Posts from — May 2007

I inadvertently deleted five comments including Stanley’s (!) which I didn’t mean to do. Anyway, I’m sorry about that, and I will try to figure out what I did wrong in the future. That is, not press whatever button I just did. However, to my Friend of NCSY poster with the same ISP address as the gentlemen who blocked all information about Baruch Lanner on Wikipedia’s page on NCSY — you are in no position to demand to be heard on my site. You have consistently lied about who you are and changed your story, and repeatedly attempted to spam my site with insults, including your assertion that I “love cock.” Maybe I will let your comments in, and maybe I won’t. But your screams of censorship will not be the reason I do if I decide to.

I have no patience with those who attempt to use liberalism and free speech against itself.

More top quality chuchma on Dark Light’s Ask the Fundamentalist. To demonstrate the power of a Rebbe’s blessing, Dark Light offers a most dubious proof.

“A righteous person has a power of prayer more than most of us. Torah scholars (Chassidic or not) who have virtually perfected their character are known to have such powers. Until his passing several years ago, tens of thousands flocked to Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky (the “Steipler”) for his blessing.

It’s known that prior to their highly dangerous but successful air strike on the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1980 [sic], the Israeli pilots appeared before the Steipler and asked for his blessing. He told them “go in peace and return in peace.”

Forget about whether or not the power of blessing in such situations is real or not. The question here is whether the pilots did, in fact, go visit Rabbi Kanievsky prior to the strike. Why would they? Were they haredim who believed in daas Torah? Is that who comprised the elite of the elite of the Israeli air force? In 1981?

Ohr Somayach declares this meeting is “known.� Well pray tell, where is the source? None is listed in the footnotes, only two tractates of the Talmud, which were written a good few years prior to Rabbi Kanievsky’s reign as Godol HaDor. Did Rabbi Kanievsky record that such a meeting occurred? Did the pilots write about the blessing they received? Apparently not, or a source would have been footnoted,

If Ohr Somayach is willing to spread such a mayseh as a “knownâ€? fact in English, in public, online, through conflation of myth with verifiable fact, in order to bolster their ultra-Orthodox understanding of how the secular contemporary (contemporary, not modern, chas v’shalom) world turns…consider how much more they erroneously spread and conflate stringency and radicalism for Normative Judaism in private, which is more difficult for beginners to verify.

It isn’t an open-ended question. I was there. The answer is more.

Much more.

Dov Bear exposes the absurdity of Dark Light’s Ask the Rabbi column on payos care and hair treatment for the newly fahfrumt, chassidic style.

Payos hair care, okay? I don’t want to hear any more rubbish about how Dark Light is of “Lithuanianâ€? persuasion, not even a fundamentalist Litvish approach. Advising baal teshuvahs on how to manage long payos instead of discouraging such chassidic expressions of identity is absolutely outside the most expansive definition of a “Litvishe derech” possible.

Dov Bear asks, “What’s worse? That someone thought to trouble a Rabbi with a fashion question, or that the Rabbi saw fit to put his answer online?â€?

The latter, Dov Bear. The latter.

As I wrote on Dov Bear’s post, Ohr Somayach has never met an aspect of quiescent Jewish fundamentalism that it didn’t like.

Earlier: Dark Light and Classical Music

As some of you are aware, I was at first disturbed by negiah.org, a site I consider to be factually flawed, irresponsible, disingenuous, shrill, and um,…heavy handed. But after a closer reading, I have to concede that NCSY is the one organization brave and courageous enough to raise awareness about one of the most serious problems facing our generation. You know…handshaking! As JSU/NCSY’s Negiah.org recently noted,

“Just be aware that halacha (Jewish law) does not permit any intimate or affectionate contact between men and women who are not married to one another (or close relatives). This includes hugging, kissing and even handshakes (under normal circumstances).�

Unfortunately, on planet earth in our desensitized, hefker society, handshaking has become something so casual that most people think almost nothing of it, and shake hands like it’s a high five. It is shockingly rampant not only at many of the most “liberal� of college campuses (except for the dual curriculum ones we push on you), but is even accepted in the workplace environment.

