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WJC Controversy: Isi Liebler's Real Agenda Exposed?

Krum has two interesting posts on the upcoming elections for president of the World Jewish Congress. Ever sharp eyed, Krum noticed this:

…Several weeks ago, [WJC Secretary-General] Stephen Herbits finally made public a document setting forth the purported basis for firing [Israel] Singer. Among the allegations was that [cosmetic heir] Ron[ald] Lauder bribed Singer in in the late 1990s. However, without any explanation, this allegation has [now] been scrubbed from the document.

As far as I know, the only thing to happen in the interim is Lauder's announcement that he and [the son of Herbit's mentor Edgar Bronfman] Matthew Bronfman are jointly running for WJC leadership positions.…

Herbits is is by most accounts a distasteful person. He has a bullying personality and little, if any, compassion for those who work for him. But Krum has noticed something else, something much more surprising, perhaps, to some, especially the editors of the Jewish Week, but something that confirms what I have said about this whole sad affair for the beginning:

…Yesterday came the surprising news that that Ronald Lauder, who has reportedly coveted the WJC presidency for years, decided to form a "dream team" ticket with the Matthew Bronfman, the son of outgoing president, Edgar Bronfman. Yes. That's right -- Ron Lauder, the man who about a month ago was publicly accused by Edgar's top deputy of bribery -- has now joined forces with his son.

If this weren't a farce one would have expected Isi Leibler, a man who has railed on and on for years about allegations of financial impropriety and poor governance within the WJC, would raise a red flag about Matthew Bronfman, who not only is the son of the man he bitterly opposed and a member of the the WJC's finance committee, but was recently forced to resign from his directorship of Israel Discount Bank amid allegations of self-dealing and self-aggrandizement. One would have expected Isi Liebler, a man who expressed shock and horror in response to reports that Israel Singer headed an organization that merely provided funding to another organization that in turn paid money to a consultant for a no-show job, would display even more shock and horror about a man who headed an organization that directly (and illegally) provided services to citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Krum now quotes from a JTA article on the Lauder-Bronfman teaming:

But no. As I mentioned, this is a farce:

Isi Leibler, a former organization official and longtime critic of Bronfman Sr., said he did not view the ticket as a way for the outgoing president to retain influence with the organization.

Matthew Bronfman "is the son, he's not the father," he said.

So how to account for Isi's sudden lack of concern regarding all that stuff about accountability and honesty? Simple. Its all about politics. For years, Isi Liebler has consistently attacked Edgar Bronfman and Israel Singer's dovishness on Israeli foreign policy and support for interdenominational dialogue. Isi Leibler is a ardent hawk, and has long supported Lauder, a Republican who served in the Reagan administration.…

Krum goes on to point out that another ardent Lauder backer, Menachem Rosensaft, expressed similar glee at the Lauder-Bronfman ticket. What the JTA does not tell its readership is Rosensaft has financial connections to the Lauder Foundation, where he serves as counsel.

So, Isi Liebler, the crusader for accountability and transparency, the man who fought "corruption" at the WJC, the supposed "whistle-blower," is endorsing the candidacy of team that includes a man recently forced to resign from the board one of the largest Jewish banks in the world due to allegations of illegal dealings, the son of a man Liebler accused of that and worse at the WJC.

Krum is correct here. Edgar Bronfman was and remains a dove, closely aligned to Israel's Labor Party and a strong advocate of dealing land for peace. Liebler fought Singer because Singer was Edgar Bronfman's respectability, his good public face, and the brains behind everything good the WJC did under Bronfman. He attacked Singer to drive out Bronfman. Ronald Lauder is a hawk, closely aligned to former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The only way to assure a Lauder victory is to mollify Herbits and the Bronfman forces, and the only way to do that is to support the candidacy of Edgar Bronfman's son. So Liebler, ever the disingenuous crusader, does so without qualm.

I point out again the Forward's editoral about the WJC, written weeks before Liebler's support of Matthew Bronfman's candidacy for the #2 spot at the WJC. Please read it in full.

