FailedMessiah.com

Kabbalist Under Fire For Missing Millions Blames Aide, Notorious PR Flack

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto's spokesmen are blaming Pinto's estranged fundraising assistant and 5WPR head Ronn Torossian for the disappearance of milllions of dollars of Pinto's charity's money, and Torossian's company is reportedly responsible for sockpuppeting false information about Pinto on Wikipedia. In 2008, 5WPR sockpuppeting for Agriprocessors and Sholom Rubashkin was exposed by FailedMessiah.com in a story that made headlines.

Did Berel Lazar Orchestrate the Ouster of Chabad Yeshiva Students Aligned with a Rival Chabad Organization?

The Forward has a report on the expulsion of the 13 Chabad yeshiva students from Russia and the fight between Moscow-based and Kfar Chabad-based parts of the Chabad movement. The key quote:

…Just a week before the arrests, one of the yeshiva’s leaders in Israel wrote a letter to [Chabad's "chief rabbi" of Russia, Berel] Lazar, accusing him of working to hurt the yeshiva.

“If it will become public that the chief rabbi of Russia allowed one of the best yeshivas in Russia to be closed — and on the eve of the birthday of the founder of the yeshiva — we can just imagine what other people will think,” wrote Mordechai Ashkenazi, chief rabbi of Israel’s main Chabad enclave.

It is not clear whether the dispute mentioned by Ashkenazi is related to the arrests.…

Is Berel Lazar behind the expulsion?

I'm still not convinced, in part because some of the tactics Lazar says Ashkenazi and Aranow used have been used by both men previously in other, non-Russia disputes including one I'm aware of from about 15 years ago. But time will tell.

Rabbi Berel Lazar Responds

Berel Lazar's response to Rabbi Ashkenazi's accusation is posted below. If you have the time and ability to translate, please do so and send it to me in the body of an email (no attachments, please) and I'll post it.

UPDATE 9:10 PM 11-7-07: A translation of Rabbi Lazar's letter also follows below.

Click the link immediately below for Rabbi Lazar's letter and a rough translation:

Chief Rabbi of Kfar Chabad Accuses Chabad's "Chief Rabbi of Russia" Berel Lazar – Did Lazar orchestrate the expulsion of Chabad yeshiva students from Russia and the closure of their yeshiva?

Rabbi Ashkenazi is reacting to this.

I'll try to post Rabbi Lazar's response tonight, along with a translation. Meanwhile, a translation of this letter is posted here.

Chief Rabbi Amar Bullies RCA Into Submission On Conversions?

It seems so. Anshell Pfeffer of Ha'aretz reports:

 Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar is visiting the U.S. this week in order to approve the appointment of religious court judges (dayanim) to the conversion courts of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA).

The agreement reached between the RCA and Amar gives the Israeli Chief Rabbinate practical control over the conversion process in U.S. It will also create new problems for those wishing to convert to Judaism there, similar to the kind that exists today in Israel.

For years, the religious councils in Israel accepted conversions performed by rabbis of the RCA, the largest body of Orthodox rabbis in North America. But in recent years, marriage registrars in local religious councils here have refused to recognize conversions by the RCA, and refused to allow those converted to marry in Israel. This new policy was dictated by Amar, who also provided the councils with a limited list of American rabbis who were the only ones authorized to conduct acceptable conversions.

Amar is actually considered to be more lenient in conversion matters in Israel, but he is under strong pressure from ultra-Orthodox rabbis who want to severly restrict the number of conversions, and who are demanding that all converts keep a strict Orthodox lifestyle.

The ultra-Orthodox rabbis object to the RCA in the U.S., which is identified more with the Modern Orthodox community, and have even set up a rival organization, Netzah Mishpahat Yisrael, to provide stricter conversions. The new group is trying to achieve full control of the conversion process in both the U.S. and Israel. As a result, Amar gave the RCA a list of demands in order for their conversions to be recognized in Israel.

Among other things, Amar demanded to end the common method of conversion in the U.S. whereby local rabbis were allowed to do conversions in their cities. Instead, Amar is demanding that only special conversion courts undertake conversions, and that he approve the members of these courts.

These demands were a source of controversy within the RCA, and a number of members even threatened to secede from the council and set up a separate organization. However, in the end they gave in and agreed to Amar's demands, since a lack of recognition of RCA conversions by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate would seriously harm the RCA's standing and cause potential converts to go elsewhere.

The new conversion courts will potentially force converts in the U.S. to travel long distances in order to be converted by an approved conversion court, which will demand that candidates keep a strict Orthodox way of life, without knowing them or their personal history.

"The rabbi went to meet the religious judges and check the courts," Amar's office said. "They were not promised anything, and they did not promise us anything. In the meantime, the Rabbinate is continuing to recognize conversions by the rabbis it recognized in the past."

Rabbi Basil Herring, the executive vice president of the RCA, said in response: "We are pleased to host Rabbi Amar on his visit to New York and Chicago. We are discussing a number of important matters with him, including the issue of conversion."

So what is this Netzah Mishpahat Yisrael Pfeffer refers to? As I reported here 4 1/2 months ago, this:

…[T]he 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.)

And, sadly, that is still true. The only place Rabbi Tropper's bait-and-switch tactics have been reported is here on FailedMessiah.com. But that, I hope, will soon change. In the meantime, we can watch the RCA give in to haredi demands.

The US needs its own Tzohar, its own organization of rabbis committed to true Modern Orthodoxy and who are not afraid to  take on haredim when need be. And if that means taking on the likes of YU's Hershel Schachter, so be it. As I wrote in May of 2006:

…Why is this happening? Because the leaders of the RCA and YU showed weakness. Rabbis Hershal Schachter and Mordechai Willig have been silent in the face of haredi attacks against Modern Orthodoxy, as has the RCA's weak executive director, Rabbi Basil Herring. It may be too late to stop the tremendous amount of pain Rabbi Amar's theocracy will cause women and converts, but it is not too late to remove the MO leaders who did not stand up when it counted. Bottom line: Rabbis Schachter, Willig and Herring still have their jobs on July 1, you'll know the RCA has sold out MO. You'll also know which rabbis and institutions should not receive your donations. Don't give another penny until these leaders stand up or are fired.



Previous posts on the RCA-Rabbinut Conversion 'Agreement': 1, 2 & 3.

Chabad Loses Favor With Kremlin, Putin – Lazar Out, Golldschmidt In, Ha'aretz Reports

Russia's strongman Vladimir Putin came to power with the backing of Chabad-linked oligarchs opposed to the oligarchs that backed the Russian Jewish Congress. Shorty after Putin's election, Putin recognized Chabad rabbi Berel Lazar as "chief rabbi' and ostracized the rabbis and leaders linked to the Russian Jewish Congress. On the day he recognized Lazar as "chief rabbi," Putin's police arrested the RJC's leading oligarch, Vladimir Gusinsky. Putin harassed, arrested or exiled pro-democracy oligarchs. He curtailed press freedoms and squashed democracy. He persecuted religious minorities. And all the while, Chabad's Berel Lazar stood by Putin's side, praising Putin.

Lazar led a campaign to de-link US-Russia trade status from Human Rights. He gave Putin a medal while standing on the  bone and ash of Auschwitz.  He began the process of whitewashing the Soviet Union's murder of Raul Wallenberg.

But it was not enough.

Lazar did not succeed in changing Putin's thuggish image, either in the US Congress or in American public opinion. Now it seems Vladimir Putin has a theory about why Lazar has failed, and Putin is acting on it.

Putin now believes only a rabbi that represents all the varied Jewish communities of Russia can do the job. Lazar, despite his claims to be representative of all Judaism in Russia, is clearly a nothing more than Chabad's political leader. That is how Lazar is viewed in the West, and it is how Lazar is viewed in Israel, as well.

So, yesterday Putin invited the once exiled Chief Rabbi of Moscow Pinchas Goldschmidt to a private meeting in the Kremlin, the first time a non-Chabad, non-Lazar rabbi has been so honored.

The move has sent shockwaves through the Russian Jewish community. And those shockwaves may be felt as far away as Israel. According to Ha'aretz, which broke the story:

The sudden turn of events in Moscow may also have an effect on Israeli politics. In contrast to Lazar, Goldschmidt is a Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox rabbi and is very close to Rabbi Elyashiv, a powerful political figure in Jerusalem. Goldschmidt's improved standing in Russia could help [Russian-Israeli oligarch Arkady] Gaydamak in his plans to run for mayor of Jerusalem.

Ha'aretz notes that Gaydamak is the patron of the RJC and has been in a feud with fellow oligarch, Chabad's Lev Leviev. The move by Putin is seen as a snub to Leviev as well as a rejection of Lazar.

The Ha'aretz piece is posted after the jump:

[Hat Tip: Joey Macabbee.]

The JTA's take on all this is here.

Religious Zionist Rabbis Move To Break Chief Rabbis' Monopoly Over Kashrut

In response to haredi attempts to crush heter mechira – the pro forma land sale that allows Israeli farmers to farm (and therefore to survive) the Sabbatical year – Israeli Religious Zionist rabbis are moving to break the haredi-controlled Chief Rabbinate's monopoly over kosher food certification.  The Jerusalem Post reports:

In a move that threatens to split the Chief Rabbinate, a group of religious Zionist rabbis rebelled against the state's supreme rabbinic authority and announced Tuesday that they would set up an alternative kosher supervision apparatus during the shmita (sabbatical) year.

"If local rabbis refuse to recognize fruits and vegetables grown [using heter mechira] by Jewish farmers during the shmita year as kosher, then we will," said Rabbi Rafi Freuerstein, chairman of the Tzohar organization.

"We believe it is important to strengthen Jewish farmers and Jewish agriculture and provide reasonably-priced produce to the Jewish nation," he said.

"The Chief Rabbinate is not fulfilling its function as a rabbinic authority for the entire Jewish nation," said Rabbi David Stav, a member of Tzohar, during a press conference Tuesday. "Rather, it has been taken over by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Lithuanian haredi interests. We are trying to save the Chief Rabbinate from itself."

Members of the Chief Rabbinate's governing council attacked Tzohar for undermining state-recognized rabbinic authority and risking a break between religion and state. [We should only be so lucky – Shmarya.]

"If the rabbinate is dismantled as a result of internal fighting, we risk losing national recognition for rabbinic authority," said Rabbi Ratzon Arussi, chief rabbi of Kiryat Ono and a member of the Chief Rabbinate's governing council.

Rabbi Moshe Rauchverger, another council member, said that Tzohar threatened to break the rabbinate's monopoly over religious services and open it up to Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism.

"If Tzohar starts providing kosher supervision, what is to stop Reform and Conservative from doing the same?" said Rauchverger.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger, who is the supreme authority on issues of kosher supervision, declined to comment.…

But can this work? Maybe not:

However, Tzohar might run into legal difficulties. According to the law, the Chief Rabbinate is the only body authorized to provide kosher supervision in Israel. Private kosher supervision firms can provide their services only after the rabbinate has already provided supervision.

In an attempt to get around this legal obstacle, Tzohar intends to refrain from calling its service kosher supervision. The group said that several business have already requested a Tzohar kosher certificate, including a large wholesaler.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has tried to get the Chief Rabbinate to act responsibly and legally, but to no avail. In a response to a petition from Israeli farmers, the court asked the Chief Rabbis to certify businesses that sell heter mechira produce. The Chief Rabbinate refused.

Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz, who believes the Chief Rabbinate is violating the law, also recently pointed out that the Chief Rabbinate itself has recognized heter mechira as a legitimate solution to shmita restrictions by appointing Rabbi Ze'ev Weitman to supervise heter mechira under the rabbinate's auspices. The Jerusalem Post notes the Supreme Court is expected to reach a decision regarding this in the next few weeks.

Israeli Farmers Fear Haredi Monopoly of Fruit and Vegetable Market Ahead of Shmita – Rabbis Ban Non-Haredi-Endorsed Produce, Prevent Sale In Many Cities, Including Jerusalem

The Jerusalem post reports:

Farmers are concerned that a haredi power struggle to monopolize the fruit and vegetable market in the upcoming shmita [Sabbatical] year could cause growers as much as a NIS 700 million loss and result in a sharp rise in retail produce prices.

Yusta Bleier, Chairman of the Farmers Association, said Wednesday that fruit and vegetable growers were "very concerned" about "aggressive marketing tactics" being pursued by certain haredi kosher supervision organizations.

"Haredi kosher supervisors are trying to monopolize all the major retail chains," said Bleier, "And many local rabbis are refusing to allow fruits and vegetable that are not under haredi-run kosher supervision to be sold in their towns and cities, even when the majority of residents are not even religious."…

[I]n Jewish legal tradition there is a solution to the restrictions of the shmita year. Known as "heiter mechira," which can be loosely translated as "the sale option," the solution entails selling Jewish-owned land in Israel to a non-Jew…

But haredi rabbinic leadership has traditionally opposed heiter mechira since it was first introduced at the end of the 19th century. The haredi rabbis scoff at the attempt to stage a fake "sale" of the land so as to permit farmers to continue to work as usual during the shmita year.

[Of course, these same haredi rabbis implement and make money from an equally "fake" sale every year – the selling of hametz before Passover. Other such pro forma sales are used throughout Jewish law, as well. But I, Shmarya, digress into reality …]

Instead, haredi rabbis demand that all fruits and vegetables be bought from non-Jewish, mostly Arab, farmers inside Israel who have legally registered ownership of their land or from farmers outside Israel.

