Speed The Plough

As the Mondrowitz extradition case progresses, the charedi rabbinical establishment digs its head deeper in the sand, while the Jew-haters are having a field day. That chilul hashem, it seems, is of no concern to anyone. The problem, some PR artists reassure us with a straight face, is being taken seriously and being dealt with. And all who disagree with us are just alarmists who blow the problem out of proportions.

I simply cannot understand this attitude. What is wrong with us? I understand that there are alarmists out there. I know that facts are being distorted, taken out of context and sometimes outright invented. I’m also undecided about legislation on background checks. There are too many laws and regulations choking us as it is, but our children must be protected from potential harm, even if statistically small. Ideally, there would be self-imposed regulations, making certain information available to parents and board members… unfortunately, in real life it doesn’t work like that. Although victims of sexual abuse in general tend to hide their traumatic experiences, this is even more prevalent in a society that conceals a child’s ear infection at age three for fear of getting a less glitzy shidduch or not getting into that seminary.

Claims that most cases of child abuse are dealt within the community, and that rabbis can be fooled are not without merit. But “too little, too late” is not an unfair accusation. The rumors about serial rapist Mondrowitz have been around for a long time, and no amount of apologetics, either for the victims’ privacy or in favor of halachic approach or against false accusations can justify the mishandling of this affair.

In principle, I’d be all for dealing with such issues halachically within the community. I believe this would be more effective than endless hours of deliberations between judges and lawyers whose homes are probably full of child pornography anyway.

But halocha says: “-ובערת הרע מקרבך– you must eliminate evil from your midst”

And halocha says: “ועשית הישר והטוב בעיני 'ה– You must do the right and good in the eyes of G-d”

And: “לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל-דַּם רֵעֶךָ – don’t ignore your brother's blood [=plight, danger]”

And halocha empowers Judges (Rabbonim) to act or override other obstacles. Such as the provision for “מכת מרדת” – flogging ‘rebels’ – i.e. punishing crimes without specific provision in the Torah.

And the principle of “עגלה ערופה – slaughtered calf” teaches that leaders are responsible for the community’s welfare, to bring criminals to justice, punish crimes, and prevent future crimes.

If any of this has been done, it had no effect. “Dealing with those problems within the community” cannot mean anything but these criminals (Mondrowitz is undeniably חיב מיתה) being eliminated like Mark Younglove –. Since we’ve failed to do this, the last option is to hand the matter over to the authorities. The secular justice system –if generalizations can be made- is not overly harsh on sex offenders. Although there are tendencies in both directions, I’d say they’re more lenient and “understanding” of criminals than the opposite. But looking the other way and downplaying the problem’s magnitude is even worse. Unfortunately, those who invent or even blow the “coverup” out of proportions only play to the hands of the “leave it to us” experts: “see! They all lie and make up stories! They have no credibility!”

Mainstream Charedi leadership will finally have to learn to face serious problems even if they come at the expense of their honor and image of immaculate sanctity.

It seems like Mondrowitz raped all he saw - now his abettors reap what they sow.

© Joseph Izrael 2007

Night Boat To Cairo

CAIR, or the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is a “civil rights” group and the left’s darling. Rabid Jew-haters like D.B. just love them. But their name is more than just a cute acronym sounding like ‘care’. “Cair”, or rather Cahir, is Arabic for Cairo. What’s the connection? Well, Cairo is home to the Al Azhar University, the chief propagator of Islamic hatred and ideology of genocidal mania. Although they are experts in concealing their real intentions, by bogus lip-service condemnations of terror attacks and such, they are the instigators and engineers of Islamic fanaticism. Remember where DB darling Yassir Arafat came from? Same for the Islamic Brotherhood terroris organization. In any event, CAIR were a hair from being indicted as co-conspirators in terrorist and terror-funding groups. They were saved by the skin of their teeth by pressure groups such as Hillary Clinton’s Media Matters (although both deny any link to the other – financial tracks say otherwise).

Now these freedom of speech lovers are being sued by Michael Savage. They already withdrew a lawsuit against Andrew Whitehead, as going ahead with the process would have forced them to reveal their financial records, which in turn would have shown their true connections (to Hamas, Hizb’Allah and Hill'Ary).

