“I say we should just concentrate on being good Jews, Jews with emes and derech eretz.”
BS”D
The Lubavitcher Rebbe ZYA spoke of a tzaddik in peltz, a Yid who kept himself warm with his own Torah and mitzvos as if he were wearing a fur coat while everyone else was freezing.
He was referring to the attitude expressed in the quote above. I am truly pained to see it expressed by any ben or bas Torah, and the last time I saw it expressed was by someone who himself was mechutz lamachane.
We are the descendants of Avraham Avinu, who kept his tent open at all four sides and who made neshomos for Hashem.
And the Clinton wedding shows what the fate of those whom we have not yet reached often turns out to be.
We cannot be satisfied. We are 10% of world Jewry at best. 10% is an F in every school I ever attended. We should not even be satisfied with a B, let alone an F, when it comes to any aspect of Yiddishkeit.
The problems of poor integration of some BT’s into the community (a very complex problem because we don’t brainwash people and indeed some BT’s are not rebuked when they believe they can reconcile everything from extreme leftist politics to devotion to strange music to soft drug use with Torah chas vesholom) and lack of proper followup by kiruv organizations (true but getting better) does not and never can preclude our obligation to reach out to every Jew, no matter how far he may seem.