Haredi leaders are also trying to put pressure on the Agriculture Ministry to increase produce imports, which would be a serious blow to local farmers.

In previous shmita years, said Bleier, haredi rabbis were concerned solely with providing kosher supervision over fruits and vegetables earmarked for their own followers.

"But this shmita year the haredim have become much more aggressive. They are now waging a war against heiter mechira. They are doing everything they can to block the sale of heiter mechira produce.

"But we won't let them. If we need to we'll set up our own fruit and vegetable stands outside the supermarket chains and sell our own produce."

In several cities local rabbis have announced that they will refuse to allow heiter mechira produce to be sold in their cities. Grocery stores will have to choose between no kosher supervision whatsoever and the stringent, haredi supervision.

For instance, the rabbis of Rehovot, Petah Tikva and Herzliya have already announced they will not allow the sale of heiter mechira. Wholesalers in Herzliya have petitioned the Supreme Court to force the local rabbi to allow the sale of heiter mechira. The wholesalers argue that since the majority of Herzliya's residents are not haredi the local rabbi cannot coerce them to accept a stringent haredi kosher supervision.

In Bat Yam, Ra'anana, Afula, Kfar Saba and Ashdod the chief rabbis are also opposed to the sale of heiter mechira.

In Jerusalem, where there is no chief rabbi, the situation is similar. Only the more stringent kosher operations will be allowed to give supervision.

Rabbi Moshe Rauchverger, a senior member of the Shmita Council in the Chief Rabbinate, said that the rabbinate's policy was to allow each local rabbi to decide for himself which kosher supervision to adopt. Rauchverger admitted that this shmita year a concerted effort was made by the rabbinate and its head, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger, to reduce to a minimum the use of heiter mechira. In fact, one of the reasons Metzger received haredi support for his appointment as chief rabbi was the promise he gave to oppose heiter mechira.…

Bleier said that annual agricultural production in Israel was NIS 7 billion. While last shmita, the haredi market only accounted for about 6-7% of the market for agricultural goods, the demand has grown so that today they represent about 17% of the market, translating into a loss for farmers of about NIS 700m.

However, the head of shmita year kosher supervision for the Edah Haredit denied his organization, which is the single largest kosher supervision apparatus catering to the haredi population, has any interest in monopolizing non haredi markets.

"We are focusing solely on predominantly haredi areas such as the haredi neighborhoods in Ashdod, Beit Shemesh, Modi'in Ilit, Beiter Ilit and Safed."

The Edah Haredit source admitted, though, that his competitor, Efrati's Kashrut Le'mehadrin [please see below], was pursuing an aggressive campaign to expand his organization's influence beyond the haredi sphere.

First, any locality's chief rabbi that refuses to allow heter mehira produce to be sold should be dismissed. The state has no business paying these rabbis' salaries.

Second, it would be wise if a movement could be started to boycott all haredi-endorsed produce and food. What they try to do to us should be done to them, but legally and in spades.

I believe "Efrati's Kashrut Le'mehadrin" is run by Rabbi Efrati, haredi leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv's right-hand man.

Rabbi Metzger was backed for election as chief rabbi by Rabbi Elyashiv, despite Rabbi Metzger's previous ethical lapses, the then last of which found Metzger before a Rabbinate panel of three senior rabbinic judges charged with extorting money from people as he was performing their weddings. (He was also accused of sexual harassment of both women and men.)

Rabbi Metzger threatened to sue the Rabbinate in civil court and the panel backed down, accepting Rabbi Metzger's promise not to run for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. Later, Metger declared his candidacy for Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel and received the backing of Rabbi Elyashiv.

Haredi spokesman Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum told me then that Rabbi Elyashiv was "fully aware" of Rabbi Metzger's ethical and legal problems including the judgment against Rabbi Metzger by the Rabbinate's panel of judges and the allegations of sexual harassment, but said that Rabbi Elyshiv chose to back Rabbi Metzger anyway to "return the glory" to the chief rabbinate.

Of course, what Rabbi Elyashiv really wanted was the weakest candidate that he could propel into office. That would weaken the Rabbinate and, at the same time, put it under Rabbi Elyashiv's control.

So haredim under the leadership of Rabbi Elyashiv are inflicting their stringencies non-haredim. At the same time, their actions may very well bankrupt Israel's farmers.

Rabbi Elyashiv does this in the name of Torah but, make no mistake about it – it is political power and the money that comes with it Rabbi Elyashiv seeks.

Many religious leaders are misguided. Some, as you know, are criminals who parade in the clothing of saints. But I think few religious leaders are truly evil. However, Rabbi Elyashiv is, in my eyes, one of those truly evil men.

Haredim Threaten, Harass and Assault Modern Orthodox And Secular Jews – Beit Shemesh Becoming Another Mea Shearim Battleground

Haredim move from Mea Shearim to Beit Shemesh. They harass the local population, threaten store owners, riot and cause all types of trouble. Non-haredi Orthodox Jews (and even some haredim) move away in fear and disgust. What are they fleeing? This:

…Haredi residents had hung up a sign at a shopping mall attesting to the character of the place, instructing shoppers to dress modestly. The shopping center has little traffic as it is, having to adhere to strict modesty regulations and holding limited supplies.

The local health clinic and supermarket operate separate hours for men and women. A pizza parlor owner was warned that if boys and girls sat there together in the evenings, they would suffer the consequences.

After the plaque was removed by police and local inspectors, on the grounds that it was placed there illegally, all hell broke lose. Haredi residents started throwing stones at the police, who responded by fighting back. Eight protestors were arrested and one was evacuated, unconscious, to hospital.

The haredim started to spray paint their modesty requirements on walls of buildings, adding a personal message to the Beit Shemesh police chief, Oz Eliasi: "Oz is a Nazi".…

When Ramat Beit Shemesh B was built, most of the residents arrived from the overflowing extreme haredi communities in Jerusalem: Neturei Karta, Toldot Aharon and Satmar. Out of a total 5,000 haredi families in Beit Shemesh, 1,500 families are from these sects.

Soon after these families moved in, a modesty revolution started: Public buses, faced by competition from haredi pirate services, get stoned; falafel and pizza shops are forced to close early in the evening. Major sidewalks are split, with one side for men, the other for women.…

The national religious population has been driven out of town. "I am planning to leave with my family very soon," said one national religious woman. "Every time I walk down the street, I'm frightened. Hundreds of haredim stare at me and scrutinize the way I'm dressed. It is not pleasant to live here."

[Edah Charedis spokesman Rabbi Shmuel Haim] Popenheim responded: "The secular people must understand, they either lock up [the pizza shops and falafel stands] early or they'll have trouble."

[Hat Tips: KK and The Beadle.]

Chabad's Fight For Vilna Almost Over

The JTA has a piece about the fight between Chabad and the Lithuanian Jewish community. It seems the Chabad rabbi, Sholom Ber Krinsky (the nephew of the head of Chabad, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky) is near eviction and has little support from Chabad's leaders. Rabbi Krinsky has tried to circumvent the country's restoration process, accused the Joint Distribution Committee of scheming against him, had thugs beat up the Lithuanian chief rabbi, and has done other troublesome things:

…The plan is that once a restitution law is passed, neither the properties nor the cash will be apportioned. Jewish religious, cultural, educational and welfare organizations will have to apply to a foundation, proposing projects and making their case for support.

Krinsky will have to compete with the others.

"I've said repeatedly that I think Chabad would merit support, just as other institutions would," said Rabbi Andrew Baker of the American Jewish Committee, who leads the international team negotiating restitution with the Lithuanian government. "However, I don't think that's what Rabbi Krinsky is speaking of. He believes he's the only bona fide religious Jewish organization in Lithuania."

Krinsky has tried to circumvent the process. Several months ago he approached the Lithuanian Ministry of Health requesting the return of a former communal property. But he was rebuffed.

As a U.S. citizen, he approached the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius for help in obtaining a state-owned music academy in the desirable Old Town. According to the U.S. official familiar with the situation, the embassy sent a letter to the government supporting Krinsky, but also asked Krinsky and local leaders to bury the hatchet.

"We've seen a lot of quotes in the press where some people from the government or on its periphery have said the Jewish community can't even agree on restitution, so how can we make an agreement," the official said. "We've told them we don't want that as an excuse to not go forward."

In April, Krinsky met with local Jewish leaders. Afterward they sent him a letter outlining conditions for breaking the stalemate. Among them: Krinsky must publicly acknowledge the community's ownership of the synagogue and its choice of chief rabbi; cease referring to himself as "chief rabbi"; and submit to "a sound, open and transparent financial management."

Krinsky told JTA that he plans to respond to the letter soon…

In November of 2004, Yated Ne'eman had a piece on this controversy representing the side of the Lithuanian community:

In 1994, Lubavitch expressed interest in sending a rabbi to Vilna, and Mr. Alperowitz agreed. Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky moved to Vilna, and established his own Chabad House. He prayed in the community's Taharat Hakodesh shul on Shabbos, and could not put together a minyan during the week. The community did not offer him a rabbinical contract.…

After ten years of activity, his school had only 30 children (7 of which were his own), and not one family had committed themselves to shemiras hamitzvos. A social worker involved for years with the community informed us that Rabbi Krinsky had sent two girls to a Lubavitch school in London, and mentioned that at most Rabbi Krinsky may have influenced one or two more Vilna Jews to become slightly observant.

Rabbi Krinsky's social services were paltry in comparison to that of the community: he sent 20 children to a Lubavitch camp in Estonia, while the secular community sent 450 children to their own camp. Rabbi Krinsky claimed to help 150 people with his soup kitchen, while the general community was helping 1,500 — including the same 150 helped by Rabbi Krinsky.

Even more problematic were the scandals that hovered over his enterprises. Rabbi Krinsky's soup kitchen was closed down because it served contaminated food. A scandal erupted when charges were made that he had stolen money from donors. Creditors took over the first floor of his Chabad Center to cover unpaid debts. (He is still embroiled in court cases over debts.) He collected money around the world to maintain the Jewish cemetery but never paid the $25,000 to the community which was his share in the maintenance.

Krinsky has less than 30 die-hard followers within the community, who are mostly beneficiaries of his food kitchen or other activities. Of these followers, none have accepted a Lubavitch way of life on themselves or can even be called religious.…

For its part, the Baltic Times had a story in September 2004 about the  fighting between Chabad and the Lithuanian community. Its report seems to confirm much of what the community said.

I wrote then:

Chabad has been in Vilna for ten years. During those ten years it has held public events and adult education classes. Check and see how many of these events commemorated the life or yartzeits of the Vilna Gaon, R. Chaim Volozhoner, R. Chaim Ozer, and other non-Hasidic leaders of Vilna's past. Then check and see how many of these events commemorated the life or yartzeits of Chabad rebbes. If the two are not equal, if the commemoration of Chabad-related figures and events far outnumbers the others -- and this clearly appears to be the case -- then you can understand what the Vilna Community is worried about.

Chabad has a sordid history of this type of bad behavior, but it also has done much good. The Vilna Jewish Community did not seek to evict Chabad from the city or to curtail Chabad's educational efforts.

But the Community is trying to stop Chabad from running roughshod over the long-established traditions of Vilna and from taking over community property and institutions that do not now and never did belong to Chabad. In this effort, the Jewish Community of Vilna deserves our support.

Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky does not seem to be the type of person Vilna needs. It seems Chabad has finally recognized this.

Will Rabbi Krinsky be withdrawn from shlichut? I doubt it. But I'm sure there are communities in Asia or in America with no established Jewish community but a need for a mikva, a shul, classes and outreach. Perhaps one day Rabbi Krinsky will use his talents in one of these.

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?

Montreal Mikva Controversy

A community builds a mikva, intended for monthly use by women and for conversions from all Jewish streams including Reconstructionist, Reform and Conservative. The funds come from the general Jewish community and from the Orthodox community as well. A local Chabad rabbi is put in charge of the day-to-day operation.

Flash forward 25 years. The Orthodox community begins to to its conversions at other, privately owned mikvas. The Chabad rabbi, still in charge of the community mikva, decides to ban all conversion immersions, meaning the non-Orthodox converts have nowhere to go to immerse.

The community, including Modern Orthodox rabbis, is fighting this unilateral move by Chabad. The Canadian Jewish News reports on the Montreal mikva controversy:

…“This is a Chabad-based cabal,” Rabbi Lionel Moses of the Conservative Shaare Zion Congregation charged. “This is a community mikvah built with community money, which has been a symbol of co-operation and pluralism across the religious spectrum.

“This co-operation still exists between modern Orthodox and non-Orthodox rabbis, and they have gone to bat for us. This is clearly a move by Chabad to interfere with community harmony.”

Rabbi Mordecai Zeitz of Congregation Beth Tikvah in Dollard des Ormeaux believes Mikveh Israel changed its policy because, for over a year, those undergoing Orthodox conversions under the Rabbinical Council of Montreal’s beit din had been using another mikvah located at the Sephardi Hechal Shalom Congregation in St. Laurent.

That meant, he said, that most conversion immersions taking place at Mikveh Israel during that period were non-Orthodox.

“That’s why we think he did it,” Rabbi Zeitz said. “It’s created a tremendous obstacle because it should be a community mikvah.”