Savage Lawsuit 1 Savage Lawsuit 2

Truth about CAIR and CAIR terrorist ties in great detail.

Whitehead lawsuit

Indonesia, according to my good friend Charlie Hall, is the world’s largest Moslem country and extremely tolerant. Doesn’t sound tolerant at all to me… 20 years for 9 lbs of pot, 14 years for murder…


© Joseph Izrael 2007

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

Gutter Ballet

An open letter to Rabbi Avi Shafran and some of his critics

Dear Rabbi Shafran,

After reading your article about sexual abuse in our community, I was left hurt, insulted and betrayed.

The traditional reading on Yom Kippur’s Mincha is parshas arayes. That parsha details some of the most horrendous and repulsive behaviors any human can possibly commit. Why does the holy Torah command us to read that specific segment on the holiest of our days? The Mishna Brurah, has a simple answer: since a man’s self desires sexual sins, and one may have transgressed these prohibitions, he should repent. The Shulchan Oruch doesn’t exempt anyone from hearing this reading. It doesn’t exempt Talmidei Chachomim, nor people with frocks or shtreimels or white beards.

I fully understand that exposing such criminals may shed our community in a bad light. But covering them up shed us in an even worse light. As a result of your article, Rabbi Shafran, wherever and whenever I go with my hat and jacket, I feel like I proclaim “I protect child molesters! I deny that there are problems within my community!” This chilul hashem is by far greater than that of exposing criminals. Most people today understand that there are sick deviants in any society. Most people are able to understand that one who transgresses the Torah by the most odious acts is not a shomer Torah umitsvos. But when the systematic cover-up of such incidents is exposed –and it is exposed, believe you me- that’s when our community as a whole is being demeaned, shamed and ridiculed.

I am fully aware of the abysmal injustices that the Orthodox –and especially the charedi- communities in Israel have suffered at the hand of the Bolshevik Zionists – in some cases even murder. I am fully aware that secular Zionism propagates hatred of true Jews and has a lot to answer for. But it is no excuse for us to behave like them. Since we know what it means to be betrayed, we should be all the more careful not to betray the wretched victims of sexual abuse. Since we decry secular Zionism’s denial of its crimes, we must not deny our crimes either. But all of this is besides the point. In the final analysis there are no excuses; we must do what is right for the simple reason that it is right.

Rabbi Shafran, I understand that there are hachic problems in dealing with this topic. But I also understand that the Torah has specifically empowered our sages with daas Torah in such cases. Daas Torah can rule that a criminal is to be turned over to the authorities even without two kosher witnesses. I would also remind you, that in Jewish Law, a criminal tried for capital punishment but found not guilty, isn’t free to roam à-la O.J. Simpson or Teddy Kennedy. In the time of the Temple, such criminals were left to die in solitary confinement.

I would like to address now some of Shafran’s critics;
not only are you no better than him, you are far worse. You have exploited the victims of sexual abuse for political gain, for your fame and for the pleasure of putting down your opponent. Rosenberg has an exposé on how haredi culture (which he either doesn’t know, as is obvious from his articles, or he willfully distorts the facts) breeds more abuse and cover-ups. Unfortunately there is some truth to his words. But he conveniently omits a few disturbing facts; he writes: “Look at it this way. If you could stop a murderer from killing by calling police, but choose not to do so because breaking omerts would result in less desirable shidduchim [matches] for your children, would your inaction be correct? Is your child's "better" shidduch more important than the victim's life, a life you do not have the power to restore? If this question is in any way difficult for you, you're in the wrong species. Check your lineage for apes.” Well, sweetheart, you full and well know that murder was actually covered up. Unfortunately for you, that didn’t happen in haredi communities. It happened among your darling Reform brothers. That’s right – there are at least three incidents I am aware of, when Reform “Rabbis” were committing adultery with their congregants wives. In two instances the cuckolded husbands opted to have their wives assassinated, while in the other, a Rabbi himself ordered the murder of his wife, in order to marry a woman he recently “converted” to Judaism. You’d imagine that according to Mr. Rosenberg’s analysis there’d be a tremendous outcry in those communities, harshly condemning the tragic events. Not so. Not only the community tried its best to hush the events and refused to talk to the media, but when one of their own tried to document the case, she was beaten, her nose was broken, she received death threats and was ostracized. So much for the great secular civilization many of you so much adore.