History will view Israel Singer with a much kinder light than, say, the Jewish Week's Gary Rosenblatt, much closer to the picture painted in the Forward's editorial. The same, I'm afraid, will not be true for Liebler and for those in the media who have uncritically done his bidding.

Haredi Spokesman Attacks Former Chief Rabbi, Defends Haredi Rabbi Who Voided Woman's Conversion 15 Years After The Fact – Endorses Haredi Organization Linked To Bait-And-Switch Conversion Tactics

Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum has done a despicable thing.

Rabbi Rosenblum is the only haredi spokesperson I respect. While I often disagree with him, he is usually honest and forthright, and he tires to make his case in a clear logical manner without using the tricks and verbal gymnastics so common to those who ply his trade.

Rabbi Rosenblum has a column in today's Jerusalem Post defending the haredi rabbi, Avraham Attiya, who voided a woman's conversion 15 years after the fact and ruled that her children are non-Jews. He forbade anyone in the family – including her husband, who either was converted separately or was born Jewish – from marrying into the Jewish community. Not content with this butchery alone, Rabbi Attiya went on to excoriate the state-sponsored Orthodox conversion courts and the rabbis who serve on them, calling them sinners and non-Jews. He summarily voided all conversions – thousands of them – done by these Religious Zionist Orthodox rabbis.

To defend Rabbi Attiya, Rabbi Rosenblum uses former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren:

…I WONDER how many of those calling for Rabbi Attias's scalp remember that Rabbi Shlomo Goren "freed" a brother and sister from the halachic status of mamzerut by voiding their mother's marriage at the time of their conception. And that was done, in turn, by voiding her husband's conversion, despite the fact that he had been living as a fully observant Jew for decades. For his promise to "solve" the problem of two mamzerim, Goren was rewarded by prime minister Golda Meir with appointment as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi and became a national hero.…

There was a German girl in my ulpan class 30 years ago who was living at a nearby kibbutz. She was personally converted by then-chief rabbi Goren late in her ninth month of pregnancy. When I asked her whether Goren had inquired about the likelihood of her keeping mitzvot on the completely secular kibbutz, she laughed. "Right," she said, "a little German girl is going to come here and tell a group of German Holocaust survivors that they should make the dining hall kosher."

In the famous Seidman case, Goren personally converted a woman who had repeatedly stressed that she saw no need for an Orthodox conversion and had no intention of becoming mitzva observant in order to forestall a civil marriage law in the Knesset.…

Of course, what Rabbi Rosenblum does not mention, what he does not tell his readership, is that every Goren case mentioned involved ruling leniently, to kula, in order to reduce or prevent suffering (or, in the Seidman case, to protect the integrity of the rabbinic monopoly over marriage as a whole, which would have been removed in its entirety by the Knesset). What Rabbi Goren did, as controversial as some of it was, is well-supported in halakhic thought.

As I've written many times before, the idea is not for rabbis to be strict, especially with people who will not abide by that strictness. From Hillel the Elder onward (at least until the birth of haredism in the early 1800s), this has been the norm. As Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach told a former teacher of mine (and I paraphrase), "It is easy to be strict. It is much more difficult to be lenient. My job is to ease the burden on Jews and to be lenient whenever possible."

To void a conversion 15 years after the fact, to be as harsh and uncaring, as brutal and as barbaric as Rabbi Attiya is to turn the entire halakhic process on its head.

There is no way Rabbi Attiya can know why this woman's converting rabbis did what they did. (More telling: He did not even bother to find out.) Rather than behave with kindness, to try to draw the woman closer to observance, to try to befriend the family, he lashed out, causing irreparable harm.

Rabbi Rosenblum goes on to compare the case of this poor woman to conversions done by non-Orthodox rabbis.

Then, Rabbi Rosenblum discusses with approval the work of the Monsey-based haredi group, Eternal Jewish Family. EJF, founded and run by Rabbi Leib Tropper, is a major player in the haredi move to control the conversion process worldwide.

