Where Greg Epstein’s influence may well be felt, I fear, is on Jewish students’ perceptions of Israel, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.
The problem is not that Epstein is an atheist; that’s his business. The problem is more than just that he presents himself as a rabbi, even though his core belief system is rejected by every Jewish religious denomination of note: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist.
The power of the “rabbi” title is that it confers Jewish legitimacy and respectability on whatever the rabbi, even a self-proclaimed one, says. Jewish students at Harvard who don’t know any better will hear that “the rabbi” said something and assume that what he said represents Judaism, not just a tiny fringe element on the Jewish spectrum. The Association of Humanistic Rabbis has just 14 members in the United States besides Epstein.
Those American Jews who are concerned about anti-Israel bias on college campuses must endeavor to monitor not just the actions of extremist student groups and hostile professors, but campus clergy as well. As alumni, donors and parents of students, we can do much to show we care.
