Teaneck, NJ – In a Motzei Shabbos interview on the Zev Brenner radio show, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky addressed allegations of anti-Arab rhetoric following a recent blog post that addressed the Har Nof massacre.
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Rabbi Pruzansky, the rabbi of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, offered possible solutions to stem the recent rash of terror attacks in a column titled “Dealing with Savages.” The post, which has since deleted due to what Rabbi Pruzansky termed “unspecified threats”, called for strong proactive response to deter would-be terrorists from persisting in acts of destruction, including demolishing Palestinian villages and relocating the Dome of the Rock to Saudi Arabia, as reported in The Jerusalem Post.
Rabbi Pruzansky criticized media outlets, including the JTA and the Jewish Week for taking his remarks out of context.
“It is a grotesque lie to say I am anti-Arab,” said Rabbi Pruzansky. “I am anti-terrorist and I don’t hesitate for a moment to call terrorist savages.”
Rabbi Pruzansky noted that he does not consider all Arabs to be savages and that he welcomed peaceful Arabs to live in Israel, but that when it came to acts of terror, Israel needs to pre-empt would be murderers by letting them now that any acts of terror will be met with extremely harsh consequences.
“My whole point is to deter terror, not respond to terror,” said Rabbi Pruzansky.
“All the yefei nefesh, all the condemnations of me, they seem to prefer mourning and grieving and saying we’ll hope for the best rather than offering solutions,” added Rabbi Pruzansky.
Rabbi Pruzansky’s statements were also publicly condemned by the RCA and the Orthodox Union. Rabbi Pruzansky, a past vice president of the RCA and a current member of the organization, said that he found the statements by the two groups to be surprising but noted that each has “their own internal calculations.”
Friday’s Jerusalem Post reported that the Bnai Yeshurun’s board of directors sent a letter to congregants saying that the rabbi had agreed to submit all of his writings for review prior to publication but Rabbi Pruzansky said that having his writing edited was his own idea, and that any suggestion that it was a directive from the synagogue was blatantly false. Rabbi Pruzansky noted that his language is often colorful and he prefers to have someone look over his work to ensure that the import that the import of his words isn’t diluted by his choice of phraseology.
“It was my suggestion and was not mandated by the shul,” said Rabbi Pruzansky. “That is legacy of great leaders of Jewish history…they weren’t afraid to speak truth.”
Pull your heads out of the sand- Rabbi Pruzansky ” gets it”. Enough of this bashing by the same Jewish liberals who put Obama in office for 8 years.
חכמים הזהרו בדבריכם
Then you won’t be misconstrued
Rabbi Pruzansky better be careful or he’ll end up like Meir Kahane.
We are discussing a Talmid Chocham, well educated, a true Yarei shamayim, concerned with Nezach Yisrael. Who exactly are his detractors? A noble fighter for liberal causes (rarely of Jewish nature,and, personally, hardly a Shomer Mitzvos) and organizations whose agenda only peripherally includes the State of Israel. Rabbi Pruzansky runs a shul where copious Shiurim, many if not most, are given by him are well attended. His community, in no small measure influenced by him, hosts many, many Roshei Yeshiva from Israel and boasts a very high rate of visitations and Aliyah to Israel. If only we had many more Rabbanim just like him!
“Dealing with Savages” and ““It is a grotesque lie to say I am anti-Arab” are undoubtedly תרתי דסתרי אהדדי, wouldn’t you say? Rather than thinking prior to playing fast and loose with irresponsible emotional statements for the microphones, Rabbi Pruzansky has once again prominently displayed his complete lack of discretion. This is exactly what happens when some local vocal yokel of a מרא דאתרא is given more כבוד than his ego will bear. It is the product of an עולם גולם which couldn’t recognize a תלמיד חכם if he walked up to them and bit them!
Freedom of speech is only for liberals, but if you are a rabbi, you have to hide your head in the sand. If you are a conservative, you are censored before you speak and if you are a conservative rabbi you are required to sew your lips together so you don’t offend any ‘gays’ or terrorists, or any other favorites of the liberal left.
” Egla Arufa teaches us that Gedolai Yisrael assume responsibility for the security of our people.”
Yeah they told us to stay in Europe.
Move the Dome of the Rock? Is he for real? Even R’ Meir Kahane never suggested this. What he did suggest: “Every Jew, a 22”. If the shul in Har Nof had one member who had carried a gun, the results would have been different!
You want to pre-empt savages, Pruzansky? Carry a weapon in shul ! Don’t spout nonsense about relocating the Dome of the Rock. What an asinine thing for a rabbi to espouse.
Wish I was a member of his shul. We need more leaders like him.
Love this rabbi if he ever decides to walk away from the nonsense he has to deal with there we will happily scoop him up here
I might tend to agree with some of the people who are disagreeing with Rabbi Pruzansky if I saw the Israeli government DOING something. There’s so much rhetoric and posturing, but no-one is doing anything. Why is it that such terrible things are done to innocent people and the government just moves on with their everyday lives? They are supposed to be protecting their civilians. I think that although Rabbi Pruzansky’s ideas are extreme, they are better than letting Israeli citizens be sitting ducks. We can’t take the high road with lowlifes like muslim terrorists.
He speaks the truth. Truth hurts. They are savages. Not all Muslims are savages but practically all coordinated savagery on the planet is executed by those who ascribe to Islam.
Unfortunately, none of you, and correct me if I am wrong, have been a regular member of his Shul. I have and you all have it wrong. He means every word, I repeat every word he writes and says. There is no sarcasm or misunderstanding in what he says now or for the last twenty years. He is way too smart for that. Agree with him or not, what he said should not have been said in a public forum. According to the Board of the Shul he ‘agreed’ to the editorial reviewer, not vice versa. Just another ‘misunderstanding’ I guess.