Rabbi Michael Whitman, spiritual leader of Adath Israel-Poale Zedek Congregation, who is president of the Rabbinical Council of Montreal representing the city’s Orthodox synagogue rabbis, also was critical of the mikvah’s new policy.

“Non-Orthodox converts now have nowhere to go,” he said. “It is not a private mikvah. It was built by funds raised by the community.”

Rabbi Whitman pointed to a 20-year-old ruling by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein in New York that allowed non-Orthodox converts to use a mikvah built by the community, in the interest of harmony.

“It is a question of continuing the precedent,” Rabbi Whitman said. “Many other communities operate in the same way.”

[Chabad's] Rabbi [Itche Meir] Gurary, however, dismissed these concerns and rejected any notion of a hidden agenda.

“They overstayed their welcome,” he said of the increased use by converts. “If I let them in, I would have to compromise on cleanliness.”…

Montreal's haredi-dominated Vaad Ha'ir had no comment on the issue, claiming not to be involved in any way.

What is happening here is clear. 25 years ago, Modern Orthodxy was the dominant force in Montreal's Orthodox community. That is no longer true. MO Jews left Montreal in droves during Quebec's various attempts at secession while, at the same time haredim have flocked to the city, unconcerned about a possible Francophone takeover because haredim operate outside of the larger communities they live in. Yiddish is their lingua franca and the surrounding society is always kept distant. Most MO Jews in Montreal were and are native English speakers and worked outside the Jewish community, interacting regularly with non-Jews.

In every community where haredim have become dominant, these types of thuggish issues surface. It was how haredim behaved in Brooklyn after reaching domiance there in the late 1970s, and the same story is repeated from Manchester to Minneapolis to Jerusalem.

And this is the future, at least as far as the Jewish community is concerned. Before long, your JCCs and community institutions will fall under haredi control or influence. The Judaism you belive in will be trampled underfoot, and your children – if you remain in the Jewish community – will be indoctrinated by haredim.

Fight now or leave now, but for God's sake do not remain passive. The time is running very short.

Why Orthodox Judaism Fails

Rabbi Without A Cause, the RCA-affiliated rabbi so loved by Rabbi Gil Student (and so ridiculed by many of Gil's readers and by me) has this to say about the behavior of the 'gedolim' in the Rabbi Slifkin Ban:

[L]abelling books kefirah and someone a kofer is well-within halachah, as is refusing to meet,if the claims are well-grounded. Read the position of Rabbi Akiva in Perek Chelek.

In other words, a shomer Shabbat Jew with recognized smicha wrote a series of books that quoted Rishonim and later authorities. Gedolim labeled those positions heresy, and Rabbi Slifkin a heretic. They refused to meet with him or his representatives. And, when pushed by others to explain themselves, they were left with saying that what was permissible for Maimonides or Nachmanides or Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch to believe is not permissible for us.

These rabbinic fools tried to destroy Rabbi Slifkin. They did so with no due process granted to the man they condemned. And who defends their misbehavior? An RCA rabbi.

This is Orthodox Judaism. People, run away from it as fast as you can.

Hundreds Of Haredim Riot Near Jerusalem

Efrat Weiss of Y-net reports:

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox on Monday blocked a road leading to the Ramat Beit Shemesh neighborhood near Jerusalem, set fire to garbage carts and hurled stones at police officers who were dispatched to the area.

The reason for the commotion was a protest against a new family that moved to the neighborhood and is "not religious enough," according to the protestors.…

The demonstrators were also protesting the arrest of two ultra-Orthodox men Sunday night, after the two blocked the road with garbage bins to protest against the presence of the new family.…

The new family moved to Ramat Beit Shemesh a number of weeks ago. The other families in the neighborhood decided the newcomers were "not religious enough" and began harassing them in a bid to prompt them to move somewhere else.

But, God forbid, normal non-haredi Israelis even non-violently protest against haredim moving into their neighborhoods. That would be "racist," (Just ask Am Echad and Agudath Israel. But it is worse than that. Many haredim who moved into secular neighborhoods were missionaries trying to convert the secular populace to haredism.)

Har Nof, Ramot, and many other post-1967 neighborhoods started off as secular. Then haredim moved in and took over. How did they do that? In part, this way:

Riots against pizzeria, bus route

This is not the first time ultra-Orthodox people are rioting in the area. In September, clashes erupted between police officers and about 100 ultra-Orthodox residents next to a neighborhood pizzeria.

The protestors arrived at the pizzeria and demanded that its owner close it, claiming that he was selling pizzas to inappropriately dressed teenagers. A policewoman was lightly injured during the clashes and an ultra-Orthodox man was arrested.

Two and a half years ago, neighborhood residents demonstrated against a new bus route connecting the town of Beit Shemesh with ultra-orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

"The buses are not modest enough," the ultra-Orthodox residents claimed, while attempting to block the neighborhood's main road. Police removed the protestors from the area and arrested seven ultra-Orthodox men on suspicion they tried to disrupt buses.

Which way to the stone age? Just follow the thugs with the dirty black hats.

Putin Cuts Gas To Ukraine In Bid To Freeze Democracy In Central Europe

Russia's neo-Stalinist president and Chabad "chief rabbi" of Russia Berel Lazar's good friend Vladimir Putin has cut all gas to Ukraine, potentially freezing to death many elderly people there and in the Baltic states. Ukraine's crime? Democracy.

First, Kevin Kerr of MarketWatch reports from Estonia on the potential for this to happen, 11 days before it actually took place:

…Like most of the Baltic countries, Estonia has relied on Russia to provide a vast amount of its energy supply throughout the years. But that relationship has soured somewhat with Estonia. A far worse situation is brewing in some of the former Soviet Union States.

For example, the Ukraine has been a thorn in the side of Russia and the Putin administration. Now Russia is pursuing a geopolitical goal to block Ukraine from joining NATO and the E.U. something that Ukraine certainly wants.

Turning off the spigot and turning up the heat

The Kremlin is well aware that energy is a tried and tested political weapon and they are ready and willing to use it. When I turned on the evening news last night from Russia, watching from my home in Estonia, the first three stories pertained to the Putin administration, energy and the cold, cold winter.

The Kremlin is seeking control over pricing of the vast pipelines that crisscross the Ukraine. These vital pipelines are at present the primary gateway for the wealthy European market. The Kremlin has Rubles on the brain and sees Ukraine as a major impediment to the riches that lie beyond.

Other former Soviet Union States like Belarus have capitulated to Russia and continue to given Russia a cut-rate, bargain basement deal. As a reward Belarus will continue to pay only $49 a thousand cubic meters for Russian Gas in 2006.

On the contrary, the defiant Ukraine is getting socked with an increase from $50 per thousand cubic feet to a whopping $160-$230 price tag in 2006. Other countries feeling the energy pinch include: Moldova ($150-$160), Estonia ($120-$125), Lithuania ($120-125) and Latvia ($120-$125).

It could be a very long and cold winter for many of these countries citizens that live on fixed incomes. Capitalism has provided many comforts not seen during communism and war, but has also brought with it the growing pains of a free market economy.

In an attempt to further legitimize its position, the Putin government and the state owned Rosneft, (formerly Yukos), is seeking out Western leaders to put a better face on the situation and encourage Western investment in the major Russian energy company.

'Bushneft or bust'

When the Kremlin seized Yukos and jailed its leader Mikhail Khordokovsky in Siberia for "tax evasion," the wheels of change were set in motion, and they continue to roll on.

Another major shift just occurred as ousted German leader Gerhard Schröder, plagued by unemployment in his country, decided not to become a statistic himself and accepted a job in a top post with Gazprom the giant energy company in Russia.

Ironically Gazprom is behnd an ambitious pipeline project between Russia and Germany that Schröder championed while in office. Actually, it´s not that ironic, just disturbing.

In a similar move, the Kremlin is purportedly trying to entice former U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to come on board as the new chairman of Rosneft. Clearly all of this is an attempt to calm the fears of investors from the West ahead of the Rosneft initial public offering set for 2006.

"This is the latest Kremlin strategy to co-opt and hush the Western nations by making them complicit in its crimes... When everyone is guilty, then no one is guilty goes the logic... Oil, gas, politics, intimidation, and repression are all mixed together," observed chess master and political dissident Garry Kasparov In a recent Wall Street Journal article.…

Now, today's London Telegraph breaks the news – Russia is freezing out Ukarine:

Russia took Europe to the brink of a winter energy crisis yesterday when it carried out a Cold War-style threat and halted gas deliveries to Ukraine, the main conduit for exports to the West.

With a quarter of its gas supplied by Russia, Europe is facing serious disruption and price rises for as long as the dispute rumbles on.

Moscow turned off the tap at 10am after Ukraine refused to sign a new contract with the Russian state monopoly Gazprom quadrupling prices.

Critics of the Kremlin say the rise was punishment for the Orange Revolution in 2004 which brought in a westward-leaning government that promised to remove Ukraine from the Kremlin's sphere of influence.

The American State Department said that "such an abrupt stop creates insecurity in the energy sector in the region and raises serious questions about the use of energy to exert political pressure".

The European Union has called an emergency meeting of energy ministers on Wednesday.

Britain is less vulnerable than mainland Europe because it does not receive direct supplies from the former Soviet bloc.

But as other countries seek to shore up their reserves, less gas is likely to be pumped through the pipeline that links the Continent with Britain. That could mean higher prices and, if there is no quick resolution, possible breaks in supplies.

The European Commission says that most countries have between a week and two months' emergency reserves.

Ukraine has upset Moscow by pushing to join the EU and Nato. However, Russia insists that the price rise merely brings Ukraine in line with the price that most of Europe pays: about $240 per 1,000 cubic metres.

President Vladimir Putin adopted almost warlike terms when he spoke on television as the hours ticked by before the ultimatum expired.

"If no clear response [from Kiev] follows, we will conclude that our proposal has been rejected," he said.

If Ukraine's reserves run out, it could be tempted to siphon off gas intended for other countries. It claims the right to do so in lieu of transit fees.

The cut-off coincided with Russia assuming the rotating presidency of the G8 leading industrialised nations.

In Britain, millions of families started paying higher fuel prices yesterday.

Scottish and Southern Energy raised prices by 13.6 per cent, adding approximately £50 to the average annual bill, while electricity charges will go up by 12 per cent, or about £30 a year.

Npower puts its rises into effect today, adding 14.5 per cent for gas and 13.6 per cent for electricity.

This thug is Berel Lazar's close friend. Lazar shills for him. Lazar even intercedes for him in Washington.

Wake up Jews – Chabad is your enemy.

UPDATE: Russia restores gas to central and western Europe – but not the Ukraine. The Financial Times reports after the jump.

Lakewood Cop Smear Continues

A small Lakewood area newspaper, the Tri Town News, reports on the Lakewood rabbi, the cop, and the "newly abused." Key quotes:

This week, Nichole Robinson, 29, said she and her attorney are preparing to file a lawsuit for an as yet undetermined amount of money based on injuries she claims to have sustained after being taken into custody by Menck on Nov. 20.…

Although Robinson said she would fax a copy of the police report and the complaint she filed with the Lakewood Police Department’s Internal Affairs unit to the Tri-Town News in order to prove her claim, no documents were ever provided and she did not return subsequent calls requesting them.

This is not a surprise. Robinson's medical records released so far do not support her claim. She promised to release the full medical record, which she claimed does support her. She has not done so.

And then this from Rabbi Yehuda (Yudel) Shain, a leading kanoi:

“Believe me, many times the people who get the ticket are wrong, but just as often the police officer oversteps his boundaries,” Shain said in June. “Most people don’t want to file anything with Internal Affairs because they don’t feel they are going to get any place. We get calls every day because of the problems we get. The police department feels they don’t have to answer to anybody and can do whatever they want.”

At several Lakewood Township Committee meetings held after the incident, non-orthodox Jewish residents said orthodox Jews did not respect the authority of police officers, such as Menck, who were just doing their job.

Rabbi Shain actively supported Robinson in her claims against the police, which conveniently "surfaced" a few days before Rabbi Bursztyn's trial was to begin. Rabbi Shain also made claims of "many witnesses" supporting the rabbi and proving the police wrong. None have ever gone pubic, and Rabbi Shain has refused repeated requests to name them or to provide any proof of their existence.

You can read the entire article on the Tri City News website. (The copy archived below, after the jump, is only for archive purposes.)

Update On Rabbi Goldschmidt Ban

Forum 18 reports:

Pinchas Goldschmidt, Moscow's Swiss-born Chief Rabbi, is now back in the Russian capital after having his one-year multi-entry visa revoked without explanation on 27 September (see F18News 6 October 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=668). Speaking to Forum 18 following his 8 December return to Russia, Rabbi Goldschmidt said that he now holds a one-month single-entry religious work visa supported by an invitation from "one of the Jewish communities." Goldschmidt's Moscow Jewish Religious Community is affiliated to the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organisations of Russia (known as KEROOR).

Rabbi Goldschmidt confirmed to Forum 18 on 16 December that he thus has to leave Russia again in early January, but added that he hopes to re-enter holding a one-year multi-entry religious work visa. He declined to comment on the possible reasons for his September deportation.

