Aish Rabbi Thinks 5 Million Adult Jewish Males Live In US

David Kelsey catches Aish HaTorah's Rabbi Ya'akov Salomon in a whopper.

Rabbi Salomon thinks there are 5 million adult Jewish males living in America.

This would make the Jewish population of America about 18 million, at least three times greater than it is.

Why does Salomon think this? Does he have…

…sources to back him up? Fact? Anything?

Nope.

He's just ignorant, as Kelsey notes.

Here's an earlier Salomon gaffe from 2005. Rabbi Salomon, in support of Creationism, no less, told his viewers that Benjamin Franklin wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Intelligence is not a prerequisite for employment as a kiruv clown.

Comments

[Isa]

maybe there is with intermarriage and all that.
EXCEPT unless you could go back 5 generations with Ketubas (Ketubot?) all done by Orthodox rabbis that was on someones list (Ha!)
You are not likely to be accepted as being Jewish

[A perplexed reader]

So the guy made a mistake, big deal.

[DK]

A perplexed reader wrote,

"So the guy made a mistake, big deal."

You can't pretend to be a leader addressing a situation when you don't even know the very basics of the community you pretend to be leading. Vastly overestimating the size of your community when said community's actual size is readily available is as stupid as talking about the Declaration of Independence and declaring a different person wrote it than the very readily available reality.

The man is a haredi slob. He is a glitzy Big Aish space cadet.

That's the problem.

Do you understand better now, perplexed reader?

[A perplexed reader]

So you're saying he shouldn't give his advice about American Jews since he doesn't even know how many there are?

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

So you're saying he shouldn't give his advice about American Jews since he doesn't even know how many there are?

No. It's because he doesn't know what he's talking about.

[frumheretic]

Exaggerating numbers is part and parcel of our mesorah. Why is this any sillier than 600,000 adult men leaving mitzrayim?

[rabbidw]

What he is saying is ridiculous. What is interesting is that he is able to be so wrong and yet function successfully. People seem to accept his ignorance. I don't blame ais for hiring him, I blame the people who accept him. They should know better. Also, where did this guy grow up? I thought everyone knew that Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence. Is he an Israeli?

[Barry]

Give the guy a break. He mentions the word 'adults' a number of times and only once refers to 'adult males'. It is clearly a slip of the tongue.

Franklin was on the Committee of Five so his reference to 'Franlin saying in the Declaration' is excusable.

He did ask whether the declaration of Independence itself was unconstitutional. From the point of view of the British constitution, it sure was. Has not Rabbi Salomon heard of Dina D'Malchuta Dina? His majesty George III was By the Grace of God, King of Great Britain and its colonies, King of France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Prince-Elector of Hanover, and Duke of Brunswick not some drunk in the market like Messrs Jefferson and Franklin.

[DK]

Barry,

It's nice to know that your reactionary positions are not limited to Jewish stuff, but consistently are employed to things like your preference for King George III over the Framers. By all means, continue to explain how the policies of King George III were more in line with traditional Judaism. No one is stopping you. Continue.

Exaggerating numbers is part and parcel of our mesorah. Why is this any sillier than 600,000 adult men leaving mitzrayim?

Ha!

Brings to mind Lewis Black's joke:

"Was the earth created in seven days?

No.

For those of you who believe it was. Let me tell you, you do not understand the Jewish people.

The Jewish people know this, because we know what we are good at: bull----."

[Shmarya]

Give the guy a break. He mentions the word 'adults' a number of times and only once refers to 'adult males'. It is clearly a slip of the tongue.

That "slip of the tongue" by your explanation would give us about 8 million Jews in America – almost 3 million more than we have.

Your "explanation" doesn't make Rabbi Salomon look much better.

Besides that, he very clearly means 5 million adult Jewish MALES.

Now, let's go one step further.

How do you think that video is made? Do you think it's recording is a one shot deal? Whatever he says the first time is what is posted?

Please.

He reads his SCRIPT, the one HE WROTE, and sends an acceptable version to Aish.com where, presumably, one of their many editors looks at it before posting just the way an editor takes a look at every print piece before posting.

To make Barry's "explanation" work, we have to disregard the entire process, along with the facts.

[Barry]

Rabbi Salomon said

“In it they polled 35,000 American adults... They found that 1.9% of them were raised in a Jewish family... that is in keeping with 5 million adult Jewish males... From that a full 0.5% of them (poll sample) no longer affiliated with Judaism... That is 26% of adults raised in Jewish Home”

It is clearly a slip of the tongue, otherwise you would have to wonder why Rabbi Salomon did not refer to males in the first and third reference to adults and it follows that he believes that the entire population of the USA is 750 million people.

Rabbi Salomon wrote his script and misread it. It was posted on to AISH’s website by some kid probably watching YouTube while doing so

As for DK’s comments regarding his majesty the King, I would remind him that the Treason Act 1351 provides that a person is guilty of high treason if he “levied war against the King in his Realm or adhered to the King's enemies in his Realm, giving them aid and comfort in his Realm or elsewhere”. The penalty for high treason is “[To] be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution and there be hanged by the neck, but not until they are dead, but that they should be taken down again, and that when they are yet alive their bowels should be taken out and burnt before their faces, and that afterwards their heads should be severed from their bodies, and their bodies be divided into four quarters, and their heads and quarters to be at the King's disposal.”. There is also a fine to be paid.

Seriously speaking there are plenty of good grounds for criticising Haredi Kiruv movements. Trying to make much out of simple slip of the tongue makes one look petty and bitter.

[Shmarya]

1. As i clearly showed you, even your "understanding" of Rabbi Salomon's "slip" of the tongue leads to a Jewish population almost 3 million larger than reality.

2. Rabbi Salomon wrote his script and misread it. It was posted on to AISH’s website by some kid probably watching YouTube while doing so

Aish.com has a pretty large staff and editors. And Rabbi Salomon makes these "slips" of the tongue with regularity.

That tells me Aish doesn't know any better than Salomon does.

[Shmarya]

I'd also add that it is very difficult to MISREAD Thomas Jefferson and come out with Benjamin Franklin, especially when the script he is reading is right in front of him.

It is, however, possible to mistakenly WRITE that Franklin, and not Jefferson, wrote the Declaration, and it is then possible to correctly read that mistake.

[Anon]

Does anyone realy care about this other than David Kelsey and Shmarya?

Shmarya, get a life.

[Los Angeles Yid]

Rabbi Soloman, may have made a math mistake but his point is still there that we are still losing Jew. The Pew Study which I've ready before this post stated that they came from a Jewish Household and no longer consider themselves Jewish. THAT IS THE PROBLEM!!!

[Los Angeles Yid]

Rabbi Soloman, may have made a math mistake but his point is still there that we are still losing Jew. The Pew Study which I've ready before this post stated that they came from a Jewish Household and no longer consider themselves Jewish. THAT IS THE PROBLEM!!!

[adam]

If there are how come they mistreat so many Jewish men and always bash them to attract women who like this sort of stuff so they can get these women to go to Israel to do the chores that the founder's wife doesn't do since they are sepreted which I read about right here on Failed Messiah. I guess to not seem so obviously anti male they came up with this crazy article.

[yaacov]

I'm sure he meant to say "jews", not jewish males- so don't make something out of nothing!!

[Stanley Kards]

Hey check out what is happening at their Great Yeshiva in Passaic. Warning, it's a bit campy.

Hope they will create a Womens Yeshiva,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrKhM6sf_7o