Outsourcing Our Jewish Obligations
Hiring others to live the Jewish lives we can’t be bothered to lead ourselves
July 02, 2015
Jessica Tamar Deutsch
By now, you’ve probably heard about the Brooklyn-based Hasidic group—or maybe it’s just one hateful, nutty dude—that, eager to shield yeshiva bochers from the abominations on display throughout Greenwich Village last Sunday, but committed to registering their/his rejection of gay marriage, hired Mexicans to hold protest placards, dressing them in a costume complete with peyot and other Hasidic-like garb.
Whatever else you want to say about them (and there is plenty), it’s interesting to note that the wily mind or minds behind this stunt tapped into the same insight that is driving billion-dollar valuations across Silicon Valley–namely that there’s a mint to be made from connecting people who don’t want to do something with other people who’d be more than happy to do that something on their behalf, for a modest fee. Herewith are some other tasks of Jewish life that we might think of outsourcing:
Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.
