Orthodox Rabbi Warns Men To Keep Their Wives Away From Lesbian Dance Teacher

A Jerusalem rabbi affiliated with right wing political causes has been ordered by the Jerusalem District Court to pay a local dance teacher over $17,000 dollars after he publicly outed her as a lesbian and warned local men to keep their wives and daughters away from her.

Nurit Melamed

Orthodox Rabbi Warns Men To Keep Their Wives And Daughters Away From Lesbian Dance Teacher
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

A Jerusalem rabbi affiliated with right wing political causes has been ordered by the Jerusalem District Court to pay a local dance teacher over $17,000 dollars after he publicly outed her as a lesbian and warned local men to keep their wives and daughters away from her, Ynet reported.

In 2009, Rabbi Isser Klonsky had posters hung throughout the Givat Mordechai neighborhood where he is the rabbi warning local men not to allow their wives to take dance classes with Nurit Melamed because, Klonsky claimed, Melamed is a lesbian.

Klonsky claimed that men  “have a duty to prevent their wives, daughters or any relative” from having contact with Melamed or participating in her classes.

“I have come to caution, warn and inform the women of Givat Mordechai and other places against attending these classes. No woman, married or single, young or old, must set foot there. It is absolutely forbidden. It is obligatory to stay away from this ugliness and anything resembling it,” Klonsky ruled.

Melamed’s classes were boycotted. The space she held classes in broke its contract with he and evicted her. The boycott spread and she had to cancel classes in Givat Mordechai and then elsewhere in Jerusalem, as well.

Melamed sued.

In court, Klonsly tried to defend himself by claiming he had been told that a woman allegedly left her husband and children to live with with Melamed and said his poster was meant to warn the public to prevent this from happening again.

The Jerusalem Magistrates Court ruled for Klonsky, claiming that Klonsky had acted in the “good faith” based on his religion.

Melamed appealed to the Jerusalem District Court, which ruled in her favor and awarded her $17,000. It also ordered Klonsky to apologize to Melamed for violating her privacy.

Klonsky's poster. Please click to enlarge:

Comments

[Sarek]

Odds on him paying the judgement?

[alter kocker]

I hope the judgement bankrupts the hateful piece of filth.

[FuckthemJews]

I don't get it. Doesn't he have the freedom of religion to tell his community his halachik opinion?

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

Other religions should have the freedom to boycott Jews and ruin their businesses.

[typadder]

what are the odds his warped sense of duty would warn parents against sending children off to attend classes of known molesters?

[S M L]

"... what are the odds his warped sense of duty would warn parents against sending children off to attend classes of known molesters ...

Hah. As if that might ever happen.

[Therry]

He's the rav of a neighbourhood, i.e. a public servant. it's illegal to discriminate on the grounds of sexuality for starters. He should be dismissed.

[dh]

FuckthemJews | May 13, 2014 at 12:41 PM

One has nothing to do with the other. We get that you don't get it because you are, aside from possessing a lukewarm IQ, obviously bereft of useful education and arrive here hoping that we will take on that Herculean effort. The thing is, you idiots are getting stupider and stupider and have minimal ability, at this stage of your development, to evolve your brain such that it can be staged to understand more than simple concepts expressed in the simple uni-dimensional thoughts you must rely.

[Abracadabra]

He ruined her livelihood for the sake of some misguided, overly zealous sense of religious duty and all he has to pay her is NIS $60,000 ?!? He should have to pay her a lot more than that!

I agree with Sarek that the chances of him paying her anything at all are slim to none.

Besides, he will claim it is against his religious beliefs to have to pay any judgment money to a lesbian.

[sifter]

I'd hit that.... just sayin'....

[Eli, what me messiah?]

Ok, seriously.... his defense was that being exposed to a lesbian was all it would take to cause haredi wives and daughters to prefer being with a woman to life with their husbands?

I guess there might be a little insecurity about how appealing it must be to pick food out of your husband's beard after a full day working and changing diapers.

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

The real danger of this woman is that she enjoys life, stays fit, can express herself through her dancing, and apparently has a pleasant demeanor to attract other women to her dance classes.

All this is dreadful to the fundamentalist mindset. The fear that someone somewhere may be enjoying herself, outside the control of a rabbi's dictate, must be killing this rabbi.

And BTW, how did he determine that she is a lesbian?

[this is a name]

Way to destroy free speech from the bench.

fucking lesbians.

[Allan]

@WSC – Exactly right.