Rabbi Tropper, who is also the founder and rosh yeshiva of Kol Yakov, a Monsey-based haredi ba'al teshuva yeshiva, is a controversial figure.

Rabbi Tropper has been accused of using bait-and-switch tactics to lure potential converts from intermarried families. In one southern city, Rabbi Tropper promised potential converts that a mikva would be built and a shul opened – no one would need to move to Monsey or another Orthodox enclave. But, when the time for conversion neared, no mikva existed and no synagogue functioned. The promised rabbi Tropper was to send had not arrived. Then, Rabbi Tropper dropped a bombshell. These potential converts, all serious, all had studied for more than a year, would have to move from the southern United States to Monsey, New York – or their conversions were off.

Rabbi Tropper told me these converts confused his hopes with promises. But in email correspondence shared with me, Rabbi Tropper admits in part to misleading these poor people.

Further, there are cities with mikvas, Modern Orthodox congregations and YU-trained rabbis relatively close to where these people live. They could drive for an hour and a half and spend Shabbat and holidays with families there until a congregation can open in their home town. Rabbi Tropper did not propose that option. (In their home town, by the way, there are other such Tropper-involved families facing similar decisions, and where one or two observant Jews live. Some of those potential converts have been said to be fearful that Tropper will cut them off, too, if they speak out about his dishonesty.)

The husband of this family is in his 50s. He has years vested at his job with a pension due on retirement. He will lose all that if he moves, along with facing the problem of finding a new job at that age. Rabbi Tropper made many cloud-like promises – this friend in Monsey will find something for you or that man who works for the city will take care of you – but nothing concrete, and the family was unwilling to trust a man who had already lied to them.

Rabbi Tropper summarily threw the eldest son of this family out of his yeshiva, leaving him broke with no way to get to the airport and back home. He claimed the boy was not serious about his learning yet the boy's teachers had given the family nothing but praise – until the day they refused to move to Monsey. This teenager had to borrow money to get home.

Tropper had promised the family the boy would be able to get his GED at Kol Yakov, and he urged them to withdraw the child from public school and send him to Monsey and Tropper's yeshiva. But Tropper made no arrangements for that GED. It did not matter, however,  because the boy was ineligible for a GED under NY law because he was too young. He lost a year, and had to regroup and restructure his life, all because Rabbi Leib Tropper cannot tell the truth.

These people spent thousands of dollars on new kitchen appliances and dishes, kept strictly kosher and did whatever Rabbi Tropper demanded. They appeared on Tropper's EJF website praising the organization and were used by Tropper as examples of his "successful" approach. This material was apparently shown to Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sefardic chief rabbi, and to other Israeli haredi leaders who later moved to block acceptance of all Rabbinical Council of America (Modern Orthodox) conversions. Now this family is "lost" to "Yiddishkeit" because of Tropper's failings.

(By the way, I, along with David Kelsey, pitched this story to a major Jewish newspaper last year. The paper, familiar with this blog, would not assign the story to me because I'm too close to the issue and too outspoken. But they were not aware of Kelsey's blog, and were willing to assign it to him. Or, if we wanted, we could do it as an op-ed. I was game for that; Kelsey was not. In the end, we turned it down hoping the paper would relent. It did not. No one else has the story, so, as far as I know, this is the first place this has appeared.)

While it is true that Rabbi Rosenblum can hardly be expected to know the details of this story, there are other similar stories about Rabbi Tropper. A bit of poking might have served Rabbi Rosenblum well.

To sum up: Extremely lenient rulings to spare individuals pain is the halakhic norm, not the halakhic exception. Using halakha for political gain, while unfortunately the common these days, is neither laudable or supported by normative halakha.

Jonathan Rosenblum should apologize for his lapse in judgment. He can then go on defending that which I believe he often, in his deepest thoughts, knows to be indefensible.