Immediately following that incident, there were suggestions in the Russian media that it might be linked with the Moscow rabbi's possession of a business rather than a religious work visa. A faxed reply from the Russian Foreign Ministry to Forum 18's 29 November query about his predicament (see F18News 30 November 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=697) appears to support this view. Dated 5 December, it maintains that Goldschmidt visited Russia on business visas supported by invitations from "various commercial structures" from 2003 - in particular, the SA-SEV "financial-trade" company during 2004-05. According to the Russian tourism website turist.ru, SA-SEV is a Moscow-based limited company which received licences to offer tour agency and tour operator services in April 2002.

Pointing out that his wife Dara teaches in a Jewish school in Moscow, Rabbi Goldschmidt maintained to Forum 18 that his annulled visa had not been supported by a business as such, but an organisation offering services to educational institutions.

The Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department's assistant director Mikhail Troyansky, however, maintains that, while holding business visas, Goldschmidt "actually visited Russia to conduct professional religious activity," a fact confirmed in writing by the Swiss Embassy, Adolf Shayevich ("the Chief Rabbi of Russia according to KEROOR") and his own public appearances as Chief Rabbi of Moscow. As a result, continues Troyansky, Goldschmidt "repeatedly violated" Article 26, Part 2 of the 1996 law on entry to and exit from the Russian Federation, which states that foreign citizens may be barred from entering the country if they "submit false documentation or knowingly provide false information about themselves or the purpose of their visit." This, according to the Foreign Ministry's reply, is the reason why Goldschmidt was prevented from entering Russia.

Troyansky concludes, however, that all bars on Rabbi Goldschmidt's travel to Russia have been lifted. "Goldschmidt may obtain a visa at any Russian consulate by presenting all the necessary documentation, including an invitation from a Russian religious organisation issued in accordance with the legally prescribed procedure via the Interior Ministry." He duly received his one-month visa on 6 December.

Lev Krichevsky, Moscow correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), reported a quite different reason for Rabbi Goldschmidt's expulsion. In a 22 November JTA article, he noted that, according to Russia's Interior Ministry, Rabbi Goldschmidt was being kept out of the country "for national security reasons." Contacted by Forum 18 on 9 December, Krichevsky confirmed that a 9 November Interior Ministry official letter he saw – to which he no longer had access – explicitly referred to Article 27, Part 1 of the 1996 law on entry to and exit from Russia as the reason for Goldschmidt's visa annulment. This provision indeed states that foreign citizens may be prevented from entering Russia "for the purposes of ensuring state security."

While a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry told Russia's Interfax news agency on 28 September that they were "examining the circumstances" connected with the annulment of Rabbi Goldschmidt's visa, the Interior Ministry is qualified to comment on the case as it took over the handling of foreign religious workers' visa applications from the Foreign Ministry at the end of 2002.

Tankred Golenpolsky, editor of the International Jewish Newspaper, speculated to Forum 18 in early October that Rabbi Goldschmidt's expulsion may actually have been connected with a property dispute between Moscow's Choral Synagogue and the Russian Jewish Congress under its president since November 2004, [Chabad-affiliated oligarch] Vladimir Sluzker (see F18News 6 October 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=668). On 10 November [non-Chabad oligarch] Vyacheslav Kantor was elected president of the Russian Jewish Congress in place of Sluzker.

Rabbi Goldschmidt is the 53rd foreign religious worker – and the first Jew - known to Forum 18 to have been denied entry to Russian since March 1998 (see F18News 7 September 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=644).

The Russian authorities' expulsion of foreign religious workers is not usually explained. However, Jeffrey, Susan and Jordan Wollman, a US evangelical missionary family previously based in Kostroma, were informed by the Foreign Ministry in July 2002 that they had been denied visas the same month specifically under Article 27, Part 1 of the 1996 law on entry to and exit from Russia. Without specifying which part, the Foreign Ministry subsequently stated that the visa of Irkutsk-based Polish Catholic bishop Jerzy Mazur was revoked in April 2002 "strictly in accordance with" Article 27, and that Canadian Salvation Army officer Geoff Ryan, based until September 2000 in Rostov-on-Don, was barred from travelling to Russia under the same provision. A Krasnodar-based lawyer representing Swedish evangelical missionary Leo Martensson, whose Russian visa was revoked in September 2002, was reportedly told by the Foreign Ministry in early 2004 that he posed a security risk.

Rabbi Goldschmidt's case demonstrates that it remains unclear what foreign religious personnel are entitled to do in Russia. Officially employed as a computer studies teacher, US citizen Craig Rucin was involved in unpaid religious work in his spare time when deported from Udmurtia in 2001. Officially a religious worker with the Church of Christ in Volgograd, by contrast, US citizen Charles Landreth was ordered to leave Russia by local police in September 1999 on the grounds that he was breaking the law by working in orphanages and "having social interaction outside church activities."

Lakewood Rabbi Pleads Guilty – Police Officer Cleared

I suspect Nicole Robinson's lack of medical documentation for her charges of police brutality, her constantly shifting story and the lack of support she garnered outside the haredi community (Robinson is not Jewish), influenced Rabbi Bursztyn decision to admit his guilt rather than go to trial.

Haredim, including Rabbi Yudel Shain, claim there were many unnamed "witnesses" to support Rabbi Bursztyn's claim of police brutality. They also claim the same for Nicole Robinson. Haredim also claim the police and city "refused" to interview said witnesses for Officer Menck's Internal Affairs hearing. Yet, somehow, when these many "witnesses" could have to testified (but under oath and with the risk of perjury) and supported the rabbi's claims, the rabbi pleads guilty and no "witnesses" testify.

The Asbury Park Press reports:

A rabbi, whose altercation with police earlier this year sparked protests in Lakewood's Orthodox Jewish community, has pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with the incident in Lakewood.

Rabbi Yosef Bursztyn, 63, of Sixth Street, Lakewood, pleaded guilty Tuesday to the disorderly persons offense before Superior Court Judge Edward J. Turnbach, who imposed $125 in fines, said Executive Assistant Prosecutor Ronald F. DeLigny. Bursztyn could have faced up to up to six months in jail and fine up to $1,000.

Bursztyn admitted he failed to comply with a directive of Lakewood Officer Erik Menck on June 26 while Menck was performing an official function, court documents said.

Police said Bursztyn reached inside Menck's patrol car after the officer had stopped the rabbi's niece for allegedly tailgaiting another vehicle.

Bursztyn's arrest sparked protests in Lakewood's Orthodox community. Menck was cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident.

If you have not yet done so, read my earlier coverage of this incident, especially the Lakewood Shopper's "report" on the Robinson affair. This haredi-owned tabloid has been shameless in its attempts to whip up hatred for the Lakewood Police.

It should also be noted that yesterday's (failed) rally to garner support for Robinson outside the haredi community was conveniently scheduled for the day before Rabbi Bursztyn's court appearance. Now, why would that be?

Lakewood Cop Smear – Accuser Has Little Support, Except For Haredim

Nicole Robinson's attempt to whip up non-haredi public support for her allegations of police brutality have faltered. The Asbury Park Press reports:

A protest rally to spotlight a woman's claims she was beaten by a township police officer drew only a handful of people Tuesday to Town Square.

Nichole Robinson, the woman who says she was beaten last month by embattled Patrolman Erik Menck, said the rally was canceled because Public Safety Director Al Peters told her that organizers needed a permit.

Peters said he told Robinson that no permit was necessary.

The rally will be rescheduled for next month, Robinson said, but the disagreement is her latest with the township since she went public last week with allegations of police brutality.

On Nov. 20, four police officers, including Menck, went to Robinson's Coventry Square town house to question her about a disorderly persons call earlier that day.

Robinson maintains Menck asked her for a statement and then beat her in front of her two children. Wearing a bandage on her left arm, Robinson said Tuesday she suffered injuries to her arm, her hand and her back.  [The doctor's diagnostic notes do not support this claim.]

Police say Robinson attacked Menck while he attempted to get a statement from her. Robinson was then taken to Kimball Medical Center for treatment of asthma, police add.

Robinson, 29, says she does not suffer from asthma. After the incident, she was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer and her father, Horace Cody, 66, was charged with interfering with an arrest.

Robinson later filed a formal complaint against Menck, she said Tuesday. She also has retained a lawyer, who said last week he plans to sue the township for damages.

Robinson said Tuesday she has received a lot of support from members of the Orthodox Jewish community, some of whom distrust Menck because he charged a respected rabbi with assault over the summer.

Menck charged Rabbi Yosef Bursztyn, 62, with aggravated assault on a police officer and resisting arrest after a physical confrontation on Forest Avenue on June 26.

An Internal Affairs investigation cleared Menck of wrongdoing, but the altercation sparked tension between some in the Orthodox community and the Police Department.

Bursztyn's charges are still pending at the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

Robinson has changed her story several times and her claims do not match the doctor's diagnostic notes from the night of the incident. She has promised to release medical records to back her claim, but has failed to do so. Yet it appears that the haredi community is still behind Robinson and may be giving her more than moral support in an attempt to keep Rabbi Bursztyn out of jail. Smearing a police officer is apparently kosher for that purpose.

Extensive coverage of this incident can read here.

Satmar Shul Brawl: A Return To The Garden Of Eden?

Four men charged with misdemeanor assult in the Satmar shul brawl have pleaded guilty. The New York Daily News reports:

The four were initially charged with felony assault after pouncing on victim Jacob Brach last December after he burst into the temple and sat in a seat reserved for the Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum. Also attacked was Brach's pal Leon Teilebaum. Brach suffered a broken leg and Teilebaum a broken ankle.

Zalman Teitelbaum was appointed by his father, Grand Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum, to run the Williamsburg congregation. But Brach is among followers of Zalman's older brother, Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum, who believe he is entitled to run the synagogue. Two lawsuits aimed at getting the civil courts to settle the vicious battle are still pending.

Yesterday, prosecutor John Omara told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Anne Feldman that he accepted the lesser pleas because Brach, who has a federal conviction, was "provocative" and offensive by deliberately placing himself in the seat reserved for Zalman.

Thousands of incensed Zalman followers packed the synagogue after the incident. The four were charged with attacking Brach with a door and a baton and choking, kicking and punching him.

"We had two police officers who will testify they were present when Mr. Brach was involved in praying," Omara said in court. "There was a lot of commotion. They broke down the door and began attacking."

He said if the case went to trial, the victims would be able to identify the four men, and a retired cop who took pictures of the men would testify they continued to assault Brach even after police arrived.

Krausz's lawyer George Farkas was gratified Omara described the scene as he did, noting that Brach had committed the ultimate affront and provocation to Zalman's followers by sitting in a place so holy they forbid their children from touching it.

A traditional explanation for the Sin of Adam and Eve is that Adam told Eve that God had forbidden them from touching and eating from the tree on penalty of death, when in fact God had only forbidden eating. The serpent pushed Eve, she touched the tree and did not die. The serpent then said, if you can touch the tree and not die, why not eat from it, too? You will become like God! And so Eve ate.

The point is that adding onto a law without specifying that this is only a fence and not the law itself leads to greater sin.

And so is the case here. When one treats a rabbis chair as "so holy they forbid their children from touching it," one elevates a chair to a presumed status it does not in fact have. This led to tremendous chillul hashem, desecration of God's name, and the violation of real biblical commandments.

This is the problem with the hasidic movement as a whole. It elevates customs to a place higher than law. This can only lead to destruction. And so it has.

Ha'aretz: How Chabad Took Russia

Ha'aretz has a long, detailed report on the fighting between the various Jewish organizations in Russia, with a focus on the Rabbi Goldschmidt ban. It contains the best explanation of how Berel Lazar and Chabad took over Russia:

[Oligarch Roman] Abramovich, who had business ties with [Chabad Oligarch Lev] Leviev, recruited the Israeli diamond merchant for a struggle on behalf of Putin and against Gusinsky. In return, Leviev received the support of Putin, who in 2000 was elected president of Russia. That support made it possible for Lazar to receive Russian citizenship in record time and to be recognized in practice as the chief rabbi of Russian Jewry. Shayevich was shunted to the sidelines.

The Jewish "federation" of Lazar and Leviev became the darling of the government. This was clearly manifested when President Putin took part in a resplendent ceremony to dedicate the FEOR center in the Marina Roscha neighborhood in 2001.

A plaque at the entrance to the building lists the donors. They include Leviev, his partner Gaydamak, [Chabad oligarch Vladimir] Slutsker [please see below] and other oligarchs. But at the top of the list is Abramovich. He donated $5 million for the construction of the building. Lazar and FEOR left REK. In 2002 Gusinsky was forced to leave Russia and then to sell his assets there. The authorities launched an investigation against him for tax violations. He based himself in Israel and Europe and invested in the Israeli daily Maariv and in the local Russian press; during the past year he has spent most of his time in the United States. He was replaced as REK president by Leonid Nevzlin, Khodorkovsky's associate. However, a year later, when it became apparent that the Putin government supported FEOR, Nevzlin realized that his place at the head of an organization identified with Gusinsky, who is loathed by the government, was liable to be detrimental to him and to affect Yukos as well. Nevzlin resigned and the deterioration of REK has continued apace ever since.

