Pass the Manischewitz, Please

As a 30 year old member of the Modern Orthodox community, I can attest to this behavior firsthand. During my days in college, I saw as many irresponsible drinking incidents as my non-Jewish classmates. However, in my experience, most of these incidents actually did occur under the guise of a religious acitvity - binge drinking on Purim, for example. Or even on a normal Friday night, when no one is operating a car. In high school, I saw kids get drunk when their parents werent home so then they wouldnt feel guilty turning on the TV (prohibited on the Sabbath). And as far as I could tell, much of this stemmed from mixed messages in the community. From a young age, kids are given alcohol at religious events. We were all instructed strictly never to drink and drive, but not to drink on a day when we aren't driving? What's the harm in that? It is easy to see how the distinction between times where alcohol is appropriate and times where it is not can be blurred. Parents will tell you they never encouraged their kids to drink, but it is all too common to see a parent offer their teenage son or daughter a shot of whiskey at a holiday meal, or a family celebration - as a way of bringing them into the adult world. The messages in the community with regard to alcohol are definitely murky, and its not surprising at all that these problems develop. The Orthodox community has a long history of being in denial about its social afflictions (drinking, substance abuse, spousal abuse, neglect, etc) and Rabbi Weinreb has done a lot of work in his career thus far to see to it that these problems do not get swept under the rug, as they have been in the past.

Ms. Wyler, In your article ???Pass the Manishewitz, Please??? from the 8/12 issue of Newsweek you insinuate that there is a growing alcohol abuse problem in the orthodox Jewish community. While there may or may not be an alcohol abuse problem in the orthodox community (from what I have seen, the abuse of alcohol in the orthodox jewish community pales in comparison to the problems faced by other communities), your characterization of orthodox jews drinking on the Sabbath at ???kiddush clubs??? and then getting behind the wheel of a car to drive is absolutely untrue. By definition orthodox jews do not drive on the Sabbath and if this gentleman was driving on the Sabbath he is not an orthodox jew. So while some orthodox jews may drink single malt scotch at these ???kiddush clubs??? and stumble home, they do not put others at risk by driving while intoxicated. Best to check facts before publishing not only misleading information but stories that slander an entire community.

I'm glad the Jewish community is finally talking about substance abuse. But it needs to go further. Growing up, my Jewish peers didn't drink but they were the biggest pot heads around. The Jewish community needs to talk about substance abuse in all forms instead of just saying "Oh, Jewish people don't do that". Yes they do!

A breath of fresh air from the standard blacks are low IQ crackheads, whores, sluts, pimps, never do wells, alcholics, unpatriotic, fill in the blank....etc. Why are there never any negative caucasian articles...oh that's right, they are the messiahs of the homo sapiens.

It has been my observation that when Jews drink recreationally they generally confine their drinking to their homes and homes of friends and are not found making drunken fools of themselves in public places.

you don't get it-- OF COURSE a young Orthodox man wouldn't be driving on Shabbat -- unless something was terribly wrong. And in this case what was wrong was that he was very, very drunk, which led him to break the Sabbath. Alcoholism makes ya do bad stuff! We Jews are not immune to the problem and it's hardly racist to say so.

Lets get the facts correct. THis article states that a young man was driving drunk - and that he was an orthodoz jew. The fact is - that an orthodox Jew would not be driving on the Sabbath - Saturday afternoon.
I would love to know what the reason for this article is? What is Ms. Miller looking to accomplish here?
Why are the Jews not allowed to drink - It is almost as if the Orthodox Union paid for this article to be written and posted in the magazine - it is baised, and for most Orthodox Jewish drinkers, this is not the case at all, as they are neither alchoholics or dependent on alchohol.

ANYONE can have an alcohol problem. It is faulty to be surprised that an Orthodox Jew is somehow supposed to be immune from the problems of humanity. We really need to stop labeling people and groups, because to me, this article was just a step away from being racist, looking at the Orthodox Jew as if they are an experimental animal whose behaviour we are surprised by.

ANYONE can have an alcohol problem. It is faulty to be surprised that an Orthodox Jew is somehow supposed to be immune from the problems of humanity. We really need to stop labeling people and groups, because to me, this article was just a step away from being racist, looking at the Orthodox Jew as if they are an experimental animal whose behaviour we are surprised by.

ANYONE can have an alcohol problem. It is faulty to be surprised that an Orthodox Jew is somehow supposed to be immune from the problems of humanity. We really need to stop labeling people and groups, because to me, this article was just a step away from being racist, looking at the Orthodox Jew as if they are an experimental animal whose behaviour we are surprised be.

Your article makes several faulty assumtions:

Even if what you are saying is right and the younger generation does drink more, you cannot prove it by doing a study on a college campus. Trust me, the older generation also drank in college in their day. Besides, if we're talking about Orthodox Jews, very few universities would give large enough sample sizes and already only looks at the segment of the population that is both Orthodox and enrolls in secular college. Take a look at Yeshiva University, for example, where their alcohol abuse rate is minuscule (http://media.www.yucommentator.com/medi ... 5258.shtml).

What bothered me more, however, was the assumption that the Israeli or Russian Jewish populations has anything to do with Orthodox Jews in America. I doubt the case in the first paragraph has anything to do with the "study" in the last one with Jewish college students, and Israeli Jews under 33. Across the board just terrible journalism.

Your article makes several faulty assumptions.

Even if what you are saying is right and the younger generation does drink more, you cannot prove it by doing a study on a college campus. Trust me, in college the older generation drank too in their day. Besides, if we're talking about Orthodox Jews, very few universities would give large enough sample sizes and already only looks at the segment of the population that is both Orthodox and enrolls in secular college. Take a look at Yeshiva University, for example, where their alcohol abuse rate is minuscule (http://media.www.yucommentator.com/medi ... 5258.shtml).

What bothered me more, however, was the assumption that the Israeli or Russian Jewish populations has anything to do with Orthodox Jews in America. I doubt the case in the first paragraph has anything to do with the "study" in the last one with Jewish college students, and Israeli Jews under 33. Across the board just terrible journalism.