Checklist for Steve Brizel

Too bad Steve Brizel didn’t check with me before his investigation of Dark Light. I wasn’t concerned about whether bochurim waited until the second year to wear black hats, or whether there are seforim in the Bais Medresh (That’s right, DK! In your face!), or whether Ohr Somayach sends students from their yeshiva to yet other yeshivas (No way!) or Kollel (Holy Cow! A charedi yeshiva does that? Oh wait, Steve didn’t actually mention anything about O.S. *graduating* their students into the Kollel system in his attempt to make Dark Light seem normal. I wonder why… ). And shocking to say, I don’t really give a hoot whether Rabbis Schiller and Weinbach or their talmidim can give an inspiring d’var Torah that can bowl Steve over. Even if the divrei Torah were so good it made him grab a bunch of hats and start dancing in a circle (is there any other kind of dancing?) it isn’t relevant.

These are the points I am concerned about, and would have asked him to consider:

1) Is Hebrew Ulpan taught sufficiently? How many levels? When is it taught? As part of the normal schedule, or during the nap break at midday? How many levels are offered? Are the “Bais Midrash� students encouraged to learn Hebrew as well?

2) Since this is a haredi yeshiva, and its curriculum Talmud intensive, is there an Aramaic Ulpan for these baal teshuvahs? If so, same questions as above.

3) How is Modern Orthodoxy presented by the Rabbinical staff?

4) How is Yeshiva University and Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik presented by the rabbinical staff? Is Modern Orthodoxy presented as somehow insufficient and “not really� religious?

5) Is scientific method accepted? What is O.S.’s position on evolution? What is the position on Rabbi Slifkin?

6) What is the position of Ohr Somayach on college studies FOR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUTES LIKE THE ONES NCSY RECRUITS? Does Ohr Somayach discourage or advocate postponement of college education to its students who have not yet attended or finished college?

7) Is it explained that though most Eastern European Jews descend from “Orthodoxâ€? Jews, if their families came over before WWII, they were not haredi, or does Ohr Somayach attempt to convince their students that their ancestry was haredi, for many a blatant revisionist lie, as part of Ohr Somayach’s attempt to promote haredism instead of Modern Orthodoxy?
Is stringency presented as normative halacha?

9) Is lying to students considered acceptable since it’s “pakuach nefesh� (saving a soul)?

10) Is the western world taught as incomplete in terms of what it offers a traditional Jew, or is it presented as depraved in its entirety and engagement presented as something to be avoided? Does Rabbi Weinbach (the Rosh Yeshiva of Ohr Somayach) consider the secular world in its entirety an “environment of sin?”

11) Is poverty common among those recruits who are “successful� when they come from middle class backgrounds?

12) Is Kollel instead of a vocation advocated as preferable to advanced students?

13) Are students taught how to live as Orthodox Jews, or are they taught to despise their upbringing and backgrounds to a debilitating degree?

14) Are students taught to think for themselves, or are they taught they are ill prepared to do so, and must trust only their Rabbis instructions and assessments?

15) Are students taught to place a modern emphasis on the near infallibility of “Great Leaders (Gedolim)� as an ancient Jewish concept?

16) Are students encouraged to disengage from the world to the point of not even reading newspapers?

What checklist points would you have given to Steve Brizel to consider?

And why does Steve care about Ohr Somayach? Why does he seek to minimize their haredism? Steve is Right-Wing Modern Orthodox, not haredi. Why does he care so much about ‘proving’ Dark Light is A-okay? From one stupid Chanukah party?

Because NCSY is sending teenagers there. Right after high school. That’s why. Isn’t that why you care about Dark Light, Steve? Isn’t that what this is all about? NCSY’s recruitment practices?