The male writers of the Torah in their obsession to make rules covering every single facet of human behavior apparently completely overlooked lesbianism. The written Torah has absolutely nothing to say about it. Possibly rabbis back in the ancient Middle East did not consider sexuality that does not involve a penis as “real sex” and thus left it out of their rule book.

Later rabbis, noticing “God’s” strange oversight, decided that any sexual pleasure that does not involve reproduction must be a sin. Now this character wants men to boss their wives around and tell them which dance classes their wives are “permitted” to attend. Actually , even dancing for non-religious reasons, is considered a “sin” in the eyes of these sexually repressed old men.

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

Name 8:44, since when do frumma believe in 'free speech'? There is nothing in the frumma torah that allows free speech.

Every thought and word is strictly controlled by the rabbis.

Try criticizing your rabbi and let's see how well 'free speech' is accepted in your shul.

[lea]

I’m not making a comparison.
What if this rabbi put up signs warning about a molester?

Don’t get me wrong. Molesters are monsters.

one should be able to appreciate, that if for a given group of people, being a lesbian is 1000% against their moral/religious standards, the idea of allowing their young daughters or encouraging their wives to hang out in a place where they believe there is a (good) chance they may be propositioned…

they may believe it’s imperative that their community be aware of the (what they consider to be a grave) danger. Just my 2 cents..

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

How about a sign warning Christians to keep away from Jews, because Jews are filthy and they spread disease, they lie, cheat and steal, and they killed Christ?

If that's what the moral/religious standards are for a Christian community, why isn't it allowed?

[lea]

It’s funny how people always say the torah is full of male chauvinism.

In this case, the torah states that that a male, acting on his homosexual urges in punished most severally, while a lesbian doing the same, while abominable and considered maaseh eretz Mitzrayim (Vayikra 18:3), still there is no punishment.

[lea]

For argument sake (to be clear, I know nothing about this woman, I’m just attempting to argue a point)

If you know someone is a sly person, and at time he has cheated, swindled and tricked unsuspecting people (or government) out of their hard earned money, (now, this person doesn’t always cheat. He has done more honest transactions than fraud, he is a respected, widely recognized philanthropist, helps the needy etc)

Would you feel a duty to expose him/her and warn people who live in his community - and may potentially come in contact with him and be duped – to be weary of him, stay away from him?

This is because you consider government fraud, cheating to be an abominable, terrible thing. And rightly so.

What if, in your belief system, it would be abominable for your daughter to be in lesbian relationship. You find out that she goes to dance classes with a teacher who is a lesbian - a very fine, nice person, but you know of cases where she engaged in lesbian relationships with some previous students, would you think it would be right, or even mandatory for your to warn people of your community (who you know have your same values) from developing a close relationship with that women?

Lesbians are clearly not bad people. But if you had the belief system describe above, would you encourage your daughter or wife to go hang out on a regular basis with that person?

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

How kind and wonderful and forward-thinking of the Torah not to punish women for being lesbians.

Torah Law has not been accepted as the law of any land for 2000 years. No country is interested in making Torah Law the law of their land. Why do you suppose that is?

[lea]

I don’t think anyone ever advocated for or wanted the Torah to become the law of the land for anyone other than Jews.

The Torah was not indented for anyone but Jews!!!

At the time of God’s revelation on Mt. Sinai (after the exodus from Egypt), there were 2 sets of rules/laws given:

613 commandments (which include many more details) for the Jewish nations
7 commandments (which include many more details)
See: http://asknoah.org/

[Allan]

@Lea- “[lesbianism] being “maaseh eretz Mitzrayim”

From the thousands of ancient Egyptian documents and inscriptions that have been studied there is not the slightest evidence that ancient Egypt had a higher rate of homosexuality than any other ancient society. And even if they did, that would not make them “immoral.”

Lea, please don’t embarrass yourself by referring people who visit this site to “asknoah.org” You are talking about Torah stories as if they were actual historical events. There was no Noah, no worldwide flood, and no boat that held millions of animals. These are myths that children unfortunate enough to be trapped in religious schools are taught as actual history. Sadly, these grow up into adults who think Noah was a real person and his descendants have seven “special commandments.”

[lea]

@Allen

I was just borrowing the language of the sages.
see what the Rambam writes here (English)
http://bit.ly/1sOkyZF
Halacha 8

you are entitled to your "anti-torah religion"... but remember: it's a religion :)

for a documentation of our nation's unbroken chain of tradition from Sini see the Rambam in his introduction to his work 'mishne torah':
http://bit.ly/1lzqgf2

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

Leah, I am sure you are a good girl who does everything the rabbi says.