Then you have the bleeding heart ultra-righteous blogger who abhors sex abuse so much, that any comment containing the names of sexual predators is deleted from his blog’s comments section. Well, as long as they belong to his party. In other words, Ze’ev Kpolevitch, who was convicted of no less than 19 counts of rape and statutory rape, but after serving a nominal 3½ years sentence, was brought back to the yeshiva, doesn’t make it to the blog world. That’s right, the pervert is brought back to yeshiva after conviction, he is still there, and you remain silent. The Israeli media accused Rabbis Chaim Druckman and Avraham Shapiro of covering up the case and urging witnesses to remain silent. That somehow wasn’t detected by your radar, Mr. Righteous. Why? Since you don’t care about this, why are you so adamant other predators are brought to justice? And don’t you think your over-defensiveness just gives credence to other allegations? If you bar as much as mention of the name George Finkelstein, don’t you think it raises suspicion that the allegations against him, as well as allegations of cover-up against Norman Lamm may be true?
You criticize others for the very same thing you’re guilty of. At least Shafran doesn’t run around accusing others of cover-up. You have exploited sexual assault victims’ plight for your own sick games, for political gain and idiotic partisan politics.

© Joseph Izrael 2007

Roxanne

We just read about Shimon and Levi slaying an entire town for tolerating a tremendous injustice done in their midst. But there was something else at play too – maybe even deeper and more fundamental than the simple reason attributed to the retribution.

Yaakov chastises his sons, saying that by their action, they have placed him in peril. Their reply seems totally detached and unrelated to the rebuke: “? הַכְזוֹנָה, יַעֲשֶׂה אֶת-אֲחוֹתֵנוּ - Shall our sister be dealt with as a prostitute?” Communication breakdown? How does this possibly answer their father’s claim that their actions caused them to face extermination? No answer, no give and take. The chapter ends here.

So what was so convincing about this short snippet that left Yaakov Ovinu speechless? What can possibly make you agree that putting your life in danger was justified?

Had Yaakov’s sons taken their father’s reasoning into consideration, what would have been the outcome? Would the Hittites and surrounding nations have respected and honored Bnai Yisroel for being able to restrain themselves? Would they see the Daughters of Israel as dignified women with self-respect? Would they be safer that way?
In all probability that’s not exactly the message the Hittites would have gotten. And perhaps, they would not have been better off being constantly victimized by the neighboring bullies.
And maybe even if it wouldn’t have turned out exactly like that, what kind of life is it knowing you can be bought?

Well, certain things are worth fighting for. Dying for. Suffering for.

Certain things just cannot be prostituted, bastardized and sold out. The Torah is one of them. One’s integrity is another. Yes, there is a tremendous amount of flexibility. But there are red lines. And it really doesn’t matter whether you start by prostituting your integrity or the Torah. They’re bound together. If you start cutting corners “for the Torah”, first a little white lie, a little dishonesty here, a bissaleh fraud there… If you start cutting corners of the Torah… you’ll end up in the same place as well… you’ll eventually cut the fundamental corners, the cornerstones. You’ll willfully distort the Torah, as distortion will become part of you.

Maybe Shimon and Levi’s mistake was taking booty. They didn’t make it clear enough that their sole objective was doing justice. They declared to the entire world: “Don’t mess with us!” But then and there they also erred buy touching the material belonging. And perhaps that was Yaakov Ovinu’s claim against them: if you can’t carry out your duty in the purest possible form, you may as well not do it at all. But they still answer him There’s no prostituting the Torah!

'אין חכמה ואין תבונה ואין עצה נגד ה

© Joseph Izrael 2007

Dallas 1PM

Today, forty-four years ago, Jack Ruby (nee Rubinstein to a frum family) emptied a single bullet from his Colt Cobra into Lee Harvey Oswald’s stomach. Oswald died of the wound a short while later, and Ruby died of illness after his appeal.

To this day, stipulations and conspiracy theories abound. Why was JFK assassinated and who was really behind it all are questions which will probably never be answered.

