FailedMessiah.com

Kosher Hot Dog Vendor Indicted On Fraud Counts

Details after the jump in the extended post…

The Names of the Men Behind the Ban – The New Music Ban, part 7

The Jerusalem Post mentions the names of the two men behind the Lipa Schmeltzer-concerts ban. One we've mentioned here already is Asher Friedman of Nechomas Yisroel. The other is…

Congressional Letter to USDA Regarding Rubashkin, AgriProcessors

Mad Cow, E. Coli, Sanitation Violations Alleged At Rubashkin Plant – Sewage on Kill Floor, Insect Infestation, Found

The UFCW Union press release and the AP report are posted after the jump in the extended post below. I'll have more details on this soon.

Will Rabbi Avi Shafran Ever Stop Lying?

Rabbi Avi Shafran again proves himself to be incapable of understanding the harm he does. Rabbi Shafran would have you believe…

Banned At Least Three Times Over

Radio City Music Hall is hosting a huge concert May 7th in honor of Israel's 60th birthday. Listed to perform are David Broza, Idan Raichel, Rami Kleinstein, Habanot Nechama, Matisyahu and recent McCarthur Genius Award winner John Zorn.

No need for haredim to explicitly ban this concert. In their eyes, it's already 'asur' for several reasons: Sefirat HaOmer restrictions, "mixing" of the sexes, "frivolity," "non-Jewish" music styles, and kol isha (if Idan Raichel brings his band). And then, of course, we have the big no-no of them all: Zionism.

For those of you willing to break these 'issurim,' but only while "out of town," on vacation, the concert is also being staged in LA on May 10th at the Kodak Theatre, minus Matisyahu and John Zorn but plus Achinoam Nini (Noa) and others.

The New Music Ban, part 6 – Sheya Mendlowitz and Lipa Schmeltzer Interviews mp3

Both Lipa Schmeltzer and the now-canceled Big Event's producer, Sheya Medlowitz, were interviewed tonight on Zev Brenner's Talkline Radio Network show.

Here's an mp3:

Did The RCA Cave In? Are US Conversions Now Haredi Controlled?

Yes. The Rabbinical Council of America has caved in, adopting haredi standards for conversion and giving the haredi-controlled Israeli chief rabbinate control of the process:

Anatomy of a Ban: The New Jewish Music Ban, part 5

So who is really behind the new ban against Lipa Schmelter specifically and all Jewish music concerts (as opposed to cantorial concerts) in general?

His name is…

What's Wrong With This Picture?

What's wrong with this picture? (Please click to enlarge.)

Well, this:

New Music Ban, part 4 – Lipa Schmeltzer Interview

The topic of Zev Brenner's Talkline radio show that aired Tuesday night was the new music ban. Dov Shurin, Zev's guest, spoke about the ban and also a bit about the  ban against his uncle, Rabbi Nosson Kamenetzky, and his book, Making of a Gadol.

Here's an mp3 for those of you who missed the live broadcast, along with a bonus mp3 of an 'interview' with Lipa Schmeltzer conducted by Rabbi Yehuda Levin…

New Music Ban, part 3

Here is an mp3 file of Zev Brenner's entire Talkline show on the Lipa Schmeltzer concert ban. (This is all of it, not just one small segment.)

You should be able to play this in your browser or you can download it and play it your media player:

Download talkline_lipa_music_ban.mp3

[Hat Tip: MamashRadio.]

Baltimore Rabbis and Ohel Make the Wrong Choice on Rabbi-on-Boy Sex Abuse – Again

Baltimore's Vaad HaRabbanim held a conference last week on child sexual abuse. You might remember…

The New Music Ban, part 2

Astute readers point out that one of the haredi rabbinic signatories on the new ban issued against Lipa Schmeltzer and the Madison Square Garden "Big Event" is…

Haredim and the Holocaust: The Belzer Rebbe Runs Away

The details, including the post war cover up, after the jump in the extended post:

The New Music Ban

The producer of the banned Madison Square Garden Lipa Schmeltzer-Shlomie Gertner concert was on Zev Brenner's Talkline radio show last night.

He made many points. Most of them will be very familiar to those of you who followed the Slifkin Ban.

Hospital Mezuza Warning!

Just when you may have thought science could do no more to bash traditional Judaism comes this warning from Israeli medical researchers…

1930s American Shechita Video

Click to play. It's graphic.

[Hat Tip:Bill.]

They May Not Be Jewish After All – Past Conversions Need To Pass Rabbinute-RCA Muster, Converts May be Ruled Non-Jews

The RCA and the Chief Rabbinate also agreed that conversions performed in the past by judges who are not on the new list will need the approval of Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, the octogenarian head of the RCA-affiliated Beth Din of America.

