At the home of a Persian Jewish family in Great Neck last December, according to the Jewish Week, Ashkenazi Rabbi Mordecai Asheret and an entourage of four others crashed a young girl’s first birthday party. The celebration consisted of “mixed dancing and traditional Iranian fare,” which the uninvited rabbi vehemently opposed. He declared that those who chose to remain at the party would be cursed with illness and bankruptcy, causing many of the partygoers to leave while others stood in complete awe.
Rabbi Aderet argues that his reason for barging into the party was thathe disapproved of the “mixed dancing” that took place and of the fact that people were celebrating on the Fast of Tevet, which marks the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians 2500 years ago. Even though Jews are not supposed to “party” on the Fast of Tevet, they were celebrating a young girl’s first party, which is an Iranian-Jewish tradition. Additionally, the people attending the party waited until sundown to eat, and the food that was being served there was glatt Kosher.
Rabbi Aderet is an Ashkenazi kabbalist, whereas the people attending the party were mostly of Iranian-Jewish descent. He and his followers oppose the Sephardic community in Great Neck and pretty much any other sectof Judaism that is not kabbalist. Although Rabbi Aderet entered the house under the pretense of guarding Jewish law, there is no question that he broke several unwritten laws by crashing the young girl’s party. Firstly, entering a house uninvited and being rude to the hosts is prohibited by Jewish law. Jewish law states that when you are invited to another person’s household, you treat the hosts with respect. Secondly, by disapproving of the family’s practice of Judaism, Rabbi Aderet was in the wrong. Judaism strictly prohibits Jews encouraging non-Jews to convert, and Rabbi Aderet’s actions were similar in that he was coercing his beliefs on another sect of Judaism. We cannot accept this.
