Dragons Are Real

Dragons are real, folks, miracles happen, and there is a God in heaven – or so it seems. The evil charlatan rabbi was finally driven out of town and defrocked.
True, for twenty years he was allowed to drag his frocked belly and fedora all over the globe, lecturing everyone about piety and charity, all the while embezzling millions and proudly declaring “frock you!” to all the world – laughing all the way to the Swiss bank.

You have to understand, we are a tolerant folk. His rabbinical highness, maran hagaon hakadosh, rosh Yeshivas Kol Yaakov of Monsey, Reb Yehuda Leib Tropper Shlit”a was not some sort of hardened criminal. All in all, he only transgressed the requirement of “pirko noeh”. It’s not like he played a wild guitar solo a-la Jimmy Page, or that he had internet in his home, chas veshalom. Kol sheken vekal vachomer he didn’t preach any type of kfirah such as evolution. Those crimes usually grant an instant cherem, having your kids thrown out of school and being driven out of town immediately. Such crimes are clearly a danger to Klal Yisorel and the future of Torah-True Judaism, as well as True-Torah Judaism. Such severe aieiros are labeled shikutz, toei’vah, miuss.

But a lack of “Pirko no’eh” is nisht so geferlach. It’s not as bad as, let’s say, converting people on a conveyor belt, for example. Or defrauding millions from naïve philanthropists – and a charity fund or two as well. In fact, I want to inform people like Avi Weiss, Slifkin, Lipa Shmeltzer, that they are really stupid. If you want the pashkevilim, Yated editors and others off your backs, just steal a couple million dollars, do some uh, umm, huh huh, uh scoring, and huh huh, you’ll be okay.

By the way – breaking news – the Sages of Chelm came out with a new Paskevil. I know you won’t believe me, but I’m tellin’ ya, dragons are real. They came out with a pashkevil that actually makes sense: no drinking and driving on purim! Mamma mia, now that’s a chidush! How they came up with this unfathomable discovery, I don’t know, and I’m sure dazzled that the DOJ is even more machmir, since they asser drinking & driving all year long, not just on Purim.

Dragons are real, I’m tellin’ ya!



© Joseph Izrael 2010

Innocent Exile

Gevald!
Today die rusha guyim arrist many many frum yidden wiz die fols acuze of “monee londer”. Of corse, dis iz oll a big lie, dis iz die blod leebel of die 21st cintury. Even the hailiga Ari Teitelbaum and Duvid Twerski sed so. And evin if dey did it, dey didn’t do it to buy a yacht, they did it for tzduka. Diz goyim are big rashas, and dey did a big rashsal profiling. If dis was schwartzes or Mexicaner dey would never arrist dem. But for yiddin rahsa profiling is good? Vhy? Ve are going to appil to our bilovid prisident Obama so he give us pardon and mididcaid and hell care riform. Vi tell Obama to kill oll dis rasist mudirn ortodoxes who make up lies aginst our heliga kehila. Evrione who biliv dis and say it over is abig chillil hashaim and speek a big lushen hure!

This is what you’ll hear now for a while, and of course Alfred Rosenberg Jr., David Dukelesey and ADov HitBear will harp on for a while. They’ll explain you how the real Taliban (haredim) all live this way and it’s all because they don’t accept evolution and they deny the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu was a Nazi who ordered massacres and gang rapes (Dovtor Mengele actually wrote this on her blog). Also, it’s all part of Bush’s illegal Spying On Innocent Civilians ™ program, in order to take revenge on the kikes for voting against him. They’ll swear that The Yeshiva World refused to report on it, and besides it was only the frenkim from Deal who were implicated.
And don’t miss out on the Retired Retard from Chicago ™ (Also known as Hairless Mary or Harry Blogger, the Half-Brain Prince and his Daily Hollows) who will explain how it all happened because these haredi perps didn’t grow up on Hatikva and were depraved cheesy Disney cartoons on TV. Oh, yes, and they also don’t stand during the siren on Yom Hashoah. How terrible. So now it all came back to them.

Of course, don’t expect anyone to take the sober stance that condemning “bad influences” only in the forms of immodest dressing and “goyische music” is idiotic, to say the least. Besides the fact that the holy mothers from Williamsburg and Kiryas Joel can look like echt zoines all the while conforming to all the Deniers, millimeters and hair origins, there are many ways in which we are influenced by the rusha goyim. The worship of Money Moloch is not new, but openly flaunting an extravagant lifestyle is relatively new – and it happened with nary a word from any Gadol – all mosdos depend on Mr. Rich Guy, after all. Let’s not forget the new blue-blooded caste, the heiliga Kollel Avreichim who are moser nefesh for the Torah – with Kollelim now offering free housing (Pessach kitchen included) and late-model minivans with power doors on both sides (a necessity for busy avreichim who pick up their kids during the 2-hour Kollel break). Of course, eating the glatt kosher schmor and having it too comes at a price, and what better way to help yourself to a schmeer of chopped liver than to schmeer a little receipt here and a little politician there.

The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim siman תקעב' & on) describes the Tshuva and Taanios procedures following a drought. One of the Bais Din’s actions described (תקעו ס' טז) is “...וחוקרים על בעלי חמס ועבירות ומפרישין אותן ועל בעלי זרוע ומשפילין אותן... – to investigate extorters and evildoers and confine them, and humble aggressive and brutal people”. I guess since now we have rain in abundance, the course of action is a Tehillim marathon to save the unjustly arrested innocent tsaddikim. I just can’t wait for the next Tznius takanah to fend off any further unjust arrests.


© Joseph Izrael 2009

You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise

Sometimes one can see a silver lining to a very dark cloud.
It is heartwarming to see how organizations that are at odds with one another – and quite often at each other’s throats (preferably about petty quibbles and power plays) unite in times of dire to help the clal.
So you can imagine how warm my blackened heart felt when I saw the posters of the Parnassa intitative in shul, outlining their different ways to help in difficult times.

Isn’t it great that our leaders take the time and effort to help with employment and business initiatives? And even able to put aside their ideological wars for a while to mend our scars?

Unfortunately, it only happens after the fact. How long have I been screaming about leaders ignoring the impending fiscal dangers? Why was everyone silent about abusing the system, hiring illegal aliens and living an irresponsible lifestyle of drunken sailors?
Not one poster, not one word, not one warning, and of course, chas vesholem, no union of JWF (Jewish Warring Factions) to asser –or at least warn- about the housing scam. No. The venerable rabbis sat idle as they got fat on donations from real-estate scammers. No one cared that the house of cards was bound to collapse. Not one suggested that Jewish businesses employ Jewish people to do the menial jobs – no Parnossah fund was established to fill the gap between what American workers ask and what employers pay to illegal immigrants.

But thankfully the satellite circus just rolled into town. The Council Of The Sages Of Chelm have united to help you: free gmachs to start a business – the way to help us out of the hailed “economic crisis”! That’s right raboisai, now that the water’s overhead, the free loan fund will bail out the freeloaders, and the business loan initiative will give 5 grand to those who have enough dishonest friends to co-sign the loan.
I just keep wondering, how these clairvoyants invariably fail to see what’s coming, and refuse to act before it’s too late? Are our wise rabbis in lockstep with the lowliest of politicians, or is it vice versa? So here you have it, the frum version of Obama’s Stalinist payback-ransack bill. And the same old usurpation of Jews’ love of hessed to benefit ganefs who will be the only ones to benefit from the Parnossah initiative.

If the “עיני העדה” are themselves blind, why do they have to be followed?
___________________________________________________________________________________
Since I don’t want to be only negative, I have a few real suggestions to ease the burden & the hurt of the economic crisis:

Entice real estate owners to let people live in their houses for very cheap. There are hundreds upon hundreds of houses standing empty for over two years, yet the prices are not going down. Why? Because the owners know that their politicians will prevent the properties from being confiscated. The real estate gangs stick together to keep prices inflated. The rabbis know, but they need to make a living, too. Tell them to sell the houses at low prices instead of taxpayers having to bail them out.

Second: publish a kol korei signed by the biggest rabbis unequivocally prohibiting the hiring of illegal immigrants. Let frum people pack orders at Kosher supermarkets, and establish a fund to make up the difference between what the employer pays and what they (reasonably) expect.

Third: make all school/yeshiva operators open their books. Parents are choking, teachers are not being paid, and rosh Yeshivas are parading in brand new SUVs and go on vacations in Florida. I want to know where the money comes from. They have an obligation to pay employees before taking profits. The amount of blood, sweat and tears they invested in the yeshiva is no excuse. If you’re a ganef, you can’t be a rosh yeshiva. (ooops, all Yeshivas would have to close…)

Fourth: unconditionally and unequivocally asser to give tzedakah to unknown individuals, or without solid proof that they are entitled to collect tzedakah. I had enough of snot-nosed hassidsh kids shaking their hands in my face asking for “hacnossas kallah” – meaning their own chassunah, coming up in four years. Yes, they do it and it is totally accepted in hassidish circles. Stupid jews fund the hassidim’s shtreimels and Escalades, thinking they do a mitzvah.

Fifth: relax your insane contraceptive rules. David Twerski, the führer of new square, prohibits any and all contraception in any and all case – yes, even if it is known the couple is genetically incompatible.

Sixth: prevent multiple small businesses to compete over one small clientele instead of uniting and opening a larger one. This is mostly due to typical Jewish factioneering.

Lastly, stop the insane price gouging in frum stores. Stop the punitive rent from frum real estate moguls, and tell shopkeepers you’ll discourage your parishioners from patronize them if they don’t sell for a fair price. I’m willing to pay pay 2%-6% more for clothing in a frum store instead of the mall. But not 10%-40%, that’s insane.

Finally – can someone tell me why all the sponsors on the bottom of the posters were from the food industry? 5 brownie points for the right answer.


© Joseph Izrael 2008

Fistful Of Diamonds

You may remember my previous fuming and ranting on the subject.
My wife showed me a beautiful article yesterday: Kiryas Yoel is the poorest place in the USA – median income $15K/YR. To weep, mamish.

Welfare programs are necessary to keep poor people afloat – whether disabled, down on their luck, or even to a certain extent lazy people, as they are part of our society, whether we like it or not. And the rich benefit from it just as they benefit from roads being maintained: it keeps crime rates lower, and helps poor people shop in cheap stores like NWL owned by rich taxpayers. So the poor people are part and parcel of the “economic food chain”.

But this big, bad, mean, cruel capitalist US of KKK-A offers the best welfare and social help programs in the world. Full health coverage – including free taxi (both ways) to your doctor of choice – yes, even if such a doctor is available next door, if you like the one 80 miles away, you’ve got it. Welfare checks, WIC (basic food for Women, Infants and Children in low income households – the easiest program to qualify for), food stamps, HEAP benefits will cover your utilities, and section 8 will pay your rent. And such runaway handouts are simply addictive, and kill the incentive to find jobs or build businesses.

Of course, in order to qualify for all these programs and live like a king (in your own home on sec. 8!) you’ve gotta give something up – just your honesty. If you’re willing to cheat, lie, steal from your “fellow” taxpayers – and help certain politicians hold office for life – you’ll qualify for all these programs, no questions asked.

I hereby gracefully bid you join me to the aforementioned fortress of sanctity, piety and modesty. Here you will see the holy mothers of 14, clad in fist-sized diamond earrings, $2000 fur coats, $300 Gucci teichels, $400 crocodile shoes and purses, pushing $800 bugaboos (a new one for each new baby). All this on a mere 15,000 dollars. Did I mention the gigantic breakfronts with dozens of pounds of sterling silver? The tasteless, repulsive, grotesque yet ultra-expensive furniture? The shtreimels (winter, summer, fleischig, milchig, pessach, sukkos, etc.,) and different outfits. Did I mention most couples are legally divorced to reap some more single mom benefits and alimony? Did I tell you the different therapies offered by the county are gobbled up and used as babysitting service?
They’re not poor because they have so many children. They have so many children because they can easily afford it, at other people’s expense. And contrary to delusional morons’ claims, their neighbors are fully aware of what they do. The people who certify them for the programs see their extravagant jewelry and clothing. Not only do they beat the system – they do it openly, with arrogance and an in-your-face attitude.

The problem is not that there are poor people. The problem is not that there are such frauds. The problem is that it’s systematic and their establishment rests on it. That’s how the Rebbe’s court can continue to exist – as long as you keep the uniform and the formalities, anything goes. That’s how the shul, the kollel, the cheider, the tznius patrol, the girlschool, the gmach and the yeshiva survive. And that’s how peer pressure corrupts the honest, and crushes those who refuse to cheat. And that’s how many people who really need the help don’t qualify. That’s why so many roads are broken and neglected (roads don’t vote, remember). That’s how many children who really need help are denied therapy.

Go ask your posek whether your income taxes qualify for maaser, since they feed the hungry hassidim.
When is the last time you heard any rabbi denounce this massive theft? I’m sure as soon as they fix the frivolous not-thick-enough-stockings problem, the rampant plague of yeshiva boys buying pizza at 9:30PM and the atrocity of kids arriving 6 minutes late for shacharis, they will immediately fix the problem.
Unless, of course, they decide to sue the government for not providing chalak Bais Yossef to innocent victims of false child molestation charges in prison first.

Yeah, I also want a fistful of diamonds.


© Joseph Izrael 2008

Blind Eye

“Blider than the blind eye
This is man's desire”
Blind Eye, Uriah Heep (The Magician's Birthday, 1972)

Some three thousand years ago, Ehud Ben Geira took his foot-long dagger, shaved the handguards, strapped it to his right thigh (as he was a lefty) and went to see Eglon, king of Moav. Then, Ehud had a special secret for Eglon in private, and plunged the dagger in his belly. Thus the Jews were freed of Moabite rule.

During the years leading up to the European destruction, Jews made every mistake possible. From burying their heads in the sand, to warring with one another and not even trying to defend themselves while it was still possible, it was all there. The aftermath was no better – blaming the holocaust on one another and quickly warming up to the Krauts as if nothing ever happened.
A very similar scenario is repeating itself nowadays in the heiliga State Of Israel, the surefire substitute for Torah and Yiddishkeit.

In 1973, a single American politician opposed all others, and while American Jews were preparing to refer to the State of Israel in the past tense, this politician – against all others’ will – shipped 75,000 M16s and parts for planes to Israel. The Syrians didn’t win the Yom Kippur war, but Nixon went down as the eternal villain who dared calling the chosen people “f***ing Jews”.

Like Haman, from nowhere rose a smooth-spoken despot, a little Hitler believing in redistribution of wealth via the courts – the very courts that fight for Arab Terrorists’ "human rights" while letting the perpetrators of the Waco Massacre off the hook.
If Janet Reno got away with blocking the FBI from probing Mohammed Atta and other 9/11 terrorists (make a search on ‘Able Danger’), what else do you think will happen under Barack Hitler Obama?