Jews are not interested in a Torah government, either.

Most of the Torah is a lot of killing and slaughtering of anyone who gets in the way of the Jews as they seize whatever territory they travel through.
Another part of the Torah is detail about animal sacrifices, which won't happen again, ever, no matter what fantasy your rabbi tells you to continue to hope for.
Another part of the Torah are nice stories about people who only have first names. Most of those stories exist in other religions and ethnic groups, including stories that appeared in other groups' books long before the Torah.
A small part of the Torah are brilliant things like the Ten Commandments and Love Thy Neighbor.

[Sholom]

Funny, I don't recall any similar warning about Leifer.

[RosannaDanna]

So you can't learn to dance from a Lebanese woman, but a woman from Syria or Jordan is OK? Discrimination I say!!! (pounding fist on desk)

[Alter Kocker]

WSC: No truer words sir! The problem with the Torah as it is, is that it was written with a warrior race in mind. The Jews have not been a warrior race for several milennia. The Rabbis of Israel have a great fantasy. They believe that the Jews will run the world, and enslave the non-jews. It would be entertaining, much along the lines of watching roller derby or wrestling to watch the Ultra-orthodox try to rise up and take real-estate. The results would probably devastate several yeshivas. The Torah is at this point probably an anachronism, and serves mainly to embolden the orthodox into committing some fairly heinous crimes. It is also the source of a lot of intolerance against those who do not believe, look or practice as you. One hopes Ms. Malamed not only gets her money, but that it bankrupts the idiotic Rabbi Klonsky.

[Allan]

@Lea – Thank you for your reference to Mishne Torah which confirms what an absolute lunatic and madman Maimonides was. Can you imagine the evil it takes to decree LASHING a human being for forbidden kissing?

“Rambam – Mishne Torah Chapter 21.

Halacha 1 Whoever shares physical intimacy with one of the ariyot without actually becoming involved in sexual relations or embraces and kisses [one of them] out of desire and derives pleasure from the physical contact should be lashed according to Scriptural Law.”

What a monster. I’ll take my “non-Torah religion” any day. The one that has full respect for gays and lesbians and leaves lashing and other barbaric Torah punishments in the dark ages where they belong.

[!!]

Posted by: lea | May 14, 2014 at 10:10 AM

Your response proves that you can't even understand the problem you've been so brainwashed.

You try to justify by explaining that the belief system does not allow lesbians.
(and as an aside has no privacy rights)
OK - so far so good. But can you not understand that a belief
system that looks aside when boys are molested by adult men (child abuse coupled with homosexuality) and suddenly finds all kinds of sources for privacy rights,loses all credibility when it comes to condemning adult consensual relationships, whatever they may be.

[lea]

@Allan
why are you vilifying the Rambam? is clarifying the biblical law - Torah. he didn't make any of it up

@ !!
in today's day of age (once we (-society) became aware of the horrible effects it has on people), it is clear, that Torah authority mandates that those in position of power take decisive action to prevent/stop pedophiles.

[!! but deciding on a new name]

@lea
what are you talking about??? to whom is it clear that "those in position of power take decisive action to prevent/stop pedophiles" Is this your first week reading this blog????

You clearly have no idea what is going on. Where or when has there ever been an action decisive or otherwise except when a victim went to the police? (and I dont mean when the molester wasnt Jewish) here's an assignment read just the last six months worth of pedophilia related stories on this blog (some this week) and you will see that what they are just beginning to say is NOT what they are beginning to DO...not one posted flyer about avoiding a known pedophile in any neighborhood by any Rabbi but somehow a posted flyer about a rumored lesbian...hmmm...

And furthermore What is that supposed to mean - It 'became' clear - what kind of mental status does it take to have to become clear to you that pedophilia is bad for kids?

And worse - the rabbis are obsessed with anything female that may arouse a man (like pictrues) yet actual touching of young boys and possibly worse (obviously including arousal in case you are that slow) could EVER have been OK?

Since when is the only Halachic problem the effects on the victim? Isn't there massive halacha against the effects on the perpetrator?

[Emma Pearson]

Interesting. Shmarya is condemning this Rabbi for violating this woman's privacy, yet he goes ahead and posts the story together with her name and picture, further violating her privacy in front of his large readership.

[Shmarya]

Please.

SHE made her name public when filed a PUBLIC lawsuit and failed to have her name redacted.

Her name and photo were published in newspapers and on TV news throughout Israel.

Of course, truth is not the point of your comment – in fact, truth is your enemy.