We are not going to pretend that there won’t be pressure to engage in this “nasty� interaction. There will be. But we want you to consider the following. Not only can you catch cooties from handshaking, you can catch a cold, the flu, and worse. Gloves, of course, are not the answer, and are strongly discouraged by NCSY, even in the winter, as they only protect that part of the hand that does not touch the part of the glove that is contaminated by touch. Many people report of experiencing a handshake where the other party pressed too hard, inflicting pain. (Sounds like fun, huh?)

Now some of you may point out that it is very common for men to shake hands with each other, and therefore not an expression of sexual intimacy. Touché. Just kidding! We’re too machmir to even give you that! Same sex teens who shake hands are probably just bowing to peer pressure and don’t really want to, or are faggots. Unlike lions, snakes, and cacti, we frummies Jews can say hello without handshaking. Additionally, the overwhelming number of teens who have attempted suicide appeared to have shaken hands with someone in their lifetime.

Even in marriage, many married couples learn to deepen their relationship without shaking hands during the menses period, as difficult as that is. If fact, we know many pious couples who shake hands so infrequently, they may have go months without doing so. Of course, they have sex, they may hold hands, but they don’t shake hands. And these are couples with strong libidos.

NCSY teens kNOw It’s Okay to Say NO to Handshaking!

Want to know why NCSY is so fond of sending teens from public school backgrounds to yeshivas and seminaries of fahfrumt repute?

Part of the answer may be understood by taking a glance at the resume of the director of alumni, Rabbi Felsenthal, which he posted on AJOP’s website. It’s all Aished up.

Rabbi Felsenthal was the National Director of American Students to Activate Pride (ASAP) for Aish HaTorah International; Director of Kiruv Training and Director of the Basics Program for Aish HaTorah Jerusalem. Rabbi Felsenthal also has Rabbinical Ordination from The Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and (guess where!) Aish HaTorah.

Rabbi Felsenthal alone–and Rabbi Felsenthal is hardly alone in his attitude–more than adequately explains the unacceptably close partnership NCSY has with Aish HaTorah, as well as the preference NCSY continues to demonstrate for sending public school students to haredi institutions generally.

As long as Rabbi Felsenthal is in charge of NCSY alumni, there will be a preference for sending public school teens to haredi yeshivas and seminaries.

As many of you know, legend has it the Jews all stood at Mt. Sinai to accept the Torah, and said, “Naaseh v’ Nihsma,â€? we will do, and (often understood to mean only then) we will listen–try to understand. This Shavous, like every Shavous, haredim across the world will give over their interpretation about how the main issue is “naasehâ€? – that is, doing. AND THEN worry about understanding. Hence, in Judaism, doing is more important than understanding. Doing is listed first! Obey (to rabbinical interpretation of) the Torah.

Now, sometimes the Torah lists the harder thing first, even if there is no difference in importance. But the question remains — isn’t the core of Judaism about doing?

Even if much of Judaism is the doing–the obeying of the Torah’s decrees according to clerical interpretation–never the less, just as the binding agent of a pill may be present in a higher volume than the active ingredient, so too the active ingredient of Judaism is still the nishma – the understanding, the learning.

Without the nishma, we are just another patriarchal band of nomads screaming at its bitches to cover up, while teaching them “the minimum of the minimum.�

Without nishma, we are just another primitive civilization seeking to tame the elements through celebration of too many festivals, and by offering too many goat sacrifices.

Without nishma, we are just another infuriated Semitic tribe all but consumed by xenophobia. The Moabites are depraved. The Edomites fucked us over. The daughters of Mideon are all whores.

Without the nishma, we are just a one hit wonder — a surviving proto-Islamic sect.

Dear Jason,

I think it is possible we met before, perhaps at a shabbat lunch in DC many years ago. But even if not, I have met others in your family, and have always found the Ciments not only to be friendly and generous, but also moderate and reasonable people.

So it is with great disappointment to me (and I know for a fact, to others) that you are accepting an award for your work in NCSY/JSU (the Jewish Student Union) at the OU anniversary dinner.