Full details here.

Chief Rabbis and Humane Slaughter, part 3 – Change to be a Long Time Coming

The Forward has a report on the Israeli chief Rabbis' 'promise' to stop shackle and hoist slaughter. The report is based on this earlier Jerusalem Post report, which in turn was based on this report by the Forward.

The money quote comes from Rabbi Menachem Genack of the OU. Rabbi Genack has been trying for a very long time to get the Israeli chief rabbis to end shackle and hoist slaughter:

RCA Caves In? Rabbinute Deal on Conversions Appears to Heavily Favor Israeli Haredi View

The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) and the Israeli chief rabbinate have reached a agreement on conversion that appears to heavily favor the haredi understanding of conversion law.

More on Rabbinute Move to Humane Slaughter

In a poorly written report, Ynet explains the move to humane slaughter and away from shackle and hoist as proposed by (at least part of) the Israeli chief rabbinate:

Can South American Kosher Meat Be Banned?

Alle, Rubashkin and other kosher meat companies import large amounts of beef from South America. Much (but not all) of that beef is slaughtered using the shackle and hoist method.

Is shackle and hoist, an extremely cruel method of slaughter, illegal in the US?

If it is, shouldn't beef from South America be banned from importation under the US Humane Slaughter Act?

Can An OCD Rabbi Be The Posek Achron, part 2

Here is an mp3 excerpt of Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber talking about the Choftetz Chaim's refusal to allow electricity in his synagogue. You should be able to play this in your browser or download it an play it in your media player:

Download sperber_excerpt.mp3

Previous post.

Quisling Alert!

The JTA reports:

A chief rabbi of Russia condemned Kosovo's independence.

Berel Lazar, of the Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, said at a news conference Tuesday that Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia could further contribute to world instability, according to a report by Interfax. He said…

Sex and the Newly Married Orthodox Woman

I once read that Rabbi Aviner wrote that women do not necessarily have to be satisfied by their intimate relationships, and that’s just fine. So I too thought it was just fine – for me, sexual gratification was a term tantamount to sin. Yet I wish to tell all of you that this isn’t true. Women too have their desires and needs. How did they manage to educate us otherwise?

Hitchens v. Boteach, the complete debate

[Hat Tip: Ben Chosen.]

Can A OCD Rabbi Be The Posek Achron?

The Chofetz Chaim refused to allow his synagogue to have electricity, even on regular weekdays. The synagogue was lit by oil lamps and candles 27/7.

Why?

Chief Rabbis Claim Shackle & Hoist Slaughter to be Phased Out Over Time

Israel's chief rabbis, under intense pressure from Jews upset at the poor treatment of animals before and during slaughter, claims it will phase out shackle and hoist, perhaps the most cruel method of slaughter, over time.

How much time?

Should YU Cut Ties With Ohr Somayach?

Yeshiva University partners with many different Israeli yeshivot and seminaries for its S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program. Students earn, in effect, a year's worth of college credits for studying Torah.

But there is a problem.

OU: Cloned Beef, Lamb, Goats, Poultry Kosher

Rabbi Menachem Genack of the Orthodox Union, which certifies food items as kosher, said cloned animals would qualify [for kosher use] as long as they belong to a single kosher species, such as cattle, sheep and goats.

Link.

The Holocaust is a Revalation of the Absence of the Divine

Israel Prize winner Rabbi David Weiss-Halivni, the former Illui of Sighet, discusses the Holocaust after the jump in the extended post:

FailedMessiah on the Radio, part 2

An mp3 of my interview on the Talkline Network's Mamash Radio show is posted after the jump in the extended post. The interview aired Saturday night-Sunday morning after Zev Brenner's  show and Shmuel Butman's Moshiach on the Air.

I want to correct a misstatement I made.

Israel, Chief Rabbis, Animal Cruelty, Kosher Slaughter

When I was the Orthodox rabbi in Wellington, New Zealand (3.5 million people, 40 million cattle and 70 million sheep), I asked why it was that huge amounts of halal meat were exported to the Gulf states, and no kosher meat to Israel. The reason I was given was that New Zealand like most civilized countries would never allow shackle and hoist, and the Rabbanut would never allow importation of non-shackle and hoist kosher meat to Israel.
                   –– Rabbi David Gruber

[You can sign a petition asking the OU and Israel's chief rabbis to end shackle and hoist slaughter here.]

USDA Orders Largest Beef Recall In US History

The USDA has ordered the largest recall in history of US slaughtered beef.

More than two weeks after a US Humane Society undercover video was released showing extreme animal cruelty and the slaughter for food of downer cows too sick to enter the food chain (in this case, the US school lunch program), the USDA ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef.

