I’ve realized a lot about the ideas emanating from YCT lately.
They promote socialism, gun control, and the normalization of homosexuality, things which I cannot accept as a Jew and as a Republican conservative.
Also, R’ Weiss penned an off-putting editorial in the lefty Huffington Post after the shooting in Newtown, calling for gun control.
This is very ironic for the following reason: in his article on Open Orthodoxy in 1997, R’ Weiss condemned the doctrine of “daas torah” on the grounds that rabbis should only speak with authority on areas of halakhic or theological importance. Yet, he is doing exactly the opposite and using his position as a rabbi to advance a particular political agenda. Since when does a rabbi without any legal training dare to express an opinion on a topic he knows little about? Is he an expert on the Second Amendment? I think not.
To their credit, organizations like Agudath Israel thankfully have not added their names to the chorus of statists looking to trample on the U.S. Constitution and on the liberties granted to us by HaShem, namely the right to bear arms.
I also have used the above-mentioned episode as an opportunity to support Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (led by R’ Dovid Bendory, who has numerous semichas), as well as the NRA and the Gun Owners of America.
Also, they call for an increase in the minimum wage, which would be a job killer and according to R’ Dr. Aaron Levine, zt”l, is a concept antithetical to normative Jewish thought and economic common-sense.