FEOR flourishes
In contrast, FEOR has flourished in the past five years. The success of Lazar and Leviev can be attributed to the fact that Putin used them in his struggle against Gusinsky and received a Jewish "umbrella" from them in return. But another reason for the close ties between the Putin government and FEOR lies in the promises made by Leviev and Lazar that they would make their connections available to Putin and assist the Kremlin to open doors in the corridors of power in Washington. Most importantly, they let Putin and his aides understand that their influence and lobbying would bring about the abolition of a 1974 Congressional amendment to the Trade Reform Act sponsored by Senator Henry Jackson and Representative Charles Vanik, both Democrats. Putin is deeply distressed by this legislation, which stipulates that countries, such as the former Soviet Union, which restrict freedom of movement and prevent the free emigration of their citizens will not receive special trade benefits from the United States. Even though the Jews of the former Soviet Union, and then Russia, were allowed to leave, the amendment has not been repealed.…

… Rabbi Lazar talks of an organization that has 200 communities across Russia and which provides both spiritual support (sacred articles, religious services, rabbis) and material backing (food, education, health, financial aid) to hundreds of thousands of Jews. "In Moscow alone," he says in an interview, "130,000 Jews have ties with us."

There are some who are skeptical of these figures. Two years ago, when Tzipi Livni, then Israel's immigrant absorption minister, asked FEOR for a list of these Jews, her request was rejected with the slightly peculiar explanation that this would be a violation of privacy.

Gusinsky supported democracy. Putin is a neo-Stalinist. Chabad supported Putin and worked to destroy Gusinsky and the Russian Jewish Congress. Then, late last year they got one of their own oilgarchs, Vladimir Slutsker, elected head of the now-comatose RJC. What was Slutsker's first (and last) big move? He forced out the non-Chabad Chief Rabbi of Moscow:

The conversation with Slutsker took place over a month ago in his luxurious office, which is located in a modern new glass building in the center of Moscow. Even though he was ousted some weeks ago from his position as president of the Russian Jewish Congress (REK), he was in buoyant spirits. Like all the Russian oligarchs, he is surrounded by bodyguards, chauffeurs and young energetic female assistants dressed in tailored suits. Hanging above him on the wall is a photograph of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. "Don't get me wrong," Slutsker emphasizes. "I do not care about money and I am not greedy, because I am a kabbalist [Jewish mystic] and therefore I have added the name Moshe Shlomo. I am not a Chabad member like Leviev, but I recognize the spiritual authority of the Lubavitcher Rebbe."…

Slutsker explains that he has always been drawn to public activity, especially "spiritual religious activity," and therefore he has donated generously from his own pocket to Jewish institutions and organizations in Russia. Under the influence of "my good friend" Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, he says, he established a yeshiva and a kabbala center called Tree of Life, which according to Slutsker has 200 students. "A year and a half ago I was approached with a request to save the Russian Jewish Congress, which was in a state of collapse and barely functioning," he continues, "I saw this as a challenge and threw myself into the work."…

Slutsker's major and most talked-about dispute is with Rabbi Goldschmidt. At stake is control of a property - the headquarters of the Russian Jewish Congress, located in a building that was transferred to the ownership of the Jewish Community in Moscow, which is headed by Goldschmidt. As a religious organization, the community has a tax-exempt status. "After some time," Slutsker notes, "Rabbi Goldschmidt asked us to pay him rent as though the offices actually belong to him. Naturally, I and the congress refused to pay."

Goldschmidt's confidants say that the request was not for rent, but payments to cover the costs of ongoing maintenance of the structure, such as electricity.

Be that as it may, on September 15, 2005, Slutsker, to his "great surprise," received a fax from a rabbinical court, the Jerusalem Court for Civil Law and Ancestral Law, in which he was notified that he and the congress were being summoned to din Torah, a lawsuit in which judgment is given according to the strict letter of traditional Jewish law. The plaintiff was the "Jewish Community of Moscow." "I did not even bother to answer them," Slutsker says. "I do not recognize the authority of a court in Jerusalem to address a commercial dispute in Moscow. What connection do they have with me?"

Ten days later, in one of those strange coincidences, Goldschmidt was deported from Russia. "There is absolutely no connection," Slutsker states.

Please take the time to read this entire, feature-length report. [Also found after the jump, just in case it disappears from the Ha'aretz website – a problem of late.]

Moscow's Chief Rabbi Returns

The JTA reports:

Moscow’s chief rabbi returned to the city after being barred from Russia since September.

Pinchas Goldschmidt landed at a Moscow airport Thursday evening. His visa had been cancelled upon arrival at the Moscow airport in late September, with no reason given, and he had been denied a new one for nine weeks. He received a one-month visa earlier this week, but said he hoped to extend his stay.

Goldschmidt told JTA he had no problems at passport control in Moscow on Thursday, but would have to leave Russia later this month to get a new visa. A Swiss citizen and Russian resident for nearly 15 years, Goldschmidt previously received one-year visas.

Rabbi Shmuel Kamentsky Flips Out

                                            [Please click on images to enlarge.]

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, the rosh yeshiva in Philadelphia and a supporter of the banned Rabbi Nosson Slifkin, has changed his mind and is now condemning Rabbi Slifkin and his books. From the appearance of his signature on a letter that he did not himself write, and from the dating on the letter (which closely corresponds with the dating on the letter condemning Rabbi Slifkin written by the Novominsker Rebbe), it appears Rav Shmuel was a reluctant signatory* forced to give in by pressure from Rabbi Elyashiv and the Israeli 'gedolim.'

All the vitriol hurled at Rabbi Slifkin is misdirected. The 'gedolim' created this mess by their boorish behavior, disregard of halakha and downright ignorance of science, history and Jewish theology. Any animus on their part should be wholly self-directed.

Make no mistake about it. Being a haredi now means believing the entire universe is less than 6000 years old and that all of science is an elaborate fraud. And this applies to Aish HaTorah, Ohr Somayach, Discovery and Chabad just as much as it applies to Lakewood, Mir and Ponevitch.

The 'gedolim' have killed Judaism.

[First seen on GodolHador, and Maven Yavin.]

*UPDATE: Rav Shmuel is claiming to be concerned about a new article posted by Rabbi Slifkin on his website. The books and original views were not the object of his signature appended to Rabbi Schechter's letter. The problem is the letter stands by the ban of the books and of Rabbi Slifkin. The other problem is Rabbi Slifkin's only new piece is on elephants and contanins nothing different from his earlier work. In other words, Rav Shmuel is apparently lying. Reports are also coming in that point out that Rav Shmuel did not give Rabbi Slifkin a chance to respond to charges against him before Rav Shmuel made them public, and that Rav Shmuel violated other aspects of halakha by issuing this letter.

Such little men with such big hats.

Lazar Meets Antisemite Zhirinovsky To Storm Of Israeli Protest, Russia Cracks Down On "Foreign" Charities, Reason For Goldschmidt Ban Now Clear

As Chabad's 'chief rabbi' of Russia Berel Lazar meets with noted antisemites Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Dmitri Rogozin (the heads of two Russian nationalist parties that disseminate anti-Semitic propaganda) to a storm of Israeli protest, Russia moves further away from democracy on a related front:

The lower house of Parliament gave preliminary approval to legislation that would require tens of thousands of Russian organizations to register with the Ministry of Justice. It would also impose restrictions on their ability to accept donations or hire foreigners and prohibit foreign organizations from opening branches in Russia.…

Although some of the bill's supporters defended it as an effort to bring order to the registration of 450,000 private groups, others have said it was aimed at preventing foreign efforts to support political opposition movements, like the [pro-democracy] one that swept to power after the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine last fall. The legislation follows sharply worded remarks by President Vladimir V. Putin and the director of the Federal Security Service, the K.G.B's successor, that foreign organizations often undermined Russian interests.…

"Let us resolve the internal political problems of Russia ourselves," Mr. Putin said this summer, criticizing nongovernmental organizations involved in what he called political activities.

Mr. Putin has long faced criticism for strengthening his political authority, despite his avowed commitment to democracy, and the legislation prompted still more criticism.

"This is the last sector of civil society that has not fallen under government control," Aleksandr B. Petrov, the deputy director in Moscow for the international group Human Rights Watch, said at a news conference held Tuesday in hopes of persuading the Parliament to reject or at least amend the legislation.

The critics of the law say that Russia's restrictions would go beyond those imposed on nongovernmental organizations by most of the developed world, including the other members of the Group of 8, of which Russia is a part.

A legal analysis by the nongovernmental groups says that the law would put Russia in line with [repressive] countries like Turkmenistan …

Earlier this year, the director of the Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, accused Western organizations - including the Peace Corps and the British medical charity Merlin - of being fronts for espionage. "Under the cover of implementing humanitarian and educational programs in Russian regions, they lobby for the interests of certain countries and gather classified information on a wide range of issues," Mr. Patrushev told members of Parliament in May, referring to private organizations.

His remarks prompted unusually strong public rebukes from the United States and Britain, but the legislation he called for at the time became the basis for what Parliament adopted Wednesday despite a further outpouring of criticism once the bill appeared on the agenda. It passed by a vote of 370 to 18. Three members abstained, while 56 did not vote.

President Bush raised the subject during his meeting last Friday with Mr. Putin in Pusan, South Korea.…

Two former members of Congress, John Edwards and Jack Kemp, who together are overseeing a task force about American policy on Russian issues for the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote to Mr. Bush last week urging him to protest "in the frankest possible terms."

"It would roll back pluralism in Russia and curtail contact between our societies," they wrote.…

This also explains the expulsion and ban of Moscow's non-Chabad chief rabbi Pinkhas Goldschmidt, and Lazar's complete silence on the issue. Lazar, it seems, has never met a dictator he didn't like. Thugs like the company of other thugs. Chabad should be ashamed.

Chief Rabbi's Son, Wife Admit Attack, Kidnapping Charges

Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar's son has admitted to kidnapping and assult charges. His mother, Rabbi Amar's wife, has admitted to knowing about the abduction and attack as it was happening and then doing nothing to stop it. Ha'aretz reports:

Meir Amar, the son of Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, on Wednesday admitted under a plea bargain to charges of abducting his teenage sister's 17-year-old suitor. In the deal between Amar's attorneys and the State Prosecution, 31-year-old Amar also admitted to charges of abduction, extortion, physically abusing a minor and illegal incarceration.…

Under the deal, Amar will also pay the complainant NIS 35,000, and the Chief Rabbi's family has promised to help the boy's absorption in a yeshiva, a difficult task since he had decided to turn to the police.…

As part of the same bargain deal, the rabbi's wife, Mazal, retracted her previous denials and admitted on Wednesday that she knew of the abduction and did not report it to police. She will, nevertheless, not be convicted.

Several months ago, Rabbi Amar visited the Former Soviet Union. Traveling with Lev Leviev, the Chabad-backer and oilgarch who pays for most of Chabad's activities in Russia, and Berel Lazar, Chabad's "chief rabbi" of Russia, Rabbi Amar was scheduled to visit a non-Chabad yeshiva. He did not show up. Staff and students waited in assembly for hours as they were assured by the Chief Rabbi's staff that he would be arriving shortly.  He never did. He also never explained his absence or apologized, a source close to the yeshiva told FailedMesiah.com.

Previous reports: Here, here and here.

Moscow's Chief Rabbi Deemed "Threat" To Russia's National Security, Permanently Banned From Russia

Moscow's chief rabbi, Pinkhas Goldschmidt has been banned from Russia for almost three months. At first, we were told his visa expired. Then there were rumors of a fight between Rabbi Goldschmidt and Chabad supporter Vladimir Slutsker, who headed the Russian Jewish Congress until his removal three weeks ago. Now the JTA is reporting that Russia's Internal Affairs Ministry has deemed Rabbi Goldschmidt an enemy of the state and permanently blocked Rabbi Goldschmidt's return to Russia.

Rabbi Goldschmidt's 'crime'? Russia does not say, but it would appear to be a combination of the following: Supporting democracy, opposing Putin's return to Stalinism, and not being Chabad. (All three are legal in Russia. None, however, are good career moves.)

In this sordid saga, one voice has been conspicuously silent – Chabad's 'chief rabbi' of Russia and Putin lackey Berel Lazar – who has not spoken up in support of Rabbi Goldschmidt. Lazar is a thug. It's time he was treated as one.

Earlier FailedMessiah.com coverage here.

Bloghead coverage here.

Mentalblog here.

Haredim Riot In Jerusalem

Y-Net reports:

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men rioted Tuesday night in Jerusalem's Shabbat Square, stoning police and injuring four officers.

One officer was taken to Shaare Zedek hospital in the capital, and four people were arrested, including three teens. Several civilians were hurt promptly treated at the scene. Several cars were also damaged in the riots.

Police believe the riot was in protest of plans to build the trans-Israel highway over ancient Jewish graves.

Following Tuesday's Simchat Torah holiday, hundreds of people gathered in Shabbat square, in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim, and began throwing rocks and burning garbage dumpsters.

Police attempted to calm things by closing the area to traffic until about 10:00 Wednesday morning.

Police are expected to decide Wednesday whether to extend the suspects' remand.

The New Threat From Iran Orchestrated By Moscow

Today's Telegraph (UK) has a report detailing Iran's growing nuclear program, including new missile technology aquired from North Korea. Who is helping Iran aquire and use this technology? 'Former' Russian military officers with the apparent blessing of Vladimir Putin:

A senior American official said Iran's programme was "sophisticated and getting larger and more accurate. They have had very much in mind the payload needed to carry a nuclear weapon.

"I think Putin knows what the Iranians are doing."