The man who since his birth has surrounded himself with extremist communists, his entire roster consists of shady characters, and routinely cavorts with Arab Muslim fanatics wants to be the president. He doesn’t even have to produce a birth certificate for it. I don’t know if the allegations against him are true, but since his entire past is sealed behind a thick blockade of silence and secrecy - nothing can be examined or verified. One thing is sure: one who has something to hide will hide it. And one who cannot be upfront with his past cannot be trusted with the future.

With an Obama judiciary, you can forget about blacks and Muslims being ever convicted –or even prosecuted- for crimes against whites. And when school buses start blowing up, don’t call the Skverer Rebbe. His pockets will be lined by then. Your best shot will be to skip country ASAP. And if Israel still exists, after Obama gives Ahmadinejad nukes as a gesture of good will, you may even survive. (Remember – he only wants to disarm the US and its citizenry – not the Persians)

But wait – this pathologic gun banner plans to have his own Brownshirt corps. Just as Hitler started by banning Jews from the firearm industry, then the trade, then the ownership of firearms – and then set up the SA corps, so too Obama first bans guns and then demands equal funding for his Nation Of Islam gangs.

This mess could have been easily avoided, had the “conservative” pundits rallied behind Romney, and instead of pretending that there’s no religious prejudice in America, they could have explained that as much as Protestants hate Mormons, a stealth Muslim is even worse.

After Charlie Chris stabbed the USA in the back by endorsing McCain, he could have been booed and cursed by the real right. Had the pundits threatened to endorse the Democrat nominee, the RNC might have backed down from Old John Silver. But they didn’t. For them it was politics as usual, and now that the First Amendment is poised to be but a distant memory, they soil their pants.
Too late, folks.
And to be fair, it’s not just the pundits’ fault.

While the people at Waco were being burnt alive, America watched a ballgame.

While Randy Weaver’s children were being murdered, America was barbecuing hot dogs.

While Serbia was being ruined, America played tennis.

While the Wichita Massacre’s perpetrators are getting high-roller treatment on death row until they’re pardoned by O’Bama – to serve in his SS corps -, just gulp down another Bud Lite.
Newsome and Christian’s murderers will probably follow.

But don’t worry – O’Bama will pull the plug on the USA just as they did on Terry Schiavo.

You get what you pay for, as the saying goes, or “reap what you sow” if you will.
Wal Mart has a special on comfy bedding – help the economy now by preparing yourself a cozy grave.

Unless there is an outright civil revolution or military coup, this country is finished forever.

“Here comes revolution
Time for retribution”

© Joseph Izrael 2008

Ghost Of A Rose

I bet your history teacher forgot to tell you about the White Rose Society. So before the hate-and-blame the USA fest begins on the 6th of August, let me tell you a little story – a story you will never ever read on Dog Smear, Smearya, David Dukelsey or Ron Jeremy Rosen.

In 1942, a small group of students –six in all- realized that their darling Chancellor, ‘Der Führer’ was in fact a bloodthirsty murderer, a despotic tyrant and a brute who’d eventually bring ruin and devastation on his own nation. They started to scribble anti-Hitler graffiti on campuses and busy streets, as well as distributing anti-Hitler pamphlets. Among other things, they appealed to the German conscience, warning that they are accomplices and enablers in the greatest atrocity in the world. They were intercepted by the campus genitor, denounced, tried, and executed by decapitation. (Seems like Herr Hitler was quite inspired by Messieurs Marat and Robespierre – and in turn influenced our non-violent Muslim allies.)

Unfortunately, the heroism and the actions of the White Rose were too little and too late. Their minuscule number is also quite telling. (Although to our Obama-loving Teutonic brothers’ credit it must be said Thomas Mann and a handful of intellectuals fled Germany in ’34 in protest of Nazism. If any of your professors or pseudo-intellectual bloggers ever mentions Mann’s Dr. Faustus, please give me a call – I’ll buy you a beer.)

What is the relevance today? Today we’re just like the good Germans who marched to the Nazi drum, or like the White Rose, at best. There are many people, blogs and others in the media who try to warn us of impending dangers.
Yet nothing is being done – it’s still business as usual. Our empty frocks and empty schtreimels still lecture us about minute tznius details, beautiful aggados and razor-shrap lomdus. Anything but. Anything but waking their congregations up to reality, anything but having to give up on something, to give in to something, anything but to have to discomfort themselves a drop and, most horrifying of all, anything but relinquishing an iota of their imaginary rule.

What can be done? A lot. First, taking lessons from the history: what caused and aggravated the great calamities of the past? Apathy and discord. First, everyone ignores and downplays the dangers, no one wants to act. Then, after it’s too late, everyone marches to their own drum and devises and carries out their own plan. This happened during churbon habayis, gerush sfarad, the holocaust, the rescue effort etc. Each group saw only its own objective, and looked at others with contempt and animosity.

If our so-called sages would only sit down and really care about Clal Yisroel – not just their own little pathetic constituency, come up with a solid –even if imperfect- plan that would address disasters prevention & protection, response in event of catastrophe, reconstruction in the aftermath, and most importantly, a concise code of conduct for peace time. (Meaning teaching of true Torah, instead of pandering to the rich, relying on welfare programs and schnorr, worshiping the Western idols - moderation-Moloch, Asheracademia, and of course the biggest of them all, the Helige Mommon, the common idol of Hassidim, Reform, MO, secular, Litvaks, Conservatives et al.)

Would our geniuses form Chellm unite at least in the face of danger, I’d follow any decision they’d take – even voting for O’Bama.
But of course, why try to save Am Yisroel from danger as long as we have waht to eat, and can bicker about geirus, Evolution, kashrus and tznius? Last time we were turned into soap at least the we got a few teardrops (and a few dollars too – just ask Peres and the Holocaust Claims Commission – they grew quite fat on reparations, but shhhh don’t tell anyone!) and some nice memorials. This time, if we’re nuked to hell, gassed or overrun by third-world barbarians, no one will be left to mourn for us.


© Joseph Izrael 2008

Johnny The Fox vs. Fool's Gold

“Johnny the fox
he called to Jimmy the weed
said "hey man, I know your name...”
- “Johnny The Fox”, Thin Lizzy (Johnny The Fox, 1976)

I was very pleasantly surprised to read Jonathan Rosenblum’s critique of Chaim Eliav’s (Better known as “Moshe Grylak”, Mishpacha editor in chief) article about the Chassidishe drug dealers who got arrested in Japan.

In short – a few weeks ago some Chassidishe bochurim were lured in a drug scheme, and ended in a Japanese jail.
A little later, Eliav/Grylak writes an article saying that for the very least, these bochurim should have been far more cautious, and were probably thrilled by the adventure. But –now get ready for this- we should not worry about a thing: our system is absolutely perfect; we educate our children simply perfectly, and in our book, there isn’t even a scintilla of danger that anyone of “us” would ever get caught in such dire a situation. So how did it still happen? Drum roll, thunder, lightning; Merlin waves his magic wand, out of the hat jumps a bunny to tremendous applause: they weren’t real haredim! Wow! The Brisker Rav himself couldn’t have come up with a better chiluk!
Jonathan Rosenbloom wrote a surprisingly sobering article saying that we can’t go anymore pretending that it’s all blue skies forever darling, and that every problem will forever be swept under the rug with one idiotic teiretz after the other.

In sharp contrast, Avi Shakran produces yet another masterpiece of con, this time defending Argiprocessors. Although a member of the club that holds Lubavitch to be bigger cofrim than Christians, Alchemists, Wiccans and Voodoo combined together, when it turns into a haredim vs. the Delusional Solidarity of Lunatic Leninist Jews (led by Uri Ltzedek, PETA, YCT and other institutions of mentally crippled and emotionally unstable clowns – the same ones who claim that New-Caledonian Macaques can be converted to Judaism by teaching them “abracadabra”, “open sesame” and “shalom alechem”) issue, Agri are instantaneously bleached from all their crimes.

For Shafran, the fact that some 400 illegal immigrants were apprehended at Agri is probably no proof of any wrongdoing. In fact, dina demalchusa dina is not really applicable here, since Agri is located more than ten tfochim above US soil, which absolves them from US law, of course. And we know for a fact that those 400 jobs did not come at legitimate US citizens’ expense, since US citizens refuse to do dirty jobs. Besides, they’re anti-Semites. And it would be absolutely impossible to get 400 frum workers, besides it wouldn’t make any difference at all. Besides, everyone else does it. (This is in fact my favorite teiretz – I guess Rabbi Shafran, justifies everything else that “everyone does”…) And on and on he goes, harping endlessly on the assumption of innocence.

Shafran could have simply stated that Agri may very well be guilty of many things, however we should be careful not to rush to judgment on the word of a few demented hypocrite communist buffoons who openly advocate illegal immigration. Maybe he could have pointed out that the employment of illegal aliens is a widespread phenomenon plaguing all of the USA, and now that his bosses became aware of the problem, they will fight it tooth and nail. He could have, perhaps, pointed out that illegal immigration is detrimental to the orthodox community even more than to the entire nation. He might have suggested that Orthodox employers hire frum kids rather than rapists from El Salvador.

But he didn’t.

Maybe Shafran and his bosses have missed the news that nearly ten Orthodox Jews in Ramapo were indicted on charges of welfare fraud. When the power freaks turn on their own voters, it indicates one of two things; either that voter base is no longer important for the political prostitutes, or the situation got so bad that even the pigs from Animal Farm can’t close their eyes to it. Or a combination of both. And since the illegal worker hiring spot is happily operating under the watchful eyes of the non-corrupt Ramapo and Spring Valley police, who are busy pulling over 83 years-old grandmas for “speeding” (32 in the 30 zone) while the South-American gangsters sell dope and forged lottery under their noses. But every dog has its own day. If the Federal government and the State is no longer able to sustain the Hassidic community (read: families of 14 kids, all in private schools and outfitted in European designer clothes, big houses, everything fancy and the most expensive, with no work and no income) it won’t be able to feed the illegals for too long, either.

Bottom line is: the party is over. It won’t dawn on you in one day, but sooner or later it will. And pray it won’t be too late then, for Balack O’Bilama won’t save your sorry tusik. Instead, warn your people of the impending disaster, and instruct them that instead of $3000 shtreimlach, $600 bugaboos and $300 Gucci tichels, they'd better switch to a far more sober life - and stock up on arms and ammo.

But what do you expect from “rabbis” and “leaders” who don’t utter a peep against homosexual marriage, for fear of offending the darling politicians who hand out the benefits and peanut butter for their yeshivas?

“In the year of the famine
When starvation and black death raged across the land
There were many driven by their hunger
To set sail for the Americas

In search of a new life and a new hope
Oh but there were some who couldn't cope
And they spent their life
In search of fool's gold

...

The vulture sits on top
Of the big top circus arena
He's seen this show before
Knows someone is going to fall

Just near the part
Where the beautiful dancing tightrope ballerine
Forgets that the safety net
Isn't there at all

Down he swoops with claws drawn to take her
Razor sharp so savagely is she mauled
Oh my god, is there no one who can save her?
In steps the fox to thunderous applause

Fool's gold”

(“Fool's Gold” from same album)

© Joseph Izrael 2008

Dear Mr. Drekk

I am responding to you, who took the trouble to write a letter to Yated Ne'eman's editor, which you signed C.R. & M.F. from Fakewood.

You are two little pieces of drekk.
Not robbers, major criminals or bloodthirsty murderers. Just ungrateful little parasites.

How dare you even think the questions you ask, never mind asking them on the pages of a newspaper?
You are avrechei kollel who lack nothing. You readily acknowledge that your schvers and schvigers take care of all your needs, yet you are not ashamed to be annoyed by the fact that they dare expect you to say over some divrei Torah at the Shabbos table! How dare you! Let me please tell you something, Messrs C.R. & M.F.: when I hear you speak this way, I have a desire to convert to Christianity (or to kick the living daylights out of you). What you say is a chilul hashem of the first degree. First, you are obligated to respect your in-laws' wishes, as part of …כבד את אביך, whether they support you or not. קל וחומר בן בנו של קל וחומר since your entire Torah learning 'belongs' to them. But I guess “honesty”, “decency” and “integrity” are such schmutziga freia words heliga avreichim like you never even heard.

But your abysmal ingratitude stems from a far deeper problem. The entire generation of current full-time Torah learners, with few exceptions, is corrupt to the core. You learn on condition that you have all comfort and luxuries imaginable made available to you. You walk with your heads held high, you take your Torah for granted, and you imagine that the entire world ‘owes’ you. The majority of avreichim even engage in repugnant dependency on a plethora of governmental assistance programs, often acquired by outright fraud, deceit and lies - but in any case at taxpayers' expense. You parade yourselves and your families in new and expensive clothing, you live in big houses, drive new cars, and demand that the whole world respect and admire you – because you do G-d the great favor of churning the same twenty blatt of noshim & nezikin over and over.

Now listen to me, you generals of Sdom and people of Amorah, you who feed from the filthiest pig troughs on earth, the hands of politicians who push everything that G-d abhors - pornography, homosexuality, abortion on demand, special rights for criminals, terrorists and whoremongers -; you have breached your fiduciary duties with the Ribono shel Olam and Klal Yisroel. (Yes, learning the Torah and observing it is a fiduciary duty, in case you weren't aware of it). You claim to hold yourself to the highest standards of Torah and halocha, yet you sink lower than drug dealers. Those at least don't walk around pretending that they're the cream of the crop – and I'm sure they don't spit in their fathers-in-law’s faces. In case you weren't aware of it, the Torah has a בין אדם לחבירו part to it too. But for some reason, not one of all the new chumras instituted in the last forty years is בין אדם לחבירו (except when it comes to tell loshon hora about haimishe child molesters and embezzlers).

Let’s forget for a moment that you completely ignore, and often go head on against nearly all forty-eight requirements of kinyan Torah (פת במלח תאכל ועל הארץ תישן, בענוה, בקבלת היסורין, אוהב את התוכחות, ולא מגיס לבו בתלמודו, - just to name a few) – by spitting in your fathers-in-law’s faces, you not only violate one of the עשרת הדברות, but you’re also being ungrateful to the ribono shel olam.

You have, however, good mentors and accomplices in your abysmal arrogance, complacence and hypocrisy; your fathers-in-laws probably went in deeper debt they already were, and committed a few more dishonesties and indecencies to get enough dough for buying two ungrateful, disrespectful and worthless little ‘takhshitim’ like you. And they in turn mistoma learned from the heiliga roshei Yeshivos who do shidduchim exclusively with rich, white-collar elites who swim in 100% honestly earned dead presidents. (Maybe the "choshuva askonim" of BMG are already pushing for a $500 Bill with Clinton's face on it...)

