FailedMessiah.com

The Russian Dark Ages

The Jewish Week writes in an unsigned editorial:

… Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to consolidate his power and snuff out feeble flickers of democracy. Dissent is dangerous, a fact that may underlie the bizarre case of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, fatally poisoned in London with a rare radioactive substance, only weeks after the murder of a fearless journalist who wrote of trauma in Chechnya. [And now, another Putin critic has apparently been poisoned.] And with it, ultra-nationalism is on the rise, inevitably producing a rise in anti-Semitic incidents.

Right now, the primary targets of the ascendant ultra-nationalists are people from Central Asia and the Caucusus, but it would be folly to assume that Russia’s Jews will somehow be immune.

A Russia swimming in oil and gas profits wants to play a bigger role on the world scene, but more often than not, Putin’s foreign policy contributes to conflict and instability, not peace.

Russia, a major supplier of nuclear technology to Tehran, continues to thwart international efforts to slow that country’s quest for nuclear weapons. The surface-to-air missiles Russia is sending to Iran might someday be used to shoot down American or Israeli planes seeking to achieve what diplomacy failed to do.

A battered, beset Bush administration has been too willing to ignore Russia’s descent from democracy and its increasingly disruptive role on the international scene. That needs to change — for the sake of U.S. interests around the world and for the minorities that will inevitably suffer if Russia returns to the traditionally toxic mix of authoritarian rule and ultra-nationalism.

Only a handful of Jewish groups — led by NCSJ, a human rights group dealing with the former Soviet Union — are closely following ominous developments in Russia. That, too, needs to change if we are to protect a large and endangered Russian Jewish community that could be standing at the brink of a new dark age.

And the religious group that gives Vladimir Putin diplomatic and moral cover? Chabad, the very same group of dancing rabbis and cholent eaters so many of you love.

It's Up To The Government

Elliot Pasik, who worked with the RCA on its Clergy Abuse resolution and is also close to haredi leadership writes:

The Torah demands a justice system. Tsedek tsedek tirdof... Its incumbent upon the Jews and the umos ha'olam. Might there be occasional error? Of course, but G-d tells us to establish courts in any event.

The child sex abuse literature I have read indicates that the vast majority of reported cases are true. I recommend, Salter, "Predators". Where false accusations do occur is in the age range below 5 or 6, where toddlers can be coached by social workers and psychologists hired by DAs. That's what happened in the Mass. case, the one I think Tal Benschar is referring to. I'm unfamiliar with the NJ case.

Every case of child sex abuse allegations that I've read about, or have become personally aware of, made by frum children, has been true, in my professional opionion.

Other than the criminal justice system, which will put a sex offender on the government registries, there is no mechanism in the Jewish world for barring violent and sexual offenders from our schools. So there are no "other ways" to handle this situation, as Tal Benschar writes, and when it has been attempted in the past, there have been tragic results -continued child abuse in other school venues.

I've been adocating for a yeshiva/day school-wide mechanism for several years, and it has not been done, and based on Aguda's Thursday night session, I do not expect it will be done. It is apparent that far greater Government oversight over the nonpublic schools is required.
Elliot Pasik, Esq.

But haredi political influence gained through block voting and Agudath Israel have consistently blocked this governmental oversight. It will take criminal indictments of rabbis who cover up abuse to change anything. And that cannot come soon enough.

Allen Mastbaum, ztz'l

My friend Allen Mastbaum recently passed away. Mastbaum's mother was a cousin of the pre-WW2 Belzer Rebbe, and that rebbe gave him a blessing for long life. Allen Mastbaum lived for 98 1/2 years, surviving the Holocaust and post-war pogroms, including the Kielce pogrom.

You can click on the image to enlarge the text:

Why Our Haredi Chief Rabbis Must Go

An Orthodox convert from Canada makes so much sense, it's painful. Barbara Crook puts Sefardic Chief Rabbi and haredi stooge Shlomo Amar in a corner and beats the stuffing out of him:

I'm a Jew by choice. It's the most important choice I ever made in my life, and perhaps the most important choice I will ever make.

Almost eight years after my husband and I completed Orthodox conversions in Canada, every action in my life is defined by my Jewish identity and my desire to be on the front lines for Israel.

I've been on numerous Jewish boards, including that of an Orthodox outreach organization, was named woman of the year by my local chapter of Emunah and have lectured about Jewish leadership across Canada. And whom do my Jewish-born friends call when they have questions about Jewish laws or tradition? The convert, of course.

I've been to Israel 18 times since my first trip in May 2003, have led missions to Israel and taught Canadian and American university students how to defend Israel. I spend most of my vacations studying Hebrew in Jerusalem, and work for an Israeli organization that has defended Israel in parliaments and conferences around the world.

According to Jewish law, I have all the obligations and privileges of any Jew born of a Jewish mother. But if Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar gets his way, when the time comes to make aliya I will be denied the basic right of equality to other Jews under the Law of Return. Rabbi Amar wants to change Israeli law so that only Jews born to a Jewish mother would be entitled to automatic citizenship.

"[Converts] are able to come as citizens through other laws, and that is fine... of course they will be considered," he told Israel Radio.

In other words, all Jews are equal, but some Jews are less equal than others.…

[Ms. Crook then lists the copious instances where the Torah demands respect for and protection of the convert, including the then (and, aparently now) novel concept that converts and born Jews are equal under the law.]

The Torah codifies and champions something that Rabbi Amar has failed to grasp: my fundamental right as part of our nation to join my people under equal terms and settle in the Land of Israel.

The future of Israel and the Jewish people depends on Jews who embrace Judaism and are proud to be Jews - whether by birth or by conscious decision. I have made my choice and God has recognized my choice. My right to the land is no less than Rabbi Amar's. God gave me that right. Rabbi Amar cannot take it away.

At this point, I hope our next chief rabbis come from the Reform Movement. Even if they don't, Shlomo Amar and his ethically, legally and morally challenged Ashkenazic counterpart need to be removed ASAP.

Was The Rebbe A "Good Guy"?

Sholomanarchy writes:

There is a pervasive mentality in the Frum world of "I don't like the direction that Lubavitch has taken since his death, but the Rebbe was a great man." I hear this expressed repeatedly in many different forms, and I wholeheartedly disagree.

One does not become a god overnight, there is a deification process that takes place. In a Western (Jeroboamite) theological context, deification requires two primary elements - the establishment of a godlike ideal, and the rejection of all others; אנכי and לא יהיה לך.

Yerov'om is viewed in the Talmud as a חוטא ומחטיא את הרבים, a sinner who causes others to sin. Yerov'om was a sinner because he rejected the original לא יהיה לך with his declaration of הנה אלהיך ישראל אשר העלוך מארץ מצריים.

He is considered a מחטיא את הרבים because, due to political motivation, he outlawed pilgrimage to the Yahwistic temple in Jerusalem; thereby coercing others into worshipping his twin idols, as stated elsewhere.

By implicitly or explicitly encouraging the various rites of deification associated with his life and teachings, the Rebbe turned himself into an idol. He built a "cult of personality" around himself, or allowed one to be built around him.…

This is difficult to argue with. It is spot on and as perceptive as one can possibly be. This is a true portrait of the last Chabad-Lubavitch rebbe and, by extension, of those who still follow him.

GUEST POST: Crown Heights Through the Eyes of a Child

Sholomanarchy writes:

I recall Yud Shevat 5753, during the height of the "balcony period". I was then a young boy in Cheder, and the messianic fervor had seized the Lubavitcher cult in its death grip. Walking to Oholei Torah that morning, I knew - WE knew - that today was going to be the day when the Rebbe finally reveals himself as Moshiach. I overheard Chaim Shaul Bruk (sp? Brook? Brooke? Burekeh? Burka? I don't really give a damn, he was a kugel-thrower), the fat one, mention that people were waiting at the airport in Israel with a white donkey.

It wasn't a hope, it wasn't a desire. It was a well-known fact to us children, the תנוקות של בית רבן. That was all I could think about, as we listened to Rabbi Zeligson drone on out of the Ma'amor Bosi Legani during the Pre-Shachris Chasidus Shiur that was part of the holiday program. That's what Itche Zalmanov and I spoke about during recess, instead of playing our usual 6th grade fantasyland games of "witchie" or "stupid robbers". When school let out early for the day, I ran the block and a half to 770 and squeezed my way through the masses of black Kapotes and blazers, hoping to get a good spot from which to view the long-awaited Hisgalus.

