Why Dr. Laura Dumped Judaism

In her August 5 radio broadcast Dr. Laura Schlessinger, one of America's most listened-to radio hosts and high-profile Orthodox Jews,

claiming that she no longer found Judaism fulfilling. She informed her 12 million listeners that while she still "considers" herself Jewish, "my identifying with this entity and my fulfilling the rituals, etc., of the entity-that has ended."

Of her conversion to Orthodox Judaism, Schlessinger said: "I felt that I was putting out a tremendous amount toward that mission, that end, and not feeling a return, not feeling connected, not feeling that inspired."

But she really turned the knife when she praised Christians at the expense of Jews.

"By and large the faxes from Christians have been very loving, very supportive. From my own religion, I have either gotten nothing, which is 99% of it, or two of the nastiest letters I have gotten in a long time. I guess that's my point-I don't get much back. Not much warmth coming back."

She added that she was envious of the Christian faith, and hinted at embracing it. "I have envied all my Christian friends who really, universally, deeply feel loved by God. They use the name Jesus when they refer to God... that was a mystery, being connected to God." "Time and time again" she was moved by listeners who wrote and described that they had "joined a church, felt loved by God, and that was my anchor."

Dr. Laura's repudiation of her Judaism ranks as one of the shallowest renunciations of personal faith in all human history. It is surely unworthy of America's self-styled moral advocate.

Here is what shook Elie Wiesel's faith, as discussed with bone-chilling emotion in

: "Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust."

Had Dr. Laura witnessed such horrors, I could be sympathetic to her abandonment of the God of Israel. Had she been Oriah Pass, whose baby daughter, Shalhevet, was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron, whose father was axed in the head by an Arab while walking to pray, and whose twin sister, Orital, was stabbed outside the Machpela Cave, I could understand her feeling alienated from the Hebrew God. But to give Judaism up for the shameful reason of not feeling sufficiently appreciated by the Jewish community?

Perhaps the good doctor, famous for telling people to stop whining and get on with their moral obligations, needs to be reminded that religion is not a popularity contest.

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