Perhaps worse yet, Iran's new president has put the country's entire nuclear program under the control of the Revolutionary Guards:

Iran's new hardline president has placed his country's nuclear programme under the control of militant commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, the military's most committed wing.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has launched a purge of moderates in national and provincial government since his election two months ago, has drafted in fellow radical revolutionaries to top administrative posts - a move that will heighten Western fears over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Many of the new power-brokers are veterans of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds (Jerusalem) Force, in which Mr Ahmadinejad held the rank of brigadier general. The unit is linked to a series of international terrorist attacks and the main backer of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

And Chabad's 'chief rabbi' of Russia and Putin lackey and apologist Berel Lazar – does he know what Putin is doing?

Shame On New York: Moscow's Chief Rabbi Deported – Forward, Jewish Week Silent

As most of you know, Moscow's non-Chabad chief rabbi, Pinkhas Goldschmidt, was deported by Vladimir Putin's government less than two weeks before Rosh HaShana. So far, the Forward has not covered the deportation. Gary Rosenblatt's New York Jewish Week had 264 words of generic coverage last week.

Israeli Government: "Selling Lulavs Is A Shady Business"

Matthew Wagner of the Jerusalem Post reports on more crime in the Orthodox world:

… Lulav importers and distributors are known for using less than equitable methods to obtain the highest prices possible. Wholesalers tell how lulav shipments are delayed by police after being "tipped" that they contain drugs. After the thorough search is completed, Succot is over and the lulavs are worthless. Other wholesalers tell of "mysterious" delays at Egyptian customs after key officials have been paid off. Threats of violence are used to coerce dealers to buy or not to buy according to the whims of the big importers.

"Selling lulavs is a shady business," [Meir] Mizrahi, [head of the Agriculture Ministry's Plant Protection and Inspection Services and Plant Quarantine Service,] said.

"It attracts all sorts of people. Some are truly honest. But others are criminal types."

Lulavs are used during Succot to perform the biblical commandment to "take... branches of palm trees" together with willow branches, a citron and myrtle branches and "rejoice before the Lord your God."…

RJC Tries To Oust Slutsker

It appears that the anti-Putin, pro-democracy forces within the Russian Jewish Congress are attempting to take back the RJC from Vladimir Slutsker, a Chabad supporter and friend of Vladimir Putin. The JTA reports:

A leading Russian Jewish organizations has been roiled by unrest in its leadership.

Several top members of the Russian Jewish Congress voted Thursday to oust the group’s head, Vladimir Slutsker, but Slutsker refused to step down, saying that only the group’s presidium could vote him out. Some leading RJC donors accused Slutsker of helping the Russian government deny Moscow’s chief rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, entry to the country earlier this month, a charge Slutsker denies. Some RJC lay leaders who attended the meeting also claimed Slutsker has provoked a controversy with the Moscow Jewish community over property.

A meeting of the RJC presidium to address the matter is scheduled for Nov. 10. Mikhail Fridman, a prominent business tycoon and the main donor to the RJC, suggested that Vyacheslav Kantor, a chemical magnate, should replace Slutsker. Kantor, who divides his time between Switzerland and Russia, is chairman of the European Jewish Congress’ board of governors.

Chabad Bans New Ukraine Chief Rabbi

Tzemach Atlas has a stunning report on why there are three 'chief rabbis' of the Ukraine. His answer? The fight between three different oilgarchs, Russia's Vladimir Putin and his lackey Berel Lazar, Chabad, Or Avner and pro and anti democracy forces. (Chabad is siding with Putin and the Stalinists, and in fact campaigned against the pro-democracy candidate in the last Ukrainian election.)

He also reports that the newest 'chief rabbi,' a 'renegade' Chabadnik named Rabbi Asman, has been banned (pdf) by Or Avner which itself is controlled by Chabad.

When all this is coupled with the recent deportation of Moscow's chief rabbi and Chabad opponent Pinkhas Goldschmidt, himself aligned with pro-democracy anti-Stalinist activists, it becomes clear that Chabad has become a force for evil in this world. Make no mistake about it. When choosing between Stalinists and democrats, democracy should win out every time. That is another lesson not taught in Chabad yeshivot.

More On The Moscow Chief Rabbi Deportation

The Asia News reports on the deportation of Moscow's chief rabbi Pinkhas Goldschmidt:

… On 7 November 2002, a group of Helsinki Commission members and US congressmen wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin expressing their “growing concern over the pattern of denial or cancellation of visas for foreign religious workers of minority faiths.” Such “"artificial impediments imposed by [Russian] federal authorities that prevent foreign religious workers from taking up their clerical responsibilities in the Russian Federation ultimately undermine the rights of individuals from these faiths to practice their religion.”

But for Russian officials and media these foreign religious workers are part of a foreign “religious expansion” that represents a threat to Russia’s “national security”.

Soon after his election in January 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin sounded a warning against the “cultural-religious expansion of neighbouring* states into Russian territory”, claiming they constituted a threat to national interests and security, and called for a “counteraction to the negative influence of foreign religious organisations and missionaries.”

* States that neighbor Russia have large Catholic, Muslim, Protestant and Buddhist populations.

Chabad's 'chief rabbi' of Russia Berel Lazar has still not commented on the Rabbi Goldschmidt deportation.

Why Was Moscow's Chief Rabbi Deported?

Forum 18, an Oslo, Norway-based group devoted to ensuring religious freedom worldwide, has issued a report on the deportation of Moscow's chief rabbi by Vladimir Putin's thugs. From the report, reprinted in full below, the following seems clear:

The deportation benefits: 1)  Putin. 2) Chabad. 3) Chabad's 'chief rabbi' and Putin quisling Berel Lazar. 3) The Russian Jewish Congress. 4) The RJC's oligarch, Vladimir Slutsker. 5) The Russian Orthodox Church.

The deportation hurts: 1) The Moscow Jewish community. 2) Democracy in Russia. 3) Human Rights activists. 4) Religious minorities including Catholics, Buddhists and Evangelicals.

Rabbi Shayevitch seems to be covering for the RJC and Slutsker. According to the Moscow News, Slutsker, when he joined the RJC last year was,

[L]ittle known within the Jewish community; up until now he has not been a member of the Congress although he privately supported some Jewish projects in Russia - in particular, the building of an FJCR [Chabad] community center in Maryina Roshcha [synagogue], in Moscow.

Chabad, despite the new context given Boruch Gorin's comment, seems to be taking the deportation of a major Jewish religious figure very quietly, and its claimed 'chief rabbi of Russia' Berel Lazar has not issued a statement on the deportation. During the middle of this crisis rabbi Lazar was appointed to the Public Chamber directly by Putin. No other religious leader was so appointed. Human rights groups have decried the Chamber as "window-dressing to legitimize the government’s increasingly authoritarian policies." The bottom line: Lazar has failed to speak out and also directly benefits from the deportation, removing another opponent to his 'oligarchy.'

Putin sees Rabbi Goldschmidt as an impediment to the re-Stalinization of Russia and repression of religious minorities Putin supports.

Meanwhile, the New York Jewish Week under the leadership of Gary Rosenblatt and Jonathan Mark has a brief, 254 word (!) report on the crisis that leaves out any detail detrimental to Chabad or Slutsker. The Forward has nothing. This is despite the fact that the story broke on September 27, six days before Rosh HaShana.

Forum 18 reports:

RUSSIA: Why was Moscow's Chief Rabbi deported?
By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service

It remains unclear why Moscow's Chief Rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, was denied entry to Russia last week after returning from Israel. Rabbi Goldschmidt, who is Swiss-born and has lived in Moscow since 1989, stated that he was not given a reason by border guards at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport. His wife and seven children are still in the city. Various factors have been suggested to Forum 18 News Service as influencing the entry denial, including: rivalry between the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organisations of Russia and the state-favoured Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia; proposed changes to visa rules; a dispute between Rabbi Goldschmidt and the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organisations of Russia; and his strong criticism of a petition signed by 19 Russian parliamentarians, which called for a ban on all Jewish religious and national organisations in Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry is not commenting on the case. Rabbi Goldshmidt is now in Israel and intends to apply for a new Russian visa following Yom Kippur, to be marked on 13 October 2005.

The editor of a Moscow-based Jewish newspaper has told Forum 18 News Service that he suspects the recent deportation from Russia of Moscow's Swiss-born chief rabbi to be linked with a dispute between Jewish organisations, and possibly also with the rabbi's public reaction to a call for state prosecution of Jewish organisations in Russia. "Even if that's not the reason, that's what it looks like," Tankred Golenpolsky of the International Jewish Newspaper remarked to Forum 18 on 5 October.

Denied entry to Russia on 27 September, the Swiss-born rabbi of Moscow Choral Synagogue, Pinchas Goldschmidt, flew straight back to Israel. Speaking to the Moscow-based Ekho Moskvy radio station the same day, he said that his visa had been annulled without explanation by border guards at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport before he was put on a plane back to Israel, and urged the Russian authorities to allow him to return to Moscow before Jewish New Year (4 October 2005). Rabbi Goldschmidt has been resident in the Russian capital since 1989. The UCSJ (Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union), in condemning the expulsion, noted that his wife and seven children are still in Moscow.

One of Russia's two chief rabbis, Adolf Shayevich, told Ekho Moskvy on 27 September that the incident was unexpected, since Goldschmidt "has never had any problems". However, a 22 February 2001 open statement from the directors of the Washington-based NCSJ (formerly the National Council on Soviet Jewry) reported that on 2 February of that year Rabbi Goldschmidt was told his visa would be delayed. On the same day, tax police and migration officials examined records at the Choral Synagogue offices of the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organisations of Russia (known as KEROOR), which Shayevich leads and to which Goldschmidt's Moscow Jewish Religious Community is affiliated.

According to the NCSJ statement, Goldschmidt's visa was renewed – but for only two weeks – on 5 February 2001, immediately after which he was visited by a number of western diplomats and representatives of the American Jewish Committee, who raised the issue of government interference in Jewish affairs at a meeting with then Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov. On 12 February Rabbi Goldschmidt was informed that his visa would be valid until July 2001.

The 2001 events appeared to be linked with competition between KEROOR and the Kremlin-backed Hassidic Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (known as FEOR). According to the NCSJ statement, a Kremlin official urged KEROOR's leadership "to withdraw and create a single and unified organisation which would be more sensitive to government directives" in late January of that year.

Following his election as rival chief rabbi on 13 June 2000, Italian-born US citizen and FEOR leader Berl Lazar quickly came to be viewed as the Kremlin's preferred Jewish religious leader. FEOR's main synagogue in Moscow's Marina Roshcha district received prominent visits by President Vladimir Putin in September and December 2000, and Lazar replaced Shayevich on the presidential Council for Co-operation with Religious Organisations in March 2001. Latterly, on 30 September 2005, Lazar was the only Jewish religious leader among 42 people directly appointed by President Putin to Russia's new government advisory body, the Public Chamber.

The state's switched preference from Soviet-era Jewish leader Shayevich and KEROOR to Lazar and FEOR is generally seen in turn as part of the Kremlin's political campaign against out-of-favour Jewish oligarch and KEROOR sponsor Vladimir Gusinsky. According to a 4 March 2001 Jewish Telegraph Agency report, Lev Leviyev, having just replaced Gusinsky as president of the Russian Jewish Congress, "met Goldschmidt and urged him to recognise Lazar as legitimate chief rabbi," as well as informing him that he had solved the problems concerning the renewal of his visa.

With Gusinsky having lost control of Russia's NTV television station and now in exile in Spain, the 2001 fracas would seem no longer relevant. On 28 September 2005, Shayevich suggested to Interfax Russian news agency that Goldschmidt's deportation might have been due to new entry visa rules for foreign religious workers, under which they may enter Russia only at the invitation of an existing centralised religious organisation, whereas Moscow's chief rabbi holds a multi-entry business visa.

While there were parliamentary discussions about the introduction of such an amendment to Russia's 1997 religion law earlier this year, these are still at a very preliminary stage (see F18News 9 June 2005http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=580). The law currently stipulates that religious organisations – local as well as centralised - "have the exclusive right to invite foreign citizens for professional purposes." In practice, however, foreigners are able to carry out religious work in Russia while holding a visa for or engaging in a different activity, although this is sometimes criticised by provincial officials. Forum 18 also notes that it would be irregular for Goldschmidt not to be warned of a need to alter his visa while still in Moscow, or for any changes to be required before his visa expired in August 2006.

On 28 September a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry told Interfax that they were "examining the circumstances" connected with the annulment of Rabbi Goldschmidt's visa. On 5 October a spokesman for the Ministry's Press and Information Department told Forum 18 that they were "not yet commenting" on the case. Also on 5 October – the second day of Jewish New Year celebrations – there was no answer at Rabbi Goldschmidt's office.

"The Foreign Ministry knows nothing – whoever we address tells us to find out where the root of the problem lies," Tankred Golenpolsky, founder and editor of the Moscow-based International Jewish Newspaper, told Forum 18 on 5 October. Having spoken to people in Berl Lazar's circle, he doubted that Rabbi Goldschmidt's deportation was connected with FEOR: "They said, 'We're all rabbis, we wouldn't do a thing like that just before Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement, to be marked on 13 October 2005)'."

