marxism, of course. No, wait! There is! Wasn’t that the political system that brought us the Soviet Union and its gulags, East Germany and the Berlin Wall, the curtailment of human rights in the People’s Republic of China and the cruel deprivation of the citizenry in North Korea?

That was Communism specifically, Rabbi Shafran. Hardly all Marxists endorsed that, especially western ones.

Anyway, the man Rabbi Shafran is referencing is Harold Laski. Laski was the chairman of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. Can Rabbi Shafran truly not distinguish between the Labour Party and the dictators of communism?

Rabbi Shafran suggests why Einstein is not in accordance with traditional Jewish thought. It is due to Einstein’s “own childishness, the self-centeredness that he retained from babyhood.”

There are no words. The proper response is as follows:
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