In fact, your horrifyingly self-serving haughtiness is reflective of the secular society you claim to be so secluded of. Your letter is reminiscent of rebellious teenage rock anthems, whose basic “philosophy” is “leave us alone ‘cos we do whatever we wanna do, yeah yeah yeah!”

According to what I read in parshas bechukosai, it is behavior like yours that triggers all the klolos in the Torah. However, as far as I am concerned, if you do not mend your ways, it would be enough that you get two worms like yourselves for sons-in-laws, as a reward for your tzidkus.

PS –
Before you accuse me of ‘kollel bashing’ and ‘avrech hating’ take a moment to ponder that a) I’ve been in kollel too, but never took any government assistance or other forms of schnorring and b) as Torah scholars, you are to be held to the highest standards possible, (הקב"ה מדקדק עם צדיקים כחות השערה and כל הגדול מחבירו יצרו גדול הימנו) not just sneer and look down at everyone else.


ADDENDUUM PENDULUUM 7/8/'08:
I'm informed by a certain occasional Yated reader that the week following this letter, the schvers apologized(!!!) to their sons of b-oops, I mean laws. The week after, the SOL's admitted the letter was a hoax. Go figure. One thing is sure: I was right on the money about the stupid schvers, and even if the letter is actually a hoax, the attitudes are definitely prevalent in the impeccable, uncriticisable, perfect and flawless Yeshivisha Velt.

Oy Vey - Rabbi Anonimous informs that indeed there are some terrible problems in the Yeshiva velt: some avreichim show up as late as 4 minutes into brochos for shacharis, some families didn't get approved for sec8/HUD, and some misinterpreted a certain Rashbo on Yevomos. Oy Vey.

© Joseph Izrael 2008

Hotel California

An article strongly criticizing the trend of going to a hotel for Pessach upset Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz. His main objections were calling the trend ‘the greatest threat to Yiddishkeit’ and rebuking too harshly. He pointed out that there are scores of other grave problems afflicting our communities, and it would be far more beneficial to concentrate on those problems.

It seems to me that Rabbi Horowitz forgets a fundamental principle. I'm sure there are millionss of legitimate reasons to go to a hotel for Passover. Maybe it is true that declaring going to hotels as the ‘greatest threat to Yiddishkeit’ is exaggerated. But maybe we should not take this statement so literally after all. Maybe that fire and brimstone thundering rabbi meant to say, in a broader perspective, that letting modern western culture – a euphemism for unbridled materialism and hedonism – to become part of Yiddishkeit, is indeed an existential threat.

When a kid goes on drugs or off the derech, when a child is abused, it is a tragedy. Not only a personal tragedy of that individual and his family, but a tragedy of all Clal Yisroel. Nevertheless, it doesn’t endanger Judaism.

The Torah warns us, numerous times and in no uncertain terms, that when we start sinking in gashmius, we forget G-g, we rebel, and all hell breaks loose. When every kind of lust and desire is available in a glossy, fancy, Glatt Kosher Veyosher package, rubber-stamped by several corrupt narcissist “rabbis” who buy new Cadillacs yearly, do shidduchim exclusively with rich businessmen, and no one says a word, than Yiddishkeit itself is sick, from head to toe and down to the marrow.

Rabbi Horowitz accuses the author of being too harsh, instead of using soft, fatherly rebuke. Rabbi Horowitz is absolutely right – fatherly, gentle rebuke is indeed necessary. But since it has been missing in the past thirty years, it’s high time someone finally slams his fist on the table and calls a spade a spade, a fat slob a fat slob and a fresser a fresser. How can we go on whining about at-risk kids while we are the ones putting them at risk? We learn about mesirus nefesh, self sacrifice, yet all our kids see is lip-service Daf Yomi and Micha/Maariv –if at all-, in sharp contrast to the true burning love for fancy-shmancy houses, cars, designer clothing and gourmet restaurants.

Too many children are practically raised by Mexican cleaning ladies, barely see their parents, their fathers and mothers never sit down with them to learn some gmora, to do homework, to talk a bit, to read a book, even to play a board game. Then they go to a lavish Hotel for Pessach, – not Tu Bishvat, Chanucah or summer break, but on our Chag HaCheirus!- that’s a tragedy and a serious threat to Yiddishkeit. When our glossy kosher frum magazines boast nauseating adverts for these fressathon hotels side by side with divrei mussar, our kids sense the circus and mockery full and well. The tatte drowns in the schmorg, the in-house lecturer is all smiles amid the miniskirted chassidishe mames, and a week later the kid starts learning Pirkei Oves פת במלח תאכל, מים במשורה תשתה ועל הארץ תישן. Yeah right! Do we really expect little Moishi to take this charade seriously? We oughtta be real surprised when he tries pot, or when he switches mommy’s Cosmopolitan for Playboy, I guess.

Had those in-house lecturers more self esteem than a $2 prostitute, they’d turn down all invitations to such hotels. They could explain, on a gentle, fatherly tone, that if someone is absolutely constrained to spend Pessach in a hotel, it is his responsibility to prepare for the seder and holiday to the best of his ability, but such vacations are anathematic to Yiddishkeit, especially on Pessach.
Housing, clothing and food can all be explained away and justified with klotz teirutzim – but vacation in a spa is pleasure and sloth for the sole purpose of pleasure and sloth. That’s מבזה את המועדות deluxe. Something tells me that when Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon were reminded that the time for קריאת שמע has come, they weren’t at the Moulin Rouge in Las Vegas. And something tells me also that no one in a hotel would ever be caught telling Yetzias Mitzrayim at daybreak…

© Joseph Izrael 2008

Breaking The Law

…then Kerick said: ‘Let go!’ and then the men clubbed the seals on the head as fast as they could.
Ten minutes later little Kotick did not recognise his friends any more, for their skins were ripped off from the nose to the hind flippers—whipped off and thrown down on the ground in a pile.
“They’re killing all the holluschickie [young seals] on all the beaches!” said Kotick.
The sea-lion turned his head inshore. “Nonsense!”, he said; “your friends are making as much noise as ever. You must have seen old Kerick polishing off a drove. He’s done that for thirty years.”
“It’s horrible,” said Kotick,
“I suppose it is rather awful from your way of looking at it; but if you seals will come here year after year, of course the men get to know of it, and unless you can find an island where no men ever come, you will always be driven.” said the sea-lion.

… he found that no one sympathised with him in his little attempts to discover a quiet place for the seals. They told him that men had always driven the holluschickie—it was part of the day’s work—and that if he did not like to see ugly things he should not have gone to the killing-grounds…

…Even gentle Matkah, his mother, said: “You will never be able to stop the killing. Go and play in the sea, Kotick.”

… But the holluschickie and Sea Catch, his father, and all the other seals, laughed at him when he told them what he had discovered…

From The White Seal, by Kipling. (In The Jungle Book.)

A flood of condemnations followed the proclamation of heroic rabbis that the treacherous government of Israel must be dealt with just as the oppressors of yore. Interestingly, the admirers of Cromwell, Rousseau, Marat, Robespierre and Castro couldn’t have enough screaming bloody murder.
Even the boldest right-wingers felt an irresistible urge to apologize and explain the statements away. The Israelis can be excused for living in constant phobia; police has the right to detain anyone, at any time for any reason (i.e. no reason given), with no writ or warrant, for a duration of 48 hours. Then they are released every 48 hours only to be immediately apprehended again. Several ‘dangerous’ Israelis live in jail this way on flimsy charges.

Yet in the U.S. of A., land of the free speech and home of the brave Muslims who invariably speak their minds at will, and the government/media never curtails their oral emissions, little Jewboy still feels compelled to play Mr. Moderate. Oooh hooh, how nasty to say such things! That a man who caused countless deaths, abandons his citizens on a regular basis, betrays his army – sends them to battle with inadequate arms and armor, insufficient provisions and no war plan, then when the BBC says that a poor Freedom Fighter (that’s British for ‘child-murderer’) got a boo-boo and the evil IDF didn’t give him a band-aid™ he runs home – that’s OK. Calling for his execution, oh la la, now that’s extremism! What about the kidnapped boys (who were abandoned in insecure positions to begin with)? Who cares? We went to war for them, no? And we bombed like, um, six houses with Terrorists all around them, no? OK, so now leave me alone, I have a government to run – sugar please – one teaspoon, yes, and milk too – so what were you saying Eli? You want a school? I’ll give you a highway.

Charles I, Louis XVI and Mussolini were executed for much less than that. But on the other hand, good rulers who took necessary precautions – Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao all escaped the noose. So did ten of Olmert’s predecessors – so why pick davke on him?

And whom do the “Jewish” rags and so-called rabbis and leaders condemn? Who is vilified by the pseudo-alternative media, i.e. the heiliga “blogs”? Those who say what everyone should say. The utter cowardice of these people is simply nauseating. And even more puke-inducing is the reason behind the masses’ silence: the sweet addiction to the coziness of good life. Don’t bother us with taking our fates in our hands – we’re busy makin’ a living. The comfort of the immediate overrules the dangers of the future. But deep down we all know what the truth is.

Oh, if we need to appease our consciences, there sure is a teiretz for every minute of the day – hey, “we” killed the Freedom Fighter who’s slain eight Jewboyz in Mercaz, so whacha screamin’ ‘bout?! Oh, we release 90% of other “insurgents”? We let them perpetrate their “insurgency” and then do a show-reprisal to appease you idiots? Heck, by the next soccer match you’ll forget it all, and if it’s your son blowing up on a bus, heck, he’ll be just another hero in a bag.

There is a great deal of screaming against all real or imaginary evils in the world: child molestation, habeas corpus for terrorists, national healthcare, Lipa Schmeltzer, global warming, tsnius-rioters in Bet Shemes and what not. People roll up their sleeves and step in action to repair all the world’s evils, often with very practical solutions, and lead smear campaign against their favorite villains. Yet when it comes to stand up for Jewish lives – nothing. Zero, zilch, nada. The very people who denigrate those exterminated in death camps – putting them down for not resisting and rebelling, are those who scream bloody murder at today’s true opposition and rebellion. Oh my Gosh, to even suggest the people take their fate in their hands - why, that is a serious crime! Oh, then, back then, it was all different. But today, we have a big government with a big army who will protect us against all harm.

Seems like you can take the Jew out of the death camp, but you can’t get the death camp out of the Jew. The law of the jungle is so hard to break…


…but it’s time for breaking the law!


© Joseph Izrael 2008

Blood Brothers In Arms

I was infuriated and horrified that there were very few famous charedi figures at the levayah of the eight slain bochurim in Yerushalayim last week. R’ Elyashiv and the Belzer attended, while the Gerrer sent his condolences via messengers, and the Pinsker –who adheres to the Yerushalayim Aida Charedis and their ideology- gave a lecture in Mercaz Harav.

Now, I am not a great fan of hassidism and certainly not of the Belzer. But in this case, he behaved like a true leader. He went to the levayah, he went to visit the injured in the hospital, he did the right thing, and that is exactly what everyone should have done. Ditto for the Pinsker and even Aaron Teitelbaum of Kiryas Joel. I very seldom have good things to say about hassidim, but in this case, I totally take my hat off to these Rebbes. I think these are great steps forward, and shows that at least in times of tragedy we are still, to some extent, able to put our quibbles aside and be quasi-Jews.

But of course the hatemongers and ignorami who can’t read simple Hebrew, much less understand a shmuess by an elderly rav, had to turn reality on its head. It seems the words of Rav Don Segal made some people very angry. “How dareth he”, declares pompously a blogger, “voice such opinions right now, in middle of shiva! This tears us all apart”. But if that blogger isn’t outright lying, he can’t read Hebrew too well: first off, R’ Don was giving a ‘vaad’ – a shmuess to a regular group of talmidim – not for the media. How and why the lecture was aired, I don’t know. But the fact of the matter is, the aforementioned blogger completely twisted R’ Don’s words, and took them out of context.

What Rav Segal really said was that the chiloni government, through their actions and their defiling of the Torah put the Jews in danger. He mentioned that the media reported the murder and immediately turned to sports, as if nothing had happened. He also mentioned Ben-Gurion and Dayan’s futile capture and immediate release of the Sinai (the first time, in ’57, when many soldiers were killed just to show muscle, while the corrupt government momentarily relinquished the occupied land.) The Rav was clear in putting the blame squarely on the secularist government.

The controversial part of the speech: "...I'll tell you what I think You know what happened in the Yeshiva, רח"ל. Why specifically there? These are things from heaven, ...because that ideology that [the State] is part of the redemption, is the opposite of emunah and a transgression of the three oaths... ..They are all beloved and holy, but there is a greater demand (by G-d, i.e. responsibility) from observant people."

Reb Don didn’t at all blame the victims. That’s Brainless Blogger’s phantasmagoria. Although I don’t like when people –even great people- make statements as if they’d speak to G-d face to face, I don’t turnin a blind eye to our History either. Perhaps Blogger Brainless still has his Gideon’s Bible open at page one, but during the fourteen centuries from kibush ha’aretz until churbon bayis sheni, whenever Jews sinned, disaster was brought upon them by their enemies. And especially for those who do believe that the current occupancy of the Promised Land is akin to previous ones, there is no reason to forgo the immense responsibility that goes with it.

But of course, if one can stir up a little hatred while pretending that all he wants is love and peace, why not? Proof that this blogger is malicious, is that he harshly condemned rabbis and others who called for vigilante forces to safeguard Jews and rebel against the treacherous government. So this idiotologue holds “the Law” above all. Just like the murderers who put the heiliga “White Paper” (British prohibition of immigration to Palestine while the Deutsche crematoria were raging at full-force) above refugees’ lives, sending them back to the ovens, just as the appeasers call for quiet and restraint while they are bombet to smithereens and the Israeli politicians sell them to the Arabs for less then a stew of lentils, so too they side with The Law again, and oppose any and all self-defense. To Brainless Blogger and his ilk, the greatest evil in the world is Neturei Karta. Not Olmert and his eleven predecessors, who invariably chose Jewish deaths for a bone from Gentile politicians over Jewish life, honor and victory at the price of a British frown.

Such people do not care about Jewish unity, Jewish survival or Jewish victory. They are those who opposed Moishe Rabeinu and Mordechai the Jew. They gobble down everything the government and media tells them, and take pompous airs of self-importance. That they cause more death and killing? Who cares? We do our job, we keep the Law! When the Law is to stuff Jews in trains, they still adhere to the Law.

Despite such drugged demagogues, it seems that we finally start defying gravity. In the common Jewish psyche, something is maybe starting to sink. The good news just came out that many rabbis signed a prohibition on employing Arabs. And with a little more good will, common sense and willingness to stand up, unite and fight evil, we may again see true leaders leading a true nation.

