kvetch \KVECH\, intransitive verb: To complain habitually. noun: 1. A complaint 2. A habitual complainer.

Shmarya and I collaborated on a piece for Jewcy on the new haredi-driven phenomenon (who says they don’t innovate?) of unconverting converts.

…we’ll miss you. Looks like SOMEONE can’t be bothered to protect you (or the rest of us) by cutting those greenhouse gases.

Noah, build your ark. Flood’s a coming.

Eli Valley has a new comic on Jewcy lambasting the ways Zionists view themselves and the ways they expect Diaspora Jews to view themselves.

Now, you might think that as a fellow Non-Zionist Litvak, I might agree with Valley’s scathing sarcasm.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

True, I can’t help but remember a bitter debate that Eli Valley (who commented as “EV”) and I had versus the utter contempt displayed towards Diasporists by The Zionists, but I have changed since then. I have grown.

The Zionists are correct, and Eli Valley, wrong. Well, at least partially.

First of all, achievement must be measured according to ability. We have to remember that the fact that the average Israeli IQ is only 94 and the fact that the average American Ashkenazi IQ is the highest in the nation, between 112-115, does not mean that Israel doesn’t have many very talented and very bright people, who are doing great things in select sectors. And who says I.Q. means all that much in the first place? After all, Diaspora Jews might be better at curing diseases, composing symphonies, and writing books, but Israelis make much better taxi drivers ( or at least, do so more often) and are considered to look better in bathing suits, and if so, may perform better at frolicking in the sea, a skill (among many) not measurable by IQ tests.

Additionally, some of Israel’s weaknesses are structural and social, not inherent. For instance, the fact that Israel’s haredim abhor the work ethic doesn’t preempt that one day they could be productive members of society (in theory). And even Israeli music is making great strides as well, even if their most important musical contribution to the world in the past twenty years was popularizing Radiohead through their song “Creep,” it is no accident it was them as opposed to say, Syria, right? Also, Israeli cinema continues to get better and better at the high end, and who is to say that they won’t overtake Jewish dominated Hollywood by 2525 if Hollywood should stagnate during that period? And Israeli cinema still slaughters the movies coming out of any other Middle Eastern country, absolutely every single one (except Iran). And we must remember that while, yes, Israel allows (only some!) of her women to be forced to the back of select (nationally owned) bus lines, well, we had a similar problem even until the 60s. In parts of the south. So what if in terms of progress, they are going absolutely the wrong way?

So I have a new slogan to help with marketing efforts,

“Zionism…it’s still (relatively) successful…at least by Middle Eastern standards, except for the genocidal threat thing.”

Enough is enough. Cruelty to human beings (in so many forms) at these glatt plants, as well as excessive cruelty to animals, as well as blatant criminal activities, have gone on too long. We in the liberal and traditional-secular Jewish communities never committed to this stringency of “glatt,” and yet, we have been complicit in its expansion, and all the corruption and cruelty that the haredim inevitably bring to every industry they control.

We must call on Hebrew National and other non-haredi meat suppliers to expand their line of offerings. Additionally, we must remember that chicken is pareve. (Note: Empire Kosher apparently does treat its workers okay, and is unionized.)

The haredim do not share our value system. It is time to stop supporting haredi corruption and crime.

It is time to stop buying all glatt products. I personally pledge, although it is difficult, to desist bringing any glatt products into my house. Does anyone else want to join me? Or do you want to continue to support this evil, cruelty, and criminal activities?

When you eat glatt, you enable.

Failed Messiah told The Kvetcher, “In terms of humane treatment of animals, the best slaughter out there is Hebrew National.”

Tired of the corporate rat race? Ever want to try something different? Well, have we got the perfect new career path for you. You can earn five whole dollars an hour working for Rubashkin, the kosher meat guys!

Failed Messiah reports,

A plant employee identified as “Source 11” told authorities that he/she was hired without presenting employment documents or filling out any forms. The worker’s first paycheck had a different person’s name on it, which was then cashed at another part of the plant.

Undocumented workers were paid $5 an hour for their first three or four months on the job, the employee said…

But wait! There’s more!

…and then received a salary increase to $6 per hour.…

Holy Kishke! That’s a 20% raise after only 3 (or 4) months! Do YOU get that kind of raise after only four months on the job?

And remember…it’s in cash.;) You can take those extra wages to the trust fund.

Underage? No problemo, señor!

And there are plenty of openings. Now that the Feds have arrested 6-700 illegals.

You know why this is happening? Because of Anti-Semitism. CLEARLY Rubashkin is a victim of those who HATE FRUM PEOPLE!!!!

Please show your support. Call the Agriprocessors hotline @ 1-800-MUMZERS, and tell them not to let the anti-Semites bring them down!

