Politics on the Pulpit
Yair Rosenberg writes for Tablet about American rabbis’ differing views on the relationship between politics and the rabbinic pulpit. Some rabbis, including Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, say “politics definitely has a place in the pulpit … one can draw a connection in Torah to the living wage, to gaps between rich and poor.” Other rabbis, including Asher Lopatin, rabbi of a modern orthodox synagogue in Chicago, says “the pulpit is a very holy place and should really be used to get people to think and to grow, not to push a particular agenda.”