this is really more of a question, but i’m putting it here to be safe.
lately i’ve been involved in more than my fair share of dr. laura discussions, having been forced to listen to her show every day for the past three months on the way to work (my mom drives and she gets to pick the radio station.) i don’t know a whole lot about judaism, so i’m curious as to whether her attitude on the air (the rudeness, i mean), and her answers to caller questions match up with jewish values.
i don’t want this to end up as a debate on how you feel about her, however. just tell me, do you think she makes her rabbi proud?
There are rabbis who are quoted at http://www.stopdrlaura.com as saying that her views do not reflect Jewish law, and that she is guilty of lashon harah, “evil tongue”. Some rabbis take lashon harah very seriously as a moral offense, because once misinformation and hatred are released out there into the community, they spread like poison.
I don’t know too much about Jewish theology, but I know an awful lot about mainstream American Jewish culture. Jews tend to prize the following values: kindness, warmth, understanding, generosity, tolerance. Laura Schlessinger is the antithesis of these values. She is mean, intolerant, judgmental, and rigid. Therefore, I would say that she is not a “good Jew.”
As a Jew, I personally think that Dr. Laura does not reflect Jewish values very well, unless you’re talking about haredim (the black coated people who get press for throwing rotten fruit at people they don’t like praying at the Western Wall). Most American Jews are members of the Reform Movement, which recently became the largest religious denomination in the U.S. to approve of gay marriage. Doesn’t sound like Dr. Laura is representative of the (American) Jewish community, does it?
Well…a rabbi would be considered pretty much the best of the Good Jews, right? And the one thing a rabbi enjoys is a good debate; being made to work to get his points across.
Dr. Laura has no interest in anyone’s point of view but her own. She purports to be teaching, but she’s not; she’s lecturing. If she is pretending to be a teacher and instead being a priest, she is NOT being a good jew.
Umm, CM Keller, zev, Sdimbert, Izzy, and my other Jewish brethren, isn’t there some way she can be excommunicated or something? I mean, she is giving your religion a worse name than Torquemada did mine. Can’t she be stopped?
However, allow me to quote from Leviticus, chptr 19, verses 16>19 “Thou shalt not go up & down as a talebearer amoung thy people, neither shall thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: … Thou shalt not hate thy neighbor…Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”
imho, (which may not count for much) dr. laura isn’t even a good person. she is nasty, rude, intolerant, self righteous, and patronizing.
it would be amusing to see what her views would be if her teenaged son turned out to be a gay, drug addicted skateboarder. this could possibly teach her some humility and compassion, but i doubt it.
How annoying. Couldn’t we have some Dr. Laura SUPPORTERS on here, so I could argue with them?
I like Hamadryad’s argument. I fact, I like the idea of debate being the cornerstone of a culture.
From what I’ve heard, Dr. L usually doesn’t let people finish their questions let alone listen to their answers.
i’m not sure about this, but i think that she sometimes hangs up on her callers after they ask their question. i find it very suspisious that she can go on and on giving advice and the caller never says a word.
I recall learning quite a bit during lectures given at college. Dr. Laura doesn’t need to be interested in anyone else’s view on her show. She pretty much makes it clear that she’s not interested in the views of other people. IT is her forum for speaking out on her beliefs.
Personally I don’t really agree with a lot of what she says. When I do agree with her my reasons are not typically the same. I’ll fault her for being rude and for being incorrect. I won’t fault her for being one sided though. At least you know where she stands on issues.
The best example of this I’ve heard was when a woman called in, asking if an agreement she had made with her young son was binding. (The agreement was that if he got gold behavior stars every week at school for a full term, he would get some sort of reward).
Dr. Laura immediately responded with what appeared to be a compassionate answer, saying it was hard to expect a kid to be perfect every week, so it would be okay to reward him anyway, if he had generally gotten gold stars. The only problem was that the mother clearly said that the son had in fact gotten all gold stars, and now the mother wanted to get out of the agreement. I still wonder what “Dr.” Laura’s answer to the real question would have been.
Oh, and not only is “she” not a “Good jew”, but she is NOT a DOCTOR, so please stop calling her “Dr. Laura”. She has a PhD in an unrelated field, and she could be prosecuted for practicing without a license, if somene cared enuf to do it. (giving out medical or Psychological advice, and calling yourself a “Doctor” is illegal, in most states).
Sure, she is a licensed “couselor”, but NOT a therapist or Psychologist, which are the non-“medical” Phds that can call themselves “Doctor”. Doctor is usually reserved for Medical
Dr.s, Doctors of Divinity, and university staff who have Phds, but are NOT Professors, ie a Dean. In any case, even with all that, she cannot “practice”, ie she cannot give any advice which is medical or therapy related, and still call herself “Dr.”. Some of her 'advice" is very close to therapy, and thus combined with calling herself “Dr.”, is possibly illegal.
Since I’m not Jewish, I’ll leave it to Jewish authorities to decide whether Laura Schlessinger is a good Jew.
What I find odd, however, is that people who are MOST prepared to yell that she is NOT a good Jew are people who have no little use for Jewish tradition and law in the first place, and who observe almost NONE of them.
Certainly, if you’re a typical American Jew who’s never followed kashrut, who doesn’t believe in God, has only been to a synagogue for an occasional wedding, and who hates religious people who try to tell him what to do… then Laura Schlessinger is going to be very annoying to you. It doesn’t follow that she’s a bad Jew.
If you want to argue that she is NOT a good Jew, please lay out the portions of the Talmud that she’s violating.
astorian: altho I am not Jewish, I have certainly been able to hold my own with some of our Talmudic scholars here on OT subjects. I have stated many times my great respect for the Devout.
I have quoted the Torah, where she is not folowing the Law. And sweet lotus was nice enuf to give us a link to a site where several rabbis say “laura” is NOT a “good jew”. Umm, are you waiting for the High Priest to personally condemn her? You might be waiting for a while, then.
Daniel: The fact is that she has a Ph.D. That allows her to call herself “Dr.” Laura. Her show used to be one of giving advice. However, the more she got into religion, the less her show dealt with advice instead of moralizing. Now she gives about as much therapy as Rush Limbaugh.
Kyla said:
I don’t know that this is true. I know that most Jews are not Orthodox, but that doesn’t equate to most being Reform. (I just wrote an article with an interview of the local Reform Rabbi, and he made this point clear.)
In answer to the OP, is she a good Jew? According to some Orthodox versions, sure. But I don’t think she’s a good person.
I mean, she is giving your religion a worse name than Torquemada did mine. Can’t she be stopped?