Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, the rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Philadelphia haredi yeshiva and the number two rabbi in Agudath Israel of America's Council of Torah Sages (the Moetzet); Rabbi Yisroel Neuman, rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha (Lakewood Yeshiva); and Noson Leiter of of Torah Jews for Decency told listeners in a robo call yesterday that it is a chiyuv from the Torah (a Torah-based obligation) to vote for the Republican New Jersey US Senate candidate Steve Lonegan, who is hard right and Tea Party endorsed.
Note that there is no disclaimer stating that the rabbis' opinions are their private opinions and not the opinions of their schools or organizations. And that is likely a violation of IRS rules.
Please click the gray bar to listen. The audio file runs 94 seconds:
Rabbis Kamenetsky, Neuman and Leiter robo call against Cory Booker 10-15-2013
Update 6:25 pm CDT – 29 minutes after FailedMessiah.com posted this audio file, Rabbi Yisroel Neuman distributed a hastily written letter denying he was a part of it. The manger of the email list that sent it out added two claims Neuman does not make in his letter – that Kamenetsky did not endorse the phone call and that the phone call was a "hoax." It clearly was not a hoax.
From: Info-OurKehila <[email protected]>
Date: October 16, 2013, 2:20:08 PM EDT
To: Our Kehila <[email protected]>
Subject: Letter from Rabbi Neuman of Lakewood
Please see the attached letter from Rabbi Neuman of Lakewood. Apparently phone calls went around Passaic (and to other frum communities), using his name and also using R. Shmuel Kamenetsky's name. These phone calls were a hoax. Rabbi Neuman wrote the attached letter and asked that it is circulated in the communities that received the call.
Please click to enlarge:
If the call was a "hoax," it had to been carred out by Leiter and could even be viewed as a criminal act.
That's unlikely, though, and I think Neuman's letter is all about protecting Beth Medrash Govoha's tax exemption and its the tens of millions of dollars of Pell Grant money that flows to it.
And that's why the IRS and the US Department of Education need to closely look into what Neuman and Kamenetsky did.
I should also add that the overwhelmingly negative feelings toward the Tea Party for the government shutdown, which came to a head today, probably played a role in Neuman's letter, as well.