Haredi State-Sponsored Day Care Misuses $500,000 In State Money, Fails To Do Criminal Background Checks For Childcare Workers

NorthNewJersey.com reports a haredi-run pre-K program paid for with New Jersey state funds is in deep trouble. The founder of the program, Childrens Heimishe Workshops, used $500,000 of state funds partially meant to provide two computers for each classroom to buy items at Victoria's Secret, pay her mortgage, and go on shopping sprees. The owner, Libbly Leibowitz calls the whole affair a mistake, says she was negligent, but blames the state for lack of business management support and oversight. The inspectors for their part noted that none of the classrooms had a computer and that Leibowitz could not provide even one receipt for $410,000 in spending, and checks worth $44,668 were written out to petty cash, but Leibowitz 'did not know' where she spent that money. But the worst is this:

The report also found Leibowitz didn't conduct proper employee criminal background checks, required by law…

Leibowitz runs another Childrens Heimishe Workshop, the original, in Brooklyn.

More On Chabad's Attempted Takeover Of Ukraine

Moshe writes in a comment to this post:

And these strong arm tactics aren't restricted to non-Orthodox either.

Last week, the non-Chabad but scrupulously Orthodox Conference of European Rabbis had its regular standing committee meeting, planned six months in advance, in Odessa in Ukraine.

A week before the event, suddenly Chabad organised another event in the same city entitled Conference of Ukrainian and European Rabbis. The only ones there of course were Chabad shlichim but the event was hastily arrnaged because Chabad cannot let it be seen that there is anything else in ukraine and russia than Chabad. Meanwhile, they phoned up members of the community and tried to bribe them to work for Chabad and they said they were opening a Jewish university in the town when there is already one there.

They really hate Odessa because the city's Orthodox community runs an amazing network of schools, shul, orphanages, yeshiva, kollel and community which is frum and successful.

Just remember the words of lev leviav to a non-Chabad European rabbi. "Russia and Ukraine belongs to Chabad. Get your people out of there."

These people are thugs. Orthodox or not. Solomon schecter schools have no less Jews in them than Ohr Avner ones.

And Chabad calling up the Governor of Odessa to beg him not to meet a delegation of Europe's most senior chief rabbis half an hour before he met must take the biscuit for chillul hashem.

Shmarya, keep exposing them. It's not just their theology which isn't Jewish, it's their ethics or lack thereof.

Chabad Tries To Take Over Conservative School In Ukraine

The JTA reports Chabad and its Ohr Avner network of schools, funded by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, tried to take the Conservative Movement's day school in Ukraine. The Schechter Institute claims the local Chabad rabbi, functioning as a representative of both Chabad and Ohr Avner, offered "Chernovtsy municipal authorities $160,000 per year for the school." The JTA notes that amount is "several times the school's present $35,000 annual budget, most of which is provided by the municipality."

At the heart of the issue appears to be the number of halakhicly Jewish students at the Schechter school. The JTA reports 2/3 are considered Jews under the Law of Return, which means they have at least one Jewish grandparent. Rabbi David Mondshine, the Moscow-based head of Ohr Avner,   told the JTA Ohr Avner schools will not accept students who are not halakhicly Jewish.

According to the JTA:

The Chernovtsy school operates as a secular public school with Jewish ethnic and cultural components. It teaches Hebrew, Jewish history and culture, as well as Jewish traditions and literature. The Jewish curriculum is prepared by Midreshet Yerushalayim in Jerusalem.

In effect, Chabad's offer would have removed all of the non-halakhicly-Jewish students from the school, and left Chabad with the building and perhaps half of the student body. The budget proposed by Chabad is far more than the school needs to operate. Presumably, the surplus would go into the city's coffers or into the pockets of city officials.

For its part, Ohr Avner denies the attempt to takeover the Schechter school, claiming that they wanted to start a different school. But there is no need to petition the city to do that, and to offer to pay the city far more than what is needed, to open a different school. Chabad could open a private school, as indeed they usually do.

It seems then that Chabad saw an opportunity to gain control of an expensive state asset, the school building, and kill the non-Orthodox school at the same time.

Is this ethical? Does the fact that the Conservative school is "pluralistic" and does not follow Orthodox halakha justification for this attempted takeover? For bribing city officials? What do you think?