Instead, while emphasising that he had no firm proof, Golenpolsky suggested that the situation was connected with a dispute between Goldschmidt and the Russian Jewish Congress – to which Goldschmid's Choral Synagogue is affilated - under its latest president, Vladimir Sluzker, elected to the post in 16 November 2004.

Golenpolsky explained to Forum 18 that a building on the other side of Upper Spasoglinishchevsky Lane from the Choral Synagogue and now occupied by the Russian Jewish Congress was originally bought by Vladimir Gusinsky when he was the organisation's president in the 1990s. The building, which is on the books of the Choral Synagogue, was at first designated as a Jewish orphanage, he said, but this was changed to that of Jewish community centre when it was decided that the city centre location was not appropriate for children. Golenpolsky added that the Congress was supposed to be based there temporarily, but that Sluzker now refused to allow Goldschmidt's community to use any part of the building, "even though there's plenty of room."

It was about this situation that Goldschmidt complained to the Rabbinical Court in Israel some three months ago, said Golenpolsky, and on 27 September – the same day that the Moscow rabbi was deported from Russia – the court ruled that the Congress should not prevent Goldschmidt or Shayevich from entering the disputed building. "Goldschmidt has been in and out of Russia every 15 minutes," Golenpolsky remarked, "and this comes slap bang after the court's decision, so you begin to put two and two together."

Golenpolsky also pointed to Goldschmidt's comments in the foreign media about a January 2005 petition sent to Russia's public prosecutor. The petition, whose 500 signatures included those of 19 Russian parliamentarians, called for a ban on all Jewish religious and national organisations in Russia on the basis of allegedly extremist sentiments in the sixteenth-century Shulkhan Arukh Jewish law code. In late June 2005 Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz reported that Goldschmidt was "astonished" by Russian procuracy officials' interrogation of KEROOR's Rabbi Zinovy Kogan about the text.

At the same time, having offered his own commentary on Shulkhan Arukh to Russian broadsheet Izvestiya, Goldschmidt remarked to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA): "It's ironic that I'm going into the role of my predecessor, Rabbi Yakov Maze." This is a reference to the Moscow chief rabbi who testified on matters of Jewish law in defence of Mendel Beilis, who was accused of ritual murder of a young boy in Kiev in 1912. Goldschmidt also remarked to JTA that "the issues that were at stake during the Beilis trial back then came back to haunt Russia today" and "whether we want it or not, religious anti-Semitism has already become a prime factor in the upcoming elections."

In what Golenpolsky believes is directed against Goldschmidt's comments, Vladimir Sluzker published the following statement on the Russian Jewish Congress website on 5 July: "Unfortunately, it must be said that the fact that investigation of the materials [of Shulkhan Arukh] took place was presented to the international Jewish community as a report about a supposed criminal case against its publishers and distributors. Clarification of the circumstances and expert analysis was presented as interrogations within the context of an investigation. All this led to the disinformation of national and international Jewish organisations in Europe and the USA. In Israel, the irresponsible actions of individual representatives of the Moscow Jewish community sparked a broad campaign of protest against non-existent facts."

While the January petition was retracted by its authors, they submitted a second with 5,000 signatures approximately a month later. In June, while confirming that Shulkhan Arukh "hurts the feelings" of non-Jews, Russia's public prosecutor refused to open a criminal case against either Jewish organisations in Russia or the authors of the petition, whom Jewish representatives accused of inciting religious hatred.

Both FEOR and the Russian Jewish Congress have publicly condemned Goldschmidt's deportation. FEOR spokesman Borukh Gorin told Interfax on 28 September that his organisation was ready "to render every possible assistance to Rabbi Goldschmidt", adding that "if we are talking about a conflict within the community, it is absolutely outrageous and inadmissible to use such ways to settle accounts."

In a statement posted on the Russian Jewish Congress website on the same day, Vladimir Sluzker said that he was "deeply concerned" that Goldschmidt had not been admitted to Russia, describing him as "an authoritative spiritual leader who has made an invaluable contribution to developing the Jewish community in Russia." He also stated that he had made an official enquiry to the Russian Foreign Ministry and hoped that Goldschmidt would be able to continue his work in Russia. In a comment to Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta in the wake of the deportation, Sluzker said that "there is in principle no conflict" with Goldschmidt's community over the use of property by the Russian Jewish Congress.

With Goldschmidt still in Israel, Golenpolsky told Forum 18 that Rabbi Shayevich led the New Year celebrations at Moscow Choral Synagogue. The Moscow rabbi plans to apply for a new religious work visa following Yom Kippur, he said.

Rabbi Goldschmidt is the 53rd foreign religious worker [and the first Jew] known to Forum 18 to have been denied entry to Russian since March 1998.

What May Be Behind The Rabbi Goldschmidt Ban

What might lie at the heat of the banning from Russia of Moscow's chief rabbi Pinkhas Goldschmidt? Perhaps this, excerpted from an article he wrote last month for the International Herald Tribune, shortly before leaving Russia for a trip to Israel:

Following in the illustrious footsteps of his predecessor John Paul II, and as a worthy heir to John XXIII, Pope Benedict has opened his arms to Jews around the world.

And we, in our turn, wish to open our arms to those of the Catholic faith.

As the greatest experts on earth on religious survival as a besieged minority, we can help Catholic believers to retain their human dignity, their human rights, their religious freedom, their right to be different, their right to hold on to their beliefs in the face of emerging existential threats.

We, the Jewish people, are reaching out to the Catholic Church in brotherhood. Let us try to start the third millennia of Jewish-Christian relations with renewed hope and mutual goodwill, and also with mutual respect and dignity.

If we are both to survive among the oldest civilizations on earth, we must rise to meet the daunting challenges, both internal and external, that are facing us.

The trick used to annul Rabbi Goldschmidt's visa had previously been used only to bar Catholic and Evangelical religious leaders from Russia. Rabbi Goldschmidt's reaching out to Catholics – who, like Evangelicals are persecuted minorties in Russia – may have been the tipping point. Putin has no tolerence for Catholics. He also detests Rabbi Goldschmidt because of the rabbi's support of democracy. As noted earlier, Rabbi Goldschmidt is an enemy of Chabad and it's 'chief rabbi' Berel Lazar. Lazar is Putin's lap dog. The banning of Rabbi Goldschmidt is good for both of them. You do the math.

Gil Student And The 'Art' Of Censorship #2

Rabbi Gil Student has again banned all comments from me. The details of that ban are found in the updated section of the post immediately below this one.

Rabbi Goldschmidt Must Be Backed By FJC And Lazar To Enter Russia

Interfax reports on the "reason" behing the banning of Berel Lazar's rabbinic rival, Moscow's Chief Rabbi Pinkhas Goldschmidt, from Russia by the Putin government:

Moscow, September 28, Interfax - The Russian Foreign Ministry is investigating the motives behind a decision to cancel an entry-visa issued to Moscow Choral Synagogue Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, ministry spokesman Mikhail Troyansky told Interfax on Wednesday.

"At the moment, we are investigating the circumstances surrounding the annulment of Rabbi Goldschmidt's visa", Troyansky said.

A Moscow source told Interfax that Russia recently adopted new visa regulations for foreign clergymen.

The new rules allow clergymen from abroad to come to Russia for religious activities only at the invitation of an officially registered centralized religious organization, he said.

The source said that Goldschmidt is reported to have been invited to Russia by a business group.

Sources in Moscow told Interfax that Goldschmidt, who arrived at Moscow's Domodedovo airport from Israel on September 27, was not allowed to enter Russia and was forced to return to Israel.

Putin only recognizes Chabad and its front group the Federation of Jewish Communities (FJC). That would appear to mean that Rabbi Goldschmidt, Moscow's long-serving Chief Rabbi and a pro-democracy opponent of Putin and Lazar, would only be allowed back into Russia if he is officially invited by Lazar's Chabad-controlled FJC.

Putin is an anti-democratic thug. Lazar and Chabad are his lap dogs. So far, the Jewish media is silent.

UPDATE: Miriam Shaviv has an interesting take on this development here.

Putin Bars Non-Chabad Chief Rabbi From Russia

Moscow's Chief Rabbi – an opponent of Chabad, Putin's pro-Stalin, anti-democracy movement, and Chabad's self-appointed 'chief rabbi' of Russia Berel Lazar – was barred from returning to Russia after a trip to Israel by Russian border guards. The AP and Ha'aretz report:

The chief rabbi of Moscow's main synagogue said Russian border guards had denied him entry to the country on Tuesday when he returned from a trip to Israel.

Rabbi Pinkhas Goldschmidt, speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio, urged the authorities to review his case and let him return to Russia.

He said the border guards told him that his Russian visa had been annulled, but gave no further explanation. He flew back to Israel after being denied entry.

Goldschmidt, chief rabbi at the Moscow Choral Synagogue, said he hoped the incident was a misunderstanding.

Adolf Shayevich, Russia's chief rabbi, said that his Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations asked the Foreign Ministry for an explanation of what happened to Goldschmidt but had not yet received an answer.

"It was unexpected for all of us, since he never has had any problems," Shayevich told Ekho Moskvy.

It seems clear – Putin bans a political opponent and does a favor for Chabad at the same time. And the Jewish media? If past examples are any indication of the future,  expect near silence. What you do read will probably contain a quote from Lazar supporting Goldschmidt. Lazar may even 'intercede' with the Foreign Ministry. Then, if Goldschmidt is allowed back in, Lazar can claim to have helped. And if not, Lazar did his 'best.' But Chabad's long campaign to crush rabbis not under its direct control will not be reported in any detail. Too many uncomfortable threats come with printing uncomfortable news.

UPDATE: Miriam Shaviv has Ma'ariv's take – which largely agrees with mine – here.

Satmar Threatens NYC Mayor Over Circumcision Controversy – Mohel Still Refusing To Cooperate With NYC Health Officials

The Forward's Steven I. Weiss reports:

The controversy over a disputed circumcision ritual could affect the mayor's race in New York City, as some members of the Hasidic community are promising to protest any restrictions placed on the mohel in question.

Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer has been the subject of an investigation by the city's health department since three infants tested positive for herpes simplex, one of whom later died. At issue is whether Fischer transmitted the virus to the infants via direct oral suction of the circumcision wound — a method known as metzitzah b'peh, a traditional ritual still prevalent in many Orthodox communities.

Since the investigation was first revealed in February, the department has obtained a court-issued temporary restraining order "consented to by the mohel" that "prevents him from performing the metzitzah b'peh," according to a lawyer heading the city's legal action on the case. The attorney added that "the proceeding brought by the city to compel the mohel to provide a blood sample has been adjourned several times."

The health department and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have stated repeatedly at meetings with ultra-Orthodox leaders that a general ban on the practice is not in the cards. One such meeting, with 22 Hasidic rabbis, took place August 11 at City Hall.

Rabbi Hillel Weinberg of the Central Rabbinical Congress, a Satmar organization, attended the meeting and told the Forward that Bloomberg "says that he's not considering" a ban on the practice. However, Weinberg added, the Satmar community would consider any restriction placed on Fischer to be a ban and would cause a reaction that could hurt Bloomberg at the polls in the upcoming election.…

The issue of regulating some or all ritual circumcisers as a means of preventing herpes is a complicated issue, since an estimated 90% of the American population carries the antibodies for the virus and it is hard — perhaps impossible — to predict which individuals are more likely than others to spread it. Some groups, including the Modern Orthodox-dominated Rabbinical Council of America, have recommended using a sterile tube and gloves to avoid direct oral contact — but that option has been rejected by Hasidic sects and by [many] other ultra-Orthodox communities as religiously unacceptable.

See this article for a rundown of the four major halakhic positions on metzitza b'peh.

The Legacy Of Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Chana Gourary, eldest daughter of the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn and sister-in-law of the 7th rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, after being beaten by a hasid of the 7th rebbe. Mrs. Gourary was then in her mid-eighties.

In a discussion on Mentalblog, the beating of Chana Gourary by a Lubavitcher hasid was mentioned. Chana, the daughter of the 6th rebbe of Lubavitch and the sister-in-law of the 7th and then current rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, then in her mid-eighties, was beaten on Shabbat by a student of the central Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva. Mrs. Gourary's husband, Rabbi Shmaryahu Gourary, had been the operations head of the yeshiva since its days in Poland before WW2.

Why was Mrs. Gourary beaten?

Because, as one of the two surviving children of the 6th rebbe and as the mother of his only grandchild, Mrs. Gourary wanted her family's share of the 6th rebbe's estate. The 7th rebbe, Mendel Schneerson, opposed this. When it became clear that Mrs. Gourary and her son Barry were taking items from the estate, the Rebbe became infuriated and spoke out against the 'thieves.'  An enraged follower then went to Mrs. Gourary's apartment and assulted her.

The Rebbe refused to go to a neutral beit din to resolve the dispute and, instead, in violation of normative halakha, brought the case to secular court which eventually found that the estate belonged to 'all hasidim' and was not the personal property of the 6th rebbe or his descendants – a decision that would not have been reached in an impartial beit din. To this day, Chabad keeps much of the meat of the estate under lock and key, unavailable for viewing by researchers and hasidim alike – hardly the public use the secular court envisioned.

After the attacker left her apartment, a badly injured Chana Gourary phoned her sister Chaya Mussia, the Rebbe's wife, for help. It was Shabbat. Phones are not used or answered. Yet Chana called and Chaya Mussia answered the phone. This was before caller ID or special ring tones. Chaya Mussia got help.

