I'm Mad as Hell about Kiryas Joel

As you may have already read, Toby Greenberg of Kiryas Joel had her cars vandalized and was ordered to leave her home town because members of the Satmar community do not like the way she dresses.

I'm not surprised to find pro-religious-right-wing-nut-job responses in comment sections on the j-blogs. Further, most of the skeptic blogs seem to have backed her up even if their response to these crimes has been fairly tame. However, after reading XGH's post Hot Channie in Kiryas Joel I need to weigh in on this one.

As a daily reader of XGH's blog I usually enjoy what he has to say. As I understand it, the point of XGH's post was to draw a parallel between Mrs. Greenberg's experience and "pseudo-kofrim living in Left Wing Modern Orthodox communities." An interesting question, but I take issue with XGH's following paragraph:

"Sure, she has a right to dress how she wants and live where she wants, but I’m not going to waste an iota of mental or emotional power defending a Satmar wife’s right to dress like a hot channie in KJ. Some rights are just not worth defending." [emphasis added]

I couldn't disagree more.

This is exactly the kind of right worth defending. Toby Greenberg's choice of dress is a form of self expression, expression protected by the first amendment.

Toby Greenberg's civil rights are under attack in Kiryas Joel. Her case is an example of the founding fathers concern of "tyranny of the minority by the majority." Her right to dress the way she wants is exactly the kind of individual liberty this nation is famous for protecting.

There is no basis for the argument that her clothing incites violence. Her case is similar to the Muhammad cartoons printed in Denmark nearly two years ago. Muslims used the so-called affront to their religion as an excuse to riot. These fundamentalists (Muslim and Satmar) are suggesting that the cartoons, or in Toby's case her outfit, are so offensive that the only possible response is violence. Bullshit. Both Satmar and Muslim may be offended, but you don't have the right to not be offended! Civil society must prevent these people from acting violently against their perceived offenses.

Expression is not protected when the act of speaking directly creates a danger or incites violence. If the Grand Wizard of the KKK calls on his fellow townsfolk to "Kill the Jews" his actual words incite violence. Putting on a denim skirt does not count as incitement.

Whether, the fundies in Kiryas Joel like it or not, they live in the United States of America. Toby is a citizen of our nation and regardless of how much the Satmar want to run their part of town like their own little theocracy, they don't have that right.

Toby's desire to pick out her own clothes without getting approval from the religious authorities, or the community at large, is not a matter of life and death, but it is important. The intimidation she and her family are experiencing over her desire for free expression is nothing short of a suppression of her civil rights by a society that disagrees with her. Giving Kiryas Joel a pass is a slippery slope. To the right I've included a picture of a person who was standing up for his civil rights despite what his local community wanted.

As blogger who writes about rejecting the religious establishment everyday I often take for granted the freedoms that I enjoy. We need to get pissed off at this kind of oppression. If Toby has a legal fund I'll write the first check.

If Kiryas Joel had its way our whole Jewish-internet-skeptic-community would be banned.