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The Disgrace of Shul-Sponsored
Poker Games, "Las Vegas Nights,"
"Casino Nights," "Casino Evenings,"
and Similar Games of Chance
It long has been my halakhic position that all
synagogues should not – and many synagogues may not – sponsor, conduct,
participate in, or otherwise associate with poker games, “Las Vegas
Nights,” “Casino Evening” events, or other such events. As I have
gotten to know Jewish communities outside main Torah centers, my
position has solidified further that, at such places and at such times
in Shuls’ and Jewish communities’ evolutions, such an halakhic position
prohibiting these events is mandated. In reaching my opinion, grounded
in several authoritative halakhic sources, I note a policy
statement written for the benefit of both the laity and the rabbinate
and adopted four years ago by the convened membership of the Rabbinical
Council of America (RCA). The RCA resolution is not singularly
determinative of those deeply grounded views. Rather, it is
comparatively understated when compared to positions taken by other
authoritative halakhic
sources. But I do share it, hopeful
that it helps shed an aspect of light on this issue of national
significance:
RCA Calls Upon Communal Institutions to Desist from
Using High-Stakes
Gambling to Raise Funds
(Newark, NJ) May 17, 2005 --
Whereas gambling in general, and card games
involving significant wagering such as poker in particular, have
received tremendous public attention as a result of numerous depictions
in the media of both gaming professionals as well as popular celebrities
engaging in high-stakes games of chance; and,
Whereas certain Jewish communal institutions – e.g., synagogues, day
schools, federations, and other Jewish fraternal organizations - have
recently placed an increased emphasis upon offering “Las Vegas” nights
and poker games as a new way to raise significant funds; and,
Whereas it is readily apparent that high stakes gambling runs counter to
Jewish values; and,
Whereas Jewish communal organizations must always model appropriate
ethical and moral standards not only as they carry out their mandates,
but also as they promote themselves, especially when encouraging Jews to
participate in specific activities for fundraising purposes; and,
Whereas the Orthodox community recognizes that the alarming, “at-risk”
behavior of many adolescents, including excessive gambling, is in part
fostered by the well-publicized activities of their adult role-models
and of the Jewish institutions of their communities:
Therefore, the Rabbinical Council of America hereby calls upon all
Jewish communal institutions not to use gambling as a fundraising
vehicle and to seek alternative fundraising methods instead, even if
they thereby raise less money.
A synagogue is a House of G-d, and even outside its sanctuary
walls it is bidden institutionally to stand as role-model for
spirituality. All synagogues need to raise funds, and funds often
are difficult to come by. Even so, there are limits -- real
spiritual and public-policy limits -- to what synagogues and temples may
do in pursuit of funds.
For example, the National Council of Young Israel bars its shuls from
honoring at their banquets individuals who -- but for their money -- are
not honorable. At its most recent national convention, in May
2009, the Rabbinical Council of America adopted this forthright and
unequivocal stand:
Communal and Synagogue Honors
Must Be Given Only to Those with
Reputations for Ethical Behavior
May 12, 2009 -- Our Torah commands sanctity in the marketplace and
workplace as in the home and synagogue. From Biblical times to the
present, Jews have been summoned to a life of ethical behavior and
social responsibility, of respect for both ritual practice and the rule
of civil law. This tradition acknowledges the legitimacy of property
rights as well as business profit, but simultaneously challenges us to
fulfill principles of just conduct, even when faced with serious
financial challenges.
It is naturally the responsibility of synagogues as central Jewish
institutions of assembly, and of Jewish day schools as centers for
teaching Jewish knowledge and imbuing Jewish values, to implement and
practice exemplary public policies that demonstrate and promote the
centrality of these values.
Recently the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) has begun issuing a
series of guidelines delineating ethical business practices for employer
and employee, market and consumer, in an effort to educate and inspire
sanctity in earning a livelihood, as in the entirety of our religious
lives.
This effort to educate and inspire recognizes that a person's past
impropriety does not irrevocably define his path. Consequently, we
fervently hope that individuals who have become associated with
questionable activities will find ways to rehabilitate themselves and
engage in the sorts of meaningful acts of teshuvah that will demonstrate
to the community's satisfaction that they have put these activities
behind them. However, until such acts of honest contrition take place,
other courses of action, symbolic as well as substantive, are required.