Word of the attack spread through Crown Heights. Chabad 'authorities' quickly put the attacker in seclusion and, on Shabbat, arranged for a flight to Israel on the first available plane. By the time the police arrived looking for him, the attacker was already out of US airspace. He married and lives a normal life in Israel as part of the Chabad-Lubavitch community there. He has not been shamed or ostricized in any way.

In the 1970's an elder member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Va'ad HaRabbonim refused a direct request from the Rebbe to excommunicate an Israeli politician who had disregarded the Rebbe's wishes. Rabbi Rivkin pointed out that there were no halakhic grounds for the excommunication and respectfully refused to do the Rebbe's bidding. Similar to what would happen in the Gourary case, the Rebbe publicly and viciously spoke out against the one who would not sign. The Rebbe also posted the excommunication order signed by the other members of the Va'ad HaRabbonim so it would be clear to all who that "one" was.

Rabbi Rivkin was spit on in the streets, called a Nazi, had his home covered with graffiti, his windows broken. He received late-night harassing phone calls. He was threatened. An elderly man, Rabbi Rivkin could not handle the strain. He had a stroke, fell down his stairs and died.

The Rebbe denied his hasidim had any role in the harassment of Rabbi Rivkin, an odd contention because, a) The Rebbe himself publicly and in direct violation of Jewish law harassed Rabbi Rivkin, and b) much of the graffiti was in Yiddish. No one who learns Chabad hasiddus could do such a thing, the Rebbe told reporters. Only a few years later, another hasid of the Rebbe, a man who studied in his yeshiva and learned much Chabad hasidut, beat a defenseless elderly woman to the point of death.

As before, the Rebbe was unmoved and unrepentant.

Ha'aretz: Pulsa Dinura Ceremony Fake, Invented By Neturei Karta

Shahar Illan has an article in today's Ha'aretz debunking the Pulsa Dinura ('kabbalistic' death curse) ceremony. It seems that the 'ancient' ritual was made up 50 years ago by a leader of the haredim:

It should be recalled that the Haredi newspaper "Mishpacha" (Family) published three months ago the results of a study that found that there was no kabbalistic basis for the pulsa denura ceremony. It is a ceremony that was invented in the early years of Israel's statehood by one of the then-leaders of the Haredi public, who made an especially dramatic adaptation of the good old excommunication ceremony. Excommunication isn't such a scary matter, but pulsa denura sounds at least as mysterious as a voodoo rite. And all the rest is folklore.

Who was that haredi leader? Rabbi Amram Blau, the leader of the vehemently anti-Zionist fringe group Neturei Karta.

So, the "Pulsa Dinura" ceremony is really a version of a 15th century excommunication rite:

And an article by Dov Schwartz and Moshe Blau, on the origins of the Pulsa deNura ceremony. As my friend Blau explained it to me, the content of the ceremony is the excommunication formula which was published in the Sefer Kolbo (though not in Orhot Hayim. I told him to check the manuscripts of OH, which contain an entire section that was not published). The scary name and mystical trappings were added by his great-uncle, Amram Blau, as a tool in his various political struggles.

(To answer a question posed by Miriam Shaviv, excommunication must take place during the day, preferably at noon, just like any other Beit Din / court procedure.)

(First seen on Bloghead.)

Was It All About Extortion? Why Russia Really Tried To "Ban" The Code Of Jewish Law

The JTA reports:

Following a storm of protest from Jewish groups and Israeli politicians, Russian officials have dropped a probe into a Russian Jewish group for publishing a religious Jewish book.

But Russian and U.S. Jewish officials warn that those interested in human rights should remain vigilant to prevent similar incidents in the future.

“The fact that the prosecutors have been seriously considering that case for a long time, isn’t that a reason for us to be concerned?” said Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, chairman of the [non-Chabad] Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Communities of Russia, the group that was the subject of the probe.…

The probe was opened after an anti-Semitic letter was circulated earlier this year attacking the text of the Shulchan Aruch legal code as extremist and anti-Christian. The congress has published a short version of the medieval Jewish text.

The probe astonished Israeli officials and heads of international Jewish groups, who said it reminded them of religious persecution under the czar and of religious disputations foisted on Jews by the Catholic church in medieval times.

Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, said it’s still unknown what prompted the incident.

“We’re all pleased that the investigation was dropped, but it doesn’t answer the question of why the investigation was started in the first place,” he said. “This is the type of issue that shouldn’t occur in a society that is trying to promote tolerance and pluralism.”

Levin said his group will emphasize in its meetings with Russian government officials that these types of probes are unacceptable.

Direct pressure on Russia from Israel, local and foreign Jewish groups led to the decision to drop the case, observers in Moscow suggested.

Israeli and Russian media also noted that the news on dropping the probe was released during a visit to Moscow by Israel’s trade minister, Ehud Olmert. Olmert was in Moscow for talks on economic relations between the two countries.…

Again, do the math:

1. No probe could have been launched if Putin objected.
2. Putin's government reacted weakly to the probe as it has to other antisemitic incidents.
3. The announcement of the probe and of its "dropping" were timed to coincide with Olmert's visit.
4. Olmert's visit was about trade between the two countries.
5. Most graft and skimming done by senior Russian government officials is done from trade revenue.

Something's rotten in Moscow and Chabad's "chief rabbi" is covering for it.

UPDATE: The Forward's coverage does not mention Olmert's role or the timing of the probe. It does, however, appear to give Lazar undue credit for ending it:

The controversy over the investigation comes amid reports of growing Russian antisemitism and claims that government authorities have failed to mount a serious enough response to the trend. Some critics blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin, with a few observers even suggesting that the Kremlin had hoped to demand something from Israel in return for halting the investigation. But the leading Chabad official in the former Soviet Union and one of Russia's two chief rabbis — Berel Lazar — has forged close relations with Putin. At least in this case, the rabbi's influence appears to have paid off.

"We spoke to the prosecutor general of Russia and we explained it to him clearly, that in today's age, to come out with such claims on Jewish texts... it's really senseless," Lazar told the Forward. "In no way does [the code] affect today the relationship between Jews and non-Jews."

Lazar, who heads the Chabad-dominated Federation of Jewish Communities of the former Soviet Union, intervened even though the organization under investigation is aligned with the rival Russian Jewish Congress and includes Reform, Modern Orthodox and secular components.…

Lazar also used his interview with the Forward to cover for Putin:

Lazar, however, claims that Putin is committed to the Jewish community.

"I think it's not a secret of the relationship the president has with the Jewish community in general," Lazar said in a telephone interview with the Forward. "I must say that lately, after his trip to Israel and me standing by him throughout the visits, it's not a secret here in Russia."

So, Berl Lazar becomes the "hero" of this sorry episode, Israel's role is reduced to a minor footnote, and Lazar uses his "stature" as a "hero" to promote (i.e., kasher) Putin. Does this sound familiar?

 

How To Oppose Disengagement Thug (And Chabad) Style

How to oppose Disengagement thug (and Chabad) style. Note the sick use of small children:

Several dozen protesters, all of them children and teenagers, dashed into the road and stopped traffic in both directions. Police dragged about 10 protesters into a van. The protesters resisted and several escaped.

A few minutes earlier, children under the age of 10 sat on the road, chanting "Jews do not evict Jews," the slogan of the pullout opponents, slowing traffic.

…Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had instructed police and security forces to take all the necessary measures to prevent road blockages and publilc disturbances by right-wing activists.

"We will not allow a fellowship of gangs to drag the country downhill," Sharon told ministers during a cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday.

… "If there is one weak, dangerous, loose link that is guilty of this whole violent struggle, it is the Yesha Council," said Sharon aide Lior Horev. "They are acting like ostriches, looking the other way and taking no responsibility for the people whom they sent to the Gaza Strip, to that bloody hotel, and that girl who kicked the soldier in the head at the beginning of the week today, and today, people who are endangering people's lives."

One of the drivers whose tires were punctured, Gilad Levy, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Kedumim and an opponent of the disengagement, voiced strong criticism of the activists' actions.

"There are not the people of Yesha. These are members of the extreme right, with whom Yesha has no connection. They want to inflame passions like those whom are occupying the hotel in Gush Katif," a reference to young activists, many of them from the West Bank, who have barricaded themselves in former hotel in a settlement area of the Gaza Strip.

"They're guys with simply nothing to do, guys who are bored."

The oil and nails were strewn at two sites on the highway, one at the Shappirim junction, the other near Kfar Chabad, a focal point of anti-disengagement activity.

Chabad's Kadesha Puts Out For Aguch

Chabad's very own kadesha, Sue Fishkoff, has written a piece for the JTA on the fight for control of Chabad's main synagogue, 770. But in typical Fishkoff fashion, the article leaves out any hint of the true scope of Chabad messianism and at the same time makes it appear as if 770's gabboim do not represent the Crown Heights Community – a strange contention since all three were elected to their positions, and that election took place after this latest controversy surfaced.

Fishkoff has made lots of money off her paean to Chabad, The Rebbe's Army, and perhaps even more money from speaking fees garnered from Chabad Houses worldwide, where she is an often-featured, well-paid speaker.

Neither Fishkoff or the JTA disclose this lucrative relationship – a relationship dependent on Fishkoff's continued whitewashing of Chabad's darker side.

Fishkoff is a kadesha, impure and simple.

Interview With A Russian Totalitarian Thug: Chabad 'Chief' Rabbi Berel Lazar's Spokesman

Tzemach Atlas has an interview with Boruch Gorin, Russian 'Chief Rabbi' Berel Lazar's spokesperson. In it, Gorin denies the Federation of Jewish Communities acts on behalf of Chabad and then justifies all questionable FJC actions by citing Chabad policy. What a thug.

Chief Rabbi Amar – Has A Deal Been Made? What Was Shimon Peres Doing With Meir Amar?

Ynet is reporting that Meir Amar, the estranged son of Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar who is reported to be underworld-connected and has no permanent address, visited his mother two days after the kidnapping and torture of his sister's boyfriend. Both Meir Amar and his mother have been indicted.

But, as Ynet reports, Meir Amar did not come alone:

Despite her claim to investigators to have only had passing contact with Meir, her son visited her a second time just two days later together with Labor Party leader Shimon Peres.

While a police report had been filed and police were investigating the crimes, no newspaper or television reports of the crimes had yet surfaced. In other words, the leader of the Labor party appears to have known about the police investigation before it was public knowledge.

What was Shimon Peres doing at the Amar household in the company of Meir "no-permanent-address" Amar?

Ladies and gentlemen, the fix seems to be in. No wonder Rabbi Amar escaped indictment.

Chief Rabbi's Wife, Son Indicted In Kidnapping, Torture Case – Rabbi Blames Son

The wife and son of Israel's Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar have been indicted for kidnapping and beating the boyfriend of Rabbi Amar's 18-year-old daughter.

Rabbi Amar had this to say about the indictments:

"My wife and I raised our children according to the belief that violence is wrong in all shapes and forms," the chief rabbi said. "I am saddened that my son Meir got into this situation I love him and pray to God that he will return to our family. I am also deeply saddened by the decision to press charges against my wife and am certain with my heart and soul that she was totally unaware of Meir intentions. I am also certain that in the end she will be found innocent."

However, this is what actually appears to have taken place:

[Meir] Amar, his friends from Kalansua and another friend of theirs, Ayala and the boy then drove to the chief rabbi's house in Jerusalem. Amar spoke to his father [the Chief Rabbi] and mother while the boy, his "guards" and their friend sat in the living room.

Mazal Amar-Sabag then went to the kitchen to make coffee for her son and his friends. From there she could see the boy in the living room with his captors. At 7:30 a.m., Meir Amar ordered the boy to leave the home, told him not to return to Jerusalem until 2007, not to carry a cellular phone, and not to have anything to do with girls for two years. He also told the boy that if he went to the police, they would kill him.

And then, this:

Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said he knew all along that the chief rabbi would not be charged in the affair. "The day is not far away when the rabanit will be cleared of the charges against her," Yishai said.

Does anyone really believe that if Rabbi Amar was a bricklayer or makolet owner instead of a Chief Rabbi with major political connections he would not be indicted?

Rabbi Elyashiv Seeks To Destroy Chief Rabbinate, Journalist Says – Facts Support Allegation

The Forward has a good overview of the charges and allegations surrounding both of Israel's Chief Rabbis.

Best and most accurate quote comes from Ha'aretz's Shahar Ilan:

Metzger's victory was reported at the time to have been fueled by strong support from the leading figure in the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who is considered by many Orthodox Jews around the world to be the final authority in rabbinic law.

Elyashiv's followers said they were backing Metzger despite his weaknesses because of his promised loyalty to Elyashiv on rabbinic law matters. Critics, however, grumbled that the ultra-Orthodox sage pushed the weaker candidate in order to discredit the institution of the state rabbinate. "Elyashiv supported the travesty that is Metzger because he wanted to thwart Ariel, but also because he wanted to embarrass the chief rabbinical post into oblivion," said Shahar Ilan, religious-affairs reporter of the daily Ha'aretz.

Judaism's Black Pope strikes again.

Tzemach Atlas Finds Himself In Quasi-Excommunication After Criticizing Chabad

Tzemach Atlas has been banned from receiving aliyot (and presumably from other communal functions) by his synagogue. Why? He publicly criticized Chabad.