What the assassination did however achieve, was sugarcoating the Playboy President’s legacy, and downplaying his many failures and misdeeds. Claiming that without Oswald we’d be speaking Russian today might be an exaggeration, but it sure isn’t far from the truth.

Many times in history assassins of dictators are heralded, even if not outright heroes, as people who rid their countries of oppression. This is true even if the assassins turned out to be no better than their victims. Cromwell and Napoleon sure fit the description, and even today many are willing to downplay the Bolsheviks’ abysmal evil, brutality and cruelty because they dethroned the Czar. Yet one who’d dare even the slightest such nod in Oswald’s direction is regarded as a lunatic at best. The fact however is, despite the admiration, J.F. Kennedy was
at best a midget compared to his predecessor, Eisenhower.

Today we also have a feeling of betrayal and abandonment. Our so-called leaders play with our money, our education, our children and our lives with absolute impunity. There’s no accountability, wherever there’s a serious problem there’s someone who can help but turns away. “We can’t do a thing,” they say, but when they are always faster than lightning to pay back the man with the big wallet. This is true about many leaders at many levels. Or rather, just powerful people, for leaders they are not. They may parade as leaders, but their leadership fails with their inability –or unwillingness- to lead their own selves.

It is at such times that unity is most precious and of utmost importance. When responsibility is rejected by those who need it most, it falls on everyone else’s shoulders. That’s precisely what must be understood by all who want change. We don’t want animal farm all over again.

But we shouldn’t go overboard…

© Joseph Izrael 2007

A Stranger In Us All

A few days ago I came across an interesting post on Ben Chorin’s website. In short, the post quotes an article about Israeli football fans who booed during the moment of silence in honor of Rabin’s memory. In his analysis, he claims they did so to protest against their humiliation, i.e. the moment of silence is really meant force them to “…affirm the virtuousness of the secular Ashkenazi left and the barbarism of everyone else, first and foremost, people like themselves. Their reaction was a sign of healthy self-esteem combined with a certain, um, lack of inhibition.” An angry commenter there remarked -in typical leftist conceit- that those barbarians are indeed incapable of such deep analysis, and were just acting as, well, barbarians.

In the last few years I have been working around non-intellectuals, to say the least. They come from many backgrounds: WASPs, Jamaican Blacks, Hispanics, American Blacks, Africans – what not. I can affirm you with the greatest certainty that even primitve and uneducated people are not necessarily stupid, and they most certainly aren’t oblivious to their feelings. The Ego is an extremely powerful part of us, and is extremely sensitive. He loves himself more than anything and anyone else, and woe to the one who’d dare insult him.
Such people are probably not conscious or analytic of the world exactly in the way we are – perhaps their brains analyze reality differently. Those Beitar fans probably didn’t analyze reality in the same way Ben Chorin did. But they certainly felt it, to the deepest of their souls. This beside the prevalent Sepharadic complex of inferiority and resentment of the elitist Polish intelligentsia of Israel.

The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is one of the greatest masterpieces of English poetry. The epic poem tells the story of a mariner who kills an Albatross –a bird of good omen- for no apparent reason. The rest of the crew are angry at him, but later justify him. Then a terrible curse, a thirst and draught begins as vengeance. In the end all the crew dies except the Mariner, who is doomed to live and tell his horrible tale wherever he goes.
Literary critics have written entire libraries of analyses about the poem. A point many ponder about - what exactly the morale of the story is? One lesson I believe we can learn from here is that idle bystanders who know a wrong has been done may be guiltier than the actual criminal. For we cannot know what posessed him in the momoent he carried out his act – but the others understand it is evil, yet later they justify the criminal. (Or just don’t denounce him.)

Yesterday I saw something that literally made me sick. Someone made the most odious, repulsive, puke-inducing and repugnant comments about our saints of saints, Yaakov Avinu and Leah Imeinu. I can’t even repeat what the putrid coward hiding behind the blog D.B. said. Go see for yourself if your stomach is strong enough.

Quite often we witness people outraged at their Rabbis being denigrated, or even not addressed with proper respect. Sometimes numerous articles are written against this or that journalist or blogger if they “mistakenly” ommit a rabbi's due title, or if one chas veshalom dares questioning this or that decision of one’s Gadol. A flurry of angry comments flood the site after such a snafu, and the war of words rages for days on end. The fierce defenders of Torah stand up with fire in their eyes to protest the disrespect showed to their Leader by that nasty individual, who must immediately apologize… or hang.

