Times: South African Rabbis Behaving Badly Makes Front Page News

The Goldstone bar mitzvah brouhaha seems to us to be just another instance of rabbis behaving badly. In well mannered society the Goldstone family gets to conduct its happy event as any other. The grandfather receives an honor to be called to the Torah. But not if rabbis decide to use this as an opportunity to show the world how badly they can behave. And by the way. The Times is just as pleased as punch to put this demonstration of bad rabbinic behavior in the middle of the front page of the paper. And whoa their pardner. The solution is not to cancel your Times subscription. It is to write to the rabbis in South Africa and tell them to stop their childish tantrums.

Warren Goldstein, the chief rabbi of South Africa, said he had been involved in discussions about the possible disruptions to the ceremony. A severe critic of the Goldstone Report, he has written that the United Nations has an “anti-Israel agenda,” and that the investigation was “merely a cover for a political strategy of delegitimizing Israel.”

But on Friday he issued a statement saying that he, like most involved, believed the judge should be allowed to attend: “It is simply a question of decency and compassion to the bar mitzvah boy not to ruin his day.”