How does this effect kosher slaughter? Well…

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Ethiopian Jews, cont.

"I am constantly praying for the safety of all Jews, especially those in Ethiopia, and we hope that our prayers will be answered. I commend you and your organization for the excellent work you are doing, and for having undertaken the big mitzvah of pekuach nefashot. Of course, all Jews should join in whatever way they can to aid the Falashas, be this aid material or spiritual.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, in a 1979 letter to the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, as cited in Lenhoff, "Black Jews, Jews and Other Heroes," Gefen Publishing House, 2007, page 145.

Rabbi Feinstein sent a personal donation to the AAEJ not long after.

FailedMessiah on the Radio

I'm interviewed on a radio show, Mamash Radio, running tonight after Shmuel Butman's Moshiach is on the Air program, which itself runs immediately after Zev Brenner on the Talkline Radio Network.

A list of sources I cite are posted after the jump in the extended post.

Spreading the Good News One Cadillac at a Time, part 2

Previous post.

[Hat Tip: Yankle and several others.]

Tu B'av Not Jewish?

To cheapen [love] through public,…hollow expressions of infatuation is indeed against Judaism’s notion of true love and its proper demonstration.

Who wrote this?

Former Chabad Rabbi: "Shiksas" "Fucking Nazis," "Killing" Jews– "I hate" shikasas "for that," "I'll piss on your grave. You are not going to kill my Jews"

The Rabbi? Shlomo Schwartz – Schwartzie – the iconic rabbi who pioneered campus outreach at UCLA, hosts High Holiday services for 3000 people and who, in many ways, put Chabad in LA on the map.

The full quote, in context, along with many more sick and bizarre statements from Rabbi Schwartz, after the jump in the extended post.

New Yiddish News Blog

The Daily Yid. Unlike its competitors, it links to stories (like Drudge does) rather than rip them whole. And, for now at least, it seems a bit more open in its coverage.

Happy Purim? Or is it Valentines Day?

Did you know that Purim and Valentines Day may have a historical connection?

It could very well be, as…

Is YU Using Shackle and Hoist Meat?

A Conservative rabbi, Adam Frank, has an op-ed in yesterday's Jerusalem Post that was timed to run when the newest kosher slaughter scandal broke.

Frank is an activist with an Israeli animal rights group, Concern for Helping Animals in Israel. Both Frank and the group are mentioned in the Forward's coverage of the scandal because, acting for Concern for Helping Animals in Israel, Frank wrote the chief rabbis asking for shackle and hoist slaughter to be banned.

According to the Forward, the chief rabbis…

BREAKING: New PETA Video Shows Extreme Cruelty In South American Kosher Slaughter; OU Can't Stop Cruelty Because Israel's Haredi Chief Rabbis Demand Procedure

The Forward has an exclusive report on a new, just released undercover PETA video (link posted below in the extended post).

The video, made in an kosher slaughter house in Uruguay, shows an extremely cruel version of shackle and hoist slaughter. Cattle are hung by a chain from the ceiling by one leg while fully conscious, causing the animals extreme pain and suffering before death.

South American shackle and hoist meat is often under the OU's supervision, yet the OU itself opposes this method of slaughter.

Why is this happening?

We Don't Need Another Messiah

Writing in Ha'aretz, Uzi Silber gives a good overview of the dozens of false and failed messiahs Jews had from the destruction of the First temple onward.

Here's what caught my eye:

Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman's Letter Forbidding His Students From Accepting Visas Offered By YU & Skokie Yeshiva

"What is the gain in achieving physical salvation if you lose your spiritual life?"

Please click to enlarge.

[Hat Tip: A Kind Reader.]

Shmuel's translation of the letter is posted after the jump in the extended post:

Full Text of Mondrowitz Court Decision

The full Hebrew text of the Israeli court decision handed down Sunday finding Avrohom Mondrowitz extraditable is posted after the jump in the extended post.

If you can translate, please do so and leave your translation as a comment to this post.

Thank you!

[Hat Tip: DH.]

החשוד בפדופיליה יוסגר לארה"ב

A new Hebrew language article on yesterday's Mondrowitz court decision is posted after the jump in the extended post below. As always, if you can translate, please do so and leave the translation as a comment in the comments section of this post. Thanks!

Did Observance Of Jewish Law Kill Jews In The Holocaust?

Did halakha kill rabbis and yeshiva students during the Holocaust?

The answer may surprise you. It certainly surprised me…

Baruch Dayan HaEmet: Rabbi Zelig Sharfstein

One of the few truly top notch poskim in Chabad passed away early this morning. Rabbi Zelig Sharfstein was  79. He took over as head of Cincinnati's Va'ad HaIr after the passing of Rabbi Eliezer Silver in 1968.