LET’S BE NICE! Rabbi Wein, lawyer Brafman, chat at Beth Shalom

Rabbi Berel Wein and criminal defense attorney Benjamin Brafman agreed in a conversation on Sunday that Jews should be less judgemental of each other.

“The Chofetz Chaim was right,” Brafman said, “the biggest problem we have is loshon hara.”

Referring to his experience with clients under legal attack, Brafman said “I think it’s a failing in the Jewish community that doesn’t give people the benefit of the doubt.”

Poor perceptions that Americans have of ethical failings among Orthodox Jews can be partly traced to the way we ourselves view such allegations, he said.

The two appeared at Congregation Beth Shalom in Lawrence as part of a continuing discussion series sponsored by the Destiny Foundation and Five Towns shuls. They touched on a range of subjects and life experiences.

They spoke about media bias, presidential politics, the growth of Orthodox Judiasm in the United States, and the safety of Jews around the world.

On that issue, Rabbi Wein expressed optimism while Brafman was downbeat.

“The menace we are living through now, the world doesn’t seem to care,” Brafman said. “I am pessimistic.”

Rabbi Wein responded: “This is the first time in 2,000 years that Jews are not defenseless. And anybody that is coming to stab a Jew is really on a suicide mission. That eventually sinks in.”

U.S. presidential candidates were not given a positive review.

President Obama may be the smartest president ever, but he is not a friend of Israel, Brafman said. Some of the candidates “are not smart and say all the right words on cue, [but] can they deliver?”

“Israel is my issue,” Brafman said. “Nixon may have been a real criminal, but during the Yom Kippur war he saved Israel.”

Brafman drew applause from an otherwise subdued crowd when he broached the subject of men who leave yeshivas with “no job skills and no secular skills.”

“They always believed they would not have to interact with the secular community, but they have to” if they are going to buy a home, drive a car and buy health insurance, he said.

“Yeshivas and frum communities have to recognize that some of these areas are not shtus,” he said. “You have to train people to be able to support their families so that when the father and father-in-law are dead” they have the ability to survive.