Project Inspire, an Aish HaTorah program, has a full-line of frummer than thou “kiruv professionals” lined up to promote Big Aish’s glitzy brand of left-wing ultra-Orthodoxy. Just look at these hats:

We have Rabbi Yosef Viener, author of the must-read MO classic, “An Overview on the Role of Da’as Torah.” We have Rabbi Eliyahu Bergstein, who got his start the way any Big Aish “kiruv professional” should…selling the Torah Codes! And we have Rabbi Yaakov “The Genius” Salomon.

And they have backing. From the most intensely anti-Modern leaders of the haredi world. Read the “haskama” (certificate of kashrut) they are touting. Signed by the leaders of Israel’s right-wing ultra-Orthodox movement, Rabbis Elyashiv and Shteinman, Big Aish/Kiruv.com boasts that their mission is to stop the “devastating spiritual holocaust.” and lashes out at the “Inciters from both within and without.” They want to “save” (this is their language, sound familiar?) secular and liberal Jews.

No surprise, these “kiruv professionals” will be gracing Ohr Sameach, Monsey. Guess where else they will be instructing the faithful to stop the “spiritual holocaust” and stand up to the “inciters”?

The Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills.

The Young Israels were traditionally Modern Orthodox, albeit right-wing Modern Orthodox. My brother, in fact, was president of his local Young Israel. Having a Big Kiruv conference there—especially considering who is backing them–is absolutely egregious. This Young Israel is holding hands not only with the left-wing ultra-Orthodox, but the right-wing ultra-Orthodox. These are the people who denounce secular studies and the work ethic in their entirety.

This is whom the Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills is collaborating with. This is whom they take directives from. Absolute, no holds barred, haredim.

Perhaps our friends at Beyond BT are promoting this series? They have posted information on it, and they themselves live in Kew Garden Hills. Perhaps they can explain why right-wing ultra-Orthodox recruiters are being invited to their own local Young Israel?

The National Council of Young Israel, who is so concerned that nothing of left-wing Modern Orthodoxy invade their synagogue spaces, apparently has no such parallel border when it comes to a policy against the radically fahfrumpt.

Maybe before allying to convert those “wandering in darkness,” the NCYI should take a long look in the mirror.

Just another stab in the back of secular and liberal Jewry by the right-wing Modern Orthodox.

This post was edited to better flesh the men behind the “hats.”

Further Update: It seems important, on occasion, to contrast the lies and fanaticism of Big Kiruv to that of the Modern Orthodox, (or close to it), even if it isn’t nearly as widespread. I feel they (Rabbis Student and Steve Brizel) want this known, so I’m going to help them out, and end on a positive note for the beginning of the week. I personally don’t really believe the following, but I don’t not believe it. And I do respect it as a legitimate approach to offer the secular and liberal Jewish community. Not like the Torah Codes/Gedoylim worship/Sloppy and Sleazy Salesmanship of Big Aish and Co.

Hirhurim writes,

Each Jew has an opportunity to be a part of something bigger, to transcend his own personal abilities and join a group spanning the world and the centuries, to not only follow in their footsteps but to add to their accomplishments — to add a unique letter to their Torah scroll. Perhaps you can do that with other religions but as someone born Jewish, you have a unique opportunity to join the famous Jewish story and add your own chapter to it. If you have to ask why, then this argument is not for you. However, I believe that in this modern world that is full of alienation, this is a powerful and attractive argument.

At times, when calling for a massive expansion and utilization of mass transit, I have seen preference for hybrids instead of rail and buses. Even friends who themselves would prefer to see the same thing have treated my insistence like that of a flower child who demands peace and an end to all international conflicts. Americans like their cars. End of story. Solutions, albeit only partial ones, must be emphasized. Mass transit expansion on a significant level simply wasn’t a possibility for most of the U.S. In many dark moments, I secretly suspected they were right. Until last night, that is.

The NY Times reports,

With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.

“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”

And there are some very interesting surprises.

…the biggest surges — of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year — are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited.

What does this, along with other encouraging factors, mean?

The Energy Department recently predicted that Americans would consume slightly less gasoline this year than last — for the first yearly decline since 1991.

In fact, growth is so strong, we now have a problem.

But meeting the greater demand for mass transit is proving difficult. The cost of fuel and power for public transportation is about three times that of four years ago, and the slowing economy means local sales tax receipts are down, so there is less money available for transit services. Higher steel prices are making planned expansions more expensive.

Typically, mass transit systems rely on fares to cover about a third of their costs, so they depend on sales taxes and other government funding. Few states use gas tax revenue for mass transit.

I personally would level a national gas tax that would be divided between each state and national mass transit projects. This is an emergency situation. It cannot wait. We must act now.