"Mincha now! Mincha now!" All over the neighborhood, Moshiach beepers go off; People run up Kingston towards Eastern Parkway. I pray with deep concentration, hoping that the Rebbe is watching me. Teka Beshoifar Godol Lecheiruseinu - it’s not just words, I can feel it; it’s about to happen. Perhaps if he notices how hard I'm trying to bring the redemption, he'll help me out when he's the king; I hope I get a candy-tree in my front yard.

The final Kaddish is said, the last "Amen" drowned out by the ocean of faithful admiration. Thousands of voices rise in song to praise their king and wish him eternal life. He makes a barely perceptible gesture with his left hand, the throngs react as if by instinct, and the singing becomes even more fervent. Faster and faster the mantra is repeated, the words grating against each other as thousands of Chasidim jump up and down on their toes, caught up in the spiritual ecstasy of the moment.

It is so close, so imminent. Today is the fifty-second anniversary of his becoming our leader. The Rebbe himself, the head of the children of Israel, had promised that we were the generation of redemption. He has told us that Moshiach is already here, that we just have to open our eyes.

My eyes are opened. I can see it, can envision it. Any moment now, the Rebbe will stand up. He will swing his arms in his signature gesture. Not the left-handed tremor, not a fist banging on his lectern, not even a one-armed swing; but a full-fledged two-armed swing that will bring the walls of Golus crashing down. He will regain his voice, and the first words out of his mouth will be a resounding הגיע זמן גאולתכם – the time for your redemption has arrived!

The Rebbe makes a gesture to his lackeys, and they swing the curtains shut on the farcical ceremony. Today was not the long-awaited redemption; it was merely another instance of mindless adoration by the sheeple. Tomorrow will be the same – the curtains will open, the curtains will shut, and the masses will have gotten another fix of opiates.

Another Strike Against Marvin Schick

At last week's Agudah convention, Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon, speaking for the rabbinical and political leadership of Agudah, admitted there were many cases of rabbinic and other abuse haredi rabbinic leadership had handled quietly, dealing with the problem and then "sweeping it under the carpet" to avoid bad publicity, etc. The problems with this admission are many, not the least of which is that "sweeping [abuse] under the carpet" allows the abuser to relocate and continue abusing, something specifically alleged in at least two separate cases. But the admission also again proves Marvin Schick to be either willfully naive or a liar, or both. Perhaps it's time for Marvin to apologize to the abuse victims and advocates he has so disparaged. What do you say, oh "day school and yeshiva 'expert'"? Maybe you could use your Jewish Week "column" to apologize – if you have the guts, that is.

The Allegations Against Agudah

A commenter writes:

According to UOJ, [Rabbi] Shmuel Kaminetzky knowingly sent [Rabbi] Moshe Eisman to Ner Yisroel when boys in Philadelphia accused Eisman of molesting them.

And then, this:

…Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzsky [Agudath Israel's "#2" rabbi] and [Agudath Israel's rabbinic head] Rabbi Yaakov Perlow were approached before the Kolko/Margulies/Torah Temimah abuse was made public. They both chose to pass the buck. Rabbi Perlow stated that he was a resident of Boro Park and that this was a Flatbush matter. Rabbi Kamenetsky stated that as long as we have no knowledge of Kolko molesting any boys in the past two years there is no emergency and we must assume he did Teshuva.

Readers?

Blogging the Agudah Convention, #2

An attendee of the Agudah convention writes:

…The very choice of the two speakers was notable. It would be hard to find two more identifiable hardliners than Rabbis Wachsman and [Mattisyahu] Salomon. Notably, also, although this was not the traditional motsei Shabbos keynote session, the Rosh Aguda, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, was seated to the right of the podium; and seated to the left was Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, Philadelphia Rosh Yeshiva and Moetses member, usually looked upon as the most senior Aguda rabbinic figure alongside Rabbi Perlow. This was an endorsement.

Rabbi Salomon, from Lakewood, hates bloggers.…

Rabbi Salomon said what he said, and he meant it. Sweep it under the carpet, when the Torah tells us to. He is talking about child sex abuse committed by rabbis and other "frum" Jewish adults. But when does the Torah tell us to? And who decides? Rabbi Salomon did not answer these obvious questions.

I'll tell you why Rabbi Salomon is so wrong - because a pedophile repeats his behavior. He is an ongoing threat to children. He must be exposed, and forever barred from contact with children. He should never work in chinuch or any other youth setting again. By the way, this is exactly what the RCA Resolution says, from May 2005. If the pedophile's family members feel shamed or embarrassed, that is, unfortunately, fallout that cannot be prevented. The greater good of protecting children is far more important. There is a pasuk, Lo sa'amod al dam ra'echa, Do not stand upon the blood of your brother. The mitzvah requires one Jew to save the life of another. It means that you don't put a pedophile in close proximity to children. Child sex abuse is a form of retsicha, and a pedophile is a rodef. You heard none of this from Rabbi Salomon.…

The great flaw in Rabbi Salomon's reasoning is that the perpetrator can pick himself up, resign from his charedi yeshiva, and move to an out-of-town day school. His guilt is under the rug, and his new employer neither knows about the rug, nor what's under it.

By the way, everybody, we will NEVER see a nationwide registry of sex and violent offenders initiated by Aguda and Torah U'Mesorah. If it ever does happen, it will need to be initiated by other camps, and/or imposed by the Government.

This same writer accuses Rabbi Gil Student of 'dancing at two weddings,' and, in effect, covering for Agudah. Gil denies this, and says:

"The great flaw in Rabbi Salomon's reasoning is that the perpetrator can pick himself up, resign from his charedi yeshiva, and move to an out-of-town day school."

No, the great flaw is that there are too few people, with too little training, involved. A few (extremely dedicated) rabbis with little experience and no professional training cannot solve the entire community's many problems.

This is perhaps the most foolish thing Rabbi Student has ever written. Rabbis have freely chosen not to educated about abuse, they have freely chosen not to bring in outside help, they have freely chosen not to turn abusers over to the police. This is not a story about the 'poor, struggling' haredi leadership – it is a story of willful neglect – criminal neglect – by that leadership.

Thankfully, another writer jumps in to agree with the first and disagree with Rabbi Student:

I concur with your comment and would like to add that both Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzsky and Rabbi Yaakov Perlow were approached before the Kolko/Margulies/Torah Temimah abuse was made public. They both chose to pass the buck. Rabbi Perlow stated that he was a resident of Boro Park and that this was a Flatbush matter. Rabbi Kamenetsky stated that as long as we have no knowledge of Kolko molesting any boys in the past two years there is no emergency and we must assume he did Teshuva. While I try with all my heart to be Dan them L’Kaf Zechus; I am unable to do so. There is no room for ignorance or cover ups when our children are involved. Period.

Haredim and Racism

Ha'aretz reports:

At the age of 7, Laloum relates, he underwent an experience that shocked him and ultimately had a major influence on him. "We moved from the north to Jerusalem," he explains. "The first week we went to school, to register. The principal told my father to his face: 'I won't let your son in because you're frankim [a derogatory word for Mizrahim].' My father was a simple man, who had become religious on his own. That was the only time I saw him cry. Really, with tears."

Chabad to its credit never (at least in the last 30 years) excluded Sefardim from its schools. Ethiopian Jews, however, are a different story. (See also this.)

Marvin Schick, Abuser

Marvin Schick writes several years ago:

…The Catholic Church has been shaken to the core by literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of accusations, as adults have emerged to voice their claims of abusive activities that occurred years ago. Media attention has certainly been a catalyst for many of the accusers being willing to go public, mainly against Catholic clergymen, but also against religious functionaries of other denominations. It stands to reason that if Orthodox Jewry or any other part of Jewish life were awash with sexual abuse against youngsters or in efforts to cover-up abuse, we would have heard about it in the recent period. It is powerfully telling that such charges have not materialized, that despite an atmosphere that is strongly conducive to sexual abuse claims, very little has been forthcoming on the Jewish or Orthodox fronts.

Emphatically, this does not mean that there haven't been any such cases that we do not know about. It does mean that too much of the rhetoric within our community has been overwrought and unfortunate. I hope that those who leap at every opportunity to denigrate the Orthodox will recognize that what they have done is itself a form of abuse.

