Rabbi Zecharia Wallerstein
It is a dance fitness programme that has taken the world by
storm — and Jews are no exception.
Zumba’s combination of samba, salsa and mambo is so popular
among Jewish women that ‘Jumba’ — and even, for Charedim, ‘Frumba’ — classes
have sprung up from London to New York.
But in a video posted online this week, Brooklyn Rabbi
Zecharia Wallerstein said that the dance craze can lead Jewish women towards
pole dancing and prostitution.
He said: “Zumba will become pole, pole will become
prostitution and you will lose all of your kids… The whole world is just
falling apart.”
The Orthodox rabbi, who regularly posts his lectures online,
described his shock two years ago when Zumba dance classes first appeared in
Brooklyn.
Explaining his reaction, he said he asked himself: “What are
you dancing like an animal for? You do the class, then you come home and sit down
with your children, with the voice in your ears of these animals?”
The rabbi also suggested that Zumba dancers were “like
monkeys in the jungle”.
For 81-year-old Valerie Oliver — who not only attends Zumba
classes, but also teaches them in her retirement home in East Finchley — the
dance regime is a great way to socialise and stay young, and should carry no
moral caveat.
She said: “I teach a class to 12 over-80s every week, and
they love dancing along to the music. I don’t think any of us are in danger of
prostitution.”
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