© Joseph Izrael 2008

Master Of Puppets

“אוי לו לדור ששופט את שופטיו”

As I was driving home one evening, my daughter asked from the back seat: “Tatty, what’s this building?” – “This is a government building”, I answered.
-The ‘Government’ lives here?
-No, sweetheart, the government doesn’t live anywhere. People who work for the government come to work here.
-So where does the government live?
-Zisseleh, the government doesn’t live anywhere. It’s not a person; it’s a group of people.
-The government is not a person? So what is it? A puppet?
This got me laughing so hard I nearly drove into the opposite lane. I guess governments and puppets go so well together it’s the first thing that comes to the mind of a six years old who never heard the term “puppet government”.

On one hand one could argue that despite the lack of the slightest legal authority, and in the face of much criticism and animosity from several directions, our rabbis, leaders, do a tremendous job. If not for our steadfast faith in the Creator and his human emissaries, this feat would be impossible. Sure, some will dismiss this as mere cultish adherence and pure fanaticism. Nothing can be farther from the truth. No cultish leader can be harshly criticized by his constituents and retain that same constituency, especially in an environment where everyone is free to leave at will. Many actually leave their enclave – to join another one, more suitable for them.

But on the other hand, it can be argued that compared to what can –and should- be accomplished, we are not exactly the shining stars we’d like to believe we are. Not only because we are over-influenced by the surrounding Western culture. Not only because man naturally rejects authority, seeks comfort and pleasure, and loves to indulge in intellectual acrobatics to justify the above said. Not only because man loves to hide his natural shortcomings behind this or that good deed or quality he possess – and often uses as a moral high-ground do defame others. All these do, indeed, play a major role in the state of Orthodox “leadership”. But they certainly aren’t the only factor.

I don’t know how tired the reader is of me saying this over and over, but I’ll say it again, nonetheless. There is no Orthodox Jewish leadership. There are many rabbis, many gabbais, and far more secluded groups than we can afford. Many decry the power and authority of the “rabbinate”, or “the rabbinical establishment” – and in many aspects they are right. But the fact of the matter is, that there isn’t a well-organized and structured leadership and governance. There are many small groups that are run independently, and often at odds with one another.

And this is precisely the problem. Because every time a rabbi has a better idea of running things or of what “real” Torah is about, a new group forms around him, essentially turning their backs on other groups. Thus, there is no overseeing or restraining leaders. Dissent can be dealt with in the form of either leaving the group or keeping it to the back of the shul – and even there it has to be toned down.

It seems that most “leaders” and rabbis can be bamboozled and misled all too easily. I’m not sure why it is so, but am fairly convinced that the main reason is that deep down, they don’t truly care about Clal Yisroel. A harsh accusation, I reckon, but there is more than one indication to this. Most everyone cares about his own yeshiva, family and community. Seldom does it go beyond that – mostly in the form of some incredibly innovative charity which will eliminate hunger, poverty, disease and tragedy forever. The fact that rabbis are being turned into poster boys in the process doesn’t seem to bother too many people. If someone would argue that they are willing to undergo this humiliation, I’d be willing to swallow it. But can anyone explain me why in this case Covod Hatorah doesn’t matter? And if they really care so much about all Yidden, why resolutions to cancel charity concerts two weeks before the event are acceptable?

I’d be willing to accept well thought resolutions if they’d spell out that since such events inherently carry with them many pestiferous side effects that can be corruptive. If they’d claim that such gathering are a step toward Western Culture, I’d understand. But how can great sages irresponsibly sign (or at least not outright denounce the fact that their names were used without permission) these decisions without the slightest concern for the organizers’ parnossah – not to speak about the fundraiser itself?- The answer, probably, is “השוחד יעבר עיני חכמים ויסלף דברי צדיקים”. The ‘gvirim’ and rich benefactors, who, by means of their support and donations become immune to criticism, carry the rabbis after them.

And how can the wealthy get away with this? Because most “unwealthy” play Mr. Rich. Big house, big car, big spending, fancy-schmancy clothing, luxury hotels for Yomim Tovim are almost universal staples. (Why doesn’t anyone ban hotels for Yontev? Answer: the holy rabbis get rich with lectures while sleeping on silk sheets and super-duper ultra comfy mattresses. A wooden board was good for Rav Avigdor Miller זצוק"ל, but I guess today’s gdolim –there are 33 in the USA only, and Lipa Margulies is one of them!- need some extra comfort to come up with some extra wisdom. That’s what you call a “dor yasom”).

Are the filthy-rich entrepreneurs on whose arms many rabbis hang ever being confronted by ordinary folks? Except on blogs, no. Why? Because it is very easy to bark at the moon on the ‘net (like I do right now) without getting into personal conflict. And most likely, if such a confrontation would occur, Mr. Rich would answer “עד שאתה אומר לי טול קיסם מבין שינך טול קורה מבין עינך” as the standards are not set only by the rich. Today everyone seems to take it for granted that la dolce vita is his unalienable right. Ironically, the standards of gashmius are very often set by the loudest opponents of ‘daas Torah’ and rabbis.

Such confrontations are not pleasant. But this must be, I imagine, one of the main reasons for the strict rules of loshon hora – instead of spreading rumors, talk to your brother first! This is part and parcel of “ישראל עריבים זה לזה”. It is not easy and must be done tactfully in order to avoid quarrel and rifts. But this was exactly the trait that made Yehoshua great “שיכול להלך כנגד רוחו של כל אחד ואחד” – he had the ability to ‘go against’ – to present his opposition to- anyone without getting into a battle.

We have a puppet government allright. But who’s pulling the strings?


© Joseph Izrael 2008

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Hysterical laughter was shaking the walls, but I knew I’d have to wait ‘till the conversation is over to be filled in on the hilarious details. Nu? Well, Mrs. Relative from Fakewood called – surprise, surprise, despite their good über-frum reputation and aristocratic family, their heilige yingele is not being accepted to Talmud-Torah Yeshivisher Than Thou.
What a disaster! What a shame! Oy oy oy!
Later on Mr. Relative gets a phone call, and soon finds out that it’s Reb Moron Hamenahel calling to investigate about him, thinking that he called Mr. Relative’s Older Brother, who is even Brisker than thou. Seizing the opportunity with two hands, Mr. Relative gave a very good report on “his brother”, i.e. himself, not revealing Reb Moron the error.
A great stratagem it was, but nonetheless for naught; “Weeee haaaave ooonly fifteeeen chaaaairs aaand aaaa huuuundred aaaand fiiiifty aaaapplicants”, said Reb Moron Hamenahel in a very solemn, slow and low tone.

But wait - it doesn’t end here. When Reb Brisker T. Thou heard his younger brothers’ mischief, he was ois-mentsch (beside himself). But later he calmed down when Lesser Brisker explained that it was lshem shomayim, so that his hailige yingele shouldn’t be in the same cheider with Moishe’s son. So they conspired to convince their relative, the dreaded hangman of Fakewoodshire, Reb Yudel Shain, Hashem Yatzileinu, to threaten Moron Hamenahel of severely bashmutzing him if he fails to take little Brisker Jr.

Ha! They conveniently forget about the bum from Monsey with a nasty blog who comes out of his coffin at weddings and birssim! But Nosferatu never forgets his dear relatives! Ha ha!

*

* *

A couple moved back here from the Kingdom of Fakewood. The woman confided in my wife that here she has much less peer pressure to buy matching fancy clothing for the kids. The beneficial effects of Hasmoda!

She also said the Ameilei Torah in Fakewood have to work very hard: there’s fierce competition for section 8 and other government goodies, as they’re limited. And they also must run to pick up their kids from the babysitter at 2PM sharp. (Unlike Kollel, which starts nineish, like 9:59) Poor husbands! No afternoon nap! No laying down before second seder! No waking up 3:30AM to be at work 5AM! No hour-long commutes! No sweating in traffic! No Boss! No need to catch up on your Gmora when you’re dead tired!

Working men really are stupid.


© Joseph Izrael 2008

Peace Sells... ...But Who's Buying?

Hindsight is always 20/20, and you don’t need to be a George Benson fan to understand this. Well, OK, that “always” was an exaggeration, I admit. In fact, I may be the only one to see things this way, but nevertheless I come from the unfair advantage of hindsight. In any event, we should be very careful when saying things that can be construed as criticism of great Talmidey Chachomim, especially about those of prior generations, who were undoubtly very honest, righteous and true leaders.

Tumultuous as Jewish life in Europe already was by the end of the 19th century, nothing compares to the upheavals of post-WWII Jewry. After the spiritual devastation and physical extermination, the Jewish Phoenix slowly started to rise from the ashes, in the USA and Israel. New places, new situations and new challenges faced the old people. Dedicated and determined, Rabbis, communal leaders and laymen worked day and night tirelessly on resurrecting Clal Yisroel. Sadly, what de-facto happened was the establishment of different communities based on leaders’ ideologies and religious tendencies rather than the whole people’s needs. The old factions were resurrected, and the old feuds were replanted.

But following the true teachings and traits of great leaders is not easy; the core ideas gave way to monkeying the external characteristics, which then galvanized into cultish group adherence. Although the protests of many leaders against this trend is well documented, they failed nonetheless, not least because many worked on resurrecting their own community instead of Clal Yisroel as a whole.

As time passed, prosperity rose, and the deep understanding of a Jew’s purpose in this world started to fade, giving way to his identity as part of group X before his identity as a Jew. It is unfair to blame this solely on selfish and childish motives, as great turmoils were still challenging the Jewish people. However, at this point “survival” had a totally different meaning than what it meant a mere decade or two prior. As I mentioned before, I’m coming with the power of hindsight, and by no means claim to be anywhere near the great wisdom and yiras shomayim or the great Gdolim of the previous generation. But I do feel that a great opportunity at reconciliation was lost. Of course, it is nearly inconceivable that Hassidim, Litvaks, Religious Zionists could have been completely synthesized. But far more could have been done to bring the sides closer.

Could the leaders have sat together and try to agree on certain things? On fixing problems common to us all? On some semblance of consensus despite the deep rifts? On mending the cultural gaps? I believe so. So why wasn’t it done? I don’t know. But I do know that Yanky Eisenbach from Meah Shearim will never attend a Jethro Tull concert, Rechavam Shefer from Kibbutz Sa’ad won’t back up on his Zionism, Jim Glickstein from YU will never renege evolution, and Berel Rabinowitz from Ponevezh will never agree to learn less than 18 hours a day. These approaches and ideologies are here, whether we want it or not, whether we agree or not. Ditto for many societal norms. Is there really no end in sight?

Two weeks ago, Ido Zoldan was murdered by Arab terrorists, enabled by Jewish politicians who sell their souls for less than a bowl of lentil stew. We all cried and bled for him. We all felt the pain of his wife and children. But until two weeks ago, he was nothing. Until two weeks ago he was jus another nameless “tsiyoini” whose wife doesn’t cover her hair properly, who relies on heter mechirah and wears jeans. Until Zaka volunteers had to put him in plastic bags, he wasn’t our brother. Until the Cheva Kadisha had to prepare him for burial, he wasn’t really one of us. Is there anything but tragedy that can unite us?

I got a fundraising letter from my local Hatzoloh-EMS chapter. One of the things I read just raised my hair on top of my head. “Our volunteers help everyone, regardless of their communal or religious affiliation” Really? How kind of you! Until now I though the right thing to do was leaving someone bleeding to death if he isn’t in your Chassidus. “Hallo! My son was electrocuted!” screams the frantic mother, “Ummm, is you husband yeshivish? What kind of hat does he wear? Oh, sorry we can’t help you. Call the other ambulance”. How sick and insane does a people have to be to even feel the need to put such a disclaimer in their pamphlet?

As I said before, in times when leaders refuse to carry their duty, there’s much more responsibility laid on each individual’s shoulders. And there is a lot we can do. Silent waters run deep, and sudden, drastic changes usually bear no good outcomes.

Maybe we can really include all Clal Yisroel in our silent prayers. Just insert a short individual plea, ask Him to assist us in getting united? To care for one another even without tragedy? To help out, to attend a simcha instead of a levayah? To ease a little of our meshigassen – not the core principles, of course, - just what we agree are meshigassen. Or to take in consideration the effect of our poisonous words – will they help or just add oil to the flames?



© Joseph Izrael 2007

Curse Of The Hidden Mirror

My eyes opened wide, unable to dislocate from that position, my jaw dropped, and the knife in my hand also nearly dropped. I just couldn’t believe what I heard. A colleague of mine, rank-and-file yeshivish guy, came in to relate an upsetting event, and amidst his harangue blurted out a four-letter word. I was amazed.
“What?” I asked in disbelief “Did you just say that? Is it really possible?” I was sure that it was a slip of the ear - my ear. But he nonchalantly answered, “What’s the big deal? I’m just like you”. That left me wondering – although this was by no means an excuse, what, takeh, gives me the right to talk that way? Yes, I do work in an environment where foul language is very much the order of the day, but that’s no justification either. On the spot I decided to try to curtail my mouth’s output. Again I was taught a lesson to hold first and foremost myself to standards at least as high as I expect from others.

And some others could do the same.

On the heels of Yehuda Kolko’s indictment came a flurry of information and advice dealing with sexual abuse in the orthodox community, as well as a resurrection of the hate-fest of yore, the excuse being this time support or opposition to the UOJ.

Regardless of one’s position about the issue, I feel that there is a strong sanctimonious element in those orthodox bloggers and leaders who suddenly lecture excessively on sexual abuse per-se. Not that it isn’t Chas Vesholem an important matter in and on itself, – au contraire. However, a large part of the talk entirely misses the point;

I assume that most readers are familiar with at least the notion (not the halochos) of “Eglah Arufah”: the sages and leaders of the city are responsible for their communities’ welfare, and if a serious crime has been committed, they must demonstrate that everything in their power was done to prevent the crime. This however requires at least a corpus delicti. Even with taking all the allegations at face value, in all probability the leaders who were smeared and attacked probably didn’t know about the accusations until recently. The molested people and those who allegedly knew about them were first and foremost responsible to report what they knew to law enforcement and prominent rabbis. The fact that they were silent for so long (now citing fear and claims that they did actually report it to “the rabbis” – unnamed of course – doesn’t give the impression of too strong arguments) inculpates them as much as those whom they are now targeting. As I have said before, the main issue at hand is not how to deal with child abuse per-se, but how to change the mentality of entire communities who hush their own children’s plight to avoid a bad name, ostracism and “bad” shidduchim. This mentality cannot be blamed solely on the leaders – it is, however, in great part, the leadres’ responsibility to fight such trends.