And we have reason to believe the public will support such a measure.

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates a commuter rail system from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, posted a rise of more than 20 percent in rider numbers this March and April as monthly ridership climbed to 350,000.

“Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation,” said Joseph J. Giulietti, executive director of the authority. “But in the last year, and last several months in particular, we have seen exactly that.”

In response to an apparently black-hat viewpoint that secular and liberal Jewish endogomous relationships should not be facilitated by religious Jews, the erudite (and scientific method-embracing!) Rabbi Student wrote on The Kvetcher that,

There is a background to that attitude and a halakhic basis to it. The Netziv wrote a responsum on whether one may “set up” people who are not religious, because they will not observe the laws of family purity. In other words, you are leading them to sin. If I recall correctly, he said that you may not.

However, most poskim today permit doing it because times have changed and people are much morally looser, so you aren’t directly causing anything. Although about 10-20 years ago someone in Israel published a book in which he argued that it is prohibited for Rabbanut rabbis to perform weddings for non-religious Jews because the women will not go to the mikvah regularly. That is a minority view. I think the vast majority of rabbis permit performing such marriages and setting people up in general.

A big thanks to Rabbi Student for his scholarly input on this matter.

Update: A reader Her highness, Halfsours, mistook my above thanks to Rabbi Student as sarcastic. It was not. To be clear, I genuinely appreciate Rabbi Student taking the time to clarify the normative Orthodox approach to any issue raised on my blog. Rabbi Student is a very busy and well respected halachic authority, and it is, frankly, quite flattering to have him weigh in here.

One Frum Skeptic writes,

I was in a kiruv program at HS (I believe I mentioned this before) that was part of a “regular” all girls school[…]

Anyway, because we were so close, we used to go into long conversations about our families, and how they reacted when we decided to become frum and so on. So one day, I mentioned my uncle, who at the time was about 25. He had just broken an engagement with a shiksa the year before, and so at the time -after he went on birthright, and had decided he only wanted to marry a Jewish girl, I took it as a ‘project’ to find him someone (I was like 14, and 25 seemed old to me!). So when I mentioned this, I was like “OMG, Mrs., you’re very into kiruv, your husband works with a lot of BT guys, which means he meets their families. So he probably knows their sisters, cousins and relatives that may not be frum, but want a Jewish guy.”

So she was like “yes, we know a few girls, plus we know of many girls generally.”

So I was like “OMG!!! You should totally look for someone for my uncle! […]

And so, I expected her to say something like “well, I’ll keep him in mind” but what I got was totally unexpected …

“Well, I would keep him in mind, but since he is not religious, then he is not shomer, and our policy is not to set up people who aren’t religious because they may break the laws of shomer negiah.”

I was like “Wouldn’t you rather the guy be guaranteed a Jewish wife, and Jewish children, as well as a continuation of his lineage? Isn’t that more important than keeping shomer? I mean his kids may not end up Jewish at all.”

She was like “No, we don’t set people like that up”

[…]

And she was pretty adamant about it, because she never asked about my uncle!
The logic my teacher used just makes no sense to me. She does kiruv. As long as a Jew is single, they can continue on doing kiruv. If they marry a Jew, they can continue doing kiruv on them (I know a few families where only one person became frum, and they remained married, because the other side “compromised.”

Secular and liberal Jews who think that kiruv is going to help with demographics should be wary that some haredi “kiruv professionals” are hardline and quite callous to helping those who don’t fit their criteria. Not only do I see nothing wrong with setting up people who aren’t “shomer,” I have difficulty seeing anything wrong with setting people up with someone of a different religion, provided both partners are truly open to it, or, I guess, if neither is looking for anything serious…though the latter situation has its risks, and the former situation has its sticking points. But then, so does any relationship. But to be honest, if I thought that the Christian partner would want the Jewish partner to convert, then I would have issues with it. Of course, I would prefer knowing that the Jewish male partner would remain strong. You know, raise his kids Unitarian or Reform, but whatever. It wouldn’t really be my business.

Anyway, this story ends happily for the uncle, or at least, not lonely.

“And now he is 31, dating a shiksa, and we suspect he wants to marry her.”

No big deal. At least the kiruv professional avoided a non-shomer negiah relationship.

A commenter named Yael wrote in the second comment on Beyond BT’s post, “An Amazing Opportunity…to Help Jews on Campus that.

Since we became BTs (quite a while ago!), we have had an “open house” and worked with Chabad, Hillel, JAAM, and Aish campus professionals as well as approached by Torah u’Mesorah and Ohr Someach to work with them.

Why is Hillel working with the likes of you, Yael? Your local Hillels should have a picture of you with a skull and bones warning below it in every employee’s office.