Rabbi Kolko's abuse went on over a 30 year span and was covered up by many rabbis, including "gadol" Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg. Bryks walks free in Queens, still with official access to children. The Ner Israel perps still walk free, as does Mondrowitz. Rabbis like Scheinberg still intimidate families, victims and advocates. And Marvin Schick is still covering for them all. That, Marvin, is the real abuse.

[Hat Tip: Dr. R-F.]

As a bonus, here is a piece written by Marvin Schick defending convicted kidnapper Rabbi Shlomo Helbranes. Read all of JWB's post (found, as is JWB's unique style, in the comments to the headline) for Schick's piece and lots of other  reports making Schick look, well, stupid – which is not exactly hard to do.

Helbranes' Awarness Center page may be easier to follow.

Vladimir Putin a "Pedophile"?

The Russian dissident assassinated by,it seems, Vladimir Putin's security services, once accused Putin of being a pedophile. Is Putin? Who knows … So far, there isn't enough evidence to say. Of course, one dead dissident may have seen to that.

Marvin Schick: Do Not Cooperate with the Government

Marvin Schick writes:

…The sad thing about the emerging scenario is that the Orthodox are more alert to abuse issues than other Jews. In some perverse fashion, their alertness is being translated into evidence of a greater incidence of domestic abuse in Orthodox homes, primarily because the media are invited to get into the act by organizations and individuals with a stake in abuse issues.…

The Orthodox, and notably the dynamic yeshiva-world sector, needs to show greater restraint in dealing with the media and government, else there will certainly be a continuing flow of self-inflicted wounds. Prospects for this are not bright because there is a paucity of leadership and far too little discipline among these Orthodox. Contrary to the familiar view that sees these religious Jews as being led from the top by respected rabbinical figures, the reality is one of near anarchy. A price is being paid, although that scarcely seems to be a deterrent.

Marvin Schick denies widespread reports of man-on-boy mikva abuse and has consistently claimed all types of abuse are rare in Orthodoxy, despite much evidence to the contrary. I hesitate to write this, but I can reach no other conclusion: a man who does this repetitively over a period of years, even as accused abusers continue to have professional access to children, often at the very day schools and yeshivas Schick is the "worldwide" "expert" in, and yet Schick does not condemn this access and urges Jews not to cooperate with government bodies trying to deal with abuse – this man is not simply naive, he is evil and as much a part of the problem and as guilty as accused abusers like Rabbis Kolko, Bryks and Eisenman.

[Hat Tip: Dr. R-F.]

Here is Marvin Schick's entire column as a PDF file:

Download marvin_schick__children_at_work.pdf

Putin, Democracy and The Jews

Nathaniel Popper of the Forward writes in the Wall Street Journal:

…"Russia is not ready for a Democratic or Republican or liberal Jewish coalition," said Rabbi Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia and Mr. Putin's closest friend in the Jewish leadership. "Russia is a different mindset--a different history, different tradition. In Russia, Jews should not be involved in politics."

Such self-censorship has not always been the rule in the post-Soviet era. In 1996, the Jewish media oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky helped found the Russian Jewish Congress as a voice for the 500,000 Jews of Russia. Mr. Gusinsky was accused of bringing his own political battles into his Jewish work, but he was not afraid to speak out about the Russian government's policies toward Israel or its policies toward Chechnya. Perhaps more important, the Russian Jewish Congress sparred with other Jewish groups about the proper positions to take. There was, in short, debate.

Then, in 2000, Mr. Gusinsky was arrested and forced to flee the country. Like oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky a few years later, Mr. Gusinsky was accused of financial wrongdoing, but opposing Mr. Putin was seen by many as the real crime. The new oligarchs who took over the funding of the Russian Jewish Congress were noticeably silent on the Kremlin's policies. It was obviously bad for business.

The changes at the congress were not the only shift caused by Kremlin intervention. For a number of years after the fall of communism, Russia had multiple "chief rabbis," representing different Jewish traditions. In 2002, this custom changed when Mr. Putin signaled that he would only deal with one of these rabbis, Berel Lazar, as the official chief. Whatever the reason--and it is hotly disputed--Mr. Putin's intervention has effectively shut out the other voices of community, leaving only the overwhelmingly friendly proclamations of Rabbi Lazar and the Russian Jewish Congress.

That Jewish organizations avoid criticizing Mr. Putin does not mean, however, that there are no Jewish people in the opposition. Alexander Osovtsov, the staff director of the Russian Jewish Congress under Mr. Gusinsky, joined the pro-democracy movement. His first job was with the Open Russia Foundation, which was shut down after its leader's arrest. Now he is with Another Russia, a group that trains opposition leaders.

Mr. Osovtsov says that his years at the Russian Jewish Congress were hopeful ones, but an outspoken, independent Jewish organization is now impossible. It could function normally, he says, "only if there is a minimal degree of freedom in the country. That doesn't exist anymore."

It does not exist because Chabad under the leadership of a thug named Berel Lazar and his financial backer Lev Leviev helped Putin with his "Guzinsky problem" and in return became the "exclusive" voice of Russia's Jews. This anti-democratic thuggery is truly what Chabad is about. The dancing rabbis are simply PR, a fundraising tool.

[Hat Tip: Dr. G. Mendel.]

Meanwhile, the Russian dissident poisoned, it seems, by Vladimir Putin's thugs has died in London. [Hat Tip for this bit of sad news: Yisroel.]

To read the long, sad tale of Chabad's Russian evildoings, click here and start reading from the bottom of the page.

Haredi Rabbinic Leaders Still Oppose Work

Ynet reports:

In an effort to encourage more haredi adults to join the workforce the first of six ultra-orthodox oriented job placement centers was dedicated in Jerusalem Wednesday. The five remaining centers are expected to open their doors for haredi communities throughout the country in the near future.

The Joint (American Joint Jewish Distribution Committee – JDC), which is backing the project along with the state, has been involved in integrating the ultra-Orthodox community into the workforce since 1996. So far some USD 10,500,000 has been invested in the initative, with almost 2,000 new workers enrolling in the various training programs.…

One of the applicants is Shira Nardi, a 21 year old ultra-Orthodox woman who attended secretarial school and now hopes to find employment through the center. She describes the change undergone by the haredi community in regards to employment as "a revolution." "Everything's been cut back, you can't live off of what you get anymore," said Shira, attributing the extreme change to the reduction of government stipends for child support.

The 'revolution' however is far from complete as more than a few Rabbis voice there concern over the change. "It's hard to say that all the Rabbis are encouraging employment," said Flintstein who acknowledges that there are still setbacks to overcome, "but certainly is a man reaches a situation where he has difficulty supporting (his family) then he must go to work. He is told to do this and not remain in his current situation."

Understand this well. If a man can no longer live on welfare and other handouts, then and only then should he seek work. Otherwise he must continue to learn all day and may not enter the workforce. This is confirmed by the Belzer Rebbe's position, which is among the more permissive of haredi leaders:

The only Rabbi who has publicly addressed the issue is the Rebbe of Belz, Rabbi Issachar Dov Rokach who last year called on his followers to obtain a profession and encouraged them to joint the workforce under certain conditions. He said, however, that unmarried women were not to work. After marriage they may work since the burden of supporting the family falls on their shoulders. The men must of course study Torah throughout the day.

Non-haredi Jews have paid $10.5 million US dollars to educate, train and find jobs for a bunch of people whose rabbinic leaders oppose their entry into the workforce. Also note that only Netanyahu's budget cuts forced the little positive change seen. If you want to increase that change, stop funding any haredi yeshivot, seminaries or schools, and especially stop funding the gedolim. The fish stinks from its head. To save the body, that head must be (non-violently) cut off and properly disposed of.

For the Ethiopian Jews

This week was Sigd, the Ethiopian Jewish holiday reminiscent of Shavuot. For hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, Ethiopian Jews gathered on this day to remember Jerusalem and the giving of the Torah. What follows are photos of this year's event from Arutz Sheva (more photos and other coverage here) and a poem written by Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet Charles Adés Fishman, from his book Chopin's Piano. (A special thank you to Charles Fishman and Time Being Books for graciously allowing me to reprint this.)