Yet… yet here… total silence. Not one protest. Not one condemnation, not an iota of outrage showed. I know, I know. There are a million excuses. He wants the attention, it’s better to ignore him, etc.

Are we really that shallow? What are we standing up for when we protest a Rav’s humiliation? Are we really standing up for Torah or that rabbi or gadol? Or are we standing up for our own little narcissitic ego? How come a little carelessness about a contemporary rabbi generates such emotions, yet when Yaakov Avinu is dragged through the mud, called a swindler, when Leah Imenu is compared to a Playboy bunny no one has anything to say? How can we not go crazy when we hear such utter defamation taken directly from ageless, classic anti-semitic propaganda? How can everyone keep quiet when one who proclaims to be an observant Jew quotes from Third Reich textbooks and pub-mob?

I think this is precisely our problem. Our idiotic sectarianism isn’t about truths anymore. It’s not about principles. It’s about me and myself and I and my. When a rav is insulted, it is not the insult of Torah or righteousness we protest. It’s our own insult we stand up against. That’s how low we got. Yaakov Avinu doesn’t matter anymore. Apparently, he’s not a treasured figure in our History. Apparently, he’s not a fundamental part of Yiddishkeit.

Well, he wasn’t in our club.


© Joseph Izrael 2007

The Rage

“Like a tiger
In the cage
We begin to
Shake with rage!”
-"The Rage", Judas Priest (British Steel, 1980)

If you’re sensitive I suggest you skip what follows. You may call it “the worst of Joe Izrael vol. I”. Or just “Yossi is angry”…

It now seems wounded and maimed veterans are asked by the gov’t to renounce part of their sign-on bonuses! Can you believe this? We feed millions of illegal immigrants, bums, academic parasites who are an embarrassment to education and intelligence, and welfare leeches who can’t speak English but get straight A’s on their section 8 applications! Did you know that Medicaid recipients are eligible for free taxi to the doctor? That’s right. Frimmet from Monsey can git a raid viz gantz comfy taxi to Nie Yirk Sitty so hubby Chaim Mayer can sit and shmeeze in bais medrish, while Marines who lost arms and legs have to give back their sign-on bonuses.

I have a brilliant politico-economic solution: let’s send the illegal immigrants to Iraq and force the hassidim as well as other welfare-suckers to pick cucumbers and cotton and pack orders at Chaim Yankel’s Sipermurkit.
In the meantime this soldier who lost his eye and the gov’t spat in his other eye could actually receive his full sign-on bonus, instead of Yoily Herskowics buying himself a new shtraimel with foodstamps and getting a tuition break because "the rusha goyim take me off di velfare". And white kids would do some work instead of getting drunk on daddy’s credit card.

Here’s what Michael Savage said about his letter from the GOP requesting a donation:
“I crossed out the amount to donate, and I wrote on it:
#1 stop immigration.
#2 pardon the Marines
#3 stop government spending.”

I would like to suggest you do the same with any further donation requests for any moisad. Write on it:

"#1 I demand transparency of all financial dealings of your mosad. Who gets how much and how is the money spent. How are employees and board members appointed?
#2 I demand your organization unconditionally condemn child molestation, pledges not to harbor such people and to fairly investigate allegations of sexual abuse. Ditto for other felonies.
#3 I demand your organization unconditionally condemn reliance on government funds as a way of life, and the obtaining of such funds illegally, fraudulently or by questionable means.

Until I get proof the above demand have been fulfilled I suggest you save your paper and stamps as I won’t donate you one cent more. Signed:__________."

In fact you can just send in such a letter to the Agudah, UJC, RCA and any other organization you know. Send it to hassidic rebbes too.

