Choices have impact beyond the individual, observers say
LOU HIRSH
Managing Editor
Local experts contacted by Jewish News say the ethical issues posed in Arthur Schaefer's "Jewish Ethics Challenge" have important implications not only for the individual, but for the community and the society that asks and answers these questions on a daily basis.
Rabbi Maynard Bell, of Reform Temple Solel in Paradise Valley, notes that Schaefer is offering some keen insights into how conflicts arise, and the ways in which society attempts to resolve them. Bell says the most useful observation by Schaefer is that people often think they have a limited number of ways to resolve a conflict in an ethical way, when in reality there are several other choices that could produce better or less harmful results.
Like Schaefer, Bell says basic Jewish values - such as honesty, altruism and compassion - should guide people in the ethical dilemmas arising from the "give and take" of societal relationships.
"But we also ought to be aware of the psychodynamics of human relationships, and understand how righteousness and self-righteousness can be confused with each other," Bell notes. "Our basic Jewish values allow us enough room to create alternative ways of 'scripting' our moral positions so that they don't become self-defeating and misunderstood by others whose behavior we might want to modify."
"And while we ought to be fervent about our moral positions," Bell adds, "we need to be aware of those who could be caught in the crossfire of our moral struggles."
Valley attorney Marty Latz, who teaches a course in negotiations at Arizona State University's main campus, says the basic Jewish principles mentioned by Schaefer are at times forgotten or downplayed by people in the conduct of their daily lives.
"The core Jewish values Professor Schaefer articulates need to be taught from cradle on, and stressed every step of the way," says Latz. "Too often people today compromise these beliefs and principles in the hope it will bring them personal gain."
Those gains are usually short-term ones for the individual, and don't help improve the larger community in the long run, says Latz.
Martin B. Meznar, an assistant professor in the School of Management at ASU West, says businesses are increasingly facing issues relating to social responsibility - similar to the scenario presented by Schaefer in which a synagogue must decide whether to accept money for a major building campaign from a known slumlord.
As the public calls on companies to set a good example - on issues such as environmental protection and working conditions in overseas factories - corporate managers are being asked go beyond purely financial considerations and take personal ethics into consideration.
"The more socially conscious the stockholders get, the less the people who run the companies will be able to hide behind the bottom line in making their decisions," says Meznar. "It's getting to where there are more things to deal with in terms of social and ethical issues."
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