© Charles Adés Fishman

Haredi Dropout Rate

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz writes:

…Viewed from a historical perspective, the ‘drop-out’ rate from Orthodox Jewry in the past fifty years is far lower than it was during the tumultuous hundred years that preceded the generation of our parents – from 1850 to 1950. I would estimate that during the past few decades, about five to fifteen percent of children from observant homes left Yiddishkeit – which is far more than we would like to admit or believe. But bear in mind that the ‘drop-out’ rate was much, much higher in the Lower East Side at the turn of the century, in Yerushalayim in the Thirties and Forties, and in many Chassidish, Litvish, and Ashkenasic communities in pre-war Europe during the height of the haskalah…

Rabbi Horowitz goes on to list a number of commonsense solutions to this problem, most of them ignored by a haredi leadership more interested in ignoring internal problems and blaming the Other. (As I write this, Agudath Israel's anti-blogger session is in full steam.)

But I think there is one important point about the dropout rate not mentioned. – it appears to be rapidly increasing. Why? More on this later.

Blogging The Agudah Convention

This is an open thread for comments from and about the Agudath Israel convention. If you're there, please drop us a note and tell us what's happening.

[And, yes, Agudah – that means you've got bloggers in your midst.]

Jewish Week Profiles Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch

Jonathan Mark writes in the Jewish Week:

…After Chabad ordination, he earned a business degree and in 1988 won first place in a national entrepreneurial competition. For many years he was the financial director for J & R Music World, and he still does business consulting. He wrote a critical biography of the Lubavitcher rebbe that earned him contempt within Chabad, though some fences are mended. But all the while, “I studied archaeology on my own and dreamed of creating this museum.”

Like most “attics,” the museum wasn’t quite officially founded but grew like Topsy and came of age in 2004 when it was validated by a five-page spread in the Biblical Archaeology Review. Its editor, Hershel Shanks, declared that this was the first museum that he knew of in the United States devoted to biblical archeology.

The rabbi, with “sweetness” and a “justifiable pride,” wrote Shanks, “has done what no one else in the United States (perhaps in the world outside of Israel) has done. ... All the big shots, all the people with access to the most sophisticated knowledge and current excavations, have not accomplished what Rabbi [Shaul Shimon] Deutsch has.”…

But what of that biography of the late Rebbe?

…Let’s leave the rabbi now to his busy life, for he has to get “food for Shabbos” to the poor, with scores of volunteers. And a lot of food is delivered, “$5.5 million worth,” says the rabbi, in the last year alone. He has men coming to his shtieble to daven, he has a weekly column to write for Hamodia, and he has to get ready for his weekly radio show on the Talkline network. …

Conspicuously absent from the list of Rabbi Deutsch's activities is the completion of that biography, originally planned to be five volumes.  Two volumes were printed. The most controversial material would be in volumes 3 and 5, but they are not published.

The Jewish Week doesn't note the threats Deutsch received on publication of volumes 1 and 2, the police protection needed or the Chabad-directed violence against him. It also fails to mention that the biography is incomplete. And it does not tell us whether Deutsch ever intends to complete that work. More than two years ago, Deutsch told me he was publishing volume three, and gave me some indication of when that would be. The time came and passed.

Just like Gary Rosenblatt, Mark's boss, passed on the Rabbi Mordechai Gafni clergy abuse story because Gafni was a friend of friends, Mark passes on the real story here. When journalists like Jonathan Mark write garbage like this, ignoring Chabad's criminal behavior and Deutsch's enforced silence, they fail us all, while at the same time encouraging violence and anti-democratic action, just as Rosenblatt encouraged and enabled Gafni's abuse.

Mark and Rosenblatt are the two most prominent Orthodox journalists in America. The operative word here is Orthodox, which increasingly should be read as a synonym for corrupt.

The Fish Stinks From Its Head

Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum writes a scathing column condemning haredi violence surrounding Jerusalem's Gay Pride parade. The problem? First, his complaints are all tactical:

…An extreme response, for instance, almost inevitably ensures that one's message will be lost and the focus of public attention shift to the messenger and the impropriety of his actions. Prior to the onset of the rioting, many secular Jews viewed this particular march in this particular place as a deliberate affront to the sensibilities of Jerusalem's residents.

But as soon as the garbage cans started going up in flames, all public discussion switched from the propriety of the parade to that of the response, and the chareidi community found itself on public trial. Many of the relevant governmental bodies opposed the parade for their own reasons, but they could not appear to be intimidated by threats of violence.

A massive demonstration, such as that against the Supreme Court's trampling on all religious values, would have made clear that the kedushah of Eretz Yisrael and Am Yisrael are not matters of indifference to the Torah community. And it would have enjoyed a great deal of public sympathy. But that sympathy was wantonly squandered.…

All the gedolei Yisrael about whom I have written thought constantly about the image of Torah and Torah Jews in the world. It is hard to imagine that last week's rioters gave a moment's thought to such concerns. I'm old enough to remember the urban riots that swept across America in the early '60s. At the time, the most frequently asked question was: What kind of people burn down their own neighborhoods? Now, that question is being asked about those garbed as Torah Jews.…

In other words, Rosenblum decries tactics that are counterproductive to haredism's larger goals. He does not endorse or encourage the democratic process or civil discourse. And Rosenblum also plays the kiruv card:

…The Torah offers what secular Israel so desperately needs. Last week's events, however, make it less likely that secular Jews will seek the answers to their admitted spiritual malaise from us and not in some ashram in India. And that is a tragedy for all of us.

In other words, it will hurt the efforts to expand the haredi population through recruitment, or kiruv. because it presents a bad public image. But that public image is absolutely representative of actual haredi beliefs and practices. Rosenblum wants to mask these in order to entrap innocent, naive people. He continues:

And for the Torah community, it is no less a tragedy that concepts like Kiddush Hashem and Klal Yisrael never entered the minds of last week's rioters. They are not even on their radar screen.

For the rest of us, it is time to ask: Why not?

The answer to that question is simple. Rioters were egged on by rabbis, leaders of the haredi world, from Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch of Edah Haredit to Rosenblum's own leader, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. What you saw on the streets was the souls of those rabbis stripped bare for all to see.

There is an old Yiddish proverb, The fish stinks from its head. That, Rabbi Rosenblum, is the answer to your question.

Bush Secretary Beaten By Sitcom Star

Lenny , the dimwitted cast member from the old Laverne and Shirley sitcom, beat George Bush's Secretary of Education on Jeopardy yesterday. What else can you say? It's beyond satire.

770 Riot, #3

Best quote on the 770 riot comes from a former Chabadnik who writes:

If I may paraphrase Heinrich Heine: in a place where one throws kugel, one will end up throwing benches.

He continues:

…This is not anarchy, this is forces of the state and centralized control vs. forces of religious theocracy. The Piss-Yellow-Flag freaks are the expected outcome of the teachings of HRH the GGC MHSHF. He placed himself on a pedestal and paved the way for his own deification, and he ended up as a god and a master. He got it his way, an entire fucking population crowned him as king. As king, he had two realms over which he proclaimed his dominion, the political and the spiritual. In both realms, he sold out core principles of Judaism in exchange for power. He exerted his authority and twisted the facts in order to suit his corrupt agenda. After his death, his sheeple grabbed the kingdom - in a manner of שניים אוחזים בטלית. Krinsky and crew got the political realm, while the freakazoids claimed the spiritual.

And thus it continues to this day, זה אומר כולה שלי וזה אומר כולה שלי. The smart ones, however, leave while yet young. They are the ones who, though they may not have understood it then, sensed what was forecoming back when the kugel would fly. So go on, Lubavitcher fucks, kill each other over who gets to control the legacy of an עבודה זרה. If anyone needs me, I'll be sitting here laughing my ass off and being glad that I left your bullshit cult six years ago.

ברוך אתה יהוה אלהינו חי העולמים שפטרני מעונש הלזה
ברוך אתה יהוה אלהינו חי העולמים הגומל לחייבים טובות שגמלני טוב

All Truths That Are Kept Silent Become Poisonous

"All truths that are kept silent become poisonous."
Frederich Nietzsche

The Rebbe As "God"

Harsh critics of Lubavitcher Elokism (such as Rabbi David Berger) have complained that these doctrines will make Christian arguments seem more plausible within the Jewish paradigm. Such an objection makes the argument above especially ironic. Imagine a debate between a Christian and a Lubavitcher Elokist. Both agree that the Messiah has come, and both believe he is God in the form of a man (and that he is referred to in Daniel 7). The only thing they disagree on is who this person is (Jesus vs Menachem Schneerson). I can imagine the Christian asking rhetorically: "who best fits the description of being worshipped by people from all nations and linguistic groups?"