How come no one stands up against a huge cut of the population all living like leeches on the taxpayers’ backs? How come all Hassidic villages, as well as most of Fakewood are below poverty level, everyone has sec.8, single mom benefits (many frum people don’t get civil marriage), welfare, Medicaid, foodstamps, and perhaps benefits that haven’t even been yet signed into law, while the place is full of Lexuses, Suburbans, Town Cars, each house is bigger and fancier (and more distasteful) than the other. Kids prancing around in $400 outfits, renewed quarterly. How come when these people go to the doctor’s office or get pulled over by a cop they can’t speak English, yet when they fill out welfare and Medicaid forms, Shakespeare couldn’t make a better case for himself. Did I mention cash businesses and bribe? Did I mention Mr. Frankel’s endless love of his Yiddishe brothers? He owns a few houses in Monsey, but they all house illegal immigrants from Mexico, who needless to say are the most pleasant neighbors imaginable. One family per house – well, a family of 40, that is. They’re always sober, spotless clean, and their dogs barely ever bite. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (wink-wink, nod-nod, hehehe, they know who votes them in) approves them for section 8 benefits as long as they can provide a piece of cardboard with “Hernandez” scribbled on it.

So why can’t Mr. Millionnaire Frankel rent the houses to Yidden? Because he’s too cheap to renovate them. And he also knows if the tenant loses his sec 8 eligibility (in the unlikely case a HUD inspector puts 2 Lexus and 2 Suburbans and lavish furnishings and sixteen kids together) he’ll never see a payment again. Besides, of course, the not-so small danger of one of his fellow Skvindlers just swindling the house away from him. Of course, that doesn’t bother His Exalted Holiness Maran Hagaon Haadir Hagadol Hagibor Vehanora Kvod Kudshas David Twerski SHLIT”A, whose credentials include being the son of the previous Skverer rebbe and the grandson of the one before. In fact, he has been informed of the problem numerous times, but he has a hassidus to fihr. To his credit, after 15 years of complaints he instructed the heilige Koenig brothers to shut down "T&A’s adult entertainment" on RT 59. I guess tipping went down when hassidim became the predominant customers. Now they have to stick to their "Hy-Tech auto-wreckers" insurance-defrauding business. Nebach, only two Caribbean cruises this year…

Bad news for Mr Twersky and his devout followers: some Black Moslems beat you guys! And I thought Skwer was the best at least in one area. Shame on you!

A few more articles you'll never see on Adov Hitbear's site:

Snuff films have influence. But don't tell the Bare Dove good "liberals" can do harm.

Dovie swears Moslems are bad only from "our POV". (But haredim are objectively, unequivocally bad.) Islamic Law is the very essence of love, peace and compassion.

Dept. of Homeland security more incompetent than Agudah.

And to end with a good thing... finally a little good news on the border.

© Joseph Izrael 2007

Civil War

The current conversion conference conflict opened up an old can of worms with numerous ramifications. These in turn may have long lasting repercussions, some possibly of unforeseeable magnitude.

There are real problems here, which most seem to ignore, either because they were carried away, or perhaps they’re only focusing on petty bickering. Suffice to say most people didn’t see farther than their noses, which isn’t too far, even if they’re Jews.

So let’s capitulate, let’s clear the air please;
There is a very serious problem of intermarriage. There is also a very serious problem of severe breaches in giyur procedures within orthodoxy.

EJF was founded to solve, or at least soothe these problems. But it turned out (or was so planned from the beginning) that money for nothing and chicks* for free make you forget your principles pretty quickly. So EJF is actively pursuing intermarried couples, employs leniencies, targets the children of intermarried couples, and tries to monopolize the business. There is also a great problem with centralizing halocha.

But the main focus of controversy was on an entirely different matter. Apparently rabis Eisenstein and Tropper officially declared, in the names of R’ Elyashiv and R Kanievski, that the conversion of one who believes the world is older than 5768 years is void. Similarly, one who holds this belief is a cofer (heretic), unfit for dayonus and as per consequence even past conversions performed by him are retroactively void.

Naturally, the Modern Orthodox were outraged, and rightly so. But they forgot all about the real problems and while they were busy screaming about being delegitimized, rabbi Tropper cashed another check, and EJF is still riding high.

Although hard to believe they are true, the statements were made, and will have to be dealt with. Is it a moment of truth for Modern Orthodoxy? Time will tell.

