...or in this instance, the closet.

while the Noah Feldman incident was on a different level of what Orthodox Judaism classifies as a "forbidden relationship", the sentiments are the same. Feldman married a non-Jew, yet no one told him not to bring her to the reunion. on the one hand, perhaps she should have stayed home with the kids. then maybe we could have avoided this whole New York Times mess in the first place. but on the other hand, Feldman had the balls to announce in a public forum what everyone already knew: the Orthodox are closed-minded. now, obviously this is not true of all Orthodox. if Matisyahu had a problem with non-Jews attending his concerts and buying his CD's, he wouldn't be nearly as successful as he is today. he obviously knew that alienating the majority of the population would be hazardous to his career.

so how come Y of F has issues with people bringing their same-sex (presumably Jewish, but possibly not) partners to a reunion while Noah Feldman had no trouble bringing his non-Jewish wife to the party? there's something that doesn't quite make sense here.

this article and the Noah Feldman piece should serve as a wake-up call to yeshivas everywhere who are still under the impression that all their students will remain the same once they exit the halls for good. one person who comes to mind in this instance is David Draiman, lead singer of the band Disturbed. he was born in Flatbush, but ended up relocating to Chicago and attending yeshiva there as well as in Jerusalem. look at him now. he's a bald angry Jew with a giant piece of metal protruding from his chin, yet he's raking in tons of cash and has a devoted legion of fans. he may be a pariah in the Orthodox community, but to the rest of the world he's a talented and highly respected individual. and even though it took a number of years for his parents to come to terms with his life choices, they're proud of his accomplishments. and whatever yeshiva he graduated from should also be proud. because how many Orthodox Jews go on to reach that kind of status? other than the aforementioned Matisyahu, not too many.