Properly, what this refers to is a demigod, the ancient idea of man – a king or priest – taking on characteristics of God and becoming, through transmutation, an aspect of God Himself. This is how early Christians viewed Jesus, and how many current Lubavitchers view the late Rebbe.

Baruch Dayan HaEmet

Perhaps the greatest living halakhic authority, the Tzitz Eleizer, Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg, has passed away in Jerusalem. He was 89 years old:

…"The fact that he didn't get involve in public affairs doesn't take away from his tremendous stature," said one mourner. "For 50 years, he has been quoted by latter-day rabbis who didn't even know he was alive."

Rabbi Waldenberg, the rabbi of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, specialized in medical questions. A judge on Jerusalem’s Supreme Rabbinical Court, he was known for rulings on issues of fertility, abortion, organ transplantation, euthanasia, trans-sexuals, autopsies, medical experimentation and much more. He was one of the first to forbid smoking. Some of his rulings were considered quite controversial and innovative, and were not widely accepted.

Rabbi Waldenberg's funeral procession was held early this afternoon at the decades-old Etz Chaim school on Jaffa Road, and he will be buried in the Mt. Menuchot cemetery in western Jerusalem.

Among the thousands of responsa he wrote on hundreds of topics in his close to 20 volumes of Tzitz Eliezer, are the following:

Artificial insemination by a man other than the woman's husband is forbidden, and is permitted only if pregnancy by normal means has been deemed impossible.

One may not undergo plastic surgery merely to improve one's physical appearance, as 'charm is deceptive and external beauty is futile; only fear of G-d... is praiseworthy' [Proverbs 32].

Though carrying certain items is forbidden on the Sabbath, the value of human dignity - which waives certain prohibitions - certainly waives this prohibition, as one who cannot hear would suffer great embarrassment and unpleasantness if he is "isolated, unable to hear what is going on or respond to those who speak to him..."

The commandment to violate the Sabbath to save a life is practically absolute, and "should not be left for a non-Jew or a minor... one must not make himself into a pious man by saying that it would be better for someone else to desecrate the Sabbath, rather it is a great merit to save even one Jewish soul... Even to save a life for only a short time, and even for a minor, and even for someone who wishes to commit suicide or has purposely put himself into danger; and even for a heretic it is accepted to desecrate the Sabbath in order to save his life..."

If there is no other way to fulfill the obligation, one may fulfill his obligation to hear the shofar on Rosh HaShanah and the Megillah on Purim via a loudspeaker, telephone or radio.

770 Riot, continued …

Background (with the caveat that so called anti-meshichistim believe the Rebbe is the messiah; they oppose publicizing this belief for fundraising and other reasons):

The synagogue in the basement of the Lubavitch headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, is the closest thing to holy ground for the Hasidic movement, though with its peeling paint, dirty linoleum floors, wooden benches and unidentifiable odor, it feels more like a junior-high-school cafeteria than your average Jewish sanctuary. But at a little before 10 p.m. on a recent Friday night, the place is thick with spirituality. Small clusters of bearded men bob furiously in prayer, while a smattering of women watch from behind the plexiglass in the balcony above.

In the center of the room, a group of about 25 men are dancing hypnotically in a circle. A few bounce little boys on their shoulders as they chant a single phrase over and over: Yechi adonenu morenu verabbenu melech hamoshiach leolam voed.

A middle-aged man standing near me catches my eye. Like everyone else here, he's wearing the Lubavitch uniform -- black wool suit, white shirt and black fedora. When he opens his mouth to speak, I expect his words to come out coated in Yiddish. Instead, they're pure Brooklyn.

''That's the No. 1 hit in Crown Heights,'' he says, stroking his big red beard and grinning.

It looks almost like a rain dance, only instead of precipitation, these Lubavitchers are trying to hasten the arrival of the messiah. There's just one problem. The words of the accompanying song -- ''May our master, teacher and rabbi, the king messiah, live forever'' -- refer specifically to a man who died nine years ago: Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the grand rabbi and spiritual leader of the Lubavitch movement from 1951 until 1994. The Yechi, as it is known, is sung as a demonstration of faith that their beloved rebbe will be back soon -- rising from the great beyond in a manner more befitting Jesus Christ than the savior of the Jewish people.

So if Yechi -- ''May he live'' -- is a demonstration of faith to some, it borders on a profane outburst to others. A swath of Lubavitchers are not only unwilling to utter the Yechi; they also refuse to be present in synagogues or at gatherings where it is chanted. To understand the concern of these so-called anti-messianists, consider that only a few men in Jewish history have been revered as the messiah after their deaths. One was Jesus. Another was Sabbatai Zevi, who won hundreds of thousands of followers across Palestine and Eastern Europe after publicly declaring himself the messiah in 1665. (Zevi's death was, relatively speaking, a small challenge to his adherents, who had already chosen to stick by him after his conversion to Islam.)

For the anti-messianists, their messianic brethren present a public-relations disaster of epic proportions. They worry that their Hasidic movement, which is 300 years old and has survived pogroms, Communism and the Holocaust, will become confused with a cult. What's more, they can hardly ignore the obvious Christian overtones of messianism: what kind of Jews believe in a second coming?… [more here]

                                  

When The Rebbe's Hasidim Riot

Hasidim gather in the sect's main synagogue to "farbreng" (i,e., to drink vodka, eat herring and sing songs, all with occasional stories thrown in). But the sect is divided. The main synagogue is under the day-to-day control of the other faction. As the drinking proceeds a fight breaks out. One faction hurls wooden benches weighing 100 pounds at the other faction. Humashim and siddurim are used as missiles. People are injured. Police, ambulances, medics and private security are called. The synagogue is evacuated by police. Injured are taken for medical care. At least one is hospitalized with a broken leg and a broken rib.

Something like this happened in Satmar. It made the front page of New York City's commuter papers, the Post and Daily News. It happened in Bobov and in other hasidic sects. Each incident had wide media coverage.

But the riot in Chabad's main synagogue, 770 Eastern Parkway, yesterday in the wee hours of the morning did not make the Post or the News or TV or even 1010 WINS – this, even though the riot happened at the close of Chabad's annual conference of emissaries . Chabad claims 3000 emissaries attended. The  convention itself got significant media coverage. But the fight between out of town Chabad rabbis and the openly messianic faction based in Crown Heights passed without a peep.

Chabad – especially the Krinsky faction –  invests a lot of effort and money on spin control. Clearly, this is money well spent.

Interesting coverage here: Mentalblog 1, 2, 3 & Chabad.info.

Remember Darfur on Thanksgiving

Take a moment, go on line during halftime, and sign this petition. Have the rest of the family do so as well. It will cost you nothing but a few minutes of time, and you might save lives.

Farbrengen, Crown Heights, 770

He Did It Without A Plaque, Without A Dinner, Without Being Honored

Kansas City – For 26 years, a man known only as Secret Santa has roamed the streets every December quietly giving people money. He started with $5 and $10 bills. As his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots. So far, he's anonymously given out about $1.3 million. It's been a long-held holiday mystery: Who is Secret Santa?

But now, weak from chemotherapy and armed with a desire to pass on his belief in random kindness, Secret Santa has decided it's time to reveal his identity.

He is Larry Stewart, a 58-year-old businessman from the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, Mo., who made his millions in cable television and long-distance telephone service.

His holiday giving started in December 1979 when he was nursing his wounds at a drive-in restaurant after getting fired. It was the second year in a row he had been fired the week before Christmas.

"It was cold and this car hop didn't have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes,'" he said.

He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change.

"And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to flow down her cheeks. She said, `Sir, you have no idea what this means to me.'"

Stewart went to the bank that day and took out $200, then drove around looking for people who could use a lift. That was his "Christmas present to himself." He's hit the streets each December since.…

That was a feeling he came to know in the early '70s when he was living out of his yellow Datsun 510. Hungry and tired, Stewart mustered the nerve to approach a woman at a church and ask for help.