As a side note, I’d suggest that as a worst-case scenario, (i.e. the comments were actually made exactly so and they are true) even the most stringent hard-liner position, i.e. that Evolution is unequivocally heresy, shouldn’t retroactively void conversions. Even if one actually holds one heretic belief, if he keeps Torah and mitsvot he may not be entirely dismissed. This is especially in regards with Orthodox people holding evolutionary ideas (I almost put an L in there…), since they believe this conforms to halocha. In the worst case this shouldn’t be considered more than shogeg in one ‘un-kosher’ belief’.

As a matter of fact, in ’92 a group of RCA rabbis proposed to change the approach to intermarried couples, (labelled "the roundtable proposition") as an answer to the alarming rate of intermarriage. The RCA’s leading rabbis immediately released and unequivocal rejection of the proposal and reinforced the traditional approach.

Despite this, there are many rabbis, who, on a private basis (i.e. they have or serve on independent courts) employ very lax, and I’d say even heterodox practices. People with ultra-liberal agendas are liberal enough to enact laws of their own, at the community’s expense and detriment. (Note that Noah Feldman has more integrity than such people. He could have easily resorted to a giyur Maiden Japan and avoid all the fuss. No one would have ever accused him of throwing tantrums…) There is also a lot of corruption – dayonus can be quite a profitable business.

The real tragedy is that those gerim will be rejected in many Orthodox communities. The communities that will accept them will only alienate themselves from general Orthodoxy. And I fear that some are actually interested in this. There are at least two virulently anti-orthodox sites that vehemently oppose EJF specifically because it jeopardizes such rogue courts and rabbis. They, as well as the insulted MO people who resorted to personal smears against Tropper actually play into his hands. Now he’ll have proof that it’s Modern Orthodoxy’s extreme left wing together with some unsavory characters who are trying to smear and vilify him.

Instead of resorting to absolutely useless attacks, we should focus on the real problems, as well as stopping the commercialization of Judaism.

This is a huge silver lining to EJF’s black cloud, because come hell or high water, now everyone’s noses will be rubbed in their own dirty little secrets, lest EJF achieves its goal. But by now a few egos too much have been hurt, and the struggle won't be easy. In other words, by wanting to be bigger and better than everyone else, rabbi Tropper actually forced all to face reality.

And the episode may have an even more siginficant facet to it. Perhaps now those who really care may actually face up and sit together to discuss solutions and ways to ensure proper procedures.
Is there at least a glimpse of a chance, if not at reconciliation, at least a bit of tightening and mending the relations between the factions? Let’s hope so.

___
*Rubashkin glatt, of course.


© Joseph Izrael 2007

Gay Ruth

A psak of the Eidah Charedis in Jerusalem about promoting conversions came out this Thursday.

So far it seems that they do not yet have complete information on what is going on, as the main focus is still on the children of intermarried couples. This is also one of EJF’s problems, so it is good that it has been addressed.

You can get these in PDF format by clicking on the pictures. I suggest you print them out and show it to your Rav and any influential people to stop this before it gets out of control.






I include here some material clearly showing that EJF is actively targeting intermarried couples and their children, ("Jews pushing conversions", "Rabbis easing conversion rules" etc) furthermore they use and manipulate special leniencies which are not widely accepted. Certainly in the area of geirus which is irrevocable and has long lasting influences we cannot rely on leniencies. (I have copied the material in case pressure is exerted on the original publishers to take off the articles. Original links provided within.)


Clarification:
It has come to my attention that I was accused on several blog comments of hating gerim, being against gerim or gerus and having anti-ger agenda. This is absolutely false. As I have mentioned before, and is widely known, many gerim had tremendous beneficial influence on the Jewish nation: Ruth HaMoaviah, Shmaya and Avtalion, Onkeles The Ger and some more. But there is no indication that the EJF and the ultra-liberal rabbis' conversions are so sincere.

I did mention the clear halocha that in times whem "Israel has the upper hand" - (יד ישראל תקיפה) which clearly applied in the times of Dovid Hamelech and Shlomo Hamelech, gerim are not to be accepted. It should at least be considered in light of the fact that Jews are now prosperous, there is a State called the "Jewish State" with its own army and independence, and is more prosperous and safer than many other countries in the world.

It is also an undeniable fact that there is a surge in gerus, which is due to many factors; open contact between Jews and Gentiles, intermarriage, the Aliayh from the former Soviet bloc to Israel etc. It is also undeniable that being a Jew is far more appealing now than it was 200 years ago - or even just 65. Judaism and Jewish Law discourage conversions, this is also an established fact. So it is not far-fetched to remind people of this.