Another point that I haven’t seen addressed elsewhere, is that scores of anonymous comments on UOJ claimed to care for the welfare of our “heilige kinderlach”, hypocrisy and corruption among rabbis. They used this as an excuse to smear and besmirch not only all rabbonim, but the entire “charedi” community. There wasn’t however anyone attacking the MO/Mizrachi movement, who, unfortunately, are just as guilty. I wonder how Gil Student or Rav Schachter would have reacted, had an unruly “Un-Modern-Orthodox Jew” besmirched Rav Kook and R’ Joseph Bear Soloveichik because of acts carried out by Shlomo Aviner, Ze'ev Kopolovich and others in that sector (alleged and convicted sex offenders). Allegedly, there was a similar pact of silence among top Mizrachi leaders. Agudah leaders, neither in Israel or the USA, didn’t come out mere days after the convictions and scandals, drooling with glee and lecturing everyone on sex abuse. I’m not saying this to relieve them from responsibility or to justify their actions (inaction, rather) but because it is a fact. (It has been insinuatedthat an Agudah speaker hinted at MO Rabbis not being true gdolim. If it is true, it was a critical error. This however does not justify retaliation.) Is it possible that leaders of both sectors are unhappy with the ever broadening social cut without distinct affiliation, and the slowly eroding border between these segments? I pray it isn’t the case. I might be over-sensitive, and as a matter of fact I wish my analysis is wrong - unfortunately, there are just too many details pointing to the contrary.

Although a beneficial aspect of the UOJ phenomenon is hardly deniable, the unfortunate truth is that instead of a good solution to the problem, in its broader sense, we’re not only back at square one, but the flames of hatred have been revived as well. Despite my firm belief that the end does justify the means, determining which ends justify what means is all too often an arduous –and risky- task. Although in our times prophecy has been bequeathed to fools, it is probably safe to speculate that Kolko’s arrest won’t have a deep effect on hareidi community. I wonder what prominence the story will get in the mainstream Orthodox media, if any. The corrupt justice system, coupled with evidence being nearly impossible to produce (such crimes are usually not committed in front of a wide audience, and so far there were no allegations of penetration) only increase Kolko’s chances to clear his name. If that will ח"ו be the case, the big losers will not be UOJ’s gang but the community at large, and the big winners will again be the criminals, emboldened would-be criminals, and their abettors. And in case of a conviction, will the school and Beis-Din systems be changed and improved? I really hope so.

I only hope that if it will ח"ו be the case, all of the weekend warriors, Monday morning quarterbacks and holy crusaders will stick to their words and practice what they preached by creating enough outrage and fury within the community, so that the situation doesn’t return to what it was.

Instead of sectarian animosity, rabbis and leaders of all sectors should unite and try to mend our common troubles.



© Joseph Izrael 2006

The Evil That Men Do

This article, by Susan Rosenbluth, first appeared on israpost-dot-com in ten segments. It is very important you read it and try to do something about it. As it is quite lengthy, you may want to print it, or remember to come back at later times. The article is reproduced verbatim, with a few lines of my own at the end.

Rape and violence in Satmar

IsraPost has always looked out for Jews in any community. This story was presented to us in order for us to run it in its entirety. We have done no independent fact checking as to the accuracy of the claims found within the article, and we will not print the picture of the accused that was presented to us for this article, as he is innocent until proven guilty. However, we feel that to NOT tell this story might lead to others who might get hurt to keep it to themselves, and therefore, insofar as this might serve as a warning, we feel it prudent to put in print.

This is a story of a religious Yemenite family that lived in the town of Monroe, NY. Specifically in “Satmar Town”, or, “Kiryas Yoel.” There, they were stripped of their identity, and their heritage by the Satmar Chasidim. Yocheved Ma’uda is a Yemenite woman who lived among these Chasidim, and when she witnessed what was going on to her Yemenite people living in Kiryat Yoel, she took it upon herself to confront what she felt was an atrocity, often at her own peril. Yocheved’s daughter, Shlomit, was sexually assaulted. There was an indictment issued in this case, and it turns out that the accused is one of Kiryat Yoel’s own Satmar Chasidim. The charges are pending, but the town of Kiryat Yoel has, until now, successfully blocked the investigation into this matter being conducted by the legal authorities for the state of New York. Yocheved feels that she is being targeted personally for her work on behalf of these Yemenite jews living in Kiryat Yoel.

This is her story:

Shlomit Mauda is 15 years old. Her dark eyes and radiant black hair proclaim her Yemenite-Jewish heritage, and her soft voice reflects hundreds of years of cultural subservience during which her ancestors learned to acquiesce in order to survive. Early last May, in Howell, NJ, just outside Lakewood, where she lives with her parents and eight of her 14 brothers and sisters, she was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 35-year-old Satmar chassid, who had been pursuing her since February from Monroe, NY, where he resides and the Mauda family lived until the fall of 2005. He also allegedly kidnapped and molested her in Brooklyn.

The alleged perpetrator, Levi Danziger, has been arrested and charged in Monroe (forcible touching), Brooklyn (assault, sodomy, unlawful imprisonment, endangering the welfare of a child, and first-degree sexual abuse), and Howell (sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a minor through sexual
conduct).

Even more disturbing to Shlomit’s family is the conviction that she was not the victim of a lone predator, but, rather, they say, of a community whose leaders were determined to punish them. “They targeted my daughter as a way of getting back at me,” says Yocheved Mauda, Shlomit’s mother.

Culture Clash - The story is not only one of an immigrant minority trying to survive among a larger group intent on forcing conformity. It is also the case of a woman operating in the public arena in a community where women, as a rule, do not even drive, much less assume leadership. Without consciously trying, Mrs. Mauda has become a community activist, working tirelessly for her people who have been deprived of their culture, language, and, all too often, she says, their children. She stresses that she, in no way, blames the entire Satmar community for either her experience or that of any of the Yemenite Jews with whom she has worked. Rather, she says, she understands the fear on the part of many good Satmar chassidim who do not want to be ostracized from a community which, at its best, is warm and supportive. “There are many good people in Satmar who know I am right, but they are scared to do anything because the community would turn against them, too,” she says.

Numbers - She maintains there are still dozens of families and single children without their parents in Monroe, where the Satmar population is about 15,000. According to some statistics, the number of Yemenites may be as low as 80 individuals, but others, including Mrs. Mauda and the semi-official Yemenite Jewish Federation of America, say the number is much higher.

According to the president of the Federation, Dr. Ephraim Isaac of Princeton University, Mrs. Mauda is unique because she has taken on the Satmars in Monroe itself. “Yemenite Jews in Kiryas Joel do not know what their rights are. Their passports are taken away by Satmar leaders and they are threatened with punishment if they attempt to leave,” he says.According to Mrs. Mauda, the threatened punishment is usually of a spiritual nature. “The Satmars tell the Yemenites they will go to hell unless they stay in Monroe and do what they are told,” she says.

Saviors or Oppressors - Yocheved Mauda, now 48, arrived in New York from Israel in September 1989 with her two oldest sons. Her husband, Rabbi Gabriel Mauda, remained at home in Kfar Saba with the couple’s remaining four children. Her mission was to find a place where her family could live a religious life, make a living, and send their children to a suitable yeshiva. Rabbi and Mrs. Mauda’s parents came to Israel along with the first wave of Yemenite immigrants shortly after the state was established.

As opposed to many other Yemenite families in Israel who have thoroughly assimilated, the Maudas remained poor, but religious, and Mrs. Mauda left Israel for the US because she and her husband were finding it difficult to find appropriate yeshiva for the children. “In Israel, children with peyos are made fun of in the religious public schools, which we had to use for financial reasons,” she says.

In Brooklyn, she and the children were steered toward the Satmar community, which had a reputation for working with Yemenite Jews. Depending on how the relationship between the Satmars and the Yemenites is viewed, the Chassidim can be seen as either the community’s saviors or oppressors, or perhaps a little of both.

Harsh History - The history of the Jews of Yemen is replete with periods of relative prosperity intermingled with terrible oppression. A tiny minority in a Muslim country, Yemenite Jews were at best tolerated dhimmis, second-class citizens who were supposed to be protected but often were not. Between June 1948 and September 1950, the vast majority of Yemenite Jews went to Israel, where many of them and their supporters complained about their treatment at the hands of non-religious Israeli officials.

Among the complaints is the accusation, for which there is some documentation, that the early Zionists pressured pious Yemenite children to relinquish their religious heritage. Among those who watched the Israeli government’s treatment of the Yemenite Jews with horror, was the anti-Zionist Satmar community.

The Satmars’ hostility toward Israel stems from their belief that Jews have no right to establish a Jewish state before the arrival of the Messiah. This religious tenet prompted the Chassidim to travel to Yemen and do whatever possible to convince the remaining Yemenite Jews that going to Israel meant giving up their souls.

Brainwashing - In most cases, the Satmars could not compete with the better financed Jewish Agency, but, often enough, their arguments were convincing. Some Yemenites maintain that the Satmars used “brainwashing” techniques that were very successful on a naïve community that was used to bowing to authority figures. "Brainwashing” is an accusation used by both sides.

While Mrs. Mauda maintains that some Satmar leaders use it as a technique to convince easily persuaded Yemenites to do their bidding, the Satmars claim “the Zionists” use it to convince Yemenites to move to Israel. “For Satmars like Yitzchak Chaim Freund, "Zionist" is a curse word. He tells the Yemenites, 'The Tziyonim make you frei,’ not religious,” says Mrs. Mauda.

Relationships - Before 1991, emigration from Yemen, whether to the US or Israel, was virtually impossible. During that time, the Satmars developed a growing relationship with the Jewish community, visiting them and bringing items that were almost impossible to come by in Yemen. The Satmars also did whatever possible to woo Yemenites from Israel to the US. Many Yemenite Jews in Israel were promised schools, housing, and a ariety of benefits, away from the “godless Zionists.”

Mrs. Mauda says she had never heard of Satmar until she arrived in the US in September, 1989. She says that when she and her sons were presented to the Satmar community, they were immediately welcomed to Monroe, where a large enclave of Satmars have established their own incorporated Village of Kiryas Joel. Because she had lived in Bnei Brak for awhile, she had the advantage of already speaking Yiddish, the lingua franca in Kiryas Joel. Mrs. Mauda also speaks Hebrew and Yemenite Arabic, the dialect spoken by most Yemenite Jews.

Homesick - Shortly after her arrival, Mrs. Mauda was sent to meet with Rabbi Yitzchak Chaim Freund, whom she identifies as “the big macher with the Yemenites in Satmar.” Others in the community identify him as the “Satmar coordinator assigned to the Yemenite community.” He is the head of “The Organization for Saving Jews of Yemen.” Repeated calls to Rabbi Freund for this article were not returned.

Mrs. Mauda says that as soon as she met him, he told her about two teenaged Yemenite sisters who were staying in his house and were very unhappy. According to Mrs. Mauda, Rabbi Freund wanted them to stay in Monroe, and the girls wanted to go back to their family in Israel. “He told me, If they go to Israel, they will become irreligious. They must stay by my house to stay religious,” she says.

Surrogate Parents - Mrs. Mauda says she asked Rabbi Freund if the girls’ parents wanted them home, and, she says, he told her, no. "He showed me letters from the father who asked for help, especially help to get his daughters into school but the parents didn’t know how much the girls wanted to go home to them. Freund told the parents the girls were happy,” she says.

According to Mrs. Mauda, Rabbi Freund’s intention was to arrange marriages for the girls. “It was very hard for me to see the girls crying all the time, but I didn’t know the parents and I thought this is what they wanted,” she says. As a result, she says, she became a surrogate mother to the girls, in addition to her own two sons. “Freund became like a father to the two girls, but that meant their real mother and father became nothing,” she says.

A New Life - With Rabbi Freund’s help, Mrs. Mauda found work as a seamstress and was able to secure an apartment, even though she had no credentials. By December 1989, she was able to send for her husband and the other children, and they all settled in Monroe, where her husband was employed by the Satmars as a teacher.

Although the Satmars had promised her assistance in obtaining a Green Card, which would allow them to work legally in the US, when they did not follow up, she secured working papers for herself and her husband without any help. In the US, the Maudas had eight more children, and, in 1996, became citizens. Until 1992, she says, everything was “great.” “The children were in the Satmar school, we had Green Cards, and the community was nice, just like one big family,” she says.

Change in Policy - Her problems had their genesis in 1991, when Israel decided it wanted to bring the last remnant of Yemenite Jews to the Jewish State. Yemen, however, was not interested in doing anything to promote aliyah, and most Yemenite Jews were far too cowed by the dominant Muslims to speak on their own behalf.

A deal was made that would enable the Yemenites to come to the US and then secretly to travel on to Israel. The Satmars cried foul, arguing that they deserved at least the same right as the Jewish Agency to sponsor Yemenite Jews. The Jewish Agency argued that Satmar had nothing in common with the Yemenites and knew nothing about their “mentality or culture.”

Yemenite Party - To prove otherwise, leaders of the Satmar community turned to Mrs. Mauda. She was asked to host a contingent of Jewish Agency personnel as well as some American government officials to show how well Yemenites were able to live in the Satmar community. “A few days before Tisha b’Av, I had to make lunch for 50 people. I had to show them that we eat Yemeni foods and that we were very happy,” she recalls. It worked. The visitors found pious Yemenite Jews, eating Yemenite foods, speaking Yemenite Arabic, and living happily with their Satmar sponsors. When the Yemenite Jews began leaving Yemen, many of them came to the US under the sponsorship of the Satmars.

Fundraising - According to Mrs. Mauda, this arrangement was fraught with problems. To begin with, the newcomers all came under student visas, which mean they were unable legally to work. According to Mrs. Mauda, Rabbi Freund and his group devised jobs for them, usually involving fundraising. “Yemenite children were forced to pose without shoes, with very poor clothing, and the Satmars took their pictures. Then they went out fundraising, telling people they were giving money to help the Yemenites.

They made millions of dollars in the Syrian-Jewish community and other Sephardic communities, where good-hearted Jews wanted to help the poor Yemenites. Even irreligious people gave them money for this cause. But none of the money ever went to the Yemenites. It went to Freund,” she says.

According to Mrs. Mauda, when the Satmars collected money ostensibly for the Yemenites, they told potential donors that $5,000 per month would house, clothe, feed, and educate a family. When Yemenite Jews were sent out to do their own fundraising, they were allowed only five to ten percent of the take, she says.

No Money - Usually, she says, the Yemenites saw no money. Instead, she says, Rabbi Freund’s group took everything and then paid for the Yemenite family’s rent and electricity, leaving them to scrounge for money for food on their own. "If they didn’t like the way a Yemenite was behaving, or if the Yemenite wanted to do something they didn’t like, they threatened to shut off the electricity. That brought people back into line,” she says.
Although many of the newcomers were promised by their Satmar handlers that they would be helped to obtain legal working papers, according to Mrs. Mauda, the Chassidim in charge of the Yemenites not only refused to help them, but actively made things more difficult. "It was easier to get a Green Card while they were still in Yemen than it was to get Freund to help them once they were here.

