AOC Tries to Bully Yeshiva University

The letter came after the Supreme Court denied, on procedural grounds, Yeshiva’s appeal of a lower court’s order to sanction the group, and Yeshiva chose to shut down all its student groups while the litigation runs its course.

Yeshiva’s position is clear. On contemplation and discussion by the many rabbis who inform university policy, the school can’t support a group that would celebrate what it believes to be a violation of Jewish sexual ethics. Yeshiva is committed to treating every individual, regardless of sexual orientation, with dignity and respect, just as it treats its students who violate Shabbat or eat pork—which are equally repugnant to Orthodox tradition. But it can’t affirm an LGBT club any more than it can affirm a Shabbat-violators club or a bacon-eaters club.

AOC and her colleagues have chosen not to consider Yeshiva’s point of view. Their letter frames the matter as Yeshiva’s denying some students the status of “full human beings.” In doing so, they deny Yeshiva a right of its own: to advance Orthodox Judaism in its entirety, even in ways that offend progressive sensibilities.

Yeshiva should have the right to tell disgruntled students what private institutions tell nonconformists all the time: If you don’t like how we do things here, you are free to leave. Yeshiva has clung to its…