The woman told him the person who could help was gone for the day, and Stewart would have to come back the next day.

"As I turned around, I knew I would never do that again," Stewart said.…

Doctors told Stewart in April that he had cancer of the esophagus and it had spread to his liver. He has been lucky, he says, to get into a clinical trial at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But the aggressive chemotherapy has stripped away his appetite and energy. He's lost about 100 pounds, but has held onto his white hair.

The treatment costs more than $16,000 a month, not including the cost of traveling to Houston every two weeks and staying there for five or six days. He now has two months off, but returns to treatment in February.

His insurance company won't cover the cost of the treatment, which has left him concerned about his finances and his family.

Now, his mission is bigger than handing out $100 bills. Stewart wants to speak to community groups about his devotion to kindness and to inspire others to donate their time and money.

"That's what we're here for," Stewart says, "to help other people out."

I knew a man like Stewart. He lived in a poor neighborhood. He had little money. But he somehow managed to find the cash to help street people, institutionalized former neighbors and random people he met over the years. He brought candy and sundries to nursing home residents, even as he himself became one, and continued to give out candy until 2 weeks before his death. He bought shoes for street people. Winter coats and hats. Toys for children. And he did this without being asked and without recognition. Pat Levy was a good man, perhaps the kindest man I've ever known. Just as his memory is a blessing, so should Stewart's living be one, and may God grant him many more years and the continued resources and the strength to do the good he does so well.

NCSY Funneling Recruits To Haredim? Seems So

My friend and co-author David Kelsey exposes the ties between NCSY and Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach in this new post on Jewschool. Kelsey rightly points out that both Aish and OS oppose Modern Orthodoxy and that NCSY – supposedly a Modern Orthodox organization – is feeding recruits to these haredi organizations, organizations that oppose secular studies, evolution, much of modern science and modernity. The OU, NCSY's parent organization, has been moving steadily rightward in kashrut and other areas. (Perhpas the only significant exception to this is the OU's executive VP Tzvi Hirsh Weinreb.)

Two Children, One Prayer

Two children need a quick prayer or mitzvah done in their merit. Please take a minute and watch this brief video for the details. Thank you.

Stun Grenade Thrown At Yeshiva: Ponevez Fight Escalates Again

The fight for control of Ponevez Yeshiva in Bnai Brak has again escalated – a stun grenade was hurled at the yeshiva, injuring three students:

Three students were lightly injured when a stun grenade was thrown at the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak Sunday evening.

Magen David Adom medics transported the three to the Tel Hashomer Medical Center, Army Radio reported.

The incidnet is believed to the latest flare-up between warring rabbis and their followers in an ongoing power struggle for control of Ponevezh, a training ground for the intellectual elite of the Lithuanian yeshiva world.

The rabbis are at odds over who is the rightful heir to Ponevezh. Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the most respected halachic authority of haredi Lithuanian Jewry who is based in Jerusalem, has expressed his support for Markovitz.

In contrast, most rabbis in Bnei Brak, a mostly ultra- Orthodox city just southeast of Tel Aviv, have publicly supported Kahneman, who also has the backing of the veteran teaching staff of the yeshiva.

The power struggle is for control over the campus, which includes prime real estate in the heart of Bnei Brak and the yeshiva's prestigious name.

That name has been tarnished as the infighting between the two camps has been ongoing over the past few years. Some of the incidents include contracted beatings performed by professional goons, break-ins, confiscation of property and the use of firecrackers to disrupt Torah classes.

Haredim and Addiction

Ynet reports:

… According to N., she is not alone.

“Many of our crowd experiments with drugs,” she says. “Most observant families have a son or a daughter who became secular, and they also bring drugs into religious society. I know many religious people who smoke, and the problem is that despite the extent of the phenomenon, people try to deny that it exists.”

Rabbi Eitan Eckstein, who knew a businessman who died of an overdose, decided that this widespread denial must end. Six years ago, he founded Retorno, a rehabilitation center near Kibbutz Tzora. Most Retorno patients come from the Orthodox and haredi communities.…

“The fact that an Orthodox family has an addicted family member can harm the family’s good name as well as the other family members’ abilities to get married,” Eckstein observes. “This is the reason that people prefer to silence the matter and not to talk about the phenomenon.

“When I founded the Center, observant society viewed us with much suspicion. I received threatening phone calls that this isn’t an issue that needs to be dealt with, that it is forbidden to let outsiders know that these things happen to us. They threw rocks at the site and threatened that they would hurt me. They were very angry that we were revealing a phenomenon that Orthodox society wanted to sweep under the carpet.”…

How Haredim Learn About Sex

Rabbi Shmuel Poppenheim of Edah Haredit, oft quoted in Gil Zohar's wonderful piece on haredi violence aimed at stopping Jerusalem's Gay Pride parade, notes:

"Of course we don't talk about the thing itself. Nobody will tell his son exactly what it is. We talk about a parade of immorality, abomination. Nobody says that it's people walking naked in these parades or talks about what exactly they do. There are people, even 50 year-olds, who are under arrest after demonstrating, and don't understand exactly what it is. Children do ask, but we think that this world is full of immorality in any case. Our children will find out about these concepts one way or another, so it's better for them to find out about it through condemnation and protest, through a position of extremism, through a war against it - not through lust."

Or perhaps they will find out about truly abnormal sexual behavior the way most haredi children do – in a mikva or a yeshiva dormitory.

More On Gay Pride Violence

In the most comprehensive piece yet on the haredi violence surrounding the Jerusalem Gay Pride parade, Gil Zohar reports:

…SOME OF the zealots who disobey Badatz are American yeshiva students looking for some excitement to lighten the tedium of constant Torah study. Avraham Erezel is a 20-year-old from Brooklyn who studies at the prestigious Mir Yeshiva. Acting in his opinion on the orders of Rabbi Elyashiv, almost every night in the week preceding the gay pride rally he left the Lithuanian seminary's study hall with hundreds of other students to clash with police.

"Friends in New York told me that Israel is a crazy place, but I didn't imagine how crazy," says Erezel, who scorns the police here. "In New York they would have let us have it long ago. We especially are not afraid of the police. As soon as they see an American passport, they release you on the spot. Half the people here are Americans. We're all Jews and we all have a common goal: to stop the parade and to have some fun."
Israel Rosenbaum of Brooklyn, now studying at the Brisk Yeshiva, explained, "Not everybody has a rabbi whom they follow. They see action and they come running."

Ezra Rubinowitz, 21, of Los Angeles, was equally keen not to miss the action in the streets of Mea She'arim. "The rabbis are in favor of it," he explained. "They think it will stop the parade. They tell themselves, 'It's not so bad for the young people to enjoy themselves a little, the main thing is that the parade is stopped.'"

Noting that the parade had been twice postponed, initially because of the August 2005 unilateral withdrawal from Gush Katif, and then again due to this summer's war in Lebanon, New Yorker Yisrael Mendel of the Mir Yeshiva said: "God sent a message. Obviously He doesn't want it."

Whether divinely inspired or not, once lit, the bonfires proved difficult to extinguish.…

And who heads the Mir Yeshiva? Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, an American from Chicago. Rabbi Finkel's mother grew up in Minnesota across the alley from my father's family. I went to preschool, Hebrew school, and junior and senior high school with her nephew, Rabbi Finkel's first cousin. As an adult, that nephew's father, Rabbi Finkel's uncle, would become my friend. And Rabbi Finkel's brother, Rabbi Gedalya Finkel, now a rosh kollel, taught me in yeshiva.

But there is only one viable solution to haredi violence and anti-democratic behavior: Starve the beast. Please add Mir to the list of haredi institutions you refuse to donate to, unless and until it becomes clear that Rabbi Finkel opposed this violence and his students' participation in it.

Leading Critic of Vladimir Putin Poisoned In London

It seems Chabad's dear friend Vladimir Putin has tried to kill another opponent of his regime, this time by poison in London, apparently during a meeting where he got these documents:

[W]hich claimed to name Ms Politkovskaya's killers. According to the papers, she was murdered by four members of President Vladimir Putin's federal security service, known as the FSB.

Meanwhile, 3000 Chabad emissaries and their rich supporters will have a festive meal in New Jersey. Among them will be Putin's dear friend, the man who provides Putin with a "moral fig leaf," Chabad's own "chief rabbi of Russia" Berel Lazar.