Therefore, be it resolved that we must vigorously educate and
demonstrate to our laity and our day school students and parents,
especially in our trying economic times, that the Torah mandate for
ethical behavior and social responsibility is paramount.
We call upon synagogues to review longstanding policies and publicly
reaffirm among their membership that ritual kibbudim, leadership
positions and public honors and recognitions should be conferred only
upon those whose reputations for honesty and ethical conduct comport
with these values.
Ritual kibbudim include leading services, opening and closing the Aron
Kodesh, ascending to the Torah, and raising the Torah and rolling it
closed.
Leadership positions include serving as gabbai, synagogue officer or
board member, or otherwise occupying a position of honor in the
synagogue administration.
Public honors and recognition include receiving special mention at
synagogue banquets and assemblies, and having names assigned to
synagogue facilities or inscribed in places of honor.
It is understood that moral turpitude may come to light only long after
it has been committed. In some cases, allegations of corruption may defy
judicial clarification for months and years. In such circumstances, the
synagogue should take all of these steps immediately upon its
verification of past corruption.
We further call upon synagogues to place an enhanced premium on
according meaningful honor - honor in synagogue ritual, honor in
selection to serve in synagogue governance, and honor in other aspects
of public synagogue recognition - to individuals whose financial
standing may be modest but who, by their own exemplary conduct and noble
deeds, bring honor to their synagogues, their communities, and to the
Torah and G-d of Israel.
We call upon other Jewish institutions in our land to adopt and execute
policies similar to those we urge above for synagogues and Jewish day
schools.
Against this backdrop, it is clear that our community now stands
at an important moment in its evolution, a spiritual crossroads.
Just as a shul would not publicly honor or accord a position of lay
leadership to a social miscreant, or someone who perjures himself in
sworn court declarations, or someone
who commits financial fraud or otherwise perpetrates gross violations of
business ethics, and just as it is inconceivable that a congregation
would accord significant ritual or lay honors to someone who has
sexually harassed someone or who acts as a bully assaulting someone or
hurling a person's papers or desk paraphernalia around his office, so it devolves on a spiritual congregation to
stand forcefully, yet gracefully, as a beacon for spirituality.
Its halls should be filled with the sounds of Torah study, not the
shuffling of a deck of cards. Its programs -- even those conducted
"off-site" -- should be enlivened by the
sights and sounds of kosher cooking and Israeli dancing, Torah classes
and Judaism lectures, not the sounds of a spinning roulette wheel or
stacking of betting chips.
In the past, it was understandable within the American Orthodoxy of the
1950s and 1960s that an immigrant generation and its
first-generation-American children did not always "get it."
They saw Catholic churches running Bingo games in America and figured
"Why not?" (After all, don't we respect the traditions
and teachings handed down to us from B-4? Don't so many of us
assure our worried mothers: "Mom, I-8 already"?) Their lay leaders had not attended yeshiva schools, never had
studied real Jewish texts in the text, never had learned to read and
study Rashi and Chumash, Mishnah, or Talmud. Many had never even
attended a Jewish day school, where -- because all Jewish schools of any
substance have daily davening -- every child emerges by third or fourth
grade with core Hebrew reading skills and the skills to navigate a siddur
with ease. So it was
understandable that such a generation of parents reflected their own lack of access to
Judaic
learning by sponsoring such events.
But in this, the 21st century of the Common Era, where Orthodox
congregations are led almost uniformly by lay leaders who can open and
learn a Gemara sugya, who send their children to yeshiva day schools
where Torah and Rashi are taught as basic subjects, and where davening
Shacharit and Mincha every day are fundamental basics of the school
curriculum they demand for their children and where their children (if
sent to camp) are sent to Orthodox summer camping programs, we may expect more of
ourselves, our lay leaders, and our institutions of religious and spiritual substance.
In such a world, such an environment, the virtually unanimous voice of
Orthodox Jewish practice and deep-seated values is clear, as represented above in the
resolutions so recently adopted by the Rabbinical Council of America: poker games,
casino evenings, "Las Vegas Nights" -- all these variations on
"games of chance," regardless of what
individuals may do with certain of their friends in the privacy of their
own homes, are absolutely outside the pale of acceptability for a shul's
or a synagogue's fundraising or socializing program.
And for any shul that kids itself into believing that they will find
favor in G-d's eyes by trying to raise funds for their institution by
sponsoring "Casino Evenings" -- well, I wouldn't bet on those odds.