The deceptive way NCSY is recruiting teenagers from our public schools is highly problematic. If the kiruv movement must act deceptively and employ bait and switch tactics, how real and genuine can any of this really be? Beyond issues of truth versus so-called “pakuach nefesh,� there is a real problem of NCSY/JSU recruitment of public school teenagers into haredi institutions and dumpy third tier Touro. The fact that many in NCSY do not seem to understand why the haredi institutions they recruit for are a problem is particularly disconcerting, as the problems are not hard to find, and suggest NCSY brass are uninterested in finding them, or seeing them even when they are blatant and scream, “Stop me before I destroy someone’s future again!�

I realize that it is late at this point, but I would assume that since this is an Orthodox Union awards ceremony, there is no actual cash giveaway for this award, and you could really make a strong statement by rescinding your acceptance.

In the off chance you still want to accept the award for your work in NCSY’s JSU, perhaps in your speech you could break from the expected expatiation on why the Orthodox Union is so wonderful because everyone is so dedicated to making other Jews more like them, something about the Holocaust, the “spiritual holocaust,” something about the State of Israel and growing “anti-Zionismâ€? among 10th graders, now more than ever, we’re so wonderful, blah, blah, blah.

Maybe instead you could say something about needing to respect the values of the families you are deceptively targeting even while respectfully disagreeing about ritual. Perhaps something about making sure Jews are not steered onto trajectories that in the long-term they will be unhappy with, and their families disappointed. Maybe make a statement about not holding hands with those who seek downward mobility for these teens, or discourage full-time college of any sort. Or those who report to those who are radical and inappropriate for even FFB Jews, never mind public school kids.

Jason, if you want to make a difference, which you clearly do, you have to start in your own organization. Some of things NCSY and the JSU are doing are not appropriate, are not okay. To sign your name and reputation to such behaviors is disturbing, particularly as NCSY is using you to attach a more moderate face to its organization than is really the case.

Wikipedia has stepped in! Please help me navigate this censorship by NCSY! Go here. People have a right to know about how Rabbi Lanner was protected and enabled by NCSY for many, many years, because he “made people frum.”

NCSY, like their brother Big Aish, is controlling wikipedia pages like they own it. Like it’s our public schools or something. Anyway, please tell everyone you know that NCSY is blocking all facts about Baruch Lanner on this public site.

This is what “Jon,” a hateful person who claims to be a high level administrator an NCSY, keeps deleting.

==Controversy==

NCSY enabled and protected Rabbi Baruch Lanner, a child molester and abuser, ensuring his continuing to harm, and resisted teen calls for intervention, with staff at Yeshiva University even silencing those teens who protested in order to protect the high level rabbinic counselor. This went on for decades until the ”NY Jewish Week” finally exposed NCSY. [theawarenesscenter.org/lanner_baruch.html]

This is the link to NCSY on Wikipedia.

So I have an idea. If this continues, and NCSY does what “Jon” promises, to remove as many times as possible anything uncomfortable to NCSY, let us retaliate, and have a Baruch Lanner Day.

I think NCSY got away much too long submerging information about Baruch Lanner, and their role enabling and abetting him. They continue to do so today, by purging wikipedia’s page on NCSY of any information on this long and dark chapter of their history. I say, “no more!”

What do you think?

Jewish Survivors Joins Campaign!

I can’t forget a comment by “fundie watcher” from my post back in December. I found it quite profound, and relevant to the discussion we are having about NCSY. And no, the commenter was not me. fundie watcher writes,

It is not just the fundie dichotomy of college or no college. Then the fundies at YU can think they aren’t fundie. But more importantly, is that NCSY trains kids to be downwardly mobile in subtle ways. Kids who were raised upper middle class -professional (OR where on their way there) are taught to like lower middle class tastes. To not live in Englewood but in Kew Garden Hills, Not to live in Beverley Hills but in the Valley. Not to learn to dress in style but yeshivish, not to develop a palette but to enjoy fast food, not to learn to appreciate art, music, literature but instead to stick with their love of action movies, paint ball, and pop music.

Of course, frummies would claim NCSY is taking a stand against materialism. But it does look like a broader rejection than that, doesn’t it?