DEBATERS
Benjamin M. Friedman is professor of political economy and former chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. His books include Religion and the Rise of Capitalism and The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth.
Harvey S. Rosen was chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H. W. Bush. He is professor emeritus of economics and business policy at Princeton University.
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Artscroll publishes some wonderful biographies of the premier Rabbis of Eastern Europe, when Jews often lived in shetls or ghettos of cities but were autonomous. These bios often contain tales of the town’s Rabbi shaking down or in the case of butchers extorting larger donations from their wealthy citizens than the butcher or merchant offered to the Rabbi’s communal fund. Invariably, the Artscroll biographer takes a view that this is laudable conduct on the part of the Rabbi who will use those funds, voluntary or coerced, for public benefit. So at least in modern Judaism, exacting enhanced contributions from those able to provide it, even if not entirely voluntary, seems well accepted.