Will Lazar be challenged over his unqualified support of Putin? Will pro-democracy Chabad emissaries push for change? Of course not. And this is the problem with Chabad in a nutshell.

Rabbi Elyashiv on Kosher Slaughter

The ever helpful Internet edition of the Israeli Yated Ne'eman, controlled by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, has this to say about the rabbi's position on shechita:

Recently a number of prominent members of the Jewish community in Germany met with members of an animal rights organization, telling them that the halochoh does not permit stunning the animal before shechitoh. The animal rights advocates said they would be willing to compromise by allowing local anesthesia of the neck using a special spray rather than by injection. The kehilloh members then asked HaRav Jakob to consult on the matter with Maran HaRav Eliashiv.

Maran replied that there is no way of knowing whether this type of anesthesia affects the animal's viability, making it impossible to clearly determine whether the animal has been rendered a neveiloh or treifoh. Maran also said, "How do we know? The non-Jews may draw other conclusions from this with regard to Jewish shechitoh. They may draw inferences with regard to other things, if it appears to them that Jews are prepared to loosen shechitoh requirements. This could lead to further problems.

"Everything is cause for concern," said HaRav Eliashiv. "Even if it can be argued that it is theoretically permissible according to halochoh, we cannot change accepted practices and the [traditional] shechitoh practices must remain and should not be touched in the slightest."

When told the Jews of Germany have to work very hard to find kosher meat and the difficulty they have leads many Jews to eat non-kosher meat, Maran replied, "Jews work hard in every place over everything, but when legitimization is given to such a thing nobody knows where it could lead. Therefore one must not agree to it."

Apparently Rubashkin's throat-ripping with a meat hook was part of the long haredi tradition of "accepted practices." But wait! You've never heard of such a practice before Rubashkin came up with it? No meat hook to the throat 5 seconds after the shechita cut and while the animal was fully conscious?

No, silly – not that practice. The practice of bending halakha for under the table cash and, when getting caught, claiming the throat-ripping or whatever as part of the time-honored haredi tradition.

[Hat Tip: The Good Doctor Filosof.]

Wagging The Rebbe: Censorship and Chabad

Author Clifford Meth writes that he has just experienced censorship at the hands of a Chabad librarian, a woman who had not read the work she sought to censor.

For a taste of what so irritates Chabad, read Meth's story, Wagging the Rebbe.

Haredim, Block Voting and Homosexual Marriage

A Republican US Congesswoman fights against gay marriage, in large part because her constituency is made up in a significant part by a contingent of hasidic Jews who stronly oppose gay marriage. A wealthy gay constituent tries to get her to change her mind, but she won't, fearing the wrath of the hasidim, who vote in blocks. So the gay man gives $500,000 to her Democrat opponent through a PAC that relentlessly advertises against her and smears her. The Democrat wins the election. The hasidim? At last minute, they switch sides and vote in a block for the Democrat, because their rebbe believes the group will, by putting the Democrat in office, gain greater pull in a newly-changing Washington.

The hasidim? New Square, whose Rebbe stands accused of covering for an aide who allegedly has raped young boys. The Satmar of Kiryas Yoel.

[Hat Tip: The One Who Emailed Me And Whose email I subsequently misplaced, causing me to Google for this story.]

Haredim, Homosexuality and Child Abuse

One of the most bizarre canards hurled at gays is child molestation. Otherwise educated people confuse pedophilia with homosexuality. This confusion is extremely common in the haredi world, which hurls invective at gays, calls them "child abusers," and then coddles and covers for the real child abusers in their midst. This is exactly what happened in the Rabbi Kolko affair. Same for Rabbi Bryks, as well.

Here is a recent example of this from Jacob Stein, AKA Jewish Philosopher:

A far greater percentage of homosexuals are pedophiles than are heterosexuals; a  study shows 1/3 of pedophile victims are males while only about 5% of the population is homosexual. For more details click here.

The links are to two weak and controversial studies. Here's what the second says, in part:

Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse presents a number of controversial findings. The first is that a significant percentage of child sexual abuse victims are boys. The second finding of Dailey's report contradicts the "inaccurate but widely accepted claims of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey" that homosexuals comprise at least 10 per cent of the population. Based upon a study of three large data sets, the General Social Survey, the National Health and Social Life Survey, and the U.S. Census, "a recent study in demography estimates the number of exclusive male homosexuals in the general population at 2.5 per cent, and the number of exclusive lesbians at 1.4 per cent," writes Dailey.

Note the word emphasized in this phrase: "exclusive male homosexuals." Unlike the claims made for this study, what police will tell you is that many pedophiles are married, but they act out against male children. Police will also tell you most of these men were themselves abused as children, most often by a married man, including their fathers, or by a sibling.

So, the question remains – are  pedophiles disproportionately exclusively gay? Based on the evidence presented, I cannot answer this question. But the question should be asked with the following questions, hand in hand: How many pedophiles were abused as children? Are gay abusers more likely to have been abused as children than straight abusers? Are exclusively gay men more likely to have been abused than exclusively straight men or bisexuals?

I do not believe abuse causes homosexuality, but abuse does cause more abuse, forming a chain that often lasts generations, perhaps centuries. If there are more "exclusively gay" abusers than exclusively straight or bisexual abusers, I suspect there will also be a higher level of abuse found among all men – abusers or not – who are exclusively gay.

In other words, homosexuality does not cause child sexual abuse; child sexual abuse causes child sexual abuse. That is a lesson haredim, including the Jacob Stein, need to learn.

Oy, Gay!

This is what Orthodoxy looks like to thre rest of the world. As you laugh, remeber that.

[Hat Tip: A Chilly Attorney.]

Police Brutality

Jorg Luyken writes in the Jerusalem Post:

…The protests had been running their course for a couple of hours, when suddenly a young man ran down the hill screaming, "Police!" Everyone who had been actively participating in stoking the flames fled.

The people left were mainly middle-aged men standing on shop doorsteps. The police marched down in riot gear, then - about 50 meters from the square - broke formation.

Two mounted policemen moved to the front as those on foot fell in behind them. No attempt was made to pursue the perpetrators. Instead two policemen on horseback proceeded to beat bystanders without regard for any outward sign of hostility.

I was charged down twice myself and beaten with a truncheon once, even though I was standing at the side of the road and was clearly not wearing haredi garb - in fact, I'm not even Jewish!

Policemen on foot stood around apparently unsure what to do next. In the hour or so that I was there they made no apparent effort to put out the fires.

My reaction to the police response was one of bemusement. If they were going to intervene, why wait? It had been clear all day that there was going to be a riot. Why did they make no attempt to control the vandalism? Why were they beating bystanders who were offering absolutely no resistance?

When I put these questions to a police spokesman, all he could tell me was that the police felt threatened, and that the previous night a Molotov cocktail had been thrown at them by a rioter.

As for beating bystanders, he said if I wanted to pursue the matter I could file a complaint.…

This was the same answer I got after witnessing a Border Police officer attack a nonviolent woman protester in Zion Square in 1994. He also attacked an elderly, frail man who came to the woman's defense. After complaining to the police commander, I was almost crushed against a building by a mounted policeman and his horse.

Luyken goes on to note that Israel must be better and quicker at confronting its religious zealots. This is certainly true. But Israel also must be better at training its police to handle protests, and in training all of its citizens – including haredim* – in democracy and nonviolent means of protest.

* Even against the will of haredi leadership.

The Price Of Abuse

This is one of the sadder things I've read:

One Friday night 33 years ago, when Yisroel Richtberg was 12 years old, an older boy sneaked into his dorm room at his Chasidic yeshiva in Israel, pulled off Richtberg’s pajama pants and raped him. The same thing happened the next Shabbat.

The boy told Richtberg (not his real name) that if he ever told anyone, the two would be blacklisted at all the yeshivas, and the attacker said he would kill himself.

Richtberg didn’t tell.

Instead,…

Rabbi Avi Shafran on Haredi Wife Abuse

From JWB's archive:

All the Orthodox rabbis I am privileged to know are exquisitely sensitive toward women, as they are towards men," he writes. Those who take seriously those rabbis' advice, [Agudath Israel of America's] Rabbi [Avi] Shafran says, "would be rendered virtually incapable of abusing his or her spouse.