The State Department understands the meaning of "asylum" and it usually takes no more than three years to get a Green Card. There are Yemenites whom the Satmar brought here 10-15 years ago who still do not have Green Cards. Freund’s group doesn’t want them to have it because they don’t want the Yemenites to be independent,” says Mrs. Mauda.
The realization that the Yemenites in the community had no freedom of movement disturbed her. They were controlled, she says, by maybe a half dozen leaders, primarily Rabbi Freund, who had assumed responsibility for the community’s Yemenite project. Slowly, she began serving as an advocate, especially for Yemenite children who had been separated from their parents and wanted to go home.
To the Satmar leaders’ consternation, she became familiar with the local Monroe police, the Orange County Child Protection Services (CPS), and even the FBI, and managed to reunite several parents with their children.

Religion and Money - Asked why Satmar leaders such as Rabbi Freund were interested in gaining control over Yemenite children, Mrs. Mauda says the answer is twofold. First, she says, there is the religious aspect. “The Satmars want everybody to be Satmar. If you love Israel or want to speak Hebrew, that’s it. You’re going to Gehennom,” she says.
There is also a financial interest, she says, explaining that when the Satmars manage to place foster children in the community, that translates to about $600 per month per child from government-underwritten foster care stipends, more if the Satmars can come up with a disability or two. "If they can free the child for adoption, there is even more money for them from parents who can’t have children and want them,” she says.

Sterilization - Mrs. Mauda knows of one case in which, she says, she was instrumental in keeping the children with their parents, an outcome which so enraged the Satmar handlers, they retaliated by taking the woman to a physician and arranging for a tubal ligation, which left her sterilized. The physician whom Mrs. Mauda named has medical records showing that the woman requested the procedure. Mrs. Mauda claims the woman had no idea what she was getting herself into.
“The woman speaks no English. The Satmars took her to the doctor, and had her sign the papers that said she wanted the procedure. It wasn’t until she showed me the paper last year that I could explain to her how it was that she never became pregnant again,” says Mrs. Mauda.
Tragic Decision - One of the first families to come to Monroe after 1991 was Shalom Nahari and his four children. The Naharis had left a serious tragedy behind in Yemen. Their eldest child, a 13-year-old daughter, had been kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married off to a Muslim. According to Mr. Nahari, when he went to the authorities to try to regain his child, he was imprisoned. Upon his release, he fled to the US with the remaining four children.

The mother, Kadya, who was pregnant, refused to leave without her eldest daughter, opting to stay to try to win her child’s freedom. Upon their arrival in the US, the Nahari children, who were at that time 7, 5, 4, and 2, quickly found their forbiddens on posters asking for donations. The Satmars placed Mr. Nahari in a Satmar yeshiva in Monsey and the children, according to Mrs. Mauda, became the responsibility of Rabbi Freund.

Where Was the Money? He in turn asked Mrs. Mauda to accept the children in her house and invite Mr. Nahari to be with his children on Shabbat. Although, by that time, Mrs. Mauda had eight children and was pregnant with her ninth, she agreed. "The children came in with only the clothes on their back. Where did all that fundraising money go?” she asks. Mr. Nahari says that while the children were in the Maudas’ care, the Satmar leaders in “charge” of the Yemenites, wanted him to relinquish custody of his children and divorce his wife, who was still in Yemen. "They didn’t think she would come".

They tried to brainwash Mr. Nahari into thinking he should leave this wife and get another one. They wanted to give the children to Satmar families,” says Mrs. Mauda. Outraged, Mrs. Mauda says she sent Mr. Nahari to tell Rabbi Freund that he did not want any other wife. “I told Mr. Nahari he has to tell them he wanted the mother of his children,” she says.
Meeting the Chief Rabbi - When she tried to get the Nahari children into the local Satmar School, the United Talmudical Academy (UTA), she says she began to understand how the Satmars used their institutions to further their own ends. Following Rabbi Freund’s instructions, Mrs. Mauda had placed her own children in UTA, using the sponsorship of a school official with whom he was close.

For the Nahari children, however, Mrs. Mauda made an appointment with Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, the elder son of the late Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum. Although Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum is in a dispute with his younger brother, Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, over control of the Satmar Empire, there is no question that Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum is the Chief Rabbi of Kiryas Joel. Mrs. Mauda recalls that Rabbi Teitelbaum greeted her and the Nahari children warmly; however, he insisted the decision concerning their education be made by Rabbi Shalom Meir Eckstein, who serves as an advisor to the Kiryas Joel Board of Education.
Tnaeim (conditions) - According to Mrs. Mauda, at her first meeting with Rabbi Eckstein, he insisted the children had to be tutored at home in Yiddish and other subjects before they could be admitted. She promptly retained a tutor for the children, but, she says, when she brought them back a few weeks later, Rabbi Eckstein had new conditions. "He wanted me to agree to three conditions: each child had to be given to a different family; the parents would have to agree not to see them anymore, not even for a visit; and even I must never ask about them again,” she recalls.

Her reaction was outrage. “The only time I give tanaim is before a wedding, and I’m not making a wedding with you,” she told him. “These are not my children. I am only taking care of them until their mother returns. Their mother is going to want them back.” Reached by phone, Mrs. Eckstein said Mrs. Mauda “knows what happened,” and that her husband would have no comment of his own.

CPS - For her part, Mrs. Mauda remembers Rabbi Eckstein shrugging his shoulders and saying that the children would not be admitted. This was no small matter, although she did not know it at the time. As Mrs. Mauda would later learn, if she did not get the children into school, Rabbi Eckstein or Rabbi Freund could call Child Protection Services and tell them that the children were being neglected. The charge might have the children removed from her home and placed in foster care, which was the Satmar leaders plan for the Nahari children. "That’s the way they operate,” she says.
Another School - Fortunately, not far from Kiryas Joel, another school was opening, one in which half the student body considered themselves followers of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, while the other half followed Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum. Mrs. Mauda made inquiries and then called UTA, telling them if they did not take the Nahari children, she would place them in the new school. "I didn’t want anyone to say I went against Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, but I had to get the children into school,” she says. Rabbi Eckstein changed his mind, she says, and Mrs. Mauda enrolled the Nahari children.

Slurs and Beatings - The way Yemenite children are treated in Satmar schools is an issue Mrs. Mauda refers to regularly. She has no problem producing several Yemenite teenagers who report that they and their Yemenite classmates are regularly referred to as “shvartzes,” a Yiddish term used derogatorily to mean “dark ones.” "And then the rest of the children follow their teachers,” says Zachary Nahari, now 23. He also describes real beatings perpetrated, he says, by teachers. “This is not a potch or a spanking. The teachers put you across a table and use a rubber stanchion,” he says.

Reunion - In March 1992, three months after Mr. Nahari and the children moved to Monroe, Mrs. Nahari arrived in the US. She had used the months in Yemen to do whatever she could to retrieve her kidnapped daughter, including pleading with the local imam, but it was all to no avail. When she realized she was in danger of losing the baby she was carrying, she gave up and left. Mrs. Mauda brought Mr. Nahari and the children to greet her at the airport, and, one week later, Mrs. Nahari gave birth to a baby boy.
The Naharis moved into an apartment in Monroe, and Mrs. Mauda rejoiced that her job was over. "The mother was back, and I could enjoy their being together,” she says.
Underestimating - According to Mrs. Mauda, two weeks later, the Naharis received notice from Child Protection Services that a case had been opened against them. "Freund must have called CPS even before the mother arrived. His group told CPS Mr. Nahari made sex abuse against his children and that he beat them. CPS didn’t know the children were with me all along and that the father saw them only on Shabbat in my house, but Freund did. He just never thought I would go against him,” she says.
By listening in the community, Mrs. Mauda says she soon discovered that the Naharis accusers wanted to give the children to a childless woman in Monsey, first, probably, as a foster child and then, perhaps, for permanent adoption. Mrs. Mauda does not want the woman’s name released. Working tirelessly with the Naharis and the family court, Mrs. Mauda managed to make CPS officials understand that there was no way Mr. Nahari could be guilty. The CPS case was closed and the Naharis kept their children.

Death Threat - According to Mrs. Mauda, Rabbi Freund and his colleagues were not amused. “When they heard I killed their case, they had the woman they had planned to give the children to call me. She told me she and Freund knew where my two oldest sons were in yeshiva and that they were going to kidnap them and then come and kill me,” she says.
Terrified, Mrs. Mauda locked herself in one of the rooms in her house along with her six children who were then at home. She was afraid to call the police because the Satmars would then accuse her of being an informer. The laws against mesirah, or informing, are mentioned in the Talmud. During periods when Jews were at the mercy of ruthless gentile rulers, informing against another Jew or handing him over to the authorities was considered a particularly heinous crime. It put not only the individual at risk, but frequently the entire Jewish community.
Many authorities have ruled that, in the US, the concept no longer applies. (this sin't exactly the most objective nor accurate statement - J.I.) "I was pregnant, and I held my children close to me and began to pray to G-d. I was so scared,” she says.
She stayed like that for about half an hour, until she heard the door to the house open.“I heard people going from room to room in my house. I thought the children and I were going to be dead,” she says. The relief at discovering it was only her husband coming home was short-lived. She then called her sons yeshiva to make sure they were all right, and was told that her 16-year-old had just been picked up by “some people.”
She remembers losing consciousness, but she doesn’t recall being taken to the hospital. She knows it happened, however, because, three days later, she woke up in the Intensive Care Unit at Good Samaritan Hospital. In fact, the people who came for her son were just friends, but, says Mrs. Mauda, at the time; she could imagine only the worst. She says when she called the woman who threatened her, the woman seemed surprised. “I didn’t know you’d be so frightened,” Mrs. Mauda recalls her saying.

Not Through - The small victory she had won on behalf of the Nahari children was not the end of the battle. "Freund wanted me to stay away from the Naharis, but I wouldn’t. I knew the minute I backed off, they would take the children,” she says. By this time, Mr. Nahari had left the yeshiva and was working as a mashgiach in a local store, but, according to Mrs. Mauda, his entire salary went to Rabbi Freund who, she says, had promised to use the money to pay the Naharis’ rent and electricity.
Even so, according to Mrs. Mauda, the landlord agreed to give the Naharis a lease only if she co-signed it. Mrs. Mauda says tried to arrange for some people to give those donations, but, she says, Rabbi Freund convinced “everyone” not to give. "He told anyone who wanted to give the Naharis money to give it to him instead because he takes care of the Yemenites. He promised he’d pay their rent with it and get them what they need, but he didn’t do it,” she says.

Withdrawal of Support - Finally, the Naharis’ landlord took Mrs. Mauda to a beit din, because, she says, the rent on the Naharis’ apartment had not been paid. "Now Freund showed his true colors. He turned against me and my family because we were trying to help the Yemenites, and he doesn’t want anyone to help them,” she says. Inch by inch, the Kiryas Joel support system Mrs. Mauda had relied upon for the Naharis broke down.
A Nahari child who needed help with homework was told he could not receive it. According to Mrs. Mauda, Rabbi Freund then accused her of working for the Jewish Agency and trying to “brainwash” Yemenite Jews into going to Israel. “He did that so the entire community would turn against me and would no longer help either the Naharis or me. It was the worst thing he could call me, and, of course, it wasn’t true,” she says.
Ultimatum - Finally, she says, Rabbi Freund gave the Naharis an ultimatum: Either break off relations with Mrs. Mauda or leave Monroe. Although it might be logical to consider it a blessing for a Yemenite family to leave the confines of the strict Satmar community, there is a definite downside. Besides missing friends (even Mrs. Mauda is careful to insist that she never accused the entire Satmar community of working against the Yemenites), the evicted family must find lodging.
A large apartment in Monroe can be had for $400 a month, according to Mrs. Mauda, a price that would be hard to duplicate elsewhere. Faced with that dilemma, Mrs. Mauda tried to cut back on her relationship with the Naharis, but it was too late. In 1997, UTA informed the Naharis that their children would no longer be welcome at the school. "Without school, they couldn’t stay there, so they left and went to Brooklyn,” says Mrs. Mauda.

Using the System - She explains that throwing children out of school is a tactic used by Satmar either to get rid of families or, in the case of the Yemenites, to get their children. According to Mrs. Mauda, after children are expelled from school, a leader of the Satmar community will call CPS and insist that a case be opened against the parents for neglect.
Once a parent is found guilty of neglect, CPS often turns to the religious leaders of the community in which the family resides for consultation on placing the children. In the case of the Yemenites in Kiryas Joel, the spiritual leaders are often the very Satmar leaders who filed the complaint against the parents in the first place. "Once they get CPS involved, Freund’s group tells the case workers the parents abuse the children, give those drugs.
CPS then asks Freund where they should place the children, and sometimes the parents never see their kids again,” says Mrs. Mauda. Even out of Kiryas Joel, the Naharis’ experience in the US has been, at best, mixed. Zachary Nahari, who blames the Satmars for following his family to Brooklyn and continuing to harass them, knows at least two families, with 15 children each, who called it quits and went back to Yemen. Another family, after the Satmar initiated one-too-many CPS cases against the parents in an attempt, he says, to get one or more of their 11 children, escaped to Israel.

Eviction - According to Mrs. Mauda, in 2002, Rabbis Freund and Eckstein finally decided they had had enough of the Mauda family and began making efforts to have the Mauda children expelled from school. At the same time, she says, her landlord was approached and told to evict the family. “The landlord told me he was going to sell his house and I must leave. I told him I knew the law was going to be with me on this issue, and he got scared and backed off,” she says. She also managed to find sufficient community support to prevent the expulsion of her children from UTA, she says.

Elisha - She believes that, at the same time, these Satmar officials, unable to expel her children or evict the family, turned their attention to her 16-year-old son, Elisha, who was, in 2002, studying at a yeshiva in Borough Park. Out of the blue, I received a call from his rosh yeshiva who told me Elisha was having trouble and he would have to leave,” she says. She says she was stunned. “Everyone knew he was a good student with no problems. Why did he suddenly have to leave?” she says.
She says that when she pressed the rosh yeshiva, he admitted some Satmar leaders in Monroe had told him that if he did not expel Elisha, no one in Kiryas Joel would ever donate to his school again. "I told the rosh yeshiva, you can’t do this, and, in the end, he let Elisha stay,” she says.
Loshon Hara - Undeterred, she says, the Satmars eventually went to the rosh yeshiva themselves and accused Elisha of spreading loshon hara, speaking badly about “someone,” presumably another student.
“When the rosh yeshiva called him in, Elisha didn’t know what he was talking about. He denied everything,” says Mrs. Mauda. Shortly after Yom Kippur, however, two boys from the yeshiva, who Mrs. Mauda is convinced were instigated by the Satmar leaders, cornered Elisha, beat him badly, and fled. The police found him on the street and took him to the hospital. After being accused of loshon hara, Elisha was loathe to give the police his assailants’ names and, instead, simply went home, where his father home-schooled him.
"No yeshiva would accept him after that,” says Mrs. Mauda. Today, Elisha is married and the father of two. He attends a kollel part-time and works with disabled children. He is hoping to get his high school equivalency degree and attend college so that he can become a special education teacher.