Unfortunately there are many rabbis, even Orthodox ones, who are not careful and because of their liberal ideology find all kinds of leniencies which should not be liberally applied. What they cause is that their conversions will not be widely honored, hence causing distress and frustration to their gerim who will realize too late that they won't be universally accepted. Maybe those rabbis actually want this as they lose their congregants to both secular society and stricter orthodox circles. In any event I have no claim against the converts who, in near all cases, are not in a position to be aware of all these details and are not to be blamed for the converting rabbis' faulty practices.

I did mention that many gerim have detrimential influence for the sole reason that I did observe such people - people who convert because they are unprepared they either join the most exremist circles, or become disillusioned and abandon relgion. And there are those who do not intend to be religious at all and are interested in conversion only for the sake of marriage. Unfortunately, some Orthodox rabbis perform such conversions. Some out of corruption and for money, some because the aforementioned libertarien ideologies.

© Joseph Izrael 2007

Smears trump not the truth.

Tears Of Fire

In case video fails click here.

Jew's Syndrome Pt. I (Sad Wings Of Destiny)

Have a great Shabbos, and don't forget to talk to your rav about EJF! Truth must prevail!


© Joseph Izrael 2007

The Pressure Will Blow

I spoke to Rav Yossef Bloch this evening, and he asked me to take off his shmuess from Youtube. He said the shmuess was never meant to be made public, and had he known that he'd have an audience greater than his immediate circle of talmidim, he would have used slightly different expressions. All the information is nonetheless true and he stands behind every statement made.

Please note that there was no pressure exerted on me whatsoever. He told me that the sound files are in my hand and he cannot force or pressure me, but he asked me to take them down. R' Bloch does not want to have any shaychus to the internet, nor to be quoted in public. I reluctantly take off the shmuess for the sole reason that I respect him as an honorable Talmid Chochom and an ish emes.
_________

I spoke today to rabonim across the haredi spectrum. I was able to gather the following information:

· EJF accused their opponents of taking quotes from their pamphlet “guide” for giyur-rabbis (not distributed to the public), which then several rabbis refuted, and they actually changed that paragraph. (A Shach leniency regarding the ger’s total and sincere intent to accept full mitzvah observance, which was distorted by EJF to mean that the acceptance itself could be eased.)

· RE: Centralizing and/or institutionalizing Halocha, (i.e. in and on itself) whether for general purposes or for a single issue is very strongly discouraged is a bad and dangerous notion. Rabbis should collaborate as neede or see fit, but not monopolize Halocha or Yiddishkeit.

· RE gerus in this day and age: halahic guidelines for all?: Varying answers, more or less around the lines that such guidelines can (or should) be published, or rabbis should voice their opinions if problems emerge, or protest. But certainly not by instituting a body that will be active in the very same field. (Totally unreasonable and illogic rationale, no?)

· RE Belief in a world older than 5768 years: a) constitute ‘kfirah’: widely varying answers from laughs to a firm “yes”;

· -b) if yes, does it retroactively passel (void) giyurs by rabbis believing in an older universe: Chas Veshalom!

· -c) does it disqualify such rabbis from performing gerus: No. The most kanoi: no answer.

· -d) Do such people lecatchila count in a minyan and is their wine muttar: Yes / reluctant yes.

Explanation by most kanoi & second most kanoi: their kfira is not complete, i.e. they believe H’ and are mekayem mitzvos, but they have one (or certain) heretic belief.

RE EJF:

& - Correction & apology: Thomas Kaplan’s wife is in all probability Jewish from birth, albeit they have other intermarried relatives. This person should not be maligned or criticized as he acts in good faith and doesn’t understand halocha and halachic thought (tinok shenishba) and acts in good faith.

& - EJF actively pursues intermarried couples and encourages conversions – more details to come.

& - EJF do use leniencies in converting intermarried couples or their children.


I did not mention names because some rabbis didn't wanted to be quoted in public for different reasons (not knowing enough about EJF, not wanting problems from EJF surrogates etc.) and are unwilling to voice public opinion on the matter. Not yet! The pressure will blow!

Stay tuned.