Let's see: Rabbis Kolko, Margulies, Bryks, Tendler(s), Lanner, Gafni, Schachter, etc., etc., etc. Come on Shafran, pull your head out of the sand and look around you.

{Hat tip: Dr. R-F.]

Mikva Abuse, Continued …

Following up on my post (based on this Chaptzem post) about haredi mikva child molestation, Harry Maryles writes:

… It seems that a trustworthy witness saw it in action, quite by accident. He needed a Mikva and went to the one in Geula. Imagine his surprise and outrage.

Apparently this happened about a year ago and he wrote a letter to the Edah HaCharedis at the time protesting it:

"(Amongst other things, he wrote) in his letter about how the Gabai of Skver was raping young boys, and the rebbe knew about it, but he did nothing to stop it, because the gabai knew all of their secrets ETC…."

The writer of that letter received an unbelievably tepid response:

“The (response) …from the Bedatz, simply states, they will apoint a gaurd (Only on erev shabbos and yom tov) to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

Is this how some of our rabbinic leaders operate? They refuse to give specific Brachos to the IDF because it would imply support fot the Medina. But a deviant bath-house operating in Geula? … Nisht Geferlach.

How true is this accusation? Read on.

I spoke to Rav Rosenberg. He told me the letter is 100% accurate. He was thwarted by the Edah who refused to shut down this "Mikvah of Molesation". It grosses $500,000 dollars annually for the Edah HaCharedis. He also told me that he was thwarted in his efforts to do anything about it by …one Rav Davidovich… who is head of something called the Vaad Mishmeres Tznius.

When this Vaad was at first approached by Rav Rosenberg, he was told they had no authority since the Mikvah was under the jurisdiction of the Edah. He also told me that this Vaad whose mission it is to prevent boys and girls from eating a Pizza together in a restaurant, thwarted his efforts to close down this “Mikvah of molestation” with 18 people confronting him.

But, Rav Rosenberg has photographic evidence taken with his cell phone of this behavior. He saw a seventy year old man and a 6 year old boy. All the acts he described in the published letter to the Edah are accurate.

Many different types of people use this Mikvah and have been victimized there. Many of the victims are currently under psychiatric care. The Edah’s response was to put a Shomer there on Fridays and on eEev Yom Tovim. They refuse to close down the place.…

I wrote yesterday that Jewish leaders like Marvin Schick and Rabbi Avi Shafran spend their time defending haredim against "attacks" when they should be spending it cleaning up their communities. Gentlemen?

For Marvin Schick: Open Your Dull Eyes And See

DovBear has posted a letter he received from a significant haredi rabbi responding to my post on mikva haredi child sexual molestation:

I am sorry to say that horrible stories about mikva'os are 100% true -- and then some.

L'aniyas da'ati, all mikvaos for men should be off limits to any children. No child under the age of 18 should go. Period.

I personally know of many many boys who were molested in mikva'os.

I am in close contact with an ex-chassidishe young adult who, over time, was raped by at least 10 men; among them, rebbeim, often in mikvaos.…

Men like Marvin Schick and Rabbi Avi Shafran close their eyes to this and to many other problems in the haredi world. Their desire to "defend" haredism from "attackers" and to present the community it the best possible light blinds them to the real devastation in their midst. Both are very talented men. If they would direct their energies inward into cleaning up abuses in the haredi world, instead of outward at those who "attack,' they could save many lives. Gentlemen?

VeggieJews: Why Hyphenated Judaism Fails Every Time

I got banned from the Yahoo VeggiJews list today. Why? The list is populated and controled by extreme vegans. One of them wanted non-leather tefillin. In an exchange, I pointed out that, by definition tefillin must be made of leather. Then another vegan wrote to say she had been told that the verse commanding us to wear tefillin could be translated as "bound with streams of light." I suggested she pick up a Hebrew dictionary and try to make that translation work. I also noted that it was  better to not wear tefillin than to pervert the meaning of the mitzvah. Another list member wrote in with this:

People do indeed define down Judaism and often use the
"buffet method" for their mitzvot.

Someone very honestly said on this list some time ago
that he indeed understood that non-leather tefillin
were not the mitzva in its purest form, but he felt
something is better than nothing.

That is the essence of Judaism and the message of Yom
Kippur. On Yom Kippur, my Rabbi talked of how it is
nearly impossibly for anyone, even a great tzadik
(righteous person) to fulfill all the commandments;
therefore, we should think in terms of bettering
ourselves rather than achieving perfection.

The Hebrew word "Chet" which we often define as "sin"
is actually a "missing of the mark." Due to some
peoples convictions, they are willing to "miss the
mark" on tefillin being made completely from leather
in order that they should at least pick up the mitzva
of binding of the arms with the proper words. The
only caveat is that you should not fool yourself into
thinking you are getting the full mitzva.

To the question at hand, a quick web search turned up
a Jewlicious blog entry by an anti-Zionist who
mentioned seeing a non-leather tefillin at a
"progressive" minyan. That was all I could find.

I do know that you can get klaf (the parchment) that
is vegan fairly easily (and cheaply) at any Judaica
store. As for the boxes themselves, that may prove
tricky. I would ask your local Judaica craftsperson
to try to make something up for you. Let them know up
front that you are quite aware that the tefillin won't
be "kosher" but you prefer "half a mitzva" to none,
and you are not willing to wear leather.

This was too much even for me in my present state of non-observance to bear. I answered him:

Vegan klaf? Not possible. Again, by definition, it must be made from animal hide. Why not write the words on a Post-it Note and attach that to your arm and head?

What you are arguing for is ridiculous. Just don't put on tefillin.

Look at it this way, let's say the messiah comes, all Jews go back to Jerusalem and the Temple is rebuilt. But, unlike the minority view that holds we won't do animal sacrifice, God tells us to kill animals and burn them on his altar. No exceptions. Then what? Is being a vegan more important than listening to God?

The way you answer that question determines how you relate to Judaism.  Think about it.

Of course, telling him to write the words on Post-it notes and affix them to his head and arm was impolite. But rather than edit that section of the message, the moderator banned me from commenting. Of course, it wasn't the Post-it note remark that really caused the ban. It was this:

[L]et's say the messiah comes, all Jews go back to Jerusalem and the Temple is rebuilt. But, unlike the minority view that holds we won't do animal sacrifice, God tells us to kill animals and burn them on his altar. No exceptions. Then what? Is being a vegan more important than listening to God?

The way you answer that question determines how you relate to Judaism.  Think about it.

This is what many radical vegans and vegetarians can't handle. What if mashiach comes and God, the Creator of the universe, really says fire up the grill?

Most of these people will immediately answer that they'd rather not be redeemed, that they would leave the world as it is rather than roast a lamb. And they will reject any God that asks them to roast one, even if that God created the world, us and the lamb in question.

So why, then, put on plastic tefillin with paper parchments and microfiber straps? What's the point? Tefillin are supposed to bind you to God and remind you to follow his orders. At least in this case, you're not willing to do that anyway. Why pretend?

Is This A Free Pass To Hell?

This comment was left today on DovBear's blog, commenting on my post:

As I understand it and I might be wrong (I hope I am wrong!) There some sickos in our midst (Misnagdim and Chasidim alike) who follow the shita that biah (intercourse) with a person who is less than 9 years is not considered a biah (some authorities say the limit is 3 years and one day ). So they believe they can do whatever they want with a person as long as he or she are less than 9 years and one day

My father who is a wise man, always came home from work less than one hour before shabbos and he never let me go to the mikvah by myself.
The Monsey Tzadik

Readers?

Poneviz Yeshiva Fight Turns Even More Violent – Pipe Bombs Left At Rosh Yeshiva's Doorstep

The fight for control of Poneviz yeshiva, the flagship institution in the Israeli non-hasidic haredi world, has gone from fistfights and stabbing to heavy duty violence. Two homemade pipe bombs wee found on the doorstep of one of the competing rosh yeshivas. Ynet reports:

Two makeshift pipe bombs were found at the entrance to the home of yeshiva head Rabbi Haim Shlomo Leibowitz.

Sappers dispatched to the scene neutralized the bombs. Sources close to the rabbi said the incident marked an ‘escalation in the battle for control over the yeshiva.’