Staying in Kiryas Joel - Despite this experience, the Maudas were disinclined to leave Kiryas Joel. There was the issue of friends with whom they were close, her conviction that too many Yemenite families in Kiryas Joel needed her assistance, and the lack of money. Rabbi Mauda had suffered an accident and was no longer able to work outside the home. His disability insurance and the money Mrs. Mauda earned from babysitting constituted the family’s sole income. When Elisha’s experience did not persuade the family to move, Mrs. Mauda is convinced Rabbis Freund and Eckstein focused on Shlomit who, in 2003, was 12 and in the sixth grade. "Freund and Eckstein told the school they had to expel my daughter".
Freund is seen as an expert on the Yemenites, and Eckstein’s brother, is the Rosh HaKohol, a major leader. Freund and Eckstein told the principal Shlomit had a boyfriend and that she liked the Internet. I told them she never had a boyfriend and the only computer she used was the one in their classroom, but they said she had to leave the school,” says Mrs. Mauda.

Scare Tactics - Mrs. Mauda refused to accept the expulsion, and, she says, the school backed down, allowing her to enroll the child in seventh grade. But, after Passover, when it was clear Mrs. Mauda was still heavily involved in advising the Yemenites in the community, the school once again insisted the child had to leave. Mrs. Mauda and Shlomit recall the principal summoning them into the office and just yelling. “She said I don’t study, I do what I want, I come and go as I please, and I don’t listen,” says Shlomit, who denies any of that was true.
One particularly frightening episode took place when the principal called Shlomit to the office by herself. According to Shlomit, when she smiled at the rabbi, he became enraged. “He asked me why I was smiling, and I told him it was a mitzvah to smile. He said he was going to smack me and wipe that smile off my face,” she says. He didn’t strike her, she says, but he clapped his hands hard in front of her face. "Then he started asking me about my home. He wanted to know why my mother "butts in" and tries to help the Yemenites. He asked me if my father was afraid of her,” she says. Shlomit says that when she answered, “I don’t know,” the principal once again threatened to slap her.
The rest of the conversation went no better, she says. The principal, she says, asked her what she was doing wrong in school, and when she replied, “You must know because you told me to come here,” he accused her of being chutzpahdik. When she told him she did not know how to answer, he told her to keep quiet.

Name-Calling - In school, her relationships with the children were also deteriorating. She recalls one child bringing in pictures of naked women with Mrs. Mauda’s head superimposed on the models’ bodies.“I thought the pictures were real and I got very upset,” Shlomit says. “Then the school accused me of bringing in the pictures and they called my mother and me prostitutes.” The word the school officials used, according to Shlomit, was “zonah”, a term she had never heard before. She thought they were calling her a “zanav,” the Hebrew word for tail. “I kept looking behind me to see what they were talking about. I wanted to look in the mirror,” she says.
One Last Year - Shlomit was ready to leave the school, but her mother was not. “Money was a problem. I didn’t want to leave my friends, and I certainly didn’t want to leave the Yemenites who had no one else,” she says.Mrs. Mauda consulted a friend from Brooklyn who, while not a Satmar chassid herself, has worked as a teacher and counselor for many schools. At a joint meeting with the friend and Mrs. Mauda, the principal once again backed down, however, he told them, eighth grade would be Shlomit’s last year at UTA.“I couldn’t think more than one year at a time. I was just glad she was going to school,” says Mrs. Mauda.
The year was a disaster. According to Shlomit, the children taunted her mercilessly about supposed boyfriends and even accused her of being pregnant. The school’s administration informed Mrs. Mauda that even if Shlomit completed the year, she would not be allowed to attend graduation and would not receive a diploma.

In the spring of 2005, the school told Mrs. Mauda if she wanted Shlomit to return after the Passover break, she would have to see a Satmar therapist.Mrs. Mauda says she was certain Shlomit did not need psychological help, but, in principle, she had no objection to calling in a therapist. "But I didn’t want a Satmar therapist. I was afraid they would brainwash my daughter,” she says.
Instead Mrs. Mauda called on Dr. Mark Seglin, a West Orange-based, certified psychologist whom she had frequently consulted when Family Court required an expert opinion concerning the suitability of a parent’s regaining custody. "The Satmars said, no, I must use their psychologist, but I said why I can’t use my own therapist?” she says.
No Consultation - A specialist in adolescent issues who frequently works with delinquent children, Dr. Seglin, who saw Shlomit several times, says he was “shocked” by the Satmars’ behavior towards him and her. "The school wouldn’t return my calls. That has never happened to me before. Usually, schools are delighted to consult with therapists when decisions have to be made about a child’s education and treatment. I wanted to learn what kind of behavior they had seen so we could work together to help Shlomit if necessary,” he says, adding that, at the time, he saw nothing in Shlomit’s behavior that would warrant therapy.
Mrs. Mauda believes the school did not return Dr. Seglin’s calls because they did not want conditions to improve. “They wanted us out,” she says, “and they were using the issue of which therapist I was going to use as an excuse.”
When Shlomit showed up for finals, she recalls the principal telling her to “take the test at home and then throw it in the garbage.” Although the school would not allow Shlomit to pose in the class graduation photo, she did receive a diploma after the friend of Mrs. Mauda’s who had intervened earlier told them Dr. Seglin might call in the authorities if the child did not graduate. During the summer of 2005, UTA officials told Mrs. Mauda that for any of her children to return in the fall, they would all have to be seen only by a Satmar therapist.

Messages left for UTA by The Jewish Voice were not returned. In 2004, Joel Petlin, an administrator in the Kiryas Joel school district, denied that the Yemenites were being abused.
Mr. Petlin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that his bureau, which runs English-as-a-second-language programs for Yemenite Jews, would “be the first line” in catching any kind of “funny business.” "They’re welcomed, they’re brought into the school system, they’re given places to live, food to eat, and every resource is made available to assist them in their resettlement,” Mr. Petlin told JTA. “People are free to choose to stay or go.”

Lakewood - In the fall of 2005, the Maudas finally took the hint and moved to Lakewood with the nine of their children still at home. Two of their married children also relocated to Lakewood. Unfortunately, she says, Satmar followed her. She believes Rabbi Freund’s organization called Lakewood’s schools, rabbis, and synagogues, warning them about the Maudas. "I tried to explain that all I wanted to do was help the Yemenites, but the people believed the Satmars,” she says.
In fact, Satmar itself has a very small presence in Lakewood, but, according to the friend who had intervened on the Maudas’ behalf with UTA, the schools and community in Lakewood tend to be wary when anyone in authority calls with this kind of information about a child. Nevertheless, eventually, Mrs. Mauda found schools for the children despite what she calls “Freund’s best efforts.”

Continuing the Work - She also refused to abandon the Yemenite families who had no one else to turn to. In December 2005, Mrs. Mauda became involved with Saana Alnahari, a 27-year-old Yemenite woman whose husband, Youssef, she says, was “brainwashed” by the Satmars into signing his wife into a mental hospital and seeking sole custody of their seven children so that they could be turned over to Rabbi Freund’s organization. According to a report in the Times Herald-Record, which services upstate New York, including Kiryas Joel, Mrs. Mauda and Rina Birnbaum, an Israeli attorney who has become an advisor to Yemenite Jews in the US, came to Mrs. Alnahari’s aid, rescuing her from the hospital, where she was confined to a psychiatric ward for six weeks, and shuttling her to the New York State Police to file complaints and to Family Court where they helped her petition for temporary custody while the family waits for a trial.

Accusations - According to the Times Herald-Record, in their filings, Mrs. Alnahari, Mrs. Mauda, and Ms. Birnbaum claim Mr. Alnahari conspired with Satmar leaders to commit Mrs. Alnahari to a psychiatric ward and place the couple’s two-month-old baby and six other children with various families while she was away. According to the Times Herald-Record, Mr. Alnahari told police he committed his wife because she suffered from post-partum depression and had threatened suicide. He said he placed the children in other homes only temporarily so that she would not be overwhelmed when she returned home.
Neither the Times Herald-Record nor The Jewish Voice and Opinion were able to obtain the paperwork that should be necessary for commitment to a mental hospital. Moses Wetriol, head of public safety in Kiryas Joel, says the fact that Mrs. Alnahari was in the hospital for six weeks “speaks for itself.”With the help of Mrs. Mauda and Ms. Birnbaum, Mrs. Alnahari quickly regained temporary custody, even though it took a visit from the police to secure the release of the infant from the “foster home” found for the child by the Satmars. It was unclear whether this “foster home” had won state approval.

Working for Israel? According to Mrs. Mauda, Rabbi Freund told the court that she (Mrs. Mauda) was an agent of the Jewish Agency who was trying to spirit Mrs. Alnahari and her children to Israel.

At the end of July 2006, Mr. Witriol made the same accusation, telling The Jewish Voice and Opinion that the Israeli government pays Mrs. Mauda $10,000 for every family she sends to Israel. Mrs. Mauda says she is tired of this accusation, which, she says, some Satmars have routinely used against her since 1992, and is completely untrue.
Asked about the accusation, Michael Landsberg, head of the Jewish Agency Aliyah Delegation in North America, confirmed Mrs. Mauda’s denial. He said Mrs. Mauda has no relationship with the Jewish Agency and that the agency had never given her money.

Near Riot - Nevertheless, the accusation does not go away and neither does the animosity held by some Satmars against Mrs. Mauda for what she sees as activism and kindness for the oppressed and they see as unwarranted and unwelcome intrusion. This past winter, according to the Times Herald-Record, the presence of Mrs. Mauda and Ms. Birnbaum in Mrs. Alnahari’s basement apartment drew dozens of Satmar men who surrounded the building and, according to Mrs. Mauda, scared the life out of the women.
"To me, it looked like an army of thousands, all in black,” says Mrs. Mauda. When they banged on the door, one of Mrs. Alnahari’s sons opened it before the women could stop him. Mrs. Mauda quickly called her husband on her cell phone so he could hear what was happening. When Rabbi Mauda heard the men demanding that his wife come into the street, he called the state troopers. “I was sure they were going to kill me,” she says.
According to New York State Police in Monroe, when the police came, they saw some of the men carrying torches and Mrs. Birnbaum’s car set on fire. Most of the Satmar men fled when the police came, but three of them, who allegedly had forced their way into the apartment, were charged with felonies. Israel Grunhut, 27, Isaac Weinstock, 29, and Israel Rolnitsky, 44, all of Kiryas Joel, were reportedly held in Orange County Jail in Goshen until each posted $25,000 cash bail. According to Mr. Witriol, the charges were eventually dropped, “because nothing really happened.” The State Police had no comment on why the charges were dropped.
Asked why the men had stormed the apartment in the first place, Mr. Witriol says Mrs. Mauda incited them. “She saw them walking near the building and told them she was going to call the police and that’s when they all came to the apartment,” he says. Mrs. Mauda, who says she never spoke to the men until they tried to break into the apartment, is convinced they were sent by Rabbi Freund. In order to leave the apartment, the women needed a police escort. They had to call a non-Jewish car service because none of the Satmar-owned businesses would help them.

Targeted - On Monday, Feb. 27, 2006, Mrs. Mauda again came from Lakewood to Monroe to help Mrs. Alnahari with the children. Because she was in Kiryas Joel, Mrs. Mauda missed the traditional Yemenite "khenna" ceremony that was held that evening in Brooklyn for her future sister-in-law. Instead, Mrs. Mauda’s 16-year-old son, Shmuel, Shlomit, and a friend of Shlomit’s from Lakewood represented the family. When the ceremony was over, about midnight, the three teenagers traveled to Kiryas Joel, where Mrs. Mauda was staying. The teens used the private bus service run by the Satmars between Brooklyn and Monroe.
On the way, Shlomit realized that while her friend was dressed modestly, it still might not be appropriate for Kiryas Joel. After conferring with the bus driver, a former neighbor whom they knew from Kiryas Joel, the youngsters decided to stop at a 24-hour Wal-Mart to purchase a button-down shirt for the friend. Their plan was to call for a car service to take them to Mrs. Alnahari’s apartment afterwards.As they were getting off the bus at Wal-Mart, Shlomit remembers the driver telling someone on the other end of his cell phone, “The Mauda children are at Wal-Mart.”
Levi Danziger - About 2 am, after purchasing the shirt, the three teenagers left the store and, in the pavilion outside, saw a Satmar chassid whom they did not know. According to Shlomit, he smiled at them and said, “You are Mauda. Do you need a ride? I have the time. Where do you want to go?”It is not clear if, even in retrospect, she realizes how dangerous it was.
At the time, she says, it seemed perfectly natural. “He was Satmar. He had a black suit and he had peyos and a beard. Why should we have been afraid?” she says. Her mother frowns. “Yes, she had been insulted and badly treated in school, but it never occurred to any of us that there was any physical danger. We never talked about the possibility. The children were always sheltered,” says Mrs. Mauda. According to Shlomit, the chassid, Levi Danziger, 35, went into the Wal-Mart and bought a small ball “just so he could show he had a reason to be there, that he wasn’t there just because someone told him to come after us.” The youngsters called Mrs. Mauda to tell them where they were and that they had a ride.
When he escorted the teens to his van, Shmuel sat in front with the driver and the two girls sat in the back. According to Shlomit, Mr. Danziger was “very friendly.” He asked them what their mother was doing in Kiryas Joel, what was going on in the house of the Yemenite woman, and what her mother’s plans were. He asked them where they lived, and they not only gave him their addresses, they told him they would be going to a wedding in Brooklyn on March 1, and they gave him that address, too.
Gradually, his conversation with the girls became laden with overtly sexual references. For example, at one point, he asked Shlomit why the family left Kiryas Joel. When she told him it was because of the names people were calling her, he took out $20 and told her he would explain to her what it was for. According to Shlomit, when they finally reached the Alnaharis’ apartment, he reached around to the back and managed to grope her. She says she was stunned and, at the time, not even certain what had happened.
When they got out of the car, Shmuel, who had been on his cell phone during most of the trip, says he was not aware that anything untoward had happened. Shmuel says he gave Mr. Danziger his and his mother’s cell phone numbers, because the chassid said he might be able to give Shlomit’s friend a ride back to Lakewood the next day. Shlomit says she did nothing to try to prevent the proposed ride for two reasons: She was confused and she was pretty sure her friend would be leaving before the chassid would come to the house. When Mrs. Mauda came outside to bring her children in, Mr. Danziger rode off.

Information - But the next day, while Mrs. Mauda was in court with Mrs. Alnahari, Shlomit says Mr. Danziger called while she was babysitting for the Alnahari children in Monroe. He told her he had some very important information about her mother and demanded she meet him outside. She asked him to tell her the information on the phone, but, she says, he insisted it had to be in person. Shlomit says she reminded him she could not go into his car, and, she says, he promised he would stay in the vehicle and speak to her through the window. But, she says, when she met him in order to find out what he had to say about her mother, he began yelling at her, “People are watching. Get into the car.”
Frightened, she says she did as she was told. “I get confused when people yell at me,” she confesses.This time, she says, he drove off to a wooded area, where, despite her cries of protest, he fondled her.When he finally took her back to the apartment, she says, he told her if she told anyone, he would kill her and her mother. Embarrassed, she told no one what had happened and, she says, she did her best to forget the incident.
Abduction - But on March 1, at the wedding, which she attended with her mother, a relative came up to Shlomit and told her someone was waiting for her outside. "I don’t know why I went outside, but I didn’t even remember I had told him where the wedding was,” says Shlomit. This time, she says, Mr. Danziger grabbed her into the van, locked the child-proof doors, and, behind buildings somewhere in Brooklyn, sodomized her.He ended the session, she says, when her frantic mother, who had found his number on her cell phone, began calling every five minutes. The number was on her cell phone, because, when Mr. Danziger had called Shlomit to make the appointment to give her “information,” he had called her on the only number he had for her: her mother’s cell phone. But when Mrs. Mauda called him from the wedding, Mr. Danziger reportedly responded, “I’m not in Brooklyn. I’m in Monroe.” "How do you know where I am?” Mrs. Mauda says she screamed.
A Man’s Voice - Desperate, Mrs. Mauda called her husband, who was home in Lakewood with the younger children, and told him to call the cell phone number. When Mr. Danziger heard a man’s voice on the other end, Shlomit says, he became frightened and delivered her back to the wedding with an ominous warning: “If I don’t hear from you every day, I’ll know you told someone, and then you and your family will be in real trouble.” At this point, Shlomit did not even know his name, but, she says, because she believed he would hurt her family, she did as he told her. She says she is certain no one at the wedding saw her leave or return. Following Mr. Danziger’s instructions, she went directly to the kitchen and told anyone who asked that she had been there all the time. "I knew something was wrong, but Shlomit wouldn’t tell me anything. She was too scared of Danziger,” says Mrs. Mauda.

Stockholm Syndrome - Although in retrospect it seems hard to believe, Shlomit called Mr. Danziger every day, as per his instructions. Dr. Seglin says it’s not as hard to believe as it may seem. The Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological disorder in which victims may protect their abusers, is not uncommon in cases of both physical and psychological abuse, he says. "Emotionally bonding with an abuser is actually a strategy for survival for victims of abuse and intimidation,” he says.
According to Dr. Seglin, in Shlomit’s case, the only “protection” she afforded Mr. Danziger was keeping quiet about the abuse and the enforced daily phone calls. "She felt that she and her family were in physical danger and she didn’t know how to escape from the situation since she believed he would kill her and her mother,” he says.
No Accident - According to Shlomit, her conversations with Mr. Danziger have led her to believe that he was not at that Wal-Mart by accident. “He told me he had been sent by someone,” she says, adding that he also told her that Rabbi Freund “does what I do to teens.” "We have the best jobs,” he allegedly told Shlomit. He also made certain that it was she who always called him. “That way, if the police find out, I can say it was you who was driving me crazy,” he allegedly told her.

Pick Up - On May 2, Shlomit was hurrying home from school because her family was hosting the brith milah of a new nephew. Although she was with two friends, she stopped short when she saw Mr. Danziger’s van. "I was too scared to move, but my friend asked him, "Who are you?" He screamed at her, "Why do you care? She’s my sister. Go away." They ran, and I wanted to scream, "Come back," but he grabbed me and put me in the van,” she says. According to Lakewood police, the girls who were with Shlomit have corroborated this. Shlomit says he had a mattress in the back of the van, and, after driving around Lakewood, he finally stopped in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Howell, and sexually assaulted her.

Pills - Afterwards, she says, he forced “something” down her throat. She says she had no idea what it was, but, she says, Mr. Danziger told her, “You’re on drugs and you’re hyperactive.” "It hurt my throat. It burned,” she says. Then, she says, he continued driving. At 8pm, she says, she told him she felt sick, and he drove to one of Lakewood’s kosher restaurants. Leaving her in the car, he bought himself some dinner and brought her some water” .He told me he was locking me in the car,” says Shlomit. While he was gone, she says, she managed to open the glove compartment of the car and, for the first time, learned her assailant’s name.

Telling No One - At about 10:30pm, he dropped her off near her home, telling her again that he expected to hear from her everyday. "When I came in the house, everyone was crying. My friends had told my family what they knew and everyone wanted to know what happened, I told them nothing had happened, but I felt sick,” she says.
According to Shlomit, the only one she spoke to was her cousin, Yiftach Melamed, who was visiting from Israel. After completing their IDF service, Mr. Melamed, 23, and his friend, Danny Peer, came to the US. Shlomit says Mr. Melamed is one of the few people she can talk to openly.
A few days after the incident, she told Mr. Melamed she had “eaten something bad, but don’t tell my mom.” "I was embarrassed for my mom to know and I thought Danziger would kill us if he found out. I didn’t know how he would find out if I told her, but I thought he would. I didn’t even tell Yiftach for a while,” she says. According to Mrs. Mauda, Shlomit was sick on and off for the next month, complaining chiefly of stomach pains.

DYFS - On Fri., May 3, one day after Shlomit’s incident with Mr. Danziger, Mrs. Mauda received a visit from a representative of the NJ Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS), telling her an anonymous complaint had been filed against her by someone from the Satmar community in upstate New York.
The caller, whom the DYFS agent would not name, had accused Mrs. Mauda of giving her children heroin and neglecting them. "The DYFS agent told me the guy filing the complaint told them Shlomit was on drugs and she was hyperactive,” says Mrs. Mauda. Fortunately for the family, when the agent came, Shlomit was feeling fine and looked fine.
The agent met the other children and, Mrs. Mauda says, was pleased with what she saw. "I explained to her that I had been a witness against Satmar in many custody cases and that this was revenge against me.
DYFS understood and closed the case,” says Mrs. Mauda. For days afterwards, she says, she received calls from concerned friends in Monroe. “They kept saying, what happened? We heard you were arrested. We heard you were in jail. They told me they heard about this at the synagogue, but I know what happened. Freund told them, because he tried to open the case, but he did not succeed,” she says.

Telling - Shavuot this year fell on June 1. Too sick to participate with the family, Shlomit remembers going to her sister’s home in Lakewood and curling up in a ball. Once again, the only person with whom she agreed to speak was Mr. Melamed. This time, she says, he asked the right questions, and she told him everything. He then told his aunt and uncle.
Mrs. Mauda took her daughter immediately to Lakewood’s Kimball Medical Center, where she was found to be suffering from a massive urinary tract infection, consistent with sexual assault. Mrs. Mauda then reported the rape to the Lakewood Police who took all the information and, according to the police “a great deal of unspecified evidence.” This, in turn, was passed on to the Howell Police because the actual assault took place at the Wal-Mart in Howell. In Monmouth County, rape is defined as “sexual assault.”

(This last part appeared under the authorship of Suzanne Goldberg – J.I.):

Therapy - Shlomit is now in therapy with a female colleague recommended by Dr. Seglin. According to Shlomit, they talk a lot about the Stockholm syndrome. The therapist, who asked to remain anonymous, says there is no doubt in her mind that Shlomit was stalked, abused, and finally raped. Police in Howell, Monroe, and Brooklyn all say that Shlomit, whose story has never varied, is credible.

While the authorities are aware of Mrs. Mauda’s belief that Mr. Danziger was sent by the leaders of the Satmar community - and there may be some evidence that he admitted this to Shlomit - none of the police conducting the three separate investigations were prepared to say if that is where any of the cases are heading.

Mrs. Mauda says she is convinced the timing of the DYFS complaint against her was not coincidental. “Danziger gave Shlomit drugs the night before, and then Freund called DYFS so they would find drugs in her system and accuse me,” she says. She also recalls that Mr. Danziger mentioned something about Shlomit’s being “on drugs and hyperactive,” the very words used in the accusation that was given to DYFS. Asked why DYFS did not submit Shlomit to any testing, Mrs. Mauda says, “Because, Baruch Hashem, she looked fine on the day the agent came.”
Inadvertently responsible? One authority who is not ready to dismiss Mrs. Mauda’s conviction is Dr. Seglin. He remembers that, in late 2005, a few weeks before the Mauda children’s bus trip from Brooklyn to Monroe, he was asked by Mrs. Mauda to interview a Yemenite family on a custody issue. On that occasion, Mrs. Mauda and Shlomit were also present. "Shlomit’s English was better than anyone else’s in the room, and I was impressed not only with how articulate and bright she was, but also with how intuitive she was. She really understood what was going on,” he says.
When he wrote his recommendation to the judge, he suggested allowing Shlomit, despite her youth, to explain the situation. Now, says Dr. Seglin, he can’t help wondering if the Satmars saw that note and decided to discredit Shlomit as best they could.

Seeking protection - The Mauda family has responded to Shlomit’s ordeal by becoming very protective. “ We are afraid whoever sent Danziger will try to hurt her again,” says Mrs. Mauda. She says going public is part of the family’s plan to protect her. On Aug 5, Shlomit’s story was carried in the weekend edition of Yediot Achronot America. Messrs. Melamed and Pe'er have, at the family’s request, appointed themselves Shlomit’s bodyguards.

They drive her to her therapy appointments and generally keep an eye on her. Shlomit smiles shyly. “I like them, but I hope it won’t be necessary for too long,” she says. The family’s fear of retribution and his own concern for his cousin’s safety, prompted Mr. Melamed to seek counsel from Michael Wildes, who is not only the mayor of Englewood, but also a prominent immigration attorney. Mr. Wildes says he is “well-versed in protecting those in need of a safe harbor.”

Not a regular story - On the other hand, Mr. Witriol, Kiryas Joel’s head of public safety, discounts the entire story. Claiming to be a “neutral person,” Mr. Witriol, who also served as a police chaplain in Newark, says Mrs. Mauda was known “for always abusing her kids.” "Shlomit accused her parents of abusing her, and then she turned to Danziger for help,” says Mr. Witriol. “This is not just a regular story of him grabbing her and raping her. Of course, I could be wrong.”

Not a victim - Not that Mr. Witriol believes Shlomit is an innocent victim. “Shlomit slept around with all the delivery people in the village. Just ask all the Mexican delivery people,” he says. Mr. Witriol maintains that the Mauda family left Kiryas Joel because “the Yemenite community threw her out.” "There was trouble with her kids. The teachers fought with the mother. They all told her, this is not the place for you,” he says, adding that Mrs. Mauda “tries to split up Yemenite families.” "She has told wives to leave their husbands,” he says. Asked if he knows anyone who can corroborate his charges, especially the accusations concerning Shlomit, Mr. Witriol only says “everyone here knows it.” To prove his point that Mrs. Mauda is unstable, he says three of her children are divorced. Asked what that has to do with the rape of a 15-year-old girl, he says, “It shows this is not a normal family.”

According to Mrs. Mauda, only one of her five married children is divorced. That son, who lives in Israel, is now remarried, she says. Mr. Witriol says the real problem is that Mrs. Mauda and Rabbi Freund are involved “in a power play”, but, he says, he thinks there is very little likelihood that Rabbi Freund may have sent Mr. Danziger to hurt Shlomit. For one thing, says Mr. Witriol, they belong to separate groups. Mr. Danziger follows Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, and Rabbi Freund is associated with the group supported by the elder Rabbi Teitelbaum’s wife, he says. It was unclear if this means Rabbi Freund is a supporter of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum or if there is, perhaps, a third group. (Indeed, there is – precisely the followers of the “alter” [=old, old timer] Rebbetzin, who altogether reject Moishe Teitelbaum, Aaron and Zalman’s father. Affiliation with this fringe group is not always obvious though. Monroe residents can by and large be counted as Aaron followers, whether or not they actually accept him in their heart of hearts. – J.I.)

Fighting fear - Mr. Witriol says he is convinced Mr. Danziger will be acquitted - which is more of a statement than Mr. Danziger’s attorney, Anthony J. Fusco, of Passaic, was willing to make. Through his office, Mr. Fusco acknowledged that he was representing Mr. Danziger, but he would make no comment. Mrs. Mauda says Mr. Witriol’s statements show what is wrong in the Satmar community, especially among its leadership. "Everyone’s scared to go up against Rabbi Freund, but if the whole world is scared, who is going to help the people who are being abused?” says Mrs. Mauda.

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The article ends here, with many questions left unanswered. How the case against L. Danziger turns out will probably take more than too much time. The bigger question is how the public opinion/reaction will play itself out. I have long maintained that of the more bitter fruits borne by current Orthodox Judaism’s fragmentation and compartmentation is the ensuing unaccountability of entire communities. Unfortunately, more often than not, rabbis and leaders consider groups other than theirs quasi non-existent, and won’t get involved with issues happening in other groups. As Jews, however, we are warrants for each other (ישראל ערבים זה לזה). In this particular case we are especially guilty if we sit idle, as our Yemenite brothers are exposed to political dirty tricks unknown to them. They are strangers in a strange land, vulnerable to extortion and exploitation at the hand of malevolent elements. This part far outweighs the sexual assault.

The initial accolades Satmar received on behalf of their efforts to help the Yemenites were more than deserved. Sadly enough, their claims about the Zionists and the Israeli establishment’s treatment of Teimani Jews are by and large true, even if exaggerated. This is however no license for them to victimize and usurp their protégés.

Just as a side note – I have been hearing of the Yemenites’ mistreatment for a while now, and those I spoke to all told me about this attitude in Satmar. As a sad irony, I personally know the victim’s family as well as two of the suspect’s siblings. The story sounds perfectly plausible to me (although some passages in the article definitely trigger eyebrow-raisings). The broader issue at hand is how the general public relates to the behavior of one sect. Will we silently encourage Satmar to continue their hideous conduct (not only in regard to the Teimanim) just as that entire community, through their silence, enabled the abuse of Yemenites?

Will we ever reach a point where we all stand up and declare that the buck stops here? Regardless of one’s political/sectarian affiliation, I believe one must do everything in his power to stop this crime against unsuspecting victims. You can print this article here and distribute it, or otherwise raise awareness. Please forward this to as many people as you can.

I'd like to conclude with the words of pastor Martin Niemöller, who survived Nazi concentration camps:

"When they came for the Jews, I didn't speak up because I wasn't Jewish. When they came for the Gypsies, I didn't speak up because up because I wasn't a Gypsy. When they came for the